Reflections on Joel
2:23-32
by
John G. Gibbs,
PhD
First, the context is essential
for this lectionary text. The whole section Joel 2:21-3:8 promises
that creation will be restored and the nation secured. Unfortunately
a tendency to emphasize humanity at the expense of the whole
creation appears to have influenced the lectionary's omission
of vv. 21-22, and its choice to commence the reading at v. 23.
In any case, as Joel sees it, the Lord's care for both land
and people (in that order, 2:18) begins in this instance with
attention to the creation: provision of grain, wine, and oil;
removal of the plague of locusts (described as an "army"
and a "nation"); and reassurance to the creation:
"Do not fear, O soil;
be glad and rejoice,
for the Lord has done great things!
Do not fear, you animals of the field,
for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
the fig tree and vine give their full yield."
Accordingly, we would convey Joel's message more accurately
by adding vv. 21-22 at the start of the lectionary text, and
thus reading all of Joel 2:21-32. Only after the Lord has addressed
the creation's needs does God, as Joel sees it, speak convincingly
to the people: "O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice
in the Lord your God…"
Second, we may not know for sure Joel's exact "Sitz im
Leben" (historical situation), but we do see clearly "the
rural crisis" of a plague of locusts, as James Limburg
put it, when "even the wild animals cry to you" ("O
Lord," 1:19-20). Dismayed lament arises from the people
like that which bursts forth from a virgin whose marriage had
been betrothed but not consummated due to the sudden death of
her husband. "The fields are devastated, the ground mourns;
for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails"
(1:10). That is when "joy withers away among my people"
(1:12).
Death across creation's landscape leads to sackcloth and lament
- among religious leaders, farmers, and "all the inhabitants
of the land" (1:14). [If you want to know what plague of
grasshoppers (locusts) looks like and feels like, Limburg suggests
that we consult the graphic description of a South Dakota plague,
as given by O. E. Rolvaag in his book Giants in the Earth
(NY: Harper & Row, 1927, no page cited).]
Is it necessary to spell out our present situation of planetary
peril within which the glacial water supply of future generations
is melting right before our eyes, waves of unwanted immigration
are already building (in quest of life's necessities, water
and food), plants and birds are moving northward as long-term
temperature averages rise, fish populations are imperiled…?
Further, need we elaborate on the circumstance that "there
are no guarantees" about the future of this planet, as
if it does not matter what we do on it and to it, and as if
it does not matter whether we do or do not every day afresh
"return" to the gracious and merciful Lord our God
(2:13)? (Recent denials of climate change are not persuasive
in view of abundant interdisciplinary scientific evidence.)
Third, the plague of locusts was not an accident of nature,
in Joel's view. He and his people look back on it as something
terrible, so awful that nobody had seen its like in the past,
nor would anyone see such a thing again - yet an event through
which the merciful God led both land and people to new life
and abundant harvest (2:18-27). Indeed, an Eden replaced the
wilderness that the dreaded "Day of the Lord" had
inflicted on people and place alike (2:3; 3:18). Joel's major
message is this: YHWH the Lord "is a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel" (3:16), and this
God "dwells in Zion" (3:21) among God's people and
on their land. His point is: not destruction, but deliverance.
Fourth, the ethics of God's people is rooted in their
relation to Yahweh the Lord, and embraces the world around
them. When in calamitous circumstances we collectively do not
know where to turn or what to do, that is the time for corporate
prayer, discernment, reassessment - the time to "be glad
and rejoice in the Lord your God" (2:23). In the wake of
such worship both reality and perspective are transformed:
"Then afterward
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
And your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit." (2:28-29)
This vision became the text for the Church's first sermon (Acts
2) which was preached by the Apostle Peter at Pentecost. The
Spirit poured out inclusively on all God's people is the basis
of Church growth in both spiritual depth and global scope. This
is the "Creator Spiritus" which mysteriously was "out
there" in the first stirrings of God's creation before
being "in here" among the People of God. The ethics
of God's People, "eco-justice" anywhere and everywhere,
dreams and visions of "a better world," all drink
at the springs of this Spirit.
Cf. James Limburg, Hosea - Micah in the Interpretation
Bible Commentary series (Atlanta: John Knox, 1988), pp.
55-77; The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV; augmented
3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007); The Harper Collins
Study Bible (NRSV; revised edition annotated by Harold W.
Attridge and others in the Society of Biblical Literature, HarperOne,
2006).
|
.