WEEK 1
Pray
Gracious Father, as I read your word, help me hear your loving truth. Holy Spirit, transform me to greater faithfulness and obedience. Shine your light on harmful patterns and strongholds in my life. Help me lay down and turn away from those ways that do not bring you glory and honor. Amen
Read
Joel 1:1-20
- The Lord gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
Mourning over the Locust Plague - Hear this, you leaders of the people.
Listen, all who live in the land.
In all your history, has anything like this happened before? - Tell your children about it in the years to come,and let your children tell their children.
Pass the story down from generation to generation. - After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops,the swarming locusts took what was left!
After them came the hopping locusts,and then the stripping locusts, too! - Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you wine-drinkers!
All the grapes are ruined,and all your sweet wine is gone. - A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count.
Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness. - It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare.
- Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
- For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the Lord.
So the priests are in mourning.
The ministers of the Lord are weeping. - The fields are ruined, the land is stripped bare.
The grain is destroyed, the grapes have shriveled, and the olive oil is gone. - Despair, all you farmers!
Wail, all you vine growers!
Weep, because the wheat and barley—all the crops of the field—are ruined. - The grapevines have dried up, and the fig trees have withered.
The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees—all the fruit trees—have dried up. And the people’s joy has dried up with them. - Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests!
Wail, you who serve before the altar!
Come, spend the night in burlap, you ministers of my God.
For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God. - Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Bring the leaders and all the people of the land into the Temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to him there. - The day of the Lord is near,nthe day when destruction comes from the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be! - Our food disappears before our very eyes.
No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God. - The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail.
The barns stand empty, and granaries are abandoned. - How the animals moan with hunger!
The herds of cattle wander about confused, because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery. - Lord, help us!
The fire has consumed the wilderness pastures, and flames have burned up all the trees. - Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.
Reflect
What strikes you as you read?
Write down words and phrases that stuck out as you read.
Think through what God is communicating to you right now
Respond
What is God teaching you this week?
Speak to God directly about what’s on your mind and heart.
Look for ways to live out what you’ve uncovered.
Share what God is revealing to you with someone.
WEEK 2
Pray
Gracious Father, as I read your word, help me hear your loving truth. Holy Spirit, transform me to greater faithfulness and obedience. Shine your light on harmful patterns and strongholds in my life. Help me lay down and turn away from those ways that do not bring you glory and honor. Amen
Read
Joel 2:1-20
- Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem!
Raise the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us. - It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.
Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears.
Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again. - Fire burns in front of them, and flames follow after them.
Ahead of them the land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.
Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes. - They look like horses; they charge forward like warhorses.
- Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops.
Listen to the noise they make—like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble, or like a mighty army moving into battle. - Fear grips all the people; every face grows pale with terror.
- The attackers march like warriors and scale city walls like soldiers.
Straight forward they march, never breaking rank. - They never jostle each other; each moves in exactly the right position.
They break through defenses without missing a step. - They swarm over the city and run along its walls.
They enter all the houses, climbing like thieves through the windows. - The earth quakes as they advance, and the heavens tremble.
The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine. - The Lord is at the head of the column. He leads them with a shout.
This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders.
The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.
Who can possibly survive? - That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. - Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He is eager to relent and not punish. - Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse.
Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the Lord your God as before. - Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!
Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. - Gather all the people—the elders, the children, and even the babies.
Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room. - Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence, stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.
Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!
Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.
Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’” - Then the Lord will pity his people and jealously guard the honor of his land.
- The Lord will reply, “Look! I am sending you grain and new wine and olive oil,
enough to satisfy your needs.
You will no longer be an object of mockery among the surrounding nations. - I will drive away these armies from the north.
I will send them into the parched wastelands
Those in the front will be driven into the Dead Sea, and those at the rear into the Mediterranean.
The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land.”
Surely the Lord has done great things!
Reflect
What strikes you as you read?
Write down words and phrases that stuck out as you read.
Think through what God is communicating to you right now
Respond
What is God teaching you this week?
Speak to God directly about what’s on your mind and heart.
Look for ways to live out what you’ve uncovered.
Share what God is revealing to you with someone.
WEEK 3
Pray
O Lord, calm my spirit so I can listen you. Help me to be still. Open my heart and speak to me. As I read your words, deepen my faith and transform my mind. Amen
Read
Joel 2:21-27
21 Land of Judah, don’t be afraid.
Be glad and full of joy.
The Lord has done great things.
22 Wild animals, don’t be afraid.
The desert grasslands are turning green again.
The trees are bearing their fruit.
The vines and fig trees are producing rich crops.
23 People of Zion, be glad.
Be joyful because of what the Lord your God has done.
He has given you the right amount of rain in the fall.
That’s because he is faithful.
He has sent you plenty of showers.
He has sent fall and spring rains alike,
just as he did before.
24 Your threshing floors will be covered with grain.
Olive oil and fresh wine will spill over
from the places where they are stored.
25 The Lord says,
“I sent a great army of locusts to attack you.
They included common locusts, giant locusts,
young locusts and other locusts.
I will make up for the years
they ate your crops.
26 You will have plenty to eat.
It will satisfy you completely.
Then you will praise me.
I am the Lord your God.
I have done wonderful things for you.
My people will never again be put to shame.
27 You will know that I am with you in Israel.
I am the Lord your God.
There is no other God.
So my people will never again be put to shame.
Reflect
What strikes you as you read?
Write down words and phrases that stuck out as you read.
Think through what God is communicating to you right now
Respond
What is God teaching you this week?
Speak to God directly about what’s on your mind and heart.
Look for ways to live out what you’ve uncovered.
Share what God is revealing to you with someone.
WEEK 4
Pray
Dear Lord, all the Scriptures proclaim your story and your nature. Thank you, God, for making way for my salvation. May you open my mind to understand how there is no contradiction in your story of reconciliation. Help me have the faith to believe your word and do what it says even when it’s hard. —Amen
Read
Joel 2:28-32
28 And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Reflect
What strikes you as you read?
Write down words and phrases that stuck out as you read.
Think through what God is communicating to you right now
Respond
What is God teaching you this week?
Speak to God directly about what’s on your mind and heart.
Look for ways to live out what you’ve uncovered.
Share what God is revealing to you with someone.
WEEK 5
Pray
Prepare my heart, O God, to accept your Word. Silence in me any voice bur your own, so that I may hear your Word and also do it, through Christ my Savior and Lord. —Amen
Read
Joel 3:1-21
- For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
- I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,
- and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.
- What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.
- For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
- You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.
- Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head.
- I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”
- Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. - Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
- Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord. - Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
- Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread, for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow, for their evil is great. - Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. - The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
- The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.
The Glorious Future of Judah - “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. - “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
- “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
- But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
- I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.”
Reflect
What strikes you as you read?
Write down words and phrases that stuck out as you read.
Think through what God is communicating to you right now
Respond
What is God teaching you this week?
Speak to God directly about what’s on your mind and heart.
Look for ways to live out what you’ve uncovered.
Share what God is revealing to you with someone.
