An Invasion of Locusts
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joel 1:3
Tell ye your... Fifty Commands in Joel
1. Hear this, you old men (Joel 1:2).
2. Give ear, all you inhabitants.
3. Tell your children (Joel 1:3).
4. Let your children tell their children.
5. Awake, you drunkards (Joel 1:5).
6. Weep and howl, you drinkers of wine.
7. Lament like a virgin in sackcloth for the husband of her youth (Joel 1:8).
8. Be ashamed, you husbandmen (Joel 1:11).
9. Howl, you vinedressers
10. Gird yourselves and lament, you priests (Joel 1:12).
11. Howl, you ministers of the altar.
12. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of God (Joel 1:13).
13. Sanctify a fast (Joel 1:14).
14. Call a solemn assembly.
15. Gather the elders and all inhabitants to the house of the Lord.
16. Cry unto the Lord.
17. Blow you the trumpet in Zion (Joel 2:1).
18. Sound an alarm in My holy mountain.
19. Let the inhabitants of the land tremble.
20. Turn you to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning (Joel 2:12).
21. Rend your heart, and not your garments (Joel 2:13).
22. Turn unto the Lord your God.
23. Blow the trumpet in Zion (Joel 2:15).
24. Sanctify a fast.
25. Call a solemn assembly.
26. Gather the people (Joel 2:16).
27. Sanctify the congregation.
28. Assemble the elders.
29. Gather the children and babies.
30. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
31. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar (Joel 2:17).
32. Let them say, Spare Your people, O Lord, and give not Your inheritance to reproach.
33. Fear not, O land (Joel 2:21).
34. Be glad and rejoice.
35. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field (Joel 2:22).
36. Be glad, you children of Zion (Joel 2:23).
37. Rejoice in the Lord your God.
38. Proclaim this among the Gentiles.
39. Prepare war (Joel 3:9).
40. Wake up the mighty men.
41. Let all the men of war draw near.
42. Let them come up.
43. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears (Joel 3:10).
44. Let the weak say, I am strong.
45. Assemble yourselves and come, all you heathen (Joel 3:11).
46. Gather yourselves together round about.
47. Cause your mighty ones to come.
48. Let the heathen be wakened, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:12).
49. Put you in the sickle (Joel 3:13).
50. come, get you down.
Another generation the pedagogical importance of reciting the Lord’s mighty acts to subsequent generations is heavily underscored by the 3-fold injunction (Exo. 10:1-6; Deut. 4:9; 6:6-7; 11:19; 32:7; Psm. 78:5-7; 145:4-7; Pro. 4:1).
Many Scriptures in the Bible have a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment, and that is the case here. Whatever the message is, it is not an old story being told again, but is something they have never experienced before.
Again, The elders were civil leaders who played a prominent part in the governmental and judicial systems (cf. 1Sam. 30:26-31; 2Sam. 19:11-15; 2Ki. 23:1; Pro. 31:23; Jer. 26:17; Lam. 5:12, 5:14).
The rhetorical question in Joel 1:2 anticipates an emphatic negative response. Nothing in the experience of Joel’s generation or that of their ancestors was able to match the magnitude of this recent locust plague. The unique event would be spoken of throughout coming generations (your children… their children, and the next generation).
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