Joel 1:1-7 - Ancient Judgment and a Prophetic Warning (Session 1)

This episode is a verse-by-verse Bible study of Joel 1:1-7, exploring the historical context, meaning, and faithful application of the passage within the Christian faith. 

A sky darkened by wings, vines gnawed to white sticks, and a promise bold enough to rebuild a future—Joel is both poetry and prophecy, and we dive straight into its heart. We set the scene for a focused, verse-by-verse journey through a book many skip, yet one that shapes how we understand the Day of the Lord, the outpouring of the Spirit, and Revelation’s fiercest images. From the opening lines, Joel confronts complacency with a locust plague so sustained it wipes out not only harvests but hope, and then he draws a line toward restoration that refuses to be small.

We break down Joel’s twin themes—judgment and restoration—and show how they establish a pattern across the prophets: God uses nations to discipline Israel, judges those nations in turn, and brings Israel back to forgiveness and life. Along the way, we examine key New Testament connections: Peter’s use of Joel at Pentecost, 2 Thessalonians 2 on the man of lawlessness and timing, and 2nd and 3rd Peter on sudden cosmic upheaval. We also address common misreads, including why Joel’s scale and promises do not fit 70 AD, and how to let Joel speak in his own context before layering later theology.

You’ll hear why the book’s literary force matters—how imagery like locusts, sickle, and winepress informs Revelation—and how Joel’s call to return to the Lord speaks into modern seasons of loss. If your life feels like wave after wave, Joel’s path moves from lament to promise, not by minimizing pain but by magnifying God’s faithfulness. Join us as we read carefully, think clearly, and seek the God who warns to wake us and restores to keep us.

If this study helps you see Joel—and the whole Bible—with new clarity, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so others can find it.

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We have a ministry we call Reasoning Through the Bible. We go verse by verse through the Word of God. We also have a website where we give away free materials to help you teach these courses yourself. So if you need Bible teacher training or just want to learn more yourself, go to reasoningthrough the Bible.com and there you'll find free materials that go along with our audio and videos for teaching the Word of God. We have a heart for the church and for small groups, and everything we do is to support that. Today we're starting a new book, the book of Joel. Book of Joel is very critical in understanding a lot of things in the New Testament and in the end times. Joel is quoted in a key place in the New Testament, and we'll deal with that. So understanding some of these books that are all too often neglected is critical. And we're going to find here some very rich ground. So, Steve, I'm excited about starting a new book. This again is a often neglected book, but it is so much, so rich, and it's so important.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

It is. And as we go through all of these prophets from the Old Testament, we've mentioned before that the Old Testament prophets give us a good foundation for things that are going to happen in the future. And if we just take the New Testament references, which a lot of people tend to do, without these Old Testament prophecies of what God speaks to the Israelite people of their judgment and then also their restoration, then I think we leave a lot of things out that's going to happen in the future. We've seen that already. We've gone through Zachariah and Ezekiel, and now we have this other prophet that we're going to go through. So yes, I'm looking forward to it. And I think it's going to be a great study for us. I think anytime you go through any book of the Word of God, it is a great study.

