In this enlightening episode of Through the Bible, we delve deep into the profound messages of the Book of Joel with insights from Dr. J. Vernon McGee. Discover why this three-chapter book is likened to a powerful atom bomb and how it has stirred the hearts of many with its dramatic narrative on locust plagues and divine judgments. As we explore the significance of Joel being the first writing prophet, we unpack the parallel between the ancient plagues and their symbolic warnings to modern-day believers.
00:00:01 Introduction to Through the Bible with Steve Schwetz
00:00:17 Journey to Ghana with Radio Ministry Highlights
00:03:17 The Impact of Islam and Leadership in Ghana
How firm a foundation, ye saints, of the Lord is laid for your faith!
SPEAKER 03 :
And atom bomb, not very big, but potent and powerful. Well, that’s how Dr. J. Vernon McGee describes the Old Testament book of Joel. Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, welcoming you to a fascinating study in what’s really a seldom-traveled section of God’s Word. So as you grab your seat on the Bible bus through the Bible’s president, Greg Harris, and I have got some good news from across the world, this time in the country of Ghana.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I must admit to everyone, this is a country that you’ve been to and I have not.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. I got one up on you, man.
SPEAKER 04 :
Not that we do this for competitive reasons, but we’re slightly competitive as friends and guys. But I’m really excited that you got to go to Ghana.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was just there November of 24. Yeah, it’s amazing.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I know you have a lot of stories. I can tell our listening family the language is TWI, T-W-I, and we launched production in 2008. So that was a long time ago.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I like to really focus on the fact that this is a long-term commitment. Like most languages that we are in, I mean, you’re talking 16 years if I’m doing my math right. And it was such a blessing to be there. We got on a plane out of the capital and flew to the location where the radio station, in this case radio, terrestrial radio, works for us in that part of the world. And they were there having a big gathering of listeners. And, I mean, we pulled up on this street, and that place was bumping. I mean, it was so loud. I wear an Apple Watch, and I’m way over my decibel rating. It’s going warning, warning, warning. Yes. And these people were just joyously celebrating the Lord, and they all listened to Through the Bible. Yes. And it was neat because the host would say, let’s listen to Through the Bible, and they would all respond, let’s go to Bible school.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
And they would go back and forth and back and forth. That was the rough translation in Twi. That’s amazing. And there was just singing and dancing. And several things struck me. One was the number of pastors in the audience. We’ve heard that before. Guys that didn’t have an opportunity to go to seminary don’t have Bible knowledge necessarily as deep as certainly a lot of other pastors would. And they’re using through the Bible as the basis for their sermons. Yeah. So we’re really in a very tangible way supporting the local church. The other thing that struck me was there was a Ghana native who spoke Twi who had immigrated to Germany. And she listened over the Internet to the program and knew that there was going to be this gathering. And she took the time and effort and cost to fly back to Ghana to be in that audience so that she could be a part of that celebration.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s amazing. And, you know, part of the context, and they probably talked to you about this, is about two-thirds of Ghanaians call themselves Christians, but there’s a lot of nominal and there’s a lot of syncretism. Yes. So you’ve got people say, I’m a Christian, but they incorporate sort of traditional African religious practices, a lot like what we see in Latin America.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, and all over the world. And so through the Bible is so critical. And that lady flying from Germany just shows how deep the impact is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Yeah, and also the impact of Islam in Africa is also in Ghana as well, particularly in the north. And so it’s just been such an encouragement for us to see that ministry blossom, to see the team. And it really comes down to the leadership of the team there. So one of the things that you can be praying for is that the program will continue to go out, that the leaders would continue to be excited about this ministry, and that the Lord would continue to open new doors and avenues for us to be getting out the Twi language. Yeah. Greg, once again, we’re almost out of time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wish we had more time.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, pray for us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Heavenly Father, thank you for this great report and the encouragement. We do pray, as Steve suggested, that you keep those great leaders in place. Give them vision. Give them the resources they need to get your word to the Twi-speaking people of Ghana and the surrounding countries. