Weekly Devotion no 30
23 October 2020
Bible reading – Joel 1:1-12[1]
The word of the Lord came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 Elders, listen to me.
Pay attention, all you who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life?
Did it ever happen to your people
who lived long ago?
3 Tell your children about it.
Let them tell their children.
And let their children tell it
to those who live after them.
4 The giant locusts have eaten
what the common locusts have left.
The young locusts have eaten
what the giant locusts have left.
And other locusts have eaten
what the young locusts have left.
5 Get up and weep, you people who drink too much!
Cry, all you who drink wine!
Cry because the fresh wine
has been taken away from you.
6 The locusts are like a mighty army
that has marched into our land.
There are so many of them
they can’t even be counted.
Their teeth are as sharp as a lion’s teeth.
They are like the fangs of a female lion.
7 The locusts have completely destroyed our vines.
They have wiped out our fig trees.
They’ve stripped off the bark and thrown it away.
They’ve left the branches bare.
8 My people, mourn like a virgin
who is dressed in the clothes of sadness.
She is sad because she has lost
the young man she was going to marry.
9 No one brings grain offerings and drink offerings
to the Lord’s house anymore.
So the priests who serve the Lord
are filled with sorrow.
10 Our fields are wiped out.
The ground is dried up.
The grain is destroyed.
The fresh wine is gone.
And there isn’t any more olive oil.
11 Farmers, be sad.
Cry, you who grow vines.
Mourn because the wheat and barley are gone.
The crops in the fields are destroyed.
12 The vines and fig trees are dried up.
The pomegranate, palm and apple trees
don’t have any fruit on them.
In fact, all the trees in the fields are dried up.
And my people’s joy has faded away.
Pay attention, all you who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life?
Did it ever happen to your people
who lived long ago?
3 Tell your children about it.
Let them tell their children.
And let their children tell it
to those who live after them.
4 The giant locusts have eaten
what the common locusts have left.
The young locusts have eaten
what the giant locusts have left.
And other locusts have eaten
what the young locusts have left.
Cry, all you who drink wine!
Cry because the fresh wine
has been taken away from you.
6 The locusts are like a mighty army
that has marched into our land.
There are so many of them
they can’t even be counted.
Their teeth are as sharp as a lion’s teeth.
They are like the fangs of a female lion.
7 The locusts have completely destroyed our vines.
They have wiped out our fig trees.
They’ve stripped off the bark and thrown it away.
They’ve left the branches bare.
who is dressed in the clothes of sadness.
She is sad because she has lost
the young man she was going to marry.
9 No one brings grain offerings and drink offerings
to the Lord’s house anymore.
So the priests who serve the Lord
are filled with sorrow.
10 Our fields are wiped out.
The ground is dried up.
The grain is destroyed.
The fresh wine is gone.
And there isn’t any more olive oil.
Cry, you who grow vines.
Mourn because the wheat and barley are gone.
The crops in the fields are destroyed.
12 The vines and fig trees are dried up.
The pomegranate, palm and apple trees
don’t have any fruit on them.
In fact, all the trees in the fields are dried up.
And my people’s joy has faded away.
[1] Scriptures
taken from The Holy Bible , New International Reader’s Version copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014
by Biblica,
Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights
reserved worldwide.
Reflection
This week we are starting a new series as we look at the writings of the prophet Joel. As we consider this prophetic poetry, we will be reminded of God’s sovereignty: of God’s judgement, but also of his immense mercy and compassion. And we will see the hope we can have through trusting in God.
The word of God came to Joel in the heat of an emergency. The first thing he did was to appeal to the mature members of his community, calling on their experience. This was valued, as was the entreaty for them to tell their children about this event, to pass it down the generations so that all could learn from it. The experience of the past matters as it helps warn us for the future and hopefully change our behaviours. It’s why we have days like Remembrance Sunday and Anzac Day, to remind us of the horrors of war and so that we never take for granted our freedom. There will be many experiences in your lives that you have passed on to your children and grand-children to help them in their lives today.
The thing that was happening in Joel’s time was the invasion of successive massive swarms of locusts. For those of you who have lived on the land, you will know how devastating this would be. All the crops were completely destroyed, therefore the source of food for the people was eliminated, and the livelihood of the farmers decimated.
The whole nation therefore came to lament and to mourn. They mourned for what they had lost: their food, their livelihoods, and their ability to provide sacrifices to their God. We know a bit of what that must have felt like. We currently mourn for what we have lost during this pandemic: our connections with others, our ability to meet together to worship our God. Our joy has maybe faded away like the people in Joel’s time. But it is okay for us to mourn and to be sad, to lament and to reflect. And we cry out to God ‘how long?’.
And we shall see in coming weeks as we go through this prophecy, that God is with us as we lament and that he will show us mercy and grace, as he showed his people in Joel’s time. Our God is a gracious god and he is constant even through our times of distress and uncertainty, and even when we turn away from him or displease him.
Hymn
Verse 1
Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Forgive our foolish ways
Reclothe us in our rightful mind
In purer lives Thy service find
In deeper reverence praise
In deeper reverence praise
Verse 2
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord
Let us like them without a word
Rise up and follow Thee
Rise up and follow Thee
Verse 3
O Sabbath rest by Galilee
O calm of hills above
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love
Interpreted by love
Verse 4
With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down
As fell Thy manna down
Verse 5
Drop Thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace
The beauty of Thy peace
Verse 6
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm
Let sense be dumb let flesh retire
Speak through the earthquake wind and fire
O still small voice of calm
O still small voice of calm
Prayer
O God,
who alone can probe
the depths of the heart,
you hear the prayer
of the humble
and justify the
repentant sinner:
grant us the gift of humility,
that, seeing our own
faults clearly,
we may refrain from
judging our neighbour
but rely solely upon
your saving grace.
We make our prayer
through your Son, our Saviour,
who lives and reigns
with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and
ever. Amen.
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