Joel 1-3

[wolfpurplemoon]

Seems that Joel is yet another prophet who God promised lots of terrible things to, this time the biggest swarm of locusts that anyone has ever or will ever seen, doesn't it get boring for everyone after a while?

Everyone will have prophetic dreams when God's spirit is poured on them and the sun turns to darkness and the moon the colour of blood, y'know like during an eclipse.

Comments

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

Joel was a prophet in Judah (the Southern Kingdom) most likely around 830BC. There is no precise dating information in the book. Joel would be the earliest prophet with existing writings.

Joel describes an invasion of locusts that wipe out all of the produce in Judah. This is most likely a reference to an invading army. The locusts may also have multiple purposes. While there may have been a locust plague at the time, the context suggests a bigger threat (Locusts would hardly rate a prophet's writings).
Joel petitions the priests and leaders to gather together, fast (signifying a repentance of sins) and return to their duties. Joel calls the people drunken, refers to the cattle wandering aimlessly (a reference to ranchers not doing their job, but also to the leaders not being good leaders).

Note that Joel made this prophecy, and indeed, the subsequent kings made attempts to follow the covenant, and prosperity did indeed return to Judah.

Joel 2 is apocalyptic prophecy. The large army is the largest ever gathered and it is unstoppable. Note that this is the God's army (verse 11). In the face of this army, people are called to return to God, and this army will be averted. Verses 12-27 again reflect the current time that Joel is living and how the people can return to God and gain blessings. The remainder of chapter 2 (verses 28-32) are again apocalyptic. They relate to signs of the end when God, will come for final judgment.

Chapter three begins with God's judgment of the world. The whole world will gather for war, and then the judgment will come. After that, blessings will flow for those who are faithful.

The Old Testament doesn't show the prophets in order, and the prophets cover the time line from 931BC to about 433 BC. Each prophet has messages for different generations, different rulers, etc. So it wouldn't necessarily get "boring" at the time the prophets lived. Only when reading through 500 years of history in a few months does it seem repetitive. There are Bibles that present the scriptures in a chronological fashion, with sections of different books intertwined together. Those give one a better concept of what is happening at the time the prophets wrote and tend to not be repetitive or boring at all, but because the classical presentation lumps all of the prophets together, in a non-chronological order, the prophecies can seem repetitive to us.