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Joel

by Kimani Upshur, M.Ed.

A locust plague strips a nation bare — and a prophet hears God speaking through the devastation. Joel is one of the shortest books in the Bible and one of the widest: it begins with insects and ends with the end of the world. In this twelve-chapter walkthrough of Joel 1–3, Kimani Upshur, M.Ed. follows the prophet passage by passage — four waves of locusts, a silenced altar, the trumpet announcing the Day of the Lord — to the hinge on which the whole book turns: "Yet even now ... return to me with all your heart." The whole message is carried in three words: Mourn. Return. Restore. Mourn honestly over the ruins, naming what the locusts ate. Return with all your heart to a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And watch Him restore — the years the locusts ate, given back; His Spirit poured out on all flesh, on sons and daughters, old and young, servants and free; salvation for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord; the nations judged, His people sheltered — and at the last, the Lord dwelling in Zion forever. Each chapter opens with its passage given as a clearly labeled faithful paraphrase, with short exact quotations where the wording itself is the point. Keep your own Bible open as you read — one chapter a day, twelve days — and let God's Word have the final say.