Joel

Chapter 1:1-3 (ESV) - The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

Question to consider: What did the LORD tell Moses about His mercy and judgment upon future generations? (see Exodus 34:6-7)

There are a number of theories when it comes to the dating of the book of Joel because the name Joel was a rather common name, and there was no one with the name Pethuel mentioned anywhere else in scripture. Even the meaning of the name Pethuel is debated. Strong’s concordance says it was derived from the words pathah and el and means “enlarged by God.” Given that he named his son “YHWH is God,” Pethuel could very well have been a man who emphasized that YHWH was ever expanding His reign. This would be a bold claim considering the small size of Israel and the fact that it was conquered by other, seemingly more powerful nations. However, this idea would seem fitting in light of the contents of this prophecy.

The order of the book in scripture is according to the traditional view that the book was written around the time of Amos. The book of Amos directly states the time was during the reign of king Uziah (of Judah) and Jeroboam son of Joash (of the northern kingdom of Israel). If this is the case, this word was given almost two hundred years before Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, and the people were exiled to Babylon.

Joel made an appeal to the elders and inhabitants of the land rather than a king, and he described something that had happened in their day. If we keep with the idea of the traditional chronology, Joel’s appeal may have something to do with 2 Kings 15:3-5, “And [king Uzziah] did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. And the LORD touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house.” While the king was faithful, he was sequestered from the people, and the inhabitants of the land did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Thus, Joel could have been calling them to repentance.

However, the Assyrian king who laid waste to the Northern kingdom of Israel and made his way through the Judean countryside was Sennacherib around 701BC. This was during the reign of Hezekiah (son of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah). The nation which had laid waste to the land was described with lion's teeth. The lion was a key symbol for Assyria (and eventually Babylon), and Joel was calling for a fast and repentance in light of the looming Day of the LORD. It makes more sense to think of Joel as a contemporary of Micah than Amos.

Joel appealed to the elders and inhabitants of the land to intercede in prayer for the city that it may be kept from the judgment which had already come upon them. In this, Joel appealed to the God who declared to Moses, ‘“YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for being merciful enough to forgive the penitent and to enact justice upon the guilty. Thank You for pouring out the wrath we deserve upon Your perfectly holy Son on the cross so that we may become His righteousness. Help us to bring this good news to the nations. Amen.