The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Joel 1:11-15, “Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine dries up and the fig tree fails; the pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, all the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

Scholars tell us that nothing is known of the prophet Joel except for what he gives us himself in verse 1. His name means “Jehovah is my God.” He may have been the very earliest of the prophetic writers. If so, he would undoubtedly have known the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

It was common in those early days for plagues of locusts to swarm and devour the land. They left nothing but ruin in their wake. Both Moses and Solomon had spoken of locust plagues as being the LORD’s divine chastisements on a disobedient people. But, Joel was speaking of a plague that has yet to come. It is not to be a plague of literal locusts, as in earlier days, but an invasion of human armies that would swarm upon the people, because they refuse to obey the words of the LORD their God!

As with Joel’s prophecy, so is the Word of God to us. Currently, we face multiple intrusions into both our nation and our personal lives. The concern of the LORD remains the same for us as it does for Israel. He is as personally concerned for our individual lives as He is for whole of the nations that would look to Him for deliverence.

The history of the LORD’s people is that He always delivers them from their adversaries when they repent of their sin against Him. It is now the same for us and for all countries who will repent of their sins and trust Him for their deliverence. No nation is knowledgable of the day of its demise. The locusts swarmed in judgment when He allowed it. So will it be with us. Just as we have no knowledge of the day of our departure from this life, so is it with penitent nations of the world.

When we see the clouds begin to gather and darken, we know that a storm is on its way. Spiritual clouds are darkening; we have the great and final storm on the horizon. If ever there was a time to confess our sins and pray, it is now!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom