In 1915 a plague of locusts covered Palestine and Syria from the border of Egypt to the Taurus Mountains. The first swarms appeared in March. These were adult locusts that came from the northeast and moved toward the southwest in clouds so thick they obscured the sun. The females were 2.5 to 3 inches long, and they immediately began to lay eggs by digging holes in the soil about four inches deep and depositing about 100 eggs in each. The eggs were neatly arranged in a cylindrical mass about one inch long and about thick as a pencil. These holes were everywhere. Witnesses estimated that as many as 65,000-75,000 eggs were concentrated in a single square meter of soil, and patches like this covered the entire land from north to south. Having laid their eggs the locusts flew away.
Within a few weeks the young locusts hatched. These resembled large ants. They had no wings, and within a few days they began moving forward by hopping along the ground like fleas. They would cover four to six hundred feet a day, devouring any vegetation before them. By the end of May they had molted. In this stage they had wings, but they still did not fly. Instead they moved forward by walking, jumping only when they were frightened. They were bright yellow. Finally the locusts molted again, this time becoming the fully developed adults that had invaded the land initially.
According to a description of this plague by John D. Whiting in the December 1915 issue of National Geographic Magazine, the earlier stages of these insects attacked the vineyards. "Once entering a vineyard the sprawling vines would in the shortest time be nothing but bare bark. When the daintier morsels were gone, the bark was eaten off the young topmost branches, which, after exposure to the sun, were bleached snow-white. Then seemingly out of malice, they would gnaw off small limbs, perhaps to get at the pith within."
Whiting describes how the locusts of the last stage completed the destruction begun by the earlier form. "They attacked the olive trees, whose tough, bitter leaves had been passed over by the creeping locusts. They stripped every leaf, berry, and even the tender bark." They ate away "layer after layer" of the cactus plants, "giving the leaves the effect of having been “clear cut”. Even on the scare and prized palms they had no pity, gnawing off the tenderer ends of the sword like branches and, diving deep into the heart, they tunneled after the juicy pith." (From "The minor prophets" Vol 1 by James Montgomery Boice, "Joel").
I think here in Canada we have experienced grasshoppers on the prairies from time to time and sometimes they have been devastating to farmer’s crops. But when we look at the history of locust’s attacks we begin to understand what a Locust Buffett looks like in the Middle East. Not a pretty scene.
We have been looking at the Minor Prophets…those little books of the Bible at the end of the Old Testament. We have looked at Jonah and Hosea and today in our series “The Not So Minor Prophets” we will be looking at Joel. The book of Joel starts out with a plague of locust on the land. Verses 1-4 starts out like this and really gives us a good look at the unfolding story.
The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2 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 ancestors. 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[a] have eaten.
Kind of sounds like the historical account we had at the beginning from 1915, doesn’t it? Well God uses Joel to bring a message to the people, a call to repentance. The writer of the book of Joel refers to the “Day of the Lord” and that that day is near…it is time for the people to turn.
Some have said the Joel speaks of an invasion of locust but the locust in this case could be a metaphor of an invading army. An army so big that it could bring the kind of devastation and turmoil that a literal locust swarm could bring.
Whether it was a literal swarm or a figurative swarm, the question today is; when you examine your own life…what locust swarm have you or are you experiencing? Is there need for hope, is there need for changes on your part and is there need for openness with others? What is plaguing you today?
Unless we have a reconciling moment with the Reconciler, a renewal with the true Renewer and a refreshing from the only true one that can bring refreshment we will continue to be plagued by the locust swarm of our lives. We need transformation from the One who truly bring transformation.
Well this is the message the people of Joel’s time needed and it is good for us to hear when life throws us a locust buffet. The Lord gave a message of repentance, reconciliation and restoration to give to the people. The Lord declares in chapter 2 verses 12 and 13:
“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.
So often when these locust buffets come into our lives it is because we have wandered from God and put our reliance in other places and that is why it is especially difficult. We have lost that communion with God and when we need it most we are wondering far away!
I. Return whole-heartedly to God
Well when we realize we have been wandering from God we need to return whole-heartedly to God. The nation of Israel had turned away from God and it came to a point in there wandering that they once again saw there need for God. Sometimes it is during crisis and other times there is a stark realization that there is a distance between you and God.
So what does whole-heartedly mean? Well it is not half-heartedly! Have you ever done anything half-heartedly? You know what I am talking about….don’t you?
