There are no solid clues within the book of Joel to tell us when it was written: scholars differ widely in their assessments, proposing as early as the 9^th century BC and as late as the 4^th century BC – from shortly after the divided monarchy, to well after the Exile. That’s a large and uncertain range.

Joel presents us with “the word of the Lord” (Joel 1:1) concerning a terrible plague of locusts: “what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten” (1:4). This could be the description of a terrible insect infestation, or it might be a metaphor of terrible destruction and famine. Either way, “the fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails … the vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm and apple – all the trees of the field are dried up” 1:10-12) – this last sounding somewhat more like drought than locusts.

People will of course mourn and lament over this (1:8, 11), but what is really called for is fasting, prayer, and repentance: “Sanctify a fast, call 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. … Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people” (1:14, 2:15-16).

We keep imagining that our cleverness will somehow bring us through to a happy solution: we will solve our problems and it will all come out well. Yet our only hope, Joel insists, is that God will deliver us from this calamity: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (2:12-13).

The promise of God stands sure – again, expressed in imagery that seems to overcome drought more than it does insects: “O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floor shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil” (2:23-24).

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We mostly think there will always be enough food, O Lord: we mostly don’t fear plagues of locusts or drought. As a result we mostly don’t fast and pray that you will deliver us from hunger and its causes. Teach us to set our hearts in you, trusting in your gracious and merciful steadfast love.

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