Let's read Joel, you would have thought every pastor and church would have studied this book during the Pandemic
Joel 1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Anyone ever hear of a worldwide shutdown due to a pandemic? No. We had parts of cities shut down temporarily in 1918-1919, we had a few cities with mask mandates. But we never saw what we saw in 2020 in human history.
3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Palmerworm, locust, cankerworm and caterpillar eat at different times in the season and different agricultural products. Some attack trees, others attack crops. This is describing a comprehensive attack on the agricultural economy.
5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
This is figurative language, they eat up everything with powerful teeth, like a lion. But he isn't talking about a nation of lions, nor is he talking about four kinds of insects. Lions would not eat bark from fig trees and would not destroy the vines in a vineyard. So far he has used three different analogies, four kinds of insect, a warring nation, and lions.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.
Not only so but the houses of worship are also cut off.
10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Now it is even weirder, he isn't blaming the insects, the army, the lions, he is saying the farmers should be ashamed.
13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Not only so but he says the offerings to the house of God are being held back.
14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, 15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Let's summarize what is described so far, because this is what we will see as a warning that the Day of the Lord is at hand.
1. Never before seen event in human history
2. Worldwide attack on the economy by something similar to insects, to an invading army, and to lions.
3. The house of God will be shut and the offerings are cut off to them.
4. God is declaring a solemn fast so that the priests and ministers can lie all night in sackcloth and cry unto him.
5. They should be ashamed. The farmers (that would be the lords in the economy) and the priests should be ashamed and fast before God.
17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
Whatever is happening is perplexing. What happened to the fields? What happened to the pastures? What is going on with the herds?
19 O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
Now it seems like he is talking about fires burning up the fields.
20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Now it seems like he is describing a drought.
However, it isn't a drought we have seen that many times, it isn't a fire, we have seen that many times, it isn't insects, it isn't an army, it is something that we never saw before and it is perplexing.