Joel 1:1-12

The word of the Lord came to Joel. Joel is about to interpret a naturally occurring event in terms of God's judgement, but he does this only because "the word of the Lord came to him". Ie he did soat the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:21), not because he thought it sounded good! We need to be careful ourselves. At the time of writing the world is experiencing the "credit crunch", with potentially devastating consequences. We must not claim that this is God's judgement without proper authority to do so. Now there are things that we can and should point out as being wrong with the world's economic system (eg exploitation of the poor, dishonesty, living in unreality (ie living on credit)), but we should have been pointing out these things before the crunch came, because the basis for saying them is a straightforward understanding of the Scripture. Only God can reveal what the exact nature of the current crisis is in terms oh His judgement on the world.

Joel picks out three groups of people who will suffer. First are the drunkards, for the vineyards lie ruined. Next are the priests, for they can no longer offer proper service to God. Finally the farmers, for the crops (effectively the economy of the time) have failed.

Note the oratory and graphic language that Joel uses to bring the horror of the situation to the people. We have a habit of refusing to face up to the reality of situations as long as possible, but there is a need for us to face up to them sooner rather than later.