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Joel 1 on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we come back here to the little prophecy of Joel. Only three chapters, but it’s like an atom bomb. Not very big, but it sure is potent and powerful. That is true of this prophecy. Now, if we’ll get before us again, that Joel was probably the first writing prophet. He predates all the writing prophets. And he’s the prophet, apparently, to the southern kingdom. He speaks to them. His locale is Jerusalem, Mount Zion, that particular area. And he is the one that’s going to introduce us to the day of the Lord. Now, he does it in one of the most dramatic ways that took place in his day, locust plague. And I mean a locust plague. And he begins by saying, as we saw in the first three verses, speaking to the old man. He said, you old man, you’ve never heard anything like this. It never happened in your day. And your father never told you anything about this. Or your father’s father. Your grandfather didn’t. And then he says, you can tell this to your children. because they’re not going to see anything like this again in the future. Now, this plague stands alone as being different than any other plague that took place. Now, the plague of locusts in the land of Egypt was actually a miraculous plague, I believe. God’s judgment’s there. This is what man would call today just that which is natural. That is, it just took place. Actually, I do not consider it even here a judgment of God upon the people, although it was used as that. And I believe that it being unique was, in that sense, a judgment from God. Now he’s going to speak of this locust plague. And there are several things that we need to recognize about the locusts. We don’t know too much about them here. I know as a boy, I always enjoyed in a summer evening, lying on my bed before an open window and listening to the locusts in the trees. But they never were a plague, and they probably were not the same kind of a locust that you have in Bible times or you have over there today. Now, I have before me an article that appeared in the National Geographic several years ago. And it tells about a plague of locusts in Africa. And they show pictures of the locusts and what happened, a field before and a field afterward. And they absolutely had a scorched earth policy. It was just as if a fire had burned over the field and destroyed everything. And speaking of this one, they have by a picture this explanation. Battle is lost, but the loser fights on. Nasserajah Jemi, an Ethiopian farmer, swats at locusts devouring his millet crop. Only a few kernels remain on the seed stalks. Stalks and leaves go next. In 1958, Ethiopia alone lost 167,000 tons of grain, enough to feed more than a million of her people for a year, and all by a locust plague. He’s going now to describe this locust plague for us. And there’s some things about a locust plague that I think we need to keep in mind. And the Word of God has something to say about the locusts. I’m not going to turn. There are many passages on it. But Proverbs 30, 27 has this very interesting piece of information. “…the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” Now, they march as an army, and they’re divided into different bands as they go along. Now, that’s going to explain something to us now when we come to verse 4. Now, will you notice what it says? That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locusts eaten. And that which the locusts hath left hath the canker worm eaten. And that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Now, these are different words. It’s true. And there are those that believe that it refers to different types of insects. But there’s no basis really for that. The poma worm actually means to gnaw off. And the word locusts here, arbade, it means that there are many of them, like an army in a migratory. They move as a great swarm. And then the canker worm means just to lick off. And the caterpillar means to devour or to consume. So that you have four words that describe the locusts and what he does. Now, he goes forth, the psalmist says, in bands. Just like an army. First of all, there are the planes that come over and drop the bombs. And that first onslaught of the locusts, they come through the air. And they actually can denude a tree in just a matter of minutes. And then after the bombs have been dropped by the Air Corps, then the artillery comes through. And it destroys every section and leaves great areas devastated. But there’s still a lot left. Now the infantry comes along. That’s the third group. And they get what has been left. And then you have the mop-up crew that follows after that. And if there’s anything left, they’re going to get it. And I would say they get less than anyone else. And many of them drop by the wayside. So what you actually have here, you have four words that describe the different bands of the locusts and that they come just like an army. They have no general. They have no king. They have no lieutenants or sergeants. But they move just like an army. And back, well, for 250 years, the island of Cyprus was stripped by locusts. Now, actually, the Israelite was permitted to eat locusts back in, I’m not going to turn to the passage, but back in Leviticus 11, 22. And they were sent as a judgment from God. But we would put this one in the category of a natural one, and there’s nothing like it that they had ever had. I think it was not necessarily a judgment, but a warning to the people. It was a warning to the nation. This is your first writing prophet, the time of Elijah. And Elijah was warning the northern kingdom. And now