The Real Meaning of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/joel/1.htm

This is one of those books of the Bible that you have to be really close to God to understand what is going on, or you have to heave your ears tuned to the message at hand. Because it is one of those books that tells a story, but you have no idea what the story is about and why it was written.

That said, I have no idea what the book of Joel is about. Obviously it is a story about a locust plague that pretty much stripped all of the crops of their fruits, creating a famine in Judah. But then it is followed up with a prophesy about good times to come, blessings from God.

Here’s where I am different.

If you read this book with your church experiences in mind, you have to assume God is angry with Judah because of their sins, so He sends a plague to punish them, but then later he sends His blessings. Either God changes His mind, which we know is not very likely because He is perfect, or He is very moody. I don’t believe any of it. And I know, I’ve become pretty skeptical about the authors of the Bible and their perception of God.

I know I sound like a broken record, but we know the character of Jesus; kind, loving, merciful. We know Jesus walked the same ground as the sinners, not just your every day people, but the priests, the Pharisees who were supposed to be leading the church, but were some of the biggest sinners around. And we know how the Pharisees felt about God. They were taught from the Old Testament, just like we’re taught, and they fully expected Jesus, if in fact He was the Son of God, to stone the prostitute. But He didn’t.

When Jesus found they had turned the temple into a flea market, He could have easily sent a plague of locusts down. But He didn’t. Jesus could have summoned fire from Heaven to destroy the sinners right then and there. But He didn’t.

You see, the same character we read about God in the Old Testament is the same character that Lucifer lied about to the angels in Heaven. That God was a tyrant, wrathful, and holding them back from reaching their potential. And we read the Old Testament, written by man, that basically claims the same thing, that God is wrathful and rains fire down on the sinners, like Nadab and Abihu. But we didn’t see that kind of character in Jesus, and we know God and Jesus are the same.

So when I read a book like Joel, that suggests God send a plague of locusts on Judah because of their sins, I’m sorry, I just don’t believe it. Like everything else I’ve come to believe, when the people of Judah turned their backs on God and distanced themselves from Him, they drew away from His love and protection, and suffered the consequences of their actions. Furthermore, I believe it was Satan that sent the plague, then blamed it on God. In fact, we know Satan lied to Eve because it is written, and I would venture to guess that he has been lying all along about God, even to the point that the authors of the book had misconceptions about Him.

Now God may have sent Joel as a reminder to the people that they needed to turn back from sin and repent, but again, God gives us free will. He can send us reminder after reminder after reminder, but if we still choose to sin, He allows us to do that.

That said, I did break my own rule, and while I didn’t seek interpretation of the book of Joel, I did research who he was and why he was a prophet. And of course, there is little known about him, but that didn’t stop man from assuming. They believe he was a prophet during the reign of King Joash (hence why we’re studying his book in the middle of the books of the Kings and Chronicles), and he was sent to warn the people of God’s wrath and the plagues, but telling them that if they repented of their sins, God would relinquish on his anger and bless them.

So, that is my opinion, and only my opinion on the book of Joel. It’s another story of how the children of Israel strayed from God, suffered the consequences of their actions, but our loving and merciful God jumped in and saved them, as He does us.

Praise God for His love and mercy!