Reading Joel

Joel is an extremely important prophetic book because of its subject matter; the day of the Lord. The book is really the first to develop and describe the events regarding this day.

Again, this is an amazing example of God's power. Judah had recently been hit with tragedy in the form of a locust plague. They were still reeling at the time Joel wrote this book, and he used that purposefully. Clearly, God had a use for the horrible situation that Judah was mired in. He used it as a message for the bigger picture; the day of judgement. 

And while the description of this horrible day was vivid, especially with the locust plague still fresh in the reader's mind at that time, the message wasn't all downcast. There was also a message of hope, of a call to repentance. 

So how do we bridge the gap and apply this to our lives today? In this case, fairly simply. The message of the day of judgement still applies, as does the message of hope and repentance. The only difference is the connection that we make with tragedy in today's times. Locust plagues aren't as relevant today, but our world is still crippled by other horrible abominations. Open up a newspaper, take a look at your Facebook page, turn on the TV. Constantly, we are hit by horrible sinful acts, destructive nature events, and internal warfare. This book applies directly to us today, whether we like it or not.

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