Questions on Joel
1. Who is Joel's audience? Answer
2. How bad will be the punishments discussed by Joel? Answer
3. What is one of the punishments to come upon humanity? Answer
4. Why does Joel 1:4 reference locusts so much? Answer
5. How should humans respond to the punishments they receive from God? Answer
6. What will happen when locusts are allowed to swarm over the land? Answer
7. How should God's people, according to Joel, be warned about the coming Day of the Lord? Answer
8. What is Zion? Answer
9. What exactly is the Day of the Lord? Answer
10. How does understanding what the Day of the Lord means help us understand Revelation 1:10? Answer
11. What unique and rarely discussed location on earth is mentioned in Joel 2? Answer
12. What could cause the sun and the moon to appear dark (Joel 2:10)? Answer
13. What is Joel 2:11 referencing? Answer
14. What is God's attitude toward those who heed his warnings and repent? Answer
15. What famous New Testament event is linked to Joel 2:28 - 32? Answer
16. What does the phrase, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood" (Joel 2:31) mean? Answer
17. Where is the valley of Jehosphaphat (Jehoshaphat) and who is it named after? Answer
18. What is casting lots (Joel 3:3)? Answer
19. What is Joel 3:4 - 6 referencing? Answer
Answers on Joel
1. Although Joel wrote to the people of Judah living in his day (Joel 1:2), his real audience are those living in the end time just before and during the Day of the Lord. Joel uses the phrase "day of the Lord" five different times (1:15, 2:1, 11, 31 and 3:14). The only Biblical book to use it more is Zephaniah which records it seven times.
2. The punishments and trials Joel predicts will be the greatest in human history (Joel 1:2, see also 2:2 and Matthew 24:21).
3. One of the punishments allowed to come upon humans, in the near future, are locusts. God warned humanity, at the time of Moses, that this would be one of the penalties he would inflict on those who hardened their hearts and refused to repent of breaking his laws and commandments (Deuteronomy 28:38).
[Are the Commandments No Longer Valid?]
4. There are differing opinions as to why the author used such details about locusts especially in Joel 2:4. Joel may be just referring to locusts in a variety of ways to underscore the devastation they will bring.
[Animals and Insects in the Bible!]
[Does God Approve of Eating Locusts?]
Another interpretation on Joel 1:4, however, states that the author may be referencing the four stages in the life of a locust. They are the gnawing phase (after they emerge from their egg), the swarming phase (near the end of spring), the licking phase (when they can leap but not yet fly) and the consuming phase (when they are mature and can fly).
5. Humans, when being chastised by God, are called to fast and humble themselves before their Creator (Joel 1:13 - 14).
6. Locusts can quickly damage crops and strip fields of their vegetation. They will kill vines and trees (Joel 1:7) and crops in the field (verses 4, 10 - 12). Their destruction will lead to cattle and sheep unable to find food to eat (verses 18 - 19). There will also be a drought where animals will be unable to access water (verse 20) and the lack of food will lead to famine conditions.
[The Greatest Famines in the Bible]
[What Is the Famine of the Word?]
7. The loud blowing of a ram's horn (trumpet) should be the alarm of the coming trials (Joel 2:1).
[Musical Instruments in the Bible!]
8. Zion, in Joel, is used to symbolize Jerusalem's temple, the "holy mountain" where God's presence existed (Joel 2:1).
[Interior Design of Jerusalem's Temple]
9. The Day of the Lord (Joel 1:15, 2:1, 11, 31 and 3:14), which has many events leading up to it, represents God's wrath on those who worship the end time Beast power and refuse to repent.
It will be a time of unparelled trials, pain, suffering and death the world has, or ever will, experience (see Matthew 24:21 - 22). This prophetic day begins when the seventh seal is opened in heaven (Revelation 8:1).
10. The apostle John stated, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day . . ." (Revelation 1:10). The Lord's day, or day of the Lord, symbolically represents the period of time God will mightily intervene, in the near future, to accomplish his prophetic will (Joel 1:15, etc.). This means John is not referencing a particular day of the week (e.g. Sunday). It is therefore an error to use Revelation 1:10 to justify worshipping God on the first day of the week instead of the seventh.
[Why Observe the Biblical Sabbath?]
11. The Biblically unique place written about by Joel is the Garden of Eden (Joel 2:3). The only other Old Testament references to this garden, outside of Genesis, is Isaiah 51:3 and Ezekiel 28:13, 31:9 and 36:5.
12. The hoards of locusts, previously mentioned by Joel, will come in such numbers that they will make it difficult to see the sun or moon.
13. Joel 2:11 is referencing the return of Jesus Christ to earth, with spiritual armies composed of righteous angels and resurrected saints, to take control of the earth away from the devil and those he deceived (Revelation 19:11 - 14).
[What is Jesus' Second Coming?]
[Who is in the First Resurrection?]
14. Those who repent can expect a God who will be gracious, merciful, patient and full of loving kindness (Joel 2:13). He will then bless the people with abundance (verse 19).
15. Joel 2:28 - 32 is quoted and partly summarized by the Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16 - 21). He quoted the prophet in response to those who thought the manifestation of God's spirit in the 120 people gathered in Jerusalem was caused by drunkeness.
[Timeline of Peter's Life and Ministry]
[Meaning of the Day of Pentecost]
16. Joel 2:31 is a symbolic way of referencing that one of the signs that the Day of the Lord is approaching is death and destruction on a massive scale.
17. The valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2) is named after Judah's King Jehoshaphat, a mostly good ruler who reigned from 872 to 848 B.C. Joel also calls it the "the valley of decision" (verse 14). Both refer to the Kidron Valley which lies to the east of the old city of David within Jerusalem.
[Where is the Kidron Valley Located?]
18. The tradition of casting lots is an ancient Biblical practice. Aaron, Israel's first High Priest at the time of Moses, was commanded to cast lots to determine how two goats would be used on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26).
[What Are the Urim and Thummim?]
Lots were cast in order to appeal to God to render an impartial decision. The "lot" itself may have been made out of wood or stone with writing on them.
19. Joel 3:4 - 6 is referencing how some of ancient Israel's enemies such as Tyre, Sidon and the Philistines treated them. Jews were known to be sold by Tyre and Sidon (Phoenicians), in their slave trade, to the Greeks.