Today's Scripture Reading (February 2, 2023): Joel 2
The advent of air travel began
to take shape in the early years of the twentieth century. Then, World War I
began, and people started to ask how airplanes might figure into the way that
war was waged. The first use of aircraft in World War I was strictly for surveillance.
The era of air espionage began as military generals relied on planes to see
enemy formations and the results of certain battles from the relative safety of
the air. At first, pilots on both sides of the conflict would wave at each
other as they met, flying above the earth and completing their tasks. Still, it
didn't take long before the concept of air superiority began to take shape, and
we discovered that we needed our planes in the sky but not those of the enemy.
So, pilots began to be armed, and, at the start, they would actually try to
shoot each other down with their pistols and sidearms. Soon, machine guns began
to be attached to these slow-moving planes, so they had a better chance of
defeating the enemies in the sky. And with those machine guns, the era of the
dogfight began in the air.
But it wasn't until the
Second World War that we attempted to perfect the idea of attacking targets on
land from the air. And it was at that time that we decided we needed a way to
warn the civilian populations when planes were incoming. Maybe at one time,
church bells were rung in times of emergency, but we needed something
different, louder, and more attention-gathering. It was this dire situation
that gave birth to the air raid siren.
I have to admit, while sirens
have rung in many areas of the world, I have never heard one firsthand. The only
ones I have listened to are from my T.V. news programs. I am one of the lucky
ones. For those who have heard the sirens, they must strike fear into the heart
of the population with the knowledge that a plane, or in our contemporary world,
more likely a missile, is on its way to our location.
Joel has been describing the
current conditions in Judah. A plague of locusts has decimated the area. But the
locusts are only the beginning of trouble in the land. Joel says that the Day
of the Lord is coming. And how we react to the Day of the Lord should depend on
whether or not we are living according to God's will. Pastor David Guzik
phrases it this way.
When we are right with God, we want the day of the LORD. We long for Him to show His strength
because we know that we abide in Him. When we are not right with God, we dread the day of the LORD, because when God shows Himself strong,
His strength may work against us. In Joel's day Judah was not right
with God; so the day of the LORD would be
nothing but darkness and gloominess to them (David Guzik)
For Judah,
the day of the LORD was a big problem. Is it for us? Hopefully, we know enough
to hear the trumpet sound, or maybe, the air raid siren, signifying his return,
with joy because we know we are right with him.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Joel 3
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