Week 7: Prophets to the Southern Kingdom of Judah
Introduction
Last week we read the prophet Micah, who prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah. His prophecies are the longest ones to the Kingdom of Judah of the Minor Prophets. Of course, Isaiah and Jeremiah had much longer prophecies, but for the rest of this week, we will be reading one prophet per day. Starting with Joel's three chapters today, Zephaniah's three chapters tomorrow and Habakkuk's three chapters on Wednesday. On Thursday, we'll get a taste of Jeremiah, and then we'll finish our study by reading the narrative of the Captivity of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judah by Babylon.
Joel
The prophet Joel is the one that we know the least about, of all the prophets. His book cannot be dated with certainty - usually it says the word of the Lord that came to the prophet during the reign of kings x y z... but with Joel, we read in verse 1: "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel." Period. So we aren't sure when exactly he prophesied, but his prophecy is thus understood by the church as being applicable to all generations and all time periods.
Joel is known as the prophet of the day of Pentecost. He prophecies about the pouring down of the Holy Spirit. His prophecies also focus more on the repentance of the nation as a whole, and not just the repentance of individuals.
Chapter 1
He starts with a fearsome message that sounds like a wakeup call to the inhabitants of the land. "Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days? Or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
I want to comment on this first part because this is the importantimportance of the upbringing of parents. Many parents these days are leaving their children to be babysat by the TV, the Tablets and the Phones. Or they are expecting the Church to raise their children. But not so, my beloved. If God grants you, you will be parents one day, and you need to know the importance of raising your children. Telling them your experiences and how God has worked in your life. Telling them your mistakes and how you learned from them. Telling them the wisdom that you received from your parents, and your elders and your servants. This theme is consistent throughout the Scripture that this is God's model for the bringing up of children.
What's the wake-up call? Seemingly, there was a plague in the land. A plague of locusts. And he mentions four types of locust: "What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten." (v. 4)
How is this to be understood? Actually, as with much of the Old Testament and especially the prophecies, it can be understood on several different levels.
The first is the literal level - this is a real event that happened and the people are struggling to find food to eat because of this plague. And they need to turn to the Lord.
The second is the prophetic level - these four stages of locusts or these four kinds of insects, are seen by the Fathers of the Church to refer to the major conquests of Israel - the Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek and the Roman. And this is supported of course by the next few verses when the prophet Joel talks about "A nation has come up against My land."
Of course, there is a third level which is the one most important to us, the tropological level - related to moral metaphor. The four stages of locust refer to the four stages of sin. Sin can start small, but then consume us. It might start out as just "a small lie" - "just a thought" - "just a glance" - a chewing locust. It's just chewing... but very quickly can become a consuming locust and consume our minds, our hearts, and our actions. We discussed the four stages of sin when we studied the first two chapters of Amos - we said it starts as "thinking of evil" - then "doing the evil" - then "evil becomes a habit" (continuing to do it without repentance) - and finally even "preaching the evil" and teaching others how to do it.
The rest of the chapter is a call to repentance. The Lord would send certain things like plagues, occupation by a foreign nation, etc. as different ways to bring the people to repentance. I'll mention one more verse which is verse 14 - one of the famous verses of the Scripture: "Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord." One of the very clear things understood in the Scripture and in the Church is the link between fasting and repentance. Fasting is not just a diet change, but a mode of repentance and of turning back from sin and from evil and reorienting my mind and my hear to the Lord. It's also a time to gather with the rest of the Body of Christ - to pray more liturgies together.
Chapter 2
A similar idea is given in chapter 2, verse 12: "Now, therefore," says the Lord, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." So rend your heart, and not your garments" - in those days, someone might mourn or repent with sackcloth and ashes, but on the inside, there is no repenting. It's just an outward symbol. As we do today, I might be fasting from food, but inside there is no change. The Lord says Rend your heart, and not just your garments. And again in verse 15 of this chapter "Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar" - it's a call to the whole assembly. Whether you are an elder, a child, a nursing babe, a bride and groom on their wedding day, or even a priest - the time of repentance is here. Blow the trumpet and make sure EVERYONE knows - the time of repentance is here.
And what will the Lord's response be?
In verse 18: "Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, 'Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied with them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations." and now we start to see prophecies about the New Testament. The Lord will save us from our sin and will bind Satan before us - "But I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; his stench will come up and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things. Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things!"
And the Lord in this prophecy doesn't stop there, but reveals to us the next step in the economy of Salvation - the pouring of His Spirit upon us. If you're reading the Orthodox Study Bible, this section will be chapter 3. If you're reading New King James, then we're in chapter 2 verse 28:
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.
These verses are quoted in Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles in the 3rd hour of Pentecost, and they start to speak in tongues, and everyone in the multitude, from many different nations and languages - Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya, Romans, Cretans and Arabs - each of them can hear the message of the gospel in his own language. And some of them said "well these people must be drunk" - but St Peter stands up and says "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel" and then he recites these verses.
Chapter 3 (4 in OSB)
If we just take a part of chapter 3 (or in OSB, it's chapter 4), we can read from verse 18: "And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias." and verse 20: "Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation."
As with all of the prophets, he ends with a message of hope. The Lord is coming, He will pour out His Spirit, there will be a final Judgment, and all of those who include themselves in His Body and in His Church, shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Listening to this message isn't a replacement for reading the Scripture. Read these short chapters, and let the word of God fill you, - having put the effort to listen to this introduction, the Lord will bless your time and your understanding even in the verses we have skipped over. I hope you'll read along!