Joel’s name means “Yahweh is God.” Perhaps his parents named him as a personal testimony of divine intervention. However, from a prophetic point of view, his name seems to point back to the story of Elijah’s showdown at Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. When the fire of God accepted Elijah’s offering, we read in 1 Kings 18:39,

³⁹ When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord [Yahweh], He is God; the Lord [Yahweh], He is God.”

What followed was the execution of the prophets of Baal. It appears that these two events—the manifestation of God in the fire and the destruction of the false prophets are the main features of “The Day of the Lord” expounded upon by the later prophets. Elijah came to represent all the prophets, so it is likely that the later prophets looked to him as the head of their Order.

Joel’s Message

The Day of the Lord is mentioned by many prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Zephaniah, and Malachi. Yet none of them focus specifically on this topic, and Joel mentions the Day of the Lord five times in his short book. Even Isaiah’s lengthy book mentions it just three times.

So Joel is considered to be the prophet of the Day of the Lord, and we ought to consider his name (“Yahweh is God”) to be a pointer toward his message.

Joel was a prophet to Judah and Jerusalem and therefore is a prophetic counterpart to Hosea, whose message was to the House of Israel. Both prophets called for repentance to their respective audience.

Joel 3 is best known for his prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, which occurred in Jerusalem. So Peter’s Pentecostal sermon in Acts 2:14-36 quoted Joel, showing how those events fulfilled the words of the prophet.

As we will see, the two main features of the Day of the Lord included both the outpouring of the Spirit and the day of darkness. The first was the positive promise of God, while the latter was the negative prophecy of the elimination of God’s enemies.

Elijah’s story, of course, was an Old Covenant type and shadow of events to take place under the New Covenant. Hence, we must interpret the death of the prophets of Baal according to the spiritual sword granted to the church on that day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1. There is more than one way to die—one physical and the other spiritual which is expressed symbolically through baptism.

The Context

It appears that in the time of Joel there was a plague of locusts and a drought. These were God’s pretext for His revelation of the Day of the Lord given to Joel. Typically, God uses real-life situations to reveal His plan, as such things illustrate the revelation and usually force the prophet to experience the revelation firsthand on some level. Thus, the prophet has “skin in the game.”

The book of Joel is undated, so scholars do not agree on any particular date. Because the book does not mention any of the kings, some say it was written in the days of Jehoiada the high priest, who ruled on behalf of the boy-king, Joash. Others speculate that the book was written after the people had returned from their Babylonian captivity. No one has been able to present an argument that satisfies the majority.

The Locust Invasion

Joel 1:1 identifies the author, saying,

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

Joel means “Yahweh is God”; Pethuel means “vision of God.” Joel, then, was the son of a vision of God, and his message came as a result of God’s revelation.

Joel 1:2, 3 continues,

² Hear this, O elders, and listen all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers’ days? ³ Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.

The locust invasion, followed by drought and famine, was so bad that no one for at least three generations had ever seen anything comparable to it. Even the elders (old men) could not recall such dire conditions. Joel 1:4 continues,

⁴ What the gnawing locust [gazam] has left, the swarming locust [arbeh] has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust [yeleq] has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust [hasil] has eaten.

These are four stages in the life of a locust. The gazam is the pupa stage; the arbeh is the imago state; the yeleq is the devourer; and the hasil is larva stage. In the prophecy, it appears that all four stages are eating crops. This may show four types of tribulation back to back, all having one thing in common—the consumption of food.

In the law of tribulation, Deut. 28:38 says,

³⁸ You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust [arbeh] will consume it.

While this probably described an economic disaster in Joel’s day, it is likely that it has a symbolic fulfillment during the Day of the Lord. A locust swarm in the Old Testament is a prophetic type of a shortage of spiritual food or revelation, which occurs when the word of God is rejected.

Amos 8:11, 12 prophesies,

¹¹ “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water; but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. ¹² People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

We would expect, then, that the Day of the Lord would not be characterized by either locusts or famine but by a shortage of spiritual food being dispensed by religious leaders. Those who insist upon literal interpretations seem to lack any serious understanding of types and shadows.

Yet in ancient Israel, the locusts and drought represented foreigners invading the land.