I think of being asked to play trucks on the floor by my son. I maybe tired and worn out and maybe there are so many other things that I know need being done, but out of a sense of duty I get on the floor and play with my son. My heart is not in it so I do not drive the fire truck with the full gumption and enthusiasm that I could have…and guess what? That gets noticed by my son and I get demoted to driving the tow truck.
When we approach our faith in God half-heartedly we are bound to fail. When the locust’s buffets of life arise and creep in we will not be able to stand the attack and we will feel defeated.
We read 2 Peter 3:9 last Sunday and in that verse we heard: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
I am so glad our God is patient because I think most of us would have been in trouble long ago otherwise. He must look down on us and say “can’t you see”…”Can’t you SEE”. “The world around you is crumbling, morals are being diminished and values are dwindling… Can’t you see”. “There are signs of a Locust buffet all around you”.
And then Jesus says in Joel 2:12: “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” The time has come to repent and return. Maybe you have never taken that step of faith and Believed on Jesus…the time is now to wholeheartedly come to Jesus.
Maybe you have made that step of faith, but your allegiance is towards the things of this world…the time is now to whole-heartedly return to your Lord and Saviour. Maybe you have become spiritual lazy… the time is now to whole-heartedly return to your Lord and Saviour. Or maybe circumstances are sucking the joy you once had… the time is now to whole-heartedly return to your Lord and Saviour.
God is speaking through His prophet Joel to the people of Israel and saying return to me…I want you and the people to be reconciled to me. Later on God sends His son to the world to live and die on a cross that we could have the perfect way of being reconciled to God.
In order to return we need to confess. We need to confess our sin, our wandering and our disbelief. Verse 12 says we must return with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Those words might suggest that our return and repentance needs to be sincere, heartfelt and a whole-hearted return to God. Today is the day to make that whole hearted decision.
II. Rend your Heart, What?
Secondly, we are to rend our hearts! What does that mean? Rend is not a word I use. Verse 13 starts out by saying: 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Well other translations translate it as “tear out” or “tear”. So tear out our heart, not your garments.
In the Old Testament we often see people that are truly repentant or sorrowful and they tear of their clothes and put on sack cloth and ashes on their head.
So why would they tear their clothes? Because the Israelites had an agricultural society, clothing was a very valuable commodity. Nothing was mass-produced. Clothes were expensive, which meant that most people in those days only had a very limited wardrobe.
For that reason, people who tore their clothes were showing just how upset they felt inside. By damaging one of their more important and expensive possessions, they reflected the depth of their emotional pain.
This idea was magnified when people chose to put on "sackcloth" after tearing their regular clothes. Sackcloth was a coarse and scratchy material that was very uncomfortable. Again, people put on sackcloth as a way to externally display the discomfort and pain they felt inside.
God knew that this symbolism would speak to the people because of their ritual of repentance, but God is asking for more than a symbol. He was asking for a real repentance. God told the people to rend their hearts because He wanted to show the level of repentance He was asking for.
This is not a: “I sinned…sorry God” type repentance, this is a grief within that leads to true repentance. This is the repentance that Paul talks about in his second letter to the Corinthians in 7:9-10:
9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
This is a genuine repentance not a superficial repentance. God is not looking for external believers…He is looking at their hearts…He sees what others do not. Is your heart in Christ’s hands, does He see a pure heart? Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23. Does your heart belong to God?
III. God is Awesome
Well, my third point is God is awesome! I love the last part of verse 13. God speaks through Joel and says: 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. Here we have the God of the universe… He is holy, Just, all powerful, All knowing, everywhere at one time, He is perfect…and yet He is gracious and compassionate with us sinners here on earth.
We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and yet God is “Slow to anger and abounding in love.” Even though we are all sinners and like the Israelites we sometimes just don’t get it…God relents from sending calamity. God is awesome because of His love and patience for us. We see His love and patience throughout the Minor Prophets.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion: Do you feel like you have been hit by a locust Buffet?
1. Have you given into sin in your life?
2. Has sin gotten a hold on your life?
3. Have you not been faithful in your allegiance to God?
4. Have you been disobedient in your stewardship of you time and money?
5. Have you allowed others to pull you away from what you know to be true?
6. Have you made choices with your body that are not pleasing to God?
7. Have you let your emotions and circumstances rob you of the joy of the Lord?
8. Have you created idols in your life that take priority over God?
9. Are you someone else when you leave the walls of this building
10. Have you never surrendered your Heart to Jesus
Today is the day God is calling you to return to Him; to give your heart whole-heartedly to God; today is the day to rend your heart in true repentance. And when we return to God we will find that he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
