JESUS IN THE BOOK OF JOEL
Joel is a short book, but it carries the weight of a storm. It opens with devastation—fields stripped bare, joy withered, worship interrupted. A locust plague has passed through the land like judgment made visible. Yet Joel does not linger on the insects; he presses the deeper question: What is God saying through the shaking? And quietly, steadily, the answer points us to Christ.
The call of Joel is not first to explanation, but to repentance. “Rend your heart, and not your garments” (Joel 2:13). God is not impressed by outward religion; He is seeking the broken and contrite. This is the same voice we later hear in Jesus, who exposes hollow piety and blesses the poor in spirit. Joel’s God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:13)—words the Gospels will place in a human body.
In the heart of the book comes a promise that reshapes everything: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28-29). Sons and daughters will prophesy, old and young will see and dream, servants and free alike will receive the Spirit. Peter will later stand in Jerusalem and declare that this promise has found its fulfillment through the risen Christ (Acts 2:16-18). Jesus is the One who pours out the Spirit—not selectively, not sparingly, but generously—marking the beginning of the age of the Church.
Joel also speaks of restoration, not merely survival. “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). This is not a denial of loss; it is a promise that loss will not have the final word. In Jesus, this restoration becomes personal. He does not merely mend circumstances; He redeems time, heals memory, and gives meaning where devastation once ruled.
Yet Joel, like the prophets before him, refuses to soften the coming judgment. He speaks of the “day of the Lord”—awesome, inescapable, righteous (Joel 2:31; 3:14). But even here, Christ is present. The same Jesus who pours out the Spirit is the One to whom judgment is entrusted. The Gospel holds both truths together: mercy offered freely now, and justice certain in the end.
Joel closes with a vision of God dwelling in the midst of His people, a fountain flowing from the house of the Lord, life returning to what was once desolate (Joel 3:18-21). This, too, finds its fulfillment in Christ—the true Temple, the living source, the One through whom God comes to dwell with His redeemed people forever.
Joel teaches us that Jesus is the answer to devastation, the giver of the Spirit, the restorer of what was lost, and the Lord of the coming day. The shaking is real—but so is the promise. And in Christ, the promise stands.
BDD
