Joel: Only 3 Chapters, But Still So Problematic, Transcript

Joel: Only 3 Chapters, But Still So Problematic | Secular Bible Study (Episode 29)

Transcript:

Welcome to Mind Shift. I'm Brandon. Today's episode is the 29th of my secular Bible study series, in which we are looking at Joel. What a crazy, weird little book this is. It is only three chapters. You would think there's not that much to say, but I think there is. We're going to do today's episode a little differently. I'm going to cover some of the details like authorship, date, historical accuracy and context, literary analysis, main themes, reception, and influence first, and then we're going to walk our way back through an outline and cover that book overview of what happens in these three chapters. While doing so, we will cover the litany of problematic passages that show up in this book, which gets us to point 7. So starting right off the bat, let's move straight into point two, which is authorship and date.

Traditional authorship of Joel is attributed to Joel the Prophet. However, we don't know that much about this individual, and we also have problems with the dating. Now, this book is only three chapters; in some cases, it's four, but it's the same amount of words. Even within this relatively quick piece, we see different styles, different themes, different theological views, etc. There's a scholarly idea that this was composed and put together at a later time, had some redactions or edits, and we see this with a lot of these Old Testament books. So who knows? It doesn't necessarily matter all that much, but there is a question mark there.

In terms of the date, most likely because it lines up with some of the concepts and ideas that were happening in books like Jeremiah or even Ezra and Nehemiah, we can see this as somewhere around that time period. However, scholars again have put this anywhere from the 9th century BCE all the way down to the 4th century BCE. Historical context and accuracy and background for point 3 are going to be very limited. There's just not that much information here, and the information we do have, since this is a prophetic book, is hard to pinpoint. Is he talking about right now? Is he talking about the next hundred years? Is he talking about the apocalypse? Once again, scholars cannot agree on exactly what the overall message is supposed to be for some of these passages: how literal, how metaphorical, how symbolic. If it is a prophecy, if it is in the future, how far in the future, and was this written after the fact and looking back and calling it prophecy, or is it just someone guessing at future events yet to come in an undetermined manner and time frame? So we don't know. You can see why I'm going so quickly through all these because, in a short book like this, there's not that much to say, and then we can just focus on the book overview.

Stay with me here. Point four is literary analysis, which, for a book that only has three or four chapters, I think is really interesting. We have a lot of prophetic vision, a lot of poetry, and a ton of symbolism—like, lots. I'm excited to show some of that to you. In terms of techniques, the number one thing that is used is this poetic parallelism. Let me give you an example. In Chapter 2, verse 13, we get this concept of "Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster." Again, that parallel structure just enhances the emotion, and I would say that's the main technique that is used throughout this book.

Moving straight into point five, main themes, I would give you three. Number one is going to be repentance. This is the name of the game when you're a prophet in Old School Israel. You are warning the people: this is happening, or this thing will happen, and it's bad, so repent. The interesting thing about Joel is his warnings are not as specific as past prophets we've covered, who have dealt with, "Hey, this is a priest issue; you guys are really screwing up," or "Hey, we have an issue worshiping false idols," or "We have an issue with morality, and there's too much drunkenness and sex, etc." This is just, "You guys do better, repent, hurry, it's getting bad, it's going to get worse." But still, it is definitely a main theme.

The second one that I would give to you is the day of the Lord. This is a sentence that is repeated not just in this book but in many of these prophetic books. The day of the Lord is this eschatological vision, and there's much conversation about what this really means. Is this truly apocalyptic? Is this the end of days? Is this just a new earthly time period for the people of Israel? But again, the day of the Lord is this pro and con: he's coming to take revenge, to inflict his wrath, but also to save those who will call out his name. This book specifically says any who call on his name will be saved. Again, many people have related that to salvation and looked at some of the New Testament about just believing in the name of Jesus for salvation. Here, it seems to be saved from God's wrath in general, like a physical earthly destruction. But again, there's lots of that weird kind of murky ground between what is literal, what is metaphorical and symbolic, and if it is metaphorical and symbolic, to what degree.