The Drunkards

Joel 1:5-7 says,

⁵ Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded my land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; their branches have become white.

This refers, no doubt, to the Babylonian invasion. The metaphor used is of a lion and a lioness. The winged lion was the symbol of Babylon, pictured also in Dan. 7:4. Hence, “my land” (i.e., Joel’s land) was Judah, not Israel. The Babylonian army was pictured as a swarm of locusts, laying vineyards waste and tree branches dead (“white”).

Verse 5 above addresses the “drunkards” of Judah, those who prefer wine to the new wine of revelation. So Paul admonishes the believers in Eph. 5:18,

¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

The same metaphor is found in Isaiah 28:1, which is a message to Israel: “Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim.” As with Joel, Isaiah compared literal wine to the wine of the Spirit. Isaiah 28:11 says,

¹¹ Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.

Isaiah was referring to the law of tribulation. If Israel refused to hear the word of the Lord in their own language, then God would give them the word of judgment through a foreign army that would speak in another language.

Paul quoted this verse in 1 Cor. 14:21,

²¹ In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord.

He goes on to tell us that the gift of tongues is a sign to unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign to believers. If the people refused to hear in their own language, then God would speak in a foreign tongue. The carnal mind cannot receive the things of God, so it is bypassed by the gift of tongues, which then requires interpretation.

So on the day of Pentecost, when the people on the street heard the disciples speaking in tongues, they mistook them for drunkards (Acts 2:13). The point is that both Joel and Isaiah compare the infilling of the Holy Spirit to being full of wine. Joel 1:5 was anticipating the prophecy in Joel 2:28, 29, which was fulfilled on Pentecost.

We will discuss that later at the proper time.

Tribulations in Pentecost

Pentecost was known as early as the time of Moses as the feast of Weeks, because it came 7 weeks after the waving of the barley sheaf (“Easter”). Pentecost was originally the celebration of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, where God came down as fire upon the Mount.

John the Baptist foretold the fulfillment of Pentecost when he spoke of the baptism of fire whose purpose was to burn “chaff,” that is to purify the heart (Matt. 3:11, 12). This fire brings tribulation to the carnal mind, and it seeks to transform us by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2).

The same principle extends beyond the personal level and affects nations and ultimately the whole world. Hence, we usually associate tribulation with this broader meaning. Perhaps this is because we normally desire the fire of God on a personal level, but when we apply it to the nations and the world, we think of it as being harmful and negative.

The fire of God is both positive and negative, depending on one’s point of view. To the flesh, it is negative; to the spirit, it is positive. On a national level, the Babylonians who rule in the present world order live in fear of the fire of God and abhor it; but from God’s point of view, it is very positive, because it is bringing the world into divine order in preparation for the Kingdom.

The Virgin Bride and the Bridegroom

Joel 1:8 says,

⁸ Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.

Here we must again compare this statement with that which is found later in Joel 2:16, which calls for the bridegroom to come out of his room and the bride from her bridal chamber. As we will see later, this prophecy is timed to occur at the Day of Atonement in the future, when the people fast and repent.

Meanwhile, the “virgin” is in mourning over the death of the bridegroom at Pentecost. The fact that she is yet a virgin indicates that she is betrothed but that the marriage had not yet taken place. Joel speaks of both comings of Christ, as the prophetic feast days reveal.

When Pentecost was fulfilled in Acts 2, there were some who believed, while others did not. Men and women were yet being sorted out and separated into two camps. So the Pentecostal Age was a time of judgment upon the carnally-minded people. And the Bridegroom (Christ) would have to die for the sins of the people.

The Delayed Harvest

Joel 1:9, 10 continues,

⁹ The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. ¹⁰ The field is ruined, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up. Fresh oil fails.

When we read that “the priests mourn,” we understand that they are not truly repenting but are saddened by their lack of provision. It is only later in Joel 2:17, speaking of the Day of Atonement, that the priests repent and “weep between the porch and the altar.”

Joel 1:11 says,

¹¹ Be ashamed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is destroyed [abad, “perished, vanished, lost”].

The time frame is given to us. It extends from the wave-sheaf offering (barley) to the wheat offering on the day of Pentecost. This would normally be a time of harvest, but because of their lack of repentance, “the field is destroyed.” In other words, the great harvest is yet to come. Though the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, the harvest was to be limited until the Autumn feasts arrive.

Fruitlessness

God has always been looking for fruit in the earth, for that is the purpose for creation. In the New Testament, God sent John the Baptist as a fruit inspector (Matt. 3:8). When he was executed, Jesus took up that mantle for the next three years (Luke 13:6, 7). Neither John nor Jesus found any fruit on the nation itself, although there were many individuals who did indeed bear fruit.

Joel prophesied this fruitlessness. Joel 1:12 says,

¹² The vine dries up and the fig tree fails; the pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, all the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men.

Jesus said that “the field is the world” (Matt. 13:38). Hence, the prophet was using a farm metaphor to give a broader prophecy that the world would fail to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom during the Pentecostal Age. In the end, however, the earth will indeed fulfill the purpose for which it was created—to be fruitful (Gen. 1:28).

Isaiah 27:6 prophesies this,

⁶ In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, and they will fill the whole world with fruit.

This is not a prophecy for the nation today that men call Israel, for that is actually Edom masquerading as Israel. It is a counterfeit, and for this reason that nation has not brought forth the fruits of the Kingdom that many expected. Many believers failed to believe Jesus’ words when He cursed the fig tree of Judah for its lack of fruit in Matt. 21:19, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”

Jesus later modified His prophecy to let us know that this fig tree would come back to life and bring forth leaves (Matt. 24:32). But leaves were the original problem, for they cannot be eaten. In fact, fig leaves were a problem since the days of Adam (Gen. 3:7). Fig leaves represent the ways in which men attempt to cover sin or hide their nakedness.

The Call to Repentance

Joel 1:13, 14 says,

¹³ Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast, proclaim 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.

It seems that the common people had withheld their offerings from the temple, but God holds the “priests” and “ministers of my God” to account. Surely, the problem was not that the priests had told the people to stay home or to keep the offerings for themselves. No, human nature itself teaches us that religious leaders are more likely to hound the people into giving more.

It is far more likely that the people stayed home because they knew the priests were corrupt, and they did not want to give offerings to support the corruption. We see this in the case of Elisha in 2 Kings 4:42, where a man brought his first fruits offering of barley to the prophet, rather than to the temple.

Temple worship had become ritualistic and irrelevant. The people learned little or nothing by making the trip to Jerusalem. Nothing supernatural ever took place. So Joel 1:13 calls for the priests and ministers to repent in sackcloth.

The Day of the Lord

Joel 1:15 continues,

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

In the next verses the “destruction” in the Day of the Lord is described in economic terms, which, of course, also reveal spiritual roots. Joel 1:16, 17 says,

¹⁶ Has not food been cut off before our eyes, gladness and joy from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seeds shrivel under their clods; the storehouses are desolate [empty], the barns are torn down, for the grain is dried up.

The “gladness and joy” refers to wine. Psalm 104:15 speaks of “wine which makes man’s heart glad.”

Joel 1:18, 19 continues,

¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly because there is no pasture for them, even the flocks of sheep suffer. ¹⁹ To You, O Lord, I cry; for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

Perhaps the prophet had been inspired by seeing a prairie fire, combined with a forest fire. Such devastating scenes are common around the world. When these occur in times of low rainfall, the fires can burn on and on, almost without end in sight.

We do not know for sure what Joel had witnessed in the land itself, but we can be sure that the prophet had seen such disasters. God does not often impart spiritual meaning to real-life situations that are beyond our personal experience.

The flocks and herds “groan” because of a lack of food. Amos links these physical conditions to spiritual problems. There is a spiritual cause to natural events. So the Day of the Lord involves a natural disaster affecting the economy and is, at its root, a spiritual problem. The cause is a lack of understanding the word of God itself—or its rejection.

Joel 1:20 concludes the chapter by saying,

²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You; for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

The beasts “pant for You” (that is, water). Water is symbolic for the word of God (Eph. 5:26). Water is one of the main agents of cleansing, but when the priests and ministers fail to “pant” for the word of God, they have no real desire to know the One who has spoken His word. They become spiritually polluted and refuse to repent.