This post is an excerpt from my book, Big Things: Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets. The COVID-19 situation is a tragedy, in varying ways, and I thought this chapter would be helpful during this time.

I am also making the entire book available free to download on Amazon until March 31st. If you do grab it for free, and you read it, I only ask that you leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks. -Marc

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From March to October in 1915, the areas of Palestine and Syria were hit with a massive invasion of locust. The locust ate everything in their path, devastating crops and creating severe issues with the food supply in the region.

Historian Zachary J. Foster said “the attack diminished the 1915 winter harvest (wheat and barley) by 10-15 per cent, and completely wrecked the 1915 summer and autumn harvests (fruits and vegetables), in ranges varying from 60 to 100 per cent, depending on the crop.”

It was the most destructive natural disaster to hit the region in decades, and one of the worst plague-like occurrences in modern history. As a result of the crops being reduced to nothing, the price of food skyrocketed. On April 25, the New York Times published an article describing the inflation as a result of the locust attack. “Flour costs $15 a sack. Potatoes are six times the ordinary price. Sugar and petroleum are unprocurable and money has ceased to circulate.”

The plague of 1915, it can be said, was of biblical proportions. But even though it brought great devastation and financial hardship, in the book of Joel we have an account of a locust plague of even greater impact.

The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders,
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it,
Let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.
4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
For it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
7 He has laid waste My vine,
And ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.
Joel 1:1-7

A tragedy upon tragedies. In times of a national tragedy such as this there is pain, suffering, sickness, death, chaos. But then, after the dust is settled, the question: why? We can and often do find ourselves asking this question even today: “why does God allow natural disasters to occur?”

One author said it like this: “if God is good and God is powerful, then does He lack the goodness or does He lack the power to stop disasters?” We must think about this question. We cannot shrug it off and use the “His ways are not our ways” card.

Jesus addressed this very question. During His ministry, there had been some recent tragic events in the area in which He lived and ministered. On one occasion, Jewish worshippers who were in the process of sacrificing to God were attacked and killed by Roman soldiers. In another instance, a tower fell and killed eighteen people who were inside or around it. Jesus comments on both of these tragedies and then makes an interesting, unexpected connection:

There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:1-5

What is Jesus’ point? What He is saying is that in reality, we all deserve destruction, we all deserve God’s wrath, we all deserve punishment. The fact is that for those of us on whom tragedy doesn’t fall today, the only reason is because God is gracious in sparing us and delivering us from it. The real question, the proper question to ask in the face of tragedy is not “why did this happen to them?” but instead “why didn’t this happen to me?” Do you see the difference? We live in an entitled culture. We are bred to believe that we have a right to the best of everything. And that bleeds over into us questioning when bad things happen, as if God owes us some debt of protection, and when He fails to do so in our estimation we are incensed. How could He let this happen? We had a deal!

In contrast, the prophet Joel, and indeed the other biblical prophets, understood the simple fact that God is God and we are not. We are sinful, and God is Holy. We are foolish, and God is wise. We are limited in understanding, God is all knowing. We are weak, God is the Almighty. We are the created. He is the Creator. Those who would question God’s motives or His love or purposes have neither as high and holy a view of Him nor an accurate estimation of the gravity of their own sin, as do the prophets.

So what is the purpose of tragedy? What is the purpose of the tower falling and killing eighteen people? What is the purpose of the locust plague in the book of Joel? What is the purpose of a typhoon coming and destroying everything in it’s path? What is the reason for a terrorist bombing at a hotel?

To answer that, we look at the text. The prophet Joel sees this locust plague as a warning from God of the greater destruction that is coming. In chapter two, Joel begins to prophesy about the end of time, about the battle of Armageddon, about the Second Coming of Christ when all the nations will be judged. He warns of this great and terrible day of the Lord that is coming. He is warning the people about all of this, using the locust plague as a stepping off point, in order that they would repent and turn back to God.

The goal of the book of Joel is to call the people to repentance. In Joel’s view, the purpose of the natural disaster is to get the people’s attention, and cause them to repent and seek God. The truth is that God is not punishing us unmercifully through tragedies. He is warning us mercifully of impending doom and calling us to repent.

Most people after a disaster have a “the sun will come out tomorrow” attitude. We “band together” and notice the good in our neighbors helping each other out. And those are good attitudes to have, but that is not the prophet’s view. It’s interesting as you move through the book, Joel argues that things will only get worse, not better. He sees this locust swarm disaster as a warning to wake up because of the greater destruction that is coming.

I remember very vividly sitting in my biology 105 class as a freshman college student, waiting on that day’s lecture to begin. I remember our professor walking in and stating “someone has attacked the Pentagon, the University is closing, you should go home now”. The frankness, the matter-of-factness, the gravity of his tone struck me more than the words. I knew that this distinguished, learned man had never seen or heard anything like this before. This was no ordinary event, not even an ordinary tragedy. September 11th would never again be just another day. As I look back on that grave tragedy, I ask the question “why?”. Why would God allow this to happen? It’s a valid question. And it has a valid answer.

Here’s the summary of this whole chapter, and really a summation of the entire prophecy of Joel: the natural disasters and tragedies that befall us now are loving warnings from a loving God about the destruction that is coming, with the intention that man might repent and turn to Christ.

In chapter two, Joel describes the “Day of the Lord”, or the end of time.
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the LORD is coming,
For it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The LORD gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?

Joel 2:1-11

The Word of God is so beautiful. You can see the imagery here that God is using to help the people understand the seriousness and importance of the situation. They have just been through a terrible plague of locusts, and now God is warning them that an even greater destruction is coming, with a real army and a real war. And He is using imagery they would now relate too. He is using the opportunity of the locust tragedy to point people to the even greater tragedy that will come for some: dying apart from Him.

I could make the argument that God capitalizes on every tragedy that befalls us. His purpose, His desire, is repentance. The reason for the locust, the reason for the Prophet Joel being called, the reason indeed for the Bible being written is that God desires our repentance. After September 11th, churches were filled to the brim with people for months. People were seeking answers, and running to God. God used that tragedy as an opportunity to remind people of the Truth.

Not only can God use national tragedies, but He can and does use personal tragedies as well. Cancer is perhaps the worst word you can hear a doctor say. Some of you reading this have heard that word uttered concerning yourself, a spouse, a parent, a child, a loved one. Though it can be a terrible time of uncertainty, the battle with cancer many times turns into a time of reflection and Truth-seeking. It is a time where people focus on the important things in life and “cut the clutter”. Relationships come into focus as being as vitally important as they truly are, including our relationship with Christ.

God uses personal tragic situations to reach out to individual hearts. He uses community tragedies to speak to communities and call them back to Himself through the avenue of repentance.