Key events in today’s reading:

• Invasion of Locusts Predicted (Joel 1)
• A Call to Repentance (Joel 2:12-17)
• The Day of the Lord (Joel 2:28-32)
• A Lament and Call to Repentance (Amos 5)
• The Plumb line (Amos 7:1-9)

Verse that stood out: “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing” – Joel 2:13-14a.

In the past, communities often viewed faith as the means to interpreting natural disasters for the purpose of reordering life post-catastrophe. When the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 struck, it leveled three-fourths of the city and killed ten to fifteen thousand people. The devastation in Portugal ushered in a continent-wide season of significant theological and moral reflection that eventually toppled governments in France and Germany and gave rise to religious revival in England. While not everyone agreed about what the earthquake meant, almost every person of faith in that day assumed that the earthquake had something significant to teach them.

The prophet Joel responded to a catastrophic natural disaster in a decidedly pre-modern way. In the first chapter of the book, Joel recounts a recent plague of locusts in alarming detail. The insects stripped every tree of its leaves and every field of its crops. Families lost an entire year’s income and the potential for future earnings. No crops this year meant no seeds for next year. Life as they knew it had come undone.

Joel interprets these disastrous events through the lens of faith. For him, the plague of locusts was not an extremely unfortunate accident of nature. The locusts were the agents of God’s will. Joel announces in a terrifying fashion that the insects mark only the beginning of a crescendo of catastrophes that will culminate in a final judgment day known as the great Day of the Lord (2:1-2, 11). No one in the land will be able to escape the Lord’s judgment on that day (2:3). 

Into the gloom and doom of the first thirty-one verses of the book, verse twelve of chapter two breaks like the dawn. All hope was not lost. The Lord interrupts Joel’s warning by announcing, “Yet even now . . . return to me with all your hearts” (2:12). At this invitation the prophet changes tone completely inviting the people to turn to God. He wondered out loud, “Who knows whether he will have a change of heart and leave a blessing behind him?” (2:14).

Joel can speak these words of hope in the midst of disaster because they are consistent with the character of Israel’s God. Joel reminds the people that the Lord is “merciful and compassionate, very patient, full of faithful love, and ready to forgive” (2:13). Joel makes clear that God is under no obligation to forgive them. Nevertheless, God has shown a willingness to forgive Israel throughout her history. Joel’s words echo God’s assurance to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7 following the disastrous creation of the golden calf. Joel appears to be saying, “If God forgave that incredible offense, perhaps the Lord will forgive us as well.”

2020 has been filled with natural disasters: Fires, hurricanes, COVID-19. We’ve been good at trying to blame one another. I wonder if Joel’s words convict us at all. What if what we need to do most of all is not to point fingers at others, but to repent of our own sins? Perhaps, if we repent, we’ll discover in the midst of tragedy a great blessing from God.

For tomorrow:

• Cover to Cover: Amos 8:10-Nahum 3:13
• Key Passage: Micah 4:1-5
• Verse of the Day: Micah 4:3