Day 192: The Book of Joel; Another Prophet trying to teach them, again…
The whole first chapter seems to talk about nothing but doom to the land from locusts. Everything is getting wiped out.
If you know anything about locust swarms, you will know that they can block the sunlight because the swarm can be miles wide.
An August 24, 2020 update by Locust Watch says of the current situation, countries affected are Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Indo-Pakistan, Yemen, Arabia, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Swarms can move quickly and for long distances, making them ‘deadly’ to many surrounding areas.
Desert locusts, as they are called, threatens the food supply. This infestation started in June, 2019 due to the 2018 Cyclone Mekuna that produced heavy rains in the Arabian Peninsula. They then spread to Iran, Pakistan, India to East Africa. By 2019 there were swarms in many countries. Unfortunately, the COVID restrictions have gotten in the way of control efforts.
The Bible has spoken of pestilence many times, and as mentioned in the ten plagues of Egypt — how one plague can lead to another — it seems like we are going through that, right now, in our own current state of the world’s events. Our plagues are causing food shortages, disease, breading of new groups of locusts that, as adults, are finger length in size. Ick!
Nearly 173,000 acres in Kenya are infected. The locusts are hitting South America, too, like Argentina from Paraguay. There they destroyed corn crops and cassava crops. Taken from Wikipedia, it is said that a single locust can travel 90 miles a day. A single swarm can cover up to 1200 square kilometers that can contain 40–80 million locusts per square kilometers. That’s 50 to 100 BILLION locusts per swarm! Double ick!
Not only that, depending on the wind, they can and have been carried across the Red Sea — from West Africa to England in 1988. They can live up to five months. After they eat your field, they leave you a gift of eggs, so that another swarm can be produced.
So, Joel uses this analogy to warn the Jews, REPENT AGAIN. Because bigger issues are heading your way if you don’t. Bigger than the swarms of locusts, which I liken to the piranhas of the earth’s vegetation. It’s gone in no time once they descend on it. But, Joel is talking about an invasion of a warrior army that is out for Jewish blood. A military invasion.
Joel 2:8 “Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path, and WHEN they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.” Meaning, this is a well organized, well equipped, and moves together in a well choreographic sequence.
As has happened in the past, they DO repent and relationships with God are once again restored. It is not known if they repented before an invasion, or not, but they get there, and that is the important part.
Repent of your ways, now. Don’t keep bringing further destruction to our selves, and our lands and people. We will lose too much, if we don’t. Those left to clean up the mess, will be blessed again, by the Lord. The KEY is to stay in that state of Grace, and not turn away, again.
