Today's Scripture Reading (March 19, 2026): Joel 1
Joel begins
his prophecy by talking about locusts. Scholars
have debated what these locusts represented to Joel. Some have suggested that a massive army was attacking Israel, possibly
the Assyrians or Babylonians. Part of the problem with discerning which army is
that we have difficulty dating Joel's prophecy; there are no date clues in
Joel's words that anchor it to a specific date or era.
Some scholars have talked
about a natural disaster. Joel talks about drought, lending credence to the
idea that it might be a natural disaster Israel is fighting against. And it
might be about a plague of locusts. But here is the point: Joel's words are a
prophecy. Prophecy naturally has different levels. However, on one level, a
prophecy usually points to a specific situation that had caught the Prophet's
attention.
In Joel's situation, maybe
we can concede it was probably locusts. But God takes this prophecy and makes
it about an army that is coming or about a disaster that is on its way. And
then he takes this picture, applies it to our situations centuries later, and
asks this question: What are you struggling against that you have no control
over? What need are you suffering through that could be declared in your life?
Where are the locusts? And as we declare our need, maybe we will recognize that
we need God.
Pastor and author John Ortberg tells
the story of serving as the chaplain at a professional baseball training camp.
At one point in the camp, he is asked if he wants to take batting practice.
John says he had never played organized ball, but as a kid, he hit against the
best pitcher on his block and did pretty well, better than anyone else. Well,
there was only one other kid on his block, and she was in grade 1 – but…
What guy doesn't want to take batting
practice at a pro camp? Who doesn't want to face a pro pitcher? So, John gets a
helmet and a bat and walks out onto the diamond to face the pitcher. The first
ball is thrown, and John says that he heard it hit the back of the net just as
he was getting ready to swing at it. At that moment, John realized this guy is
playing for real; he is giving me his best.
John started swinging earlier; he
actually started his swing before the pitcher had started his forward motion,
and he even fouled a few balls off. Then the pitcher asked if he would like a
couple with a little zing, and John realized that he had been lobbing the ball
in to him.
John said, "Sure," and the
pitcher threw one more pitch. John says he never did see the ball, just heard
it hit behind him. Later, the pitcher wrote up a scouting report on John, which
read:" John Ortberg, hits right, fields right, and, as a baseball player,
he makes a good pastor."
Here is the problem: we live in that
batter's box. We have problems that come at us so fast that we never even see
the ball coming. We are overcome, the locusts are too many, the army is too
great, and there is nothing that we can do except to declare the need. However,
instead of declaring the need, most of the time I think we say it isn't fair or
we make excuses. I love Benjamin Franklin's quote, "He who is good at making excuses is
seldom good at anything else" (Benjamin Franklin). Somehow, we need to get beyond the excuses,
beyond the reason why something can't be done, and stand before the Creator of
the Universe and say, "This is the need, these are the locusts in my life,
and there doesn't seem to be anything that I can do about it. God, I need You."
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joel 2
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