(Based on Jonah and the Minors: Chapter 2—Joel)
Juliette Alvey
Dear Grown-up,
The most memorable image from the book of Joel is a destructive army of locusts. You know, the little bugs that John the Baptist eats with honey? The artwork in chapter 2 of the Jonah and the Minors zine shows little soldiers riding on the backs of locusts, swords out and ready for a fight. And Joel really hits it home with the sheer number of times he says the word “locusts.” Joel 1:4 says, “What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.” Okay, we get it, Joel! There were A LOT of locusts, and they ate everything!
But what we learn from Joel’s repetition and vivid descriptions is that a swarm of locusts is no joke. One of these grass-hopper-like bugs is not scary by itself, but when they join together in a swarm, they become an overwhelming force.
Joel describes the devastation and scarcity that results: “The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away” (Joel 1:12). Not only have their crops withered, but also their joy!
The main theme from this minor prophet is scarcity… but thankfully that is not the end of the message. Joel’s message is one of hope. It is about our God, who is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2:13), not leaving us in our scarcity but renewing, refilling, and redeeming those empty spaces.
Do you ever feel empty, like a swarm of locusts is eating away at your joy? It may not even be one significant hardship that is emptying you out but all of the relentless small demands flying at you with no reprieve. When God’s people face scarcity, they have no power in themselves to restore the dried up landscape, and thus their own joy. They must turn to the Lord and rely on his mercy.
When there seems to be no hope left, God does the impossible. In the New Testament, remember when the people followed Jesus into a remote place where there was no food or drink, and the disciples told him to send them away to find accommodations elsewhere? The disciples were using their own logic and the only means they knew of to provide for the people. But they soon found that they were in the presence of the “bread of life” (John 6:48) who could do miracles and fill the bellies and the hearts of the people.
The truth is, we are not alone in our emptiness. Jesus, our bread of life, emptied himself in order that we would have life and “have it to the full” (John 10:10). Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8)! Jesus walks with us through times of scarcity and times of plenty.
Whether we are empty or full, there is always hope in the future because of God’s promises through Christ. Joel beautifully describes God’s plentiful hope: “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the valley of acacias” (Joel 3:18).
Because of our wonderful savior Jesus Christ, there is no wasteland that he cannot renew until it is teeming with life.
