Joel 1:8-20 - What Endures When Everything Else Is Gone (Session 2)

This episode is a verse-by-verse Bible study of Joel 1:8-20, exploring the historical context, meaning, and faithful application of the passage within the Christian faith. 

What happens when everything you’ve built gets stripped to the bones? We walk line by line through Joel, where wave after wave of locusts erase Israel’s harvest, silence the temple’s offerings, and drain joy from the community. It’s more than a natural disaster story. It’s a sober look at the limits of human effort and the moment when God calls people from pride to prayer, from feasting to fasting, and from denial to lament.

We unpack the symbols that matter: sackcloth as a public sign of grief, fasting as a reset of appetite and attention, and a solemn assembly that reunites a fractured people. Along the way, we connect Joel’s imagery to a hard but hopeful truth—our best safeguards and systems are good gifts, but they can’t save us from judgment or mend a heart that has drifted. The Day of the Lord enters the scene not as a vague threat but as moral clarity: destruction from the Almighty that confronts idolatry and invites return to Him. Ecclesiastes echoes through the conversation: the work of our hands fades, but the Word of God endures.

We also explore why discipline can be grace. Like the cycle in Judges, crisis often becomes the turning point that drives people to cry out to God. When the fields are bare and the storehouses empty, the only honest path is toward the One who can both halt the ruin and begin restoration. By the end, we outline Joel’s literary cues and set the stage for what comes next: a movement from devastation to renewal. If you’ve felt your plans devoured or your efforts exhausted, this chapter offers a map—name the loss, gather with others, fast, and call on the Lord.

If this journey through Joel sparked reflection, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review telling us where you’ve seen God turn ruin into renewal.

Transcript

Human Achievement Meets Its Limits

Joel’s Locust Plague Recalled

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Human effort has accomplished many things in many areas. There have been great human achievements in medicine, in food production, in industry, space travel. There's been huge accomplishments by humans over the years. And today it seems like humans can almost do anything. Well, today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going to find out what the prophet Joel says about what happens to human effort. We're going to see what happens when God decides that the sin needs to stop. So if you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to the Old Testament prophet of Joel, chapter one. If you were with us last time, we learned that God was going to send a locust plague, actually, a series of locusts that would cause great destruction. And we're going to learn more about that today. So, Steve, can you start in verse 8 and read down to verse 12?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth for the groom of her youth.

Mourning And Ruined Worship

SPEAKER_01 1:22

The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The field is ruined, the land mourns, for the grain is ruined, the new wine has dried up, fresh oil has failed. Be ashamed, you farm workers, wail you vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered. The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree. All the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, joy has dried up from the sons of mankind.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Verse 8 says, Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth for the groom of her youth. The idea here is that there was a young woman who was about to get married and was still a virgin and somehow had lost her husband. He had died, been taken away. Now she is in complete mourning. Sackcloth was the idea of being in mourning. Then in verse 9, with no plants left, people could not go to the temple and make the grain or drink offerings. The priests were mourning because there was no one bringing in offerings. The worship would be hindered. They can't do their job, nor will they be given gifts to live on. If you remember, the sacrifices given in the temple were what the priests were to live on. Then verse 10, the field is ruined, for the topsoil is destroyed. No grape vines, no olive trees, no olive oil. There would be no wine, no oil. Steve, this is again total destruction.

Disaster Outruns Human Safeguards

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yes, and in last session, as we ended there, you asked me the question on what about human effort, what happens to it whenever it's taken away. And I mentioned that we can't depend on it to always be there because of these natural disasters that come through. Been thinking since that session about the things that we do to mitigate natural disasters in earthquake-prone areas. They have building codes that they put in for the building so that they can take some shocks. But if it gets up to a certain degree, then it's not going to protect the building. And there's other things, seawalls that have been created to protect against hurricanes and typhoons. All different types of things that we do to try and mitigate natural disasters. Yet when we see a natural disaster happen, it's just something that is total destruction and wipes things out. Several years back, Glenn, there was a tidal wave that came through an area over in Asia and it came in. And just in a matter of minutes, it took a quarter of a million people out to sea. That was just such a total devastation. So these things happen and all the human effort that is put into make things resistant really are not going to be resistant if the disaster is great enough. And I think that's really what you're alluding to as far as human effort being put into things.

