The book of Joel gives us two commands. The first command is the importance of listening to God. But, listening to God is not enough, the second command is God’s desire that His people tell others what they have heard.
Hear this, you leaders of the people. Listen, all who live in the land. In all your history, has anything like this happened before? Tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. Pass the story down from generation to generation.
Joel 1:2-3
The following verses in Joel chapter 1 describe the national disaster that Israel faced. A terrible plague of locusts destroyed the land. They stripped bare every growing thing. A nation-wide drought and famine hit the land. God uses Joel to call the people together for prayer and fasting.
Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring the leaders and all the people of the land into the Temple of the Lord your God and cry out to him there.
Joel 1:14
We have experienced national calamity in the past week… again. Joel is giving us a reminder that we should follow his words and cry out to God. We may not be facing the same trials as the people of Israel, but we face horrors that we cannot fathom. God hears the cries of His people. We are called to listen to God and pass on what we hear to others. God is calling Israel to turn back to Him. He is doing the same today.
Joel reminds his people that the day of the Lord is near.
The day of the Lord is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!
Joel 1:15
God is calling His people to turn back to Him. He is calling our attention every day. Through the horrible tragedies we see happen in our nation God is asking us to cry out to Him. To stop, to listen, to tell others of Jesus.
He is coming.