Joel And Amos Series

August 07, 2021

The phrase “a shot across the bow” is an expression that comes from the navy. It is a deliberate miss or warning shot that demonstrates to the enemy vessel that he is within range of your guns and that he’d better stop whatever he’s doing BECAUSE what’s coming next WILL NOT end well for him.

That brings us to My favorite Thing About JOEL and AMOS ---- A Shot Across the Bow

We know very little about Joel or the dates of his ministry. We do know that his ministry began in Judah during a time of unprecedented national disaster - the type remembered for generations. They had been invaded by a powerful foe. But this was no ordinary invasion. It was a locust invasion.

• Joel 1:2-5 - Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers? 3 Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. 4 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. 5 Wake up!!...

One might be tempted to consider this invasion as just “Mother Nature in a bad mood” or “global warming”, but how are the people of God to make sense of this locust plague?

Back in the Book of Deuteronomy God spoke to His people about taking seriously their Voluntary Covenant Relationship with Him {Deut. 28-30}. One of the threatened consequences for unfaithfulness was a locust plague.

• Deut. 28:38, 42 - You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it … Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

After the locust had moved on, Joel called for a time of fasting and repentance:

• Joel 1:13-14 - Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Why? Because as bad as the locust plague was, it was not the worst thing that could happen to Judah – it was a warning shot.

• Joel 2:1-2 - Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand -- 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.

What could Judah expect from this vast army?

• All is green and beautiful when they arrive, but a desolate wilderness when they leave – nothing escapes – they consume everything that gets in their way.

• They rush through defenses and climb city walls without effort and they enter houses like thieves.

• Before them the earth quakes and the heavens tremble.

This will not end well for Judah. If they insist and persist in rebellion, they will experience further judgment. HOWEVER!! None of the consequences Joel described had to happen:

• Joel 2:12-13 - 'Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

The people of Judah were in the driver’s seat and THEIR choices would determine their fate. The warnings went unheeded and in 586 BC Judah was destroyed by Babylon.

We know a bit more about Amos: He was a sheepherder {1:1} and fig grower {7:14} and the majority of his prophesies were against Israel {7:15}.

During his ministry, Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam II was king of Israel.

He delivered his first sermon in (roughly) 762 BC – 2 years before “the earthquake”, an earthquake so violent and destructive that Zechariah mentions it in his prophesies some 230 years later.

During this time both Judah and Israel experienced great political and economic success and they wrongly concluded that their prosperity was proof of their elevated status as God’s “Chosen People”, however:

• Amos 1:2 - He said: "The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers."