During my sabbatical, which was predominantly a time of rest, I set myself one project, which was to translate Joel from the original Hebrew. I had two purposes in mind – firstly, I want to keep improving my Hebrew language skills and secondly translating from Hebrew forces me to slow down and read God’s Word carefully. I spend time meditating on small portions. I tried to record some brief thoughts on small sections, which I’m now sharing on this blog.
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 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?
3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
The first half of Joel (1:1-2:11) is a description of the terrible judgement of God, which is coming upon Judah for her rebellion against her God, combined with calls to mourn and wail and repent. Joel 2:12-17 is a more direct call to repentance, which is heeded so God is gracious in 2:18-27. And then the final part of Joel (2:28-3:31) describes a future period when God will pour out His Spirit on the people, punish Judah’s enemies and bless Judah immensely.
Joel 1:1 introduces the book. Verses 2-3 uses a repeated commanded throughout Scripture – “Hear” and “Tell”. It says something about the foolishness and stubbornness of mankind that God needs to say, “Hey everyone, listen!” at the beginning of a prophecy. Surely verse 1 by itself should be sufficient, since this is “the word of the LORD”? But we need the blunt command in verse 2 “Hear this”. Everyone dwelling in the land needs to listen, but God speaks first to the elders. The elders of Israel aren’t direct equivalents to church elders, but elders especially need (for the sake of themselves and their people) to be good at listening to God’s Word.
Be careful to hear God’s Word well. Just as a husband should lovingly listen to his wife when she speaks, so every Christian should listen carefully to God’s revealed Word in Scripture.
In Joel, we listen carefully to the clear and dire warnings of God’ judgement – those who are far from God in their hearts (we aren’t told explicitly what sins the Judahites have committed, but clearly from 2:12, their hearts are far away from God) will suffer on the day of the Lord. Christians must listen carefully to all God’s Word, but especially the warnings of judgement upon those who have not received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. On hearing these warnings we must return to the Lord with all our heart.
But, also, we must hear and tell. The Judahites must tell future generations, so they understand why Judah was conquered and suffered. Christians must tell others about the coming judgement and salvation in Christ.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, make me a good listener to your word. Thank you for speaking to us, forgive me for not always listening carefully and open my ears to hear all you have to say. Thank you for the work of Christ that saves me from judgement on the day of the Lord. As I hear of Christ’s great salvation work may I also tell others. Give me opportunities to share the Gospel today and this week, may I boldly take those opportunities and may you open the ears and hearts of those I tell to receive the Good News. Amen.
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