The prophetic Book of Joel in the Christian
Old Testament and among the Nebiim (prophets) of the Jewish Bible describes a
time—likely, some scholars think, in the 7th century B.C. (Before
Christ)(or B.C.E–Before the Christian Era or Before the Common Era) that
resembles our own time in 2012 in America as well as globally.
Joel chapter One reads:
Joel 1:1-20
1 The word of the LORD that came to
Joel son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live
in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days
of your forefathers? 3 Tell it to your children, and let your
children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. 4
What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great
locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have
left other locusts have eaten. 5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been
snatched from your lips. 6 A nation has invaded my land, powerful
and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. 7
It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their
bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white. 8 Mourn like
a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth. 9 Grain
offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The
priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. 10 The
fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine
is dried up, the oil fails. 11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine
growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field
is destroyed. 12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the trees of the field--are
dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away. 13 Put on
sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come,
spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain
offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. 14
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live
in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. 15
Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like
destruction from the Almighty. 16 Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes-- joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17
The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the
granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. 18 How
the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the
flocks of sheep are suffering. 19 To you, O LORD, I call, for fire
has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the
field. 20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water
have dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures. NIV
“Has anything like this
ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers?” Good question,
Joel! In a June 2012 MoneyNews
article entitled, “Trump
Says The Way President Obama Is Running The Country Is "Stupid", Donald
Trump said:
The United States is no longer a rich country. “When
you’re not rich, you have to go out and borrow money. We’re borrowing from the
Chinese and others. We’re up to $16 trillion in debt.”
It’s clear that Trump holds President Barack Obama
responsible for the ballooning debt. Trump stated that the way Obama is running
the country is “stupid.”
He goes on to point out that the downgrade of U.S. debt
is inevitable.
“We are going up to $16 trillion [in debt] very soon, and
it’s going to be a lot higher than that before he gets finished. When you have
[debt] in the $21-$22 trillion, you are talking about a downgrade no matter how
you cut it.”
Ballooning debt and a credit downgrade aren’t Trump’s
only worries for this country. He says that the official unemployment rate of
8.2 percent “isn’t a real number” and that the real figure is closer to 15
percent to 16 percent. He even mentioned that some believe the unemployment
rate to be as high as 21 percent.
“Right now, frankly, the country isn’t doing well,” Trump
added, “Recession may be a nice word.”
Things don’t look well for America or the
world at large. That same MoneyNews
article cited another economist, Robert Wiedemer, who accurately predicted in
his book, Aftershock, the economic
collapse that almost sank the United States.
Wiedemer says, “The data is clear, 50%
unemployment, a 90% stock market drop, and 100% annual
inflation . . . starting in 2012.”
The prophet Joel goes on to say in v.4, “What
the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts
have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other
locusts have eaten.”
It should be clear to any thinking person
that we in America cannot continue the policies that have brought us to the
place we now live. Government must be reined in and spending curtailed until we
again achieve a balance budget. Currently the United States debt load is at
100% of GDP and therefore unsustainable.
The currently widespread drought is reflected
in Joel 1:10-12:
The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the
new wine is dried up, the oil fails. 11 Despair, you farmers, wail,
you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of
the field is destroyed. 12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is
withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the trees of the
field--are dried up.
Christian writer Joel Rosenberg in his new
book, Implosion, calls upon all
believers to repent of their profligate ways and turn to God in earnest prayer,
after the pattern suggested in 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Rosenberg believes the
only hope for America’s survival may lie in a Third Great Awakening, akin to
the First and Second Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th
centuries. People were awakened to their extreme need for a personal
relationship with God. Those awakenings are reflected in the formation of a new
nation and correction of the proliferation of sinful acts and practices which
sapped the energy of the young nation.
In the absence of such a
spiritual awakening, Christian believers still have the hope of eternal
salvation—promised to those who believe—and the joy of serving Jesus Christ,
but also the responsibility to share the good news that Jesus died for all so
that others may receive salvation and be disciple in the faith.
America as a nation is
unnamed in scripture, even by metaphor. As we continue on in time toward the
culmination of what the Bible calls the end times or last days, all must
recognize that things are not forecast to get better. Instead, our nation may
very well become a casualty of the end times: whether through natural or
man-caused catastrophes—economic or otherwise.
Jesus told us with his
words recorded in Matthew’s gospel: "No one knows about that day or hour,
not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew
24:36 NIV)
To be fully ready, we
must all assess our spiritual condition, get right with God if we sense we are
not, and look for the signs Jesus cited in Matthew chapters 24 & 25.
Watch!
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