Where it fits

Joel is the 29th book of the Bible, with three chapters (four in the Hebrew Bible). We know nothing about Joel beyond his father's name, Pethuel (1:1), and the book names no king to date it by. Scholars suggest dates from the 800s BC to after the exile in the 400s or 300s BC. The book is set in Judah and Jerusalem, and the temple matters to it. Read straight through, it takes about ten minutes.

The prophet and his message

The book begins with a disaster. A swarm of locusts has stripped the land, followed by drought: fields ruined, vines and fig trees bare, grain offerings no longer possible (1:4–12). Joel calls everyone, from elders to children, to wail, fast, and gather at the temple (1:13–14), because this plague is a sign. The day of the LORD is near (1:15). In chapter 2, an invading army, described like locusts, sweeps over the land, and the hills shake (2:1–11). Scholars debate whether the locusts of chapter 2 are literal insects, a human army pictured as locusts, or both.

Then comes the turning point. God says, even now, turn to me with all your heart. Joel tells the people to tear their hearts and not their garments, because God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love, and may relent (2:12–14). The people gather, and God answers. He promises to restore the years the locusts have eaten (2:25) and to bring rain and plenty. Then he promises more: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” on sons and daughters, old and young, even servants (2:28–29), with wonders in the sky before the day of the LORD, and everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved (2:30–32). Chapter 3 turns to judgment on the nations that have mistreated God's people, with an image of a valley of decision (3:14), and ends with God dwelling in Zion and a land flowing with blessing (3:17–21).

Three ideas to hold on to

1. Disaster can be a wake-up call. Joel treats the plague as a warning to be met with repentance, not just survival.
2. God is ready to relent. Joel quotes God's own description: gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness (2:13).
3. God will pour out his Spirit on all kinds of people. Joel promises the Spirit to sons and daughters, old and young, and even servants (2:28–29), without distinction.

Passages people ask about

• Joel 1:1–12. The plague described.
• Joel 2:1–11. The day of the LORD, pictured as an army.
• Joel 2:12–17. A call to return with the heart and not just the clothes.
• Joel 2:18–27. God's answer: restoration, including the lost years.
• Joel 2:28–32. The promise of the Spirit, quoted by Peter at Pentecost.
• Joel 3. Judgment on the nations. The language is vivid and sometimes hard, including a reversal of Isaiah's picture: “Beat your plowshares into swords” (3:10; compare Isaiah 2:4).

How it points to Jesus

On the day of Pentecost, when the believers began speaking in other languages and some said they were drunk, Peter stood up and said that this was what was spoken through the prophet Joel, and quoted Joel 2:28–32 (Acts 2:14–21). He ended with Joel's promise that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, which Paul later applies to Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:13). Christians read the pouring out of the Spirit on all God's people as the beginning of the “last days” opened by Jesus' resurrection, while the final day of the Lord is still ahead.

A common misunderstanding

The “day of the LORD” is often read as only a future event, an end-of-the-world day of doom. In Joel it is both. It is a present disaster that he treats as a foretaste, and a coming day of final judgment and rescue. The call to return to God isn't only for the end of time. It is for now. Christians also differ on how much of Joel's promise was fulfilled at Pentecost and how much is still to come, but Peter's “this is that” shows they weren't expected to wait.