The Fruit Of Labor Destroyed

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Oh, exactly. If we look at the list of things that get destroyed in verses 11 and 12, once these wave after wave of these destructive locusts come in, again, each of the waves covering everything, covering the walls and the floors and the ground and the trees, verses 11 and 12 give us this list. All have died. No wheat, no barley, no figs, no pomegranates, no dates from the palm trees, no apples. There would be no food for people, no animals. The farmers would be in total despair. All of the things on that list, these are all things that people would have planted to create farms and plantations for themselves. Now it's all gone. The invaders were destroying the fruit of man's work. They destroy the things that men had planted, that men had grown, the things that people needed for their sustenance. So, Steve, if if we were to add up all of human effort, can we then look at it and say, oh boy, I've I've accomplished something. I've really done something with my life. But in the end, what's really going to happen to human accomplishments?

Ecclesiastes And What Lasts

SPEAKER_01 5:56

It's all going to fade away. And the verse that says the grass grows and it withers, but the word of God is everlasting. I think that's true. Anything that we have and we accomplish here on earth, it's going to wither away. We're going to pass away at some point. So the great thing that God has provided for us is a way for our spirit to have eternal life with him in a glorified body. That's through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the belief in him. So while we have this doom, so to speak, hanging over us, then we really don't have it if we have belief in Jesus Christ. We will have eternal life and a glorified body with him, but we have to be in Christ in order to achieve that type of outcome.

Commanded Lament And Fasting

SPEAKER_02 6:52

This wave after wave of destructive locusts would kill all of the things that humans had built. The same thing is true today. We may look back on our lives and say, wow, look what I've accomplished. But my friend, the book of Ecclesiastes makes it crystal clear. It's all going to turn to dust. Vanity of vanities, it says, all is vanity. It's all emptiness. If we focus on the things that we think we may have accomplished in our lives, then how much of that is really going to be here after we're gone? Think back of all the people that came before you. How much do you know about them really? How much do you know about what they accomplished in their lives? All will be forgotten for a few years after we die. How many people will even remember our name or know anything about us? That's what he's talking about here. The things that we have built, God comes along and takes it away. But why? And we're going to find out it's because of Israel's sin. And if we look at the end of verse 12, it tells us that no person in the entire community would be joyful. Just like all the trees have died and the soil is dried up, the people and their attitude have dried up. There's no joy at all. This is the worst plague in the memory of any of the ancestors and will be something you tell your descendants. This is not just a bad problem. It is the worst disaster that has ever happened in the history of Israel. This is going to help us interpret the prophecy that comes later in the book. Joel is going to use this total destruction by locusts as a type for the invading armies. God is going to send in armies of humans to have total destruction, just like the locusts did. Steve, let's go ahead and move on. Can you start at verse 13 and read down to 15?

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests. Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God. For the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord, Woe for the day, for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

In the first part of that, it talks about wearing sackcloth. So, Steve, what does sackcloth represent?

What Sackcloth Signals

SPEAKER_01 9:31

It is a garment that was put on to depict that somebody was in mourning, some type of a disaster had happened with them or catastrophe. And so they would put on this sackcloth. It was something to take away from their normal clothing to show the people they came across that there was some sort of period in their life that had happened to them. So anybody that saw somebody that was wearing sackcloth knew that something of a great extent had happened to these people.

Solemn Assembly And True Reliance

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Sackcloth is very rough, it's very coarse, doesn't feel good. It's not anything that anyone would want to wear. The idea is I'm in mourning. There's been such a disaster that I'm taking away anything that's comfortable, any of my comfortable clothes I've thrown away. Oftentimes the Bible talks about them wearing sackcloth and sitting in a pile of ashes and putting the ashes on their head to represent, I'm in total mourning, I'm grieving, I'm wailing. There's nothing left in my life that makes it worth living. Sackcloth was a sign of grieving and mourning. And it says here in this passage that the priests are going to be in sackcloth and are lamenting. That's because there would be no crops, there's no animals left to bring in for sacrifice, there's no drink offerings or meal offerings. So there's no offerings at the temple. The entire nation is poor. It says in here that they should come and spend the night in sackcloth and have a fast. Well, fasting never was the emphasis in the Mosaic law. The emphasis was feasting. He commanded feast days. God wanted people to come in and have a big feast and take a day off and have a good time as they worshiped him. God wants his people to be joyful and happy. But here, really for the first time, God tells the priests to put on sackcloth, be in mourning, and to have a fast. When there's a big problem with sin, there would be no happiness nor joy. Steve, is it sin? Do you think that's the cause of this grieving and time of mourning?