Dating Joel And Minor Prophets

Defining The Day Of The Lord

SPEAKER_00 2:26

The book of Joel is quoted in the book of Acts, and it's also alluded to strongly in the book of Revelation. So I would maintain that we can't really understand those places in the New Testament unless we understand what's going on back here in Joel. In Revelation, they just assume that we know the context of Joel. We know nothing or very little about the person of Joel. He only gives us his father's name, and that's about it. Most scholars hold that the book of Joel was written early, earlier than many of the other Old Testament prophets. Amos 1-2 opens his book by using a very similar language to Joel 3.16. So many Bible teachers hold that Joel was at least prior to Amos, but it could be the other way around. There's no logical reason why you couldn't hold Joel quoting from Amos. Nevertheless, we don't really know when he wrote. We know he is what is called the minor prophets, and they are called minor simply because the books are shorter. But as we're going to see, they're equally important to any other place in the Word of God. Joel speaks at least 10 times about what he calls the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord, or in that day, is a theme that most of the other prophets pick up on and assume that the reader knows what they're talking about. So here in Joel is probably the most elaborate description, or at least the most concise and clear description of what is the day of the Lord. Joel says nothing about Assyria or Babylon, which are often mentioned by the other prophets. So that's one of the other reasons why very often the scholars hold that it was written early, but we don't really know. As we said, there's really two themes, two main areas of thematic buildup here in the book of Joel, the day of the Lord, which is a day of judgment, a day of God's wrath and punishment. And then the second area is the restoration of Jerusalem and Judah. As with other prophets, Joel talks about a future restoration after the day of judgment. And Steve, we have both of those here. And I think that very often people forget that when it says the day of the Lord, what we have to remember that this is really a painful day. It's a day of God pouring out his wrath on many nations.

Judgment And Restoration Pattern

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yes, it is. And we've talked about the day of the Lord before when it comes up in the text. Zachariah was one of the areas. Ezekiel was another one. And you can go and listen to those verses where we parse out the day of the Lord there. But it's not limited to one particular day. It kind of takes speaks in general to any time that the Lord Yahweh is dealing with either Israel or with the other nations. Scholars say that you could look at part of the impetus for the day of the Lord was the Israel's conquering of the land of Canaan, whenever he first went in there with the Israelites. And I'm putting it that way, he being Yahweh, is because he promised them in Joshua, I'm going to go before you. I'm doing it because of how wicked they are. So that's why some of the scholars say that this day of the Lord concept kind of is introduced in the conquering of the land of Canaan. It's God, as you mentioned, pouring out his wrath or judgment on a nation, a group of nations, or even sometimes on the nation of Israel itself. And as far as the symmetry that you mentioned before, we also see at one part there's a lament of the current scarcity of provisions among the people that's talked about in this locust plague that starts off the book of Joel. But yet later in chapter two, we see that there's a promise of this calamity is going to be reversed. Then there's an announcement of catastrophic events that's imminent for Jerusalem in chapter two. But then in chapter four, we see that there's going to be a promise that Jerusalem's fortunes are also going to be reversed. And then finally, we see a call to return to Yahweh as a necessity of the moment. Joel puts in there that God is calling them to return to him as soon as possible, and the pouring out of the spirit and the deliverance in Zion as a necessity. So this juxtaposed positions between God talking about the position of Israel where they are, but yet throughout all of those different areas, we see restoration that He is going to bring about for them.

New Testament Links To Joel

Locusts As Judgment Imagery

SPEAKER_00 8:00

When the other prophets use the phrase in that day, then they're picking up on this theme that is presented here in graphic detail in the book of Joel. In that day, there's really a pattern that plays out through many, if not all, of the Old Testament prophets that mention it. The pattern is this: God uses foreign nations to invade and punish Israel because of Israel's sins. God brings in these foreign nations to invade and punish Israel. God then severely punishes the foreign nations for their sins. And in the end, there is a final restoration and forgiveness of the nation of Israel. That's really the theme of the day of the Lord. And in Joel, we have arguably the most graphic descriptions of this day of the Lord. The destruction is massive and severe. And we're going to see that here in Joel. It's graphic, quite emotional. It's a major explanation of what the day of the Lord is. And Joel makes it clear that this is a painful day, a severe day, an awful day. The day of the Lord is a day of God's wrath poured out upon the earth and poured out upon disobedient people of the nation of Israel being disobedient and the other nations around them. The day of the Lord includes massive death and destruction, as we're going to see in the book of Joel. The church should not be in doubt as to what the day of the Lord is or really what sequence it's going to happen in. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul reassures the Thessalonian church that the day of the Lord is not here and will not be here until what it calls the man of lawlessness is revealed. The Thessalonians had wondered, well, have we missed the day of the Lord? It's been a little while since Christ was here. Some people have lived and gotten old and died. Did we miss the day of the Lord? And Paul is saying, no, no, the day of the Lord will not come until the man of lawlessness is revealed and sets himself up as God in the temple. 2 Thessalonians 2.2 and 2 Peter 3.10 both say that the day of the Lord will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. It's just there upon you. 2 Peter 3.10 even says that the day of the Lord, the heavens and the earth will be destroyed with intense heat and a roar. So the day of the Lord is severe, it's immense, it's sudden, and it's quite graphic, and it is massive death and destruction. And there will be no doubt what it is when it gets here. If you've ever wondered whether the day of the Lord has come, then it has not, because the Bible makes it clear there will be a very severe judgment poured out on the earth. Some Bible teachers try to take the day of the Lord and assign it to when Rome came and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The things described in Joel did not happen in 70 A.D. and have not happened yet. In 70 AD, the Jews and even Christians stayed in the land at least another 60 years until the Barkokba revolt in the 130s A.D. There were more Jews killed in the 130s than there were in 70 A.D. Joel also is very clear that God will restore Jerusalem and Judah. He says it several times, which did not happen in the first century. Again, the prophecy of Joel is the day of the Lord includes both severe judgment and the restoration. Israel was not restored in the first century. He also talks, does he not, Steve, about pouring out his spirit on the earth? And we find that in Joel also, do we not?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