The third and final theme that I would give you is God's sovereignty. We see explicit examples of this even within the animals, and I'll give you some of those verses as we get through problematic passages. But this idea of God's way or the highway—he's going to do whatever he wants. I think there's even a verse in here where Joel is warning everyone, you know, and telling them, "Hey, fast, pray, do this and that, do anything you can, and maybe God will hear us, maybe he won't, or maybe he'll take action, or he won't." However it's described, it's still this idea that we can only do so much, and then God's still going to do whatever he wants to do anyway. So God's sovereignty, which some people see as beautiful, and I think it is just horrific, but I digress.

Then the last point, and we'll get into points one and seven simultaneously here in a second, would be point six, which is reception and influence. This short little book doesn't go very far in that regard. Some of you have probably heard of a passage that I will read to you. This is 2:28: "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." Christians especially have taken this verse to point to the New Testament. In fact, this is quoted in Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2, I believe, in Pentecost as, "Hey, look, this is happening." Again, there's no reason to believe that this was meant for that kind of a future event and that it wasn't Joel saying, "Hey, this day is coming, and we're going to start having these visions and dreams." I mean, after all, these prophets right now are having visions and dreams. Think about Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, right? Like, this is not something that would have been obviously this future thing that would be covered when Jesus comes and the New Testament and a new covenant that was just mapped back on after the fact. But that is the main reception and influence that has trickled down. There are some cultural references and songs, and I think in the poem by T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men," we get some of the exact same lines from Joel, some of the poetry. But other than that, this is not a book that is widely used in devotionals or sermons or anything like that. If it is, it's just grouped in as an example of Israel's waywardness and that they have to repent and that God is just, and if you seek his face, he will come back for you. It's always told in this pretty version, but we're going to get into the book overview, point one, and as we go through it, point seven, problematic passages, and let's see just how unpretty this really is.

Again, three chapters in my version, four in others. We'll just go through these, and I'll read you the verses that I have picked out to cover. So chapter one is mainly this concept of an infestation of locusts that leads to a famine. Again, discrepancies on if this is a real event or a symbolic warning from Joel. It seems to be in his writing that this would be real. We just don't have other books that are attesting to this or any archaeological dating or history that would help us understand if this indeed did happen. But supposedly, on the land, whether it's metaphorical or literal, we have an immense, insane locust problem, and it's causing a devastating famine. Joel is seeing this as a judgment from God. That's the first half of chapter 1. The second half is then, of course, the call to repentance.

The funny thing about Joel, and it's something that I got stuck in my head a while ago, and so I'm maybe working under this incorrect bias, but it always seemed to me like Joel, who was definitely a Bible nerd, if you could call it a Bible nerd—I mean, he references so many other scriptures in this book. He's talking from at least five or six other books, including all the way back to Exodus. So it seems like this guy who has read a bunch of other prophets, who has seen this cycle of disaster and repentance and forgiveness over and over and over, at least in what he has read, and now it's his turn. So maybe he's making up this thing about the locusts as an example. Maybe there was this tiny infestation, and he blew it out of proportion so he could hop on the bandwagon, or maybe it really did happen to this degree, and he's now getting his turn. But there seems to be this almost—and again, it's totally my perception; this is a sidetrack from a secular, objective part of the Bible study—and it seems like his eagerness to just fill the role of a prophet. He's not quite as bold as a Daniel or an Ezekiel. He's not calling out any specific sins by the people. It's just this overall message of repentance. His apocalyptic visions seem to be not quite as detailed but also too far-fetched, and I'll show you some of that. So again, I just have it in my head that Joel has just got done reading all these other prophets, looks out his window, sees a couple of bugs, and is like, "Okay, here's mine." That's totally unfair, and I'm not saying that this is what happened. That's the sense that I get as I read it. Regardless, I think it shows a different kind of style and the repetitiveness and redundancy that happens as we go through all of these different prophets. Just a little side tangent, please ignore.