Defining The Day Of The Lord

SPEAKER_01 11:47

In the other prophets that we have gone through so far, it's very direct that the people have sinned, they have idol worship, different things that they have done. The priests were not pleasing to the Lord because they were accepting subpar sacrifices that the people were bringing. Those types of things were described in the other prophets that we studied. But here it's not specifically mentioned that sin is a reason, but we might have an indication that this is some sort of judgment that is coming from the Lord, because even though it's here a devastation, we're going to see in future verses that the Lord is also going to restore them to a greater position than what they had before. So there's probably an implication that this is some sort of sin that the people had committed. And again, because we don't know the specific time period that Joel is writing, we can't associate it with any particular other prophet where maybe God is speaking of a specific sin. But in general, many times these disasters come as a moment of judgment that God is bringing on the nation because of their sinful things. And many times it was idol worship that the nations were committing.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Verse 14 says, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord. What he's saying is, proclaim a solemn, a serious day, a sad day. Gather all of the leaders, come to the temple, and we're going to fast and cry out to the Lord. So what do we do in a time of mourning? We go to the place of worship and we cry out to the Lord. The answers are not in more human effort that are going to turn to more dust. The answer is in crying out to the Lord. Our Lord God desires for us to come to him and cry out to him. That is what was needed. They weren't doing it in the first place. Therefore, he had to command it. We have here a great command by the Lord to go to him and cry out to him. And we know that our Lord will hear us when we do. Then in verse 15, this is the first mention here of the day of the Lord. So, Steve, the last part of verse 15, what will happen on the day of the Lord and where does it come from?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

It says it will come as a destruction and that it will come from the Almighty, which is speaking about Yahweh.

Famine’s Full Reach Described

SPEAKER_02 14:28

So this is very important because as we understand the other places in scripture when it talks about the day of the Lord, or it says on that day, or in that day, or in the New Testament, when it speaks of the day of the Lord coming, this is destruction from God, is what it says specifically here in Joel. Destruction caused by God. And it's going to involve not just destruction, but a terrible destruction. And it is very specifically a day that God is doing the destructing. He is the one that is pouring out his wrath on Israel. That's the day of the Lord. It makes it very clear. It will come as a destruction from the Almighty, it says here. So we need to be very careful as we read scriptures to realize what Joel is laying the foundation for, which is the day of the Lord is a sad day. The day of the Lord is destruction. The day of the Lord is like wave after wave of locust plagues coming and eating everything. It is total destruction. That is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is something that we Christians need to be delivered from and not something that we are necessarily looking forward to. So the clear analogy in the book of Joel, and this is why we've we've belabored the point up to this time of the book, going verse by verse, the analogy is that the day of the Lord will be just as bad as wave after wave of locusts that have eaten everything. There's nothing left, all the livestock food, all the things that humans have put their effort into, it's all gone. The priests don't have a job to do because nobody's going to the temple, and the land of Israel is ruined on the day of the Lord. Now, the next verses talk about the extent of the famine that's been caused by the locust. Steve, can you read from 16 to 20?

Why Would God Bring Ruin

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Has food not been cut off before our eyes and joy and rejoicing from the house of our God? The seeds have dried up under their shovels, the storehouses have become desolate, the grain silos are ruined because the grain has dried up. How the animals have grown, the herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep have suffered. To you, Lord, I cry out, for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. Even the animals of the field pant for you, for the stream beds of water are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Steve, we said at the beginning that this was very descriptive language. The literature here is high literature with the emotional language that it's describing. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to skip over into the fruit of the spirit and talk about something joyful like love, joy, peace, patience. There's a whole lot of very sad things here in Joel, is there not?