He does talk about pouring out his spirit. And that's the second part of what you're talking about on the day of the Lord. Quite often, when there is a depiction of the day of the Lord, talking about a divine judgment of some sort, there's also a picture of restoration, of blessings, of prosperity, of future hope. So God pouring out his spirit on the nation of Israel, the Hebrews, the Jews, if you want to say, is part of that. It's a restoration of him imparting himself into them. And we see that also depicted in Zechariah, that on that day of the Lord, as part of that depiction in Zechariah chapter 12, it says, and then they will look upon him who they pierced, they being the Israelite people. That's the context being spoken of there in Zechariah, and they will mourn for him. In other words, they're going to recognize the one that they pierced, which is a reference to Jesus the Messiah. So with that comes an outpouring of God's Spirit because it says there very clearly that they're all going to believe at that particular point because they recognize who Jesus is finally as a national recognition. So, yes, restoration and this pouring out of God's Spirit is a great thing.

Life Cycles And Total Devastation

SPEAKER_00 13:39

In the book of Joel, as we read it and interpret it, we need to make sure that we're not starting with some New Testament salvation theology and trying to read that back into the text. The Bible does indeed talk about salvation, and that of course is a major theme, if not the major theme, but we need to make sure that we read Joel first before we interpret it. We need to read it in the context of when it was given. Whatever it means, it doesn't mean less than it meant to the people that were in Joel's day. So we just need to be careful that we're not reading it through colored theological glasses. Also, with the book of Joel, we're not really going to understand the study of end times until we really understand the specifics in Joel. I hold that up because, for example, there's three places in Joel that are of special note. The book of Revelation picks up on the theme of the locusts that are mentioned here in Joel. And we don't really understand what Revelation is talking about when these locusts come out if we don't understand the context of the imagery that was given back here in Joel. Secondly, in that same vein, the book of Revelation also talks about a sickle and a wine press. And it's very graphic over in Revelation about that. That is also imagery picked up from back here in Joel. So we need to have the context of these before we can really do an accurate study of the book of Revelation. The book of Joel, we can divide into two halves. There's the day of the Lord, which is massive judgment and destruction, and then the deliverance of the Lord, which has forgiveness and restoration. And that theme plays out in many of the other Old Testament prophets as we've seen. I must say, Steve, before we just get into this, one of my favorite parts about Joel is just the graphic nature of the literature. The Bible is indeed God's word, and it is true in that regard, but it's also just very good literature. And the book of Joel is very descriptive, it's very emotional, very graphic in its description. As we're going to see, we can almost feel and hear these locusts as they come through, and we can see and feel the imagery as we read it. It's just a very well-written book as far as the language and the literature.