But there are two verses in chapter one I wanted to call out. First, we have 1:8: "Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth." Once again, these writers for God are obsessed with sex, being a virgin, having your virginity taken from you, the innocence of a young woman being ruined, Israel being like a virgin but then giving herself away and defiling herself with other nations or other idols, etc. So, of course, even in a three-chapter book, within the first eight verses, we have to hear about this kind of thing. Then something I thought was interesting here in Joel is 1:18. So this is in the call to repentance part. We get him talking about how bad the locusts have been and the famine that followed, and so he says, "How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer." It's one of the very few times that I can recall in the Bible where animal suffering is mentioned at all. I think animal suffering is a huge problem in general for this particular God, this all-knowing, perfect God that created everything, that only allows the necessary evil required, supposedly as an apologetic defense for our free will, so that we could choose him and not be robots. The first time that I ever really heard this was from Cosmic Skeptic or Alex O'Connor bringing this up, and I think it's just an excellent point. The fact that there are other sentient beings of some capacity that can suffer, and we know this to be a fact, are used in God's games of jealousy with his people as collateral damage, I think is indefensible. I know many Christians could care less. We're given dominion over the animals. How dare you care about a few sheep that are starving when there's all this other calamity in the world, and it's brought on by the devil, not by God? So it just becomes a lost cause. But it is pointed out here, and it's something that stands out to me as a big issue in Christianity.

All right, let's move on to chapter 2. We have the day of the Lord. This is where that huge overarching theme comes in, and this is where the tone changes. We had what looked like a literal event. We have this famine from this plague, and then we have a call to repentance. This is pretty par for the course. Then bam, apocalyptic ideas: "Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like blackness, there is spread upon the mountain a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them." So it's confusing, right? It's right after the locusts, and he has referenced the locusts, by the way, as an army. A lot of symbolism of God sending an army, but it's the locusts that's clear in chapter 1. So as we get this second greater army, is it like another one of locusts? Is it some Armageddon army of angels? Is it one of the nations around them that is going to conquer them and destroy them, and we're just getting kind of this exaggerated imagery? It's unclear exactly what this second army or invasion is alluding to. Is it just a warning of what will happen if Israel does not repent, or is it a prophecy of what will happen regardless? It's very unclear. Long story short, these warriors, these horses, this infestation, this army, this Armageddon, whatever it's alluding to, is going to be horrific. If you thought the locusts were bad, you haven't seen anything yet. In fact, there's some verse in here that compares the locusts to gnats compared to this second army, this next invasion.

The second part of chapter 2, or the middle part of chapter 2, is this return to the Lord. So once again, we get this call to repentance. I've given you what you should be afraid of. I've made it as scary as I can possibly think to, and now I'm going to call you back. That's the next one I want to read to you, verse 12: "Yet even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." I wanted to point this verse out because I think it's so crazy to me as we continue to have the discussions we have on other parts of the channel and to go through these books that we're going through and to see all of the excuses from the Christians, etc. This God, even when he's ready to offer forgiveness and grace, it is usually only after he has enacted his wrath. Almost never does this God stop himself. Sometimes he gets bargained with by a powerful enough prophet, and then something still horrible happens, like, "All right, I'll let Lot and his family get out, but I'm still going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah," or "Okay, I'll save Noah and his family, but I'm still going to genocide the rest of the world," right? Like, he always has to get out his wrath, and then if you do the right things, if you return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and mourning, then I will turn my face back to you. Like, what a disgusting abuser. It's absolutely sickening to me. In the very same sentence, in verse 13, we get, "For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love." Now, I've already covered this in such great detail in my last two videos on the concept of God being all-loving or the concept of God commanding us to love him. Both are highly, highly problematic, and verses like this are so hilarious. It's like, out of pure fear, someone just wrote something that sounded pretty about this God to try to appease him because it does not match the reality of it at all.