SPEAKER_01 17:41

As you go through and read of the destruction, again, as I mentioned in the last session, that the reason why I think he's using this language is because they're supposed to be passing this down from generation to generation. How do you describe such utter destruction? Well, now it is reaching into the animals themselves. Why? Because the crops and the grain is gone. So it's not just affecting the crops and trees and plant life itself, when it's gone, it affects human beings as well as all the animals. So as we've been putting out here, this is just total destruction all around. And it's not getting better, it's getting worse. And of course, what is it that we should do whenever we get into these types of situations? Whether it's a something brought on because we need to be disciplined, or whether it's just something that is happening, who do we go to? We always go to the Lord, to Yahweh. That is what the people are commanded to do here. Set aside a day of fast, consecrate it, and go to the Lord. Plead out to Him because He will take care of it. He's the one person that can not only stop what's happening, but He can also bring about restoration from what has happened.

The Judges Cycle And Discipline

SPEAKER_02 19:05

This passage we just read makes it quite clear. There's no food for this year, no seeds stored up for next year, no water, no grain, the livestock are groaning with hunger. They're just wandering around aimlessly. The streams have dried up, all the animals and the people are thirsty. Steve, why would God bring such destruction upon a nation? Is he not a good God?

God Gets Our Attention

SPEAKER_01 19:30

He is a good God. And we've mentioned this in our various studies that we've had, both Old Testament and New Testament. If somebody is loving as a parent, then they're going to discipline their children whenever they need to be disciplined because of whatever they're doing, it's something to keep them from doing something even worse or getting themselves into a worse situation in the future. So discipline is necessary. And as I mentioned before, we don't know the specific thing that was going on, whether or not this is a strict disciplinary action that God is taking on the nation of Israel, or whether it's just a disaster that is coming through. But there is a history of Israel and Judah, the southern kingdom that is mentioned here, along with the northern kingdom, that they would wander away from God. God Himself called them stiff-necked people. His desire, though, was for them to come back to Him and worship Him. So whenever you're dealing with a stiff-necked person or a group of people, in order to get their attention, sometimes you need to have some sort of a disaster come upon them so that they will cry out to the Lord. We see that in the book of Judges, that cycle of the other nation coming in and oppressing a part of the land, and the people get to a point that they cried out to the Lord. Well, what was his response? He sent a judge to relieve them from the oppression and they would have a time of peace. But then what would happen? They would all do what was right in their own eyes, which means that they would forget about the Lord and go and do whatever they thought was the right thing to do. And what happened? Another nation would come in and oppress them for a period of time, and they would get to a point that they would cry out to the Lord and he would send a judge. That was a cycle that we saw seven times in the book of Judges. So this is depicting, I think, Glenn, the same type of thing. This disaster has gotten to the point that the only place that the people can turn to to find relief from it and restoration is Yahweh, their God.

Literary Structure And Takeaways

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And that really is where God is driving people. If they will not listen to a suggestion, then he gets their attention. I'm reminded of the old story of the farmer that bought the mule from his neighbor and the neighbor, oh, yeah, great mule. The farmer that Bought it, takes it out, and it just won't do anything, won't plow. So he calls the neighbor and says, This mule just won't do anything. Oh, that's strange. Let me come over and look at it. So he comes over and bashes it on the back of the head with a stick, and the mule starts plowing like crazy. And he says, First, you just have to get their attention. So that's what's going on here is that God had warned them through a series of kings and prophets that they needed to avoid the sin, the idols, all of these things, and they wouldn't listen. So he is getting their attention. What he really wants is what he commanded come to my temple and reach out to me in repentance. That's what God is always looking for. Joel is using this very descriptive language to show that the day of the Lord will be as bad as the worst series of locust plagues that had ever come to Israel. The day of the Lord is going to destroy everything and will be the worst disaster ever in Israel, before or since. The day will have indescribable disasters. Now, in chapter one, what we just read, there's really a way of outlining this. If you have your Bibles, verse five gives a command. That's how it really aligns this book is the commands that it tells people to do. Verse five, awake and weep. Verse eight, wail like a virgin who's lost her husband. Verse 11, be ashamed or despair for all is lost. Verse 13, the priest should gird yourselves and lament. So these books are very organized. They're not just a pile of poetry, they're organized in quite a established literary structure. So we've come to the end of chapter one. And the day of the Lord so far has been nothing but tragedy and despair. Steve, I'm ready to get to some renewal, but we still have some more destruction in chapter two, do we not?

SPEAKER_00 24:00

We do. But you're right. Then there's going to be talking about restoration and what God is going to do to bring that about. So be with us next time as we continue to reason through the book of Joel. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.