Literary Power And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 16:10

When we get into the verses themselves, we will talk about how is it that Joel goes about describing this locust plague that is on them? Because it's something that's not, if you could say any type of locust plague is a normal one. This is a massive one. So the language that he uses is very verbose, it's very descriptive because he's trying to convey in the text how massive and destructive this plague is, because in the very first few verses there, it's said, tell your children and your children's children. So I think that he's using this type of descriptive language to make a huge impression so that it can be properly passed down to their future generations.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

So with that, let's go ahead and dive in. We will read the text as is our custom and then talk about it. So if you have your copy of the word of God, open it to the Old Testament prophet of Joel. And Steve, can you read the first three verses of chapter one?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel, hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days? Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons and their sons the next generation.

Reading Joel On Its Own Terms

SPEAKER_00 17:39

With this, it opens up with a standard opening, I would suppose you'd call it. The word of the Lord came to, and it mentions the prophet named Joel. So we don't need to miss that because what it is claiming is that this is the very word of God. This isn't a religious myth. This is a special revelation from God to this man Joel who documented it and gave it to us. We are reading the words of God, not just a religious story. Then in verse two, Joel is asking whether the locust plague has happened in any memory of your ancestors. He's asking, has your father or your forefathers, going back any known generation, have they seen a disaster as bad as this one? And he says in verse three, this message is so important that this message will be passed down from generation to generation. Tell this to your grandsons and make sure they're gonna pass it on to future generations. Such a severe message was trying to get people's attention. He's trying to say, this is so bad that it's never been heard from before, and we're not gonna see this in future generations. He also reminds us here of how bad this is, does he not? He does.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

And as I mentioned before, he's trying to be descriptive to the point that it's something that's gonna be passed down from generation to generation. And even to this day, the Jewish people read different sections of the Hebrew scriptures throughout the year. And Joel obviously is one of those texts that they read. So even to this day, it's still being passed down from generation to generation.

Joel’s Influence On Revelation

SPEAKER_00 19:31

So he starts off with very good literature. The old men can't remember a time when this was this bad. And be sure and tell your grandsons to remember this, because it's the most severe thing that's happened in many generations. Go ahead and read, and we'll get into exactly what problem he's going to have. I'm reading in verse four. What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten. And when the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten. And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten. Awake, drunkards, and weep and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has invaded my land, mighty and without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away. Their branches have become white. So, Steve, what do locusts eat?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Locusts eat foliage, trees, shrubs, grass, crops, really anything that is growing, they're going to attack and they're going to eat.

Two Halves: Wrath And Deliverance

SPEAKER_00 20:48

And the idea here is that there were severe waves of them, and each wave would be just massive. The description that's going to come in future verses is the just giant clouds of them that would cloud out the sun, where the sun would be dark. In the book of Exodus, when the locust plague came to Egypt, that God brought, it says there they would cover the ground so that you can't see the soil. There's so many locusts and just voracious eaters. Any green plant would be eaten to the point they had gnawed the bark off of the fig trees, and the wood had been gnawed, and what was left would just bleached white in the sun. All the animals and the insects would be affected. With this, it also had these waves that come through in the sense that there may be one wave in this part of the year. And of course, you'd sometimes grow different crops in different parts of the year. So you'd think, okay, well, that wave's gone. I can plant my next crop. Well, as soon as you've got that one coming up, the next wave comes and takes out that crop too. It's a multi season. And multi-year thing, locusts come in these cycles of nature. Here it is just quite severe. And as we're going to see as we study the book of Joel, these waves are God's judgment. This passage is very descriptive. And Steve, what else do we see? What do we think of when we read these passages, these locusts just coming at wave after wave?