There's a third section to chapter 2, which is called "The Lord Has Pity," and the first verse of that: "Then the Lord became jealous for his land again and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, 'Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.'" Okay, so we got his wrath out of the way. We now have his forgiveness, and this is where things get weird again in the tonal change because I want to read to you here from verses 25 and 26: "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you." I think it's unbelievable that God still brags about his overflowing grace, "who has dealt wonderfully with you." Do you know how many innocent people and creatures would have died during a famine that was as big and described as what this locust invasion was in chapter 1? That's God dealing wonderfully with you? That's his steadfast love? But here's my point, stick with me here. So the end of 26 and then the next couple: "And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else, and my people shall never again be put to shame." It is said twice. Now, this seems to be after a very specific actual event of God forgiving them, filling up their grain and their wine again, and bringing this. So we're not quite back to that apocalyptic vision of the future. It seems like God got his wrath out with the insects. There was a warning of a second greater army, but the people repented. God said, "Okay, I'm giving you mercy. Look at how I'm dealing with you. I'll never have you be in this shame again." Now, I don't know how familiar all of you are with the history of Israel from whatever time period this was written, but this has not been true for them. What it really seems to me is Joel got himself in a little bit of hot water, and he exaggerated too much. When he tried to show the mercy of the Lord, he spoke too much for this God, and it's not something that reality kept up with. But to be fair, then we do get future talk in the next chapter. This is that 28 and 29 where it says, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh." So this is what's so funny. We have this link to, again, the sermon of Peter in Acts chapter 2, that this is fulfilled prophecy when Pentecost happened. But if that's the case, and that happened after God saying, "My people shall never again be put to shame," you know what happened after Acts chapter 2? Just as one example, the Holocaust. I'm not trying to minimize any of the suffering of the Jewish people. They don't deserve this at all. I'm just saying that this isn't consistent. Even the Hamas attack on Israel would negate what was just said. So you just can't have this both ways. Christians can't map this on as fulfilled prophecy in Acts chapter 2 and then be like, "Well, you know, the stuff about Israel never being shamed again and being protected by all the nations, that's futuristic. That will come at the end of days." No, you just can't have all of these things coincide at the same time.

There's another verse here before we get into chapter 3, and then we'll wrap up. Verse 29: "Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit." Now, I looked up the Hebrew word here for servant, and my bad pronunciation of it would be "ha'abad." This word is used three other times in the Bible, specifically in Exodus and Jeremiah and here in Joel. In Exodus, it seems very clear that the word is referencing "slave," but of course, we get the translation of "servant" in this ESV. Even if it is just "servant," we still have an acknowledgment that the male and female slaves or servants are a tier less and that typically God viewed them as less and would have withheld from them, but his grace is going to be so great during whatever day this happens that even they will be having visions. I just love any time that God admits to his own messed-up view of master, servant, and slave.

But okay, let's do chapter 3, then. The Lord judges the nations with a glorious future for Judah. Let me read you a couple of verses here that I think are problematic. Verse 4: "What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken." Now, I'm not an expert, but I think this is pretty clear. God is taking revenge on real cities that have done harm to his people, and he's going to take their sons and daughters and have his chosen people take them into slavery and then even continue to sell them further away. If I'm wrong about understanding what this is saying, please specifically address it with me in the comments and let me know what the correct context for this is, because I don't see anything else except a nasty God who only cares about his chosen people group, checked out Gentiles, made them just to hate them, and has a punishment in store for these people. He doesn't care about that. It is an eye for an eye: you took mine, I'll take yours. Now he's inflicting his judgment and anger and wrath onto innocent children of the people that may have indeed committed some other horrible crime, and he's going to have his people enslave them and sell them. I just, again, don't see what else this could be.

We get some fun metaphor: "Put in the sickle in chapter 3:13, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." The concept of the sickle and the winepress is something we see even in Revelation. This is death; this is butchering. Thus, all the blood will fill the winepresses. We see this huge allusion in Revelation to Jesus with a huge winepress as he bathes his feet in the blood of his enemies, and we just have more of that imagery here. It's just absolutely grotesque.

Then we end with the glorious future of Judah, because after all, this is a people group essentially writing about themselves, trying to make sense of what has happened to them organically, naturally, historically in the world, and where their God has been that they've believed in, why he's left them, the judgment that had to come from their doing, their sins. But don't worry, because there's always hope. They always give themselves out: "So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it." False, unless again you interpret this as completely apocalyptic for a future time, which from some of the context here and going in and out of tenses, I don't see that that should be the case. We even see here again specific, like, looks to me unfulfilled prophecy. Verse 19: "Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness." This didn't happen. Again, Joel went too far. He looked at their big enemies, and he was like, "God's going to get them, judgment for other nations, they're going to become a desolation, and we will never ever be touched ever again." That's not true.

So that's Joel, and that's really all I have to say about it. I'd be very curious to hear your guys' thoughts on it. Thank you so much for watching. We have Amos next week, and until then, keep thinking. I wanted to personally thank my top tiers of support: my Iconic GVI, Jacob, Jason, Joe, Oliver, Perry, Rocket, and Sha, my Humanist Heroes Jared and Christie, my Atheist Advocates Sparky and Todd, as well as all of my secular scholar patrons. If you believe in the mission of the channel or you just enjoy this kind of content, please consider joining these fine people. Thanks, and have a great day.