Natural Disasters in God’s End-Time Plan
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. 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. 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. 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. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of
the Lord; the priests mourn, who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is
ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat
and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has
withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree – all the trees of the field are withered;
surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. (Joel 1:4-12)
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under
the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals
groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer
punishment. O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the
trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has
devoured the open pastures. (Joel 1:16-20)
I. NATURAL DISASTERS – LOCUST PLAGUES, DROUGHTS AND FIRE
A. God used the locust plague in Joel’s generation; this is just one of any number of natural disasters that God may
choose to use in a geographic area. Other examples would be an earthquake, a volcanic explosion, a hurricane, a
tornado, a plague of sickness and disease, etc.
B. We must not read about the crisis that occurred in Joel’s generation with just an intellectual curiosity about the
locust plague and how bad it was. Many commentaries sadly limit their interpretation of this passage to intellectual curiosity
about locusts, asking, “How big were the locusts? How many types of locusts were there? When did the locust plague
happen?” They never touch the heart of Joel’s message.
1. The locust plague was not mostly about locusts, but about the overarching reality of how God will use disaster to
wake up a nation or a region.
2. God gave us the Book of Joel not so that we would know how much damage the locusts caused in the nation of
Israel. He gave it to us so that we might know the magnitude of what is coming and then how to respond to God in the
midst of such things.
II. END-TIMES PROPHESIES OF NATURAL DISASTERS
A. Natural disasters will be common worldwide in the generation of the Lord’s return as prophesied by Jesus and John
in the Book of Revelation. The Lord does not want us unaware of their implications and how to respond to Him in the midst of
them. The Lord gave us prophetic demonstrations in Joel’s generation of how He will shake the earth at the end of the age.
He has given us unmistakably clear direction on what we are to do about it.
B. Jesus prophesied of natural disasters in the End-Times.
Jesus said, “There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows”. (Matthew 24:7-8).
C. Jesus will release natural disasters in the End-Times.
He (Jesus) opened the fourth seal … behold, a pale horse. The name … was Death and Hades followed with him.
Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death (pestilence), and by the
beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)
D. Agricultural and ecological disasters in the End-Times.
The first angel sounded … a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. Then the second
angel sounded … a third of the sea became blood. The third angel sounded … a third of the waters became wormwood
(poisoned), and many men died from the water because it was made bitter. The fourth angel sounded … a third of the sun
… moon … stars … were darkened. A third of … did not shine. (Revelation 8:7-12)
The first poured out his bowl … a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men … The second angel poured out his
bowl on the sea and it became blood … and every living creature in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl
on the rivers … became blood. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and power was given to him to scorch
men with fire … The fifth angel poured out his bowl … his (antichrist’s) kingdom became full of darkness and they gnawed
their tongues because of the pain. (Revelation 16:2-10)
E. Earthquakes and hail in the End-Times.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl … there was … such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred
since men were on the earth … the cities of the nations fell … Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not
found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God
because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. (Revelation 16:17-21)
III. LOCUST INVASION – FOUR SUCCESSIVE WAVES DESTROYED THE AGRICULTURE
What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has
eaten; what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (Joel 1:4)
A. The locust plague that devastated Israel in Joel’s generation came in four different waves as crisis after crisis
crashed down upon the community. Each locust swarm came in increasing intensity: the chewing locusts, the swarming
locusts, the crawling locusts, and the consuming locusts.
B. After the first wave passed, the people possibly sighed with a breath of relief thinking it was finally over! Yet three
more waves were coming. After the first wave of crisis, some of the crops were still left standing. By the third and fourth,
all was destroyed. This was compounded by drought and raging fires probably caused by lightning strikes (Joel 1:16-20).
C. Undoubtedly, the people cried, “How much more is going to happen?” The Lord’s response might have been,
“How much more do I have to send before you wake up?”
D. The locust plague that invaded Somalia, Africa, in l957 is often used by commentators as a modern day example
of the magnitude of the crisis that happened in Joel’s day. Somalia suffered a locust plague with an estimation of trillions
of locusts. The locust swarm’s height covered two thousand square miles; its density darkened the sun. After the locusts
died, fifty thousand tons of dead locusts, with an unbearable stench, had to be removed.
