Devotions based on Week 2 of The Prophets: Joel (WATCH HERE)
Unprecedented.
This was the buzzword of 2020. It seemed like every other report about CoVid19 used the word “unprecedented.” The spread was unprecedented. The shutdowns were unprecedented. The economic downturn was “unprecedented.” The social distancing was “unprecedented.” The list could go on.
When something unusual happens it catches our attention. When the event has scope among many, it catches the nation and world’s attention.
The question is this, “When something unprecedented happens, how do we respond?
For the prophet Joel, the event that was unprecedented was an invasion of locusts. Here’s how the prophet begins his inspired message:
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?
… 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 have eaten. (Joel 1:2,4)
When something rare or unusual happens, it is easy to recognize as unprecedented. However, the greater challenge is to understand how to respond to it. The event catches our attention, but is it a call to change direction?
For the prophet Joel and the people of Israel, it was. God desired the natural disaster of a swarm of locust to catch the attention of the people of Israel. They were in a state of spiritual apathy and drift. Their lives were comfortable in their material belongings and routines of life and commerce. Spiritually they were asleep.
So God uses the “unprecedented” swarm of locusts to wake them up.
The drunkards: Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips. (Joel 1:5)
The priests: The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the Lord. (Joel 1:9)
The farmers: Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; (Joel 1:11)
When life is altered by natural disasters, personal catastrophes, or national events, it is worth taking a moment to reflect and ask, “For what reason is God getting my attention.”
We may wonder “why?” it might take an “unprecedented” or large impact event, but perhaps these wake up calls were insightful.
Drunkards depended on wine to get drunk. The locusts destroyed the vineyards and wine couldn’t be produced. Is there a reason for a drunkard to pause and wonder why the wine has been snatched from his lips?
Priests, who minister before the Lord, were absent of grain and drink offerings because all the grain was eaten. Is there a reason for a priest to pause and reflect on why God might allow the grain to be destroyed?
The farmers who watched their crops methodically be eaten by the swarms of locust and the next year of seed destroyed, is there a reason for God to call them to pause and reflect in despair over what was happening?
Yes. Yes there is.
In time of disaster, there is only one way to turn: Away from the comforts of life, the empty rituals of religion and the dependence on profession and profit and back to the LORD.
For when the heart drifts from the Lord, the Lord allows the unprecedented to draw those same hearts back to himself.
Apply: As a country, we have experienced some horrific events in this past week (senseless train stabbing, school shooting, Charlie Kirk assassination and the remembrance of terror attacks in 2001. Take time to reflect today and ask, “For what reason is God getting my attention?”
Prayer: Lord, we don’t like the uncomfortable nature of personal and national calamities. However, knowing your heart of love and mercy, you are using them to call us back to you. Show me the way back to you. AMEN.