Opening Verses Of Joel 1

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Well, one reason why we can say that these locusts are a form of judgment is it tells us that over in Amos chapter four, verse nine, where it specifically says that that particular locust plague that Amos is speaking about was coming in judgment at that time. But going to the poetic language, there's different Hebrew words that are used for these locusts in these verses. The gnawing locust, that Hebrew word is the palmer worm. And the swarming locusts means the migrating or desert locust, creeping locusts or young locusts that are a canker worm, a little bit later in the life cycle. And then the stripping locusts is the actual caterpillar. So in these Hebrew words, we see being depicted the various life stages of the locust, which gives a picture that this isn't just one wave of locusts that are coming through. This is a sustained type of wave where locusts are coming through and there's different life cycles that are going on. So that's one reason why this is such a catastrophic locust invasion and locust plague.

Waves Of Locusts Explained

SPEAKER_00 23:36

And if you were an agrarian society as they were, then you're very dependent on these crops. Not only is this your livelihood, but this is the food for yourself and your family. It's the food for the livestock. So once all the plants are gone, then now there's nothing to feed the livestock. You're in severe trouble. There would be no seeds left to plant next year. Once all the vegetation's gone, it even talks about the locust gnawing off the bark, killing the grapevines, and killing the fig trees where the soil would be affected because now there's no roots for the plants to hold down the soil. The sun would bake it dry and it would blow away as dust. There would be no hope for quite a while after that. You're not only don't have food to feed your family this year, you really don't have a good hope for planting anything in future seasons as well. That's why in the verse here it starts talking about the wine drinkers and the drunkards, you're in trouble because there's no grapes for this year or probably not going to be any next year. I also just note in passing here, the Bible actually talks quite a bit about alcohol, and it's almost all negative. If you're a Christian that is thinking it is okay to drink, then my friend, I would encourage you to take the full counsel of the Word of God. It speaks quite rarely, you're you're hard-pressed to find anything positive mentioned in the Bible about alcohol, and you'll find a great deal of negativity. If we look at verse six, it then talks about the waves of locust have come like waves of invading soldiers. Later in the book, Joel is going to make it clear that true invading armies of enemy nations are going to come and destroy Israel just like the waves of locust. And Steve, this devastation is just massive and severe. This is total destruction. No figs, no grapes, no grain, all the plants destroyed down to the dirt. If we look across the landscape, all we see is dry dust blowing in the wind with a few whitened sticks that are bleached by the sun. This is quite graphic.

From Vineyard To Dust Bowl

SPEAKER_01 25:54

And I also think that this depiction in verse six a nation has invaded my land mighty and without number, is a complement to the various ways that the locusts are described that I talked about earlier. Because how does an invading army come in from various nations? They have soldiers that are walking, which we refer to as infantry. They have sub-soldiers that are on horseback, they have chariots at the time. So when a nation comes in to invade, they have different groups of people that have different responsibility. What today we would call engineers that would put together different types of siege instruments or build things in order to breach walls. So I think it's a good complement, as I said, to describe the different life cycles of the locust, as well as an invading army that has different types of troops that come in as a massive invasion in order to take over a city or even a nation itself.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

And if we think about this total destruction, I think it's wise to put ourselves in the shoes of the people of Israel. You might convince yourself, if I had one bad locust plague, then possibly I can live through this. But after the second, third, fourth, this would be very discouraging. I think that's really the point. Wouldn't you say, Steve, the point of this is that the people of Israel need to realize that without God, life is just very discouraging. The implied problem here is that people had forgotten God. We find that out in the other prophets. They had turned their backs on God for quite a long time. And God is doing this to try to get their attention.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Later on in the book of Joel, God is going to call on the people to return to me, and then he's going to talk about restoration. So, yes, this is a setup, I think, for the latter part of the book of Joel that talks about God restoring them back to himself.

Army Metaphor And Invasion

SPEAKER_00 27:57

So, my Christian friend, do you ever feel like life has just hit you with wave after wave? Well, the book of Joel is going to speak to you because there's going to be hope in the Lord before we get out of this book. But in the meanwhile, we're going to see the wave after wave that God is using to get their attention. And we'll be reasoning through that next time as we reason through the book of Joel. Thank you so much for watching and listening.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

May God bless you.