From Yesterday to Tomorrow
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the Lord continually called on His people never to forget the great events and truths He had revealed to them. For instance, they were never to forget His Word, the very means by which He revealed Himself, day after day. We can see this in the Shema. After giving the prayer, God says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”
And when we think about remembering and not forgetting, one very important event that comes to mind is Passover. This is the moment Israel was born as a nation and was saved by the blood of the lamb. The Lord says in Exodus 12:24, “And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever”. These were the things the Jewish people were told to remember every year and to teach to their sons and daughters.
However, there is another event that the Lord commands the Jewish people to remember and pass on diligently to their sons and daughters. This event stands apart from all the others, for it is prophetic in nature. This prophecy is found right at the opening words of Joel 1:3, which says, “Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.” It is told to us in the same way the Shema and the Passover were told to be remembered.
But what was it that they had to remember? It points centuries ahead to the events that will unfold before the Second Coming of the Messiah. And the rest of the book of Joel is meant to prepare and equip, and to give clarity concerning the movement in this world.
Joel also emphasizes the exclusivity of this event by saying in vs.2, “Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers’ days?” The clear answer is a resounding no!
It appears that so much more emphasis is put on this coming event, for later it says in Joel 2:2, “There has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it to the years of many generations.” This prophecy in Joel is so distinct and important that the events it relates to have never happened before, and once they do come to pass, they will never be repeated. This is how important the words of this prophecy are. This is what the Scriptures ask us to teach our children and grandchildren.
But Joel is not the only one who puts such great emphasis on the coming prophecies. Daniel also spoke of this same future and said the very same thing at the end of his book, in Daniel 12:1, “And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.” And way beyond Joel and Daniel, Yeshua also said very much the same thing in His prophecies of the things to come found in the Gospels. In Mark 13:19 for example, Jesus explains the events that will take place just before His Second Coming, “For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.” And so, here we are in Joel at the start of major prophecies concerning the end times.
Before we get into these predictions, let us remember that this future time will be so fierce and so demonically violent, yet the believers will not be present, for they would have been raptured before the beginning of this 7-year period.
Let’s see how the eighth plague in Egypt, the locusts, have a very special spot and relationship with the end time prophecies. First, back in the Exodus narrative, the plague of the locusts is the only one which God explicitly commands the Israelites to remember and to tell their children. Up to that point the formula was quite different: the phrase, that Pharaoh may know that I am the Lord is repeated in different ways, 6 times over for most of the plagues preceding the eighth one (7:5, 8:10, 8:22, 9:14, 16, 9:29)
However, when it came to the locust plague, the Lord says in Exodus 10:2, “that you may know that I am the Lord”, here referring to Israel. The you refers to us as well. This is when Joel takes over and brings out his prophecies of the end times, beginning with the locusts. Joel takes this eighth plague as referring to the Day of the Lord (mid-point or after) of the Tribulation. We then see how the ninth and tenth plagues follow with a striking parallel to these end-time events. The ninth plague was complete darkness over Egypt, so thick that they did not see one another (10:23). In the same way, the Tribulation is described as a time of darkness and despair. Joel declares in 2:2, “A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Other prophets echo this same image of overwhelming spiritual and physical darkness.
Then, with the tenth plague, we are looking at the salvation of the first-born Israelites which points us directly to the death and resurrection of the Lamb of God, the Messiah. For those who believed, that final plague brought redemption through His blood. In the same way, after the wars of the Tribulation, Yeshua will come again, at the end, and save His own. Yeshua will come and put an end to all of this.
Another reason the eighth plague stands apart is that, more than in the previous seven plagues, we see in this one how greatly God displayed His power of devastation. This also serves as a marker pointing to the Tribulation times.
This plague was thought to be so devastating that it was the first time that Pharaoh’s servants confronted him, asking him to let the Israelites leave. Understanding the locust’s power of destruction, this is what they told Pharaoh in advance of the plague to come: “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” Exodus 10:7
It is then that Pharaoh also realized this because now he begins to bargain with Moses, telling him that they could leave, but indicating that only the men could go (vs.12). Moses did not accept that proposal. Furthermore, we then see, for the first time, Moses leaving the meeting without Pharaoh’s permission and without waiting for him to answer yes or no (Nahmanides’ Commentary on Exodus). We read in vs.6 that he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
He פָּנָה (pānâ), he turned away. The same word is used for Pharaoh when he heard the warning of the first plague. He turned away and went to his house (7:3). Here, Moses turns away from him. The eighth plague, therefore, marks a decisive turning point. The purpose of the plagues now shifts, not only so that Israel may know the power of the Lord, but also so that it becomes unmistakable that God has taken full control over Pharaoh’s heart and destiny.
Click Here for the Video : Joel Part 2: “Tell it to Your Children” : A Call to Remembrance