The MAJOR & MINOR Prophets - The 16 Writing Prophets Of The Hebrew Canon

think Joel was a priest as well as a prophet. 2 Joel was certainly a man who could hear and deliver a word from God clearly and concisely, preaching repentance without compromise. -RHO·V message recalls a neat hand the LORD played during the exodus when Moses brought the eighth plague: Locusts! So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts. The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there will never be again. They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt (Exodus 10:13-15, HCSB). The Day of the Locust

Nothing is more terrifying to an agricultural community than a swarm of locusts. Imagine the sight of a huge black cloud of insects headed for your farm! And, as the swarm draws closer, to hear the incessant, high pitched whistling sound of rushing air, combined with the dull roar of millions of beating wings. Then to exhaust yourself killing the beasts with a shovel, finally giving up

as the unending flow of the critters destroys all vegetation OHDYLQJ \RX ZHDN DQG WUHPEOLQJ«DV they move on. In 835 B.C. they knew little about locusts in comp DULVRQ ZLWK WRGD\·V sophisticated information. If you go on the Internet and type LQ ´/RFXVWVµ \RX can see and hear the locusts in action ´7KH\ HDW WKH HTXLYDOHQW RI WKHLU RZQ ZHLJKW LQ a day, and, flying at night with the wind, may cover some 500 kilometers (310 mi). The largest known swarm covered 1,036 square kilometers (400 sq PL FRPSULVLQJ DSSUR[LPDWHO\ ELOOLRQ LQVHFWV µ 3 The picture that Joel presented to Judah was clear and frightening, and the people could easily imagine the locusts portrayed in his first two chapters. The similarity between locusts and an invading army did not miss their attention! Description of the Locusts Joel gave six descriptions of an invading army, identifying them finally as a gigantic swarm of locusts; the six mentions of the army are clearly relating to the same thing: ´0\ JUHDW DUP\ ZKLFK , VHQW DPRQJ \RXµ 7KDW VDPH YHUVH FRQQHFWV ZLWK ZKHUH WKH VWDJHV RI locust are itemized. 4

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2 Because of his references to the priesthood in 1:13, 14, and 2:17. 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2/10/12, p. 3. 4 7KH SHRSOH RI WKDW GD\ WKRXJKW LQ WHUPV RI WKH ORFXVW¶V IRXU GHYHORSPHQWDO VWDJHV WRGD\ VFLHQWLVWV KDYH QRZ IRX nd that the locust has six stages of development, from newly hatched nymph to full winged adult.

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