this man, in a most dramatic manner, Joel is warning the southern kingdom of a judgment that’s coming. And he will move from the local judgment, and this has been the method of all the prophets, to move from the local situation into the future. And he’ll move it to the day that is coming, the day of the Lord. Now, I do not know that we’ll have time today to get to the day of the Lord. I want to give one whole broadcast to that, one of the most misunderstood terms, and yet one of the most important in Scripture. Joel was the first to use it, and he makes it very clear what it is, so that after him All that the other prophets did, all they had to do was mention it, and they could just call it that day, that day that’s coming. And we’ll see that a little later on. Now, there’s something else that you have here. And I trust that you folk that are above the Mason-Dixon line will forgive me for saying this, but this, my friend, was like Sherman’s march through Georgia. When a locust plague came, they took everything inside. And it was a scorched earth policy, denuding everything along the route. Now, may I say to you, as we’re going to see later on, this moves into the day of the Lord that begins with the great tribulation period. And I’m running ahead now, of course. But how does the great tribulation period open? It opens with the four horsemen of the apocalypse. a false peace, then war that breaks out, and then after that, there comes the famine, and then there comes the dread horse of death, the pale horse of death. So that you have four here. And I see a tremendous parallel, because during the Great Tribulation period, it’ll not be literal locusts. It’ll be something lots worse that’s going to ride through not just that land, but through the entire world. And the world will be totally devastated when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth to set up his kingdom. That makes this prophecy very remarkable. Now we’ve seen We have four different classes of the locus. And by the way, I should say something else. And somebody’s rebuked me for using that term, by the way. And they won’t know what I mean by it. Well, it’s an idiomatic expression that I use when I’m generally changing the subject or backing up and picking up something that I should have said before. And here, I should have said this before. Now, locusts, when you look at them close up, look like a horse. In fact, the German word for locust is hay horse. They look like a horseman. And you have that in the book of Revelation, those horsemen like locusts. And they are unusual locusts, by the way, different. And I said that again. You’ll forgive me for using it. It’s merely a slang expression. And I trust that you understand I’m not reading a nice little essay here. I’m speaking from the Word of God that I have before me and my notes that I hope you have. And that’s all I have before me. And I try to teach from my heart as well as my mind. And some think that I have very little mind in it. But nevertheless, that’s what we’re trying to do. Now, let me move on down. He says in verse 5, Awake, ye drunkards, and weep and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it’s cut off from your mouth. Why? Well, the locusts beat you to the grape. and they have stripped all the vineyards, and there’ll be no more wine for the drunkards. Well, a man that was an alcoholic in that day, he’s going to find himself taking the cure before he intended to, because there’ll be no wine to drink. Now, it reveals that even here at the beginning of the downfall of the nation, what was the great sin? It was, again, drunkenness. And we here in Southern California are being reminded again that most of the accidents that take place today Recently, there have been some horrible ones. One where an entire family was all of them killed in their car, out on a holiday, out to have a good time. And because some fellow’s exercising his freedom and his right to drink, and he’s drunk, and he goes right head on into this family car. Now, may I say to you, I’ll get letters, I know on this, that you’re moving into the realm of politics. My friend, I’m studying the Word of God, and when it talks about drunkenness, I’m going to talk about drunkenness, because that is what God is saying. And when he talks about the king being a drunkard, Then I’m going to talk about drunkenness in Washington today because it happens to be there. And it looks like some commentator made the statement about, I think it was 128 cocktail parties there every day. And he says that many of the statesmen become inebriated. And he says the decisions that are being handed down look as if it’s coming from men that are probably not in their right mind, by the way. Awake ye drunkards, he says, and weep and wail. Drunkenness was beginning to tear the foundation out of this nation at the very beginning. And by the way, that’s the only sin that Joel will mention. He doesn’t mention idolatry at all. the great sin that brought the nation down of turning from God, because they still made a profession of worshiping him, you know. Now, he says here, verse 6, and this is such a dramatic section, “…for a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.” Now, these little bitty insects, The locusts, why, he can tear a tree down. He can move through a field of grain and absolutely have nothing left but the bare ground. And you have these four bands coming along. No leader, no king, but here they come. And they come, in most cases, as a judgment from God. But as we’ve tried to say here, this was a warning to these people. And he’ll move ahead to that which is still future. The day of the Lord will be just like a locust plague upon the earth. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are yet to arrive. Now, will you notice that the locusts here are compared to an invading army. And they were just as destructive, and that’s exactly what they were. Now, listen to him here in verse 7. He says, “…he hath laid my vine waste, he’s barked my fig tree.” Now, that means they actually kill a fig tree. “…he hath made it completely bare, and cast it away, its branches are made white.” Just absolutely stripped. a fig tree down even to the bark and nothing there but the naked wood exposed. Now he’s going to send out a message to them. And he’s telling them now what they’re to do at a time like this. He says first in verse 8, he says, Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. He says something now that’s unusual. They are to lament. And now I’ll move on down. Verse 9, the meal offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. In other words, they’re not able to make an offering at all. And the priests, the Lord’s ministers mourn. Now, here is something that’s very interesting. And all through here, you find this same thing said, the drunkard is to mourn. and the priests are to mourn. In other words, the entire economy is affected by this. And then he goes on, and before I deal with this, let me read two or three more verses here. We believe, therefore, because of a statement like this, that the prophet Joel is in Jerusalem. He’s speaking here to the priests. that minister in the house of the Lord. And that’s mentioned several times here. Now he says, verse 10, the field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the grain is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languished, no olive oil and no grapes and no grain. In other words, the three staple crops that they had are now destroyed. And they’re called upon, the land is to mourn. You see, the land and the people go together. The Mosaic law was not only given to a people, it was given to a land. And the land and the people are very closely intertwined. Now, he says in verse 11, he’s speaking now to another group. He spoke to the Drunkards, he spoke to the priests. He speaks now to the farmers. Be ye ashamed, O ye farmers. Wail, O ye vinedressers. Now, those that have vineyards. For the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up. The fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree. Now, the apple tree is the orange. Oranges are indigenous to that country. Even all the trees of the field are withered because joy is withered away from the sons of man. Now, he says here, something else there to do. Gird yourself. And now something else. And lament, ye priests. Wail, ye ministers of the altar. Come lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Now, you can’t perform your function because there’s nothing that you’ve got to use for your offering. And God makes it clear it wasn’t the ritual that was important. was the hearts of these people. Now he’s doing something that he had not done before. When God gave the law, he gave to these people seven feasts a day. And he made it clear to them he didn’t want them to come before him with a long face. He said he wanted them to come to his house rejoicing and that the joy would be in their hearts. And have you noticed that in our churches and the meeting of Christians today are not generally a very joyful occasion? I’m even rebuked for telling funny stories. At least I think they’re funny. Sometimes I see a lot of saints just sit there and not even crack a smile. I wish they would. I think it’d do them good. But there’s no joy today, and there’s no joy then. Now, why is God for the first time telling his people, I want you to lament, I want you in sackcloth and ashes, I want you to mourn? Before, he didn’t want that. He told them, I want you to come before me with joy. The reason now is, it’s because of sin in the nations. And today, the reason that there’s so lack of joy, my, I tell you, the world is sure working hard today. The music has to be loud and fast. The jokes have to be dirty to even get a laugh in a nightclub today. And even in our churches, it’s almost sinful to laugh out loud. Oh, my friend, where’s our joy today? It’s gone because of sin. And God won’t let us have joy. And he’s saying to these people, come before me now with your mourning. I don’t like it, but you’re sinful. And I want to see your repentance. My, how the church finds itself in this same position today that these people were in in that particular day. And this was just the beginning. And the plague has come. It has absolutely destroyed the economy of the land. And they’re in the midst of a great famine in that land. And they are to mourn before God, go in sackcloth and ashes. God doesn’t want it. But they’re sinners now. And that’s the only way they can come to God. We’ll have to stop right there, but we’ll pick right up there next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
For more of Dr. McGee’s teaching, join me this Sunday for the Sunday sermon, When Doing Good is Wrong. You can listen on our app at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a station in your area. And remember, you can also write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here as we make our way through the Bible next time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus gave it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.