E. The surprise element of a locust plague in ancient times must not be overlooked. One day the people of Joel’s day
were out in the field working as usual, and suddenly as they looked up, they saw a horrifying darkness coming over the
horizon. The suddenness is like an earthquake or storm that abruptly disturbs an area that only moments before seemed
so peaceful.
F. An invasion of desert locust was one of the most feared catastrophes in the ancient world, a serious and life-
threatening tragedy. Though locust are in the grasshopper family, the locusts in the Middle East and Africa are much l
arger and more hazardous than what we know in the western world. It was a national crisis that stripped bare all the land
and crops. The consequence was tremendous famine lasting at least three to five years. Joel referenced this span of
time when he said that God would restore the years that the locust had eaten (Joel 2:25)
G. The most feared result of a locust plague was economic disaster and then starvation. When a locust plague of
that magnitude struck a nation, it would leave behind severe poverty, a crippling economic crisis. The people and animals
would die of starvation, and this profusion of death, increased by the disease-generating masses of dead locusts,
multiplied sickness and disease all through the nation.
H. Augustine, one of the Church fathers in the fourth century, described such a locust plague in North Africa. He said
that while the locust plague was a disaster, the disease that set in afterward was far worse, killing hundreds of thousands
of people.
I. Disease and poverty also inevitably bring crime and social anarchy; most often, a whole nation struck by the locust
plague would be in utter chaos and brokenness. It was truly a terrible crisis. Joel witnessed all the dimensions of that
catastrophe.
J. Then, on top of the locust invasion, drought and raging fires broke out for some lengthy period of time, doubling
and tripling the destruction that the locust plague created. God timed these events successively, like a divine one-two
punch, because the people of God did not respond. After the four waves of locusts passed, the people found themselves
in the dilemma of the aftermath of the invasion. Starvation, death and disease were upon them. Now their problem was
not directly the locusts, but the economic and social repercussions of the locust invasion.
K. If they would have responded to God in the first waves of the crisis, then the other dimensions might have been
withheld. However, when the locust disaster broke out, instead of crying out to God, they attributed it to a natural cause
and stayed in their place of compromise. In His mercy, God sent additional waves of locust swarms then the drought then
lightning strikes that caused fires to further wake them up. Yet, they remained unresponsive after each successive crisis.
Though the crisis was mounting, they were not paying attention to what God was saying. Joel cried out to the people,
“Awake, weep; and wail.” (Joel 1:5)
IV. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCUSTS (JOEL 1:6-7)
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. 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 1:6-7)
A. In graphic description, Joel compares the locust invasion to a great nation with teeth as lions, strong and without
number. He was emphasizing the magnitude of the threat that they had experienced, the enormous pressure that they
had undergone.
B. The locus swarm was like a vast invading army marching in to destroy the land. The Lord described these locusts
as strong because they were unstoppable. No human endeavor could overcome them. When the Lord has caused the
disaster, then it will not be averted.
C. Such natural disasters stir up people to rally all their possible human resources in an effort to get rid of the problem.
No unified effort can stop a disaster that is sent by the Lord. If the Lord has sent the locust plague, no human endeavor
can make a way of escape. The only way out of the dilemma is by the favor of God. When God wants to get the attention
of a nation “His servant-army” (whatever instruments He chooses) will not be stopped even by all of the rallied human
resources. God says, “How are you going to stop this? You cannot resist what I have sent.”
D. The teeth of the locusts were like fierce lions (Joel 1:6). The bite of locusts is so powerful, so very disproportionate
to the size of its fragile body. With these teeth they penetrated the bark of the trees and stripped them bare until the
branches were made white (Joel 1:7). The vine and the fig tree were prominent crops in an agricultural society of the
Middle East and in Israel specifically. They were symbols of prosperity, and they were the staple of the nation’s diet.
Joel’s point in this description of the locust stripping the trees bare is that their devastation is total. When God sends
such invasions to a nation who rejects Him, there may be nothing left to work with. If God desires to send a strong disaster,
the nation’s strength will be stripped to the bone and human agencies will not bring deliverance. Whether the crisis is a
great storm, earthquake or a terrible plague, when God is behind the devastation, human resources are depleted and
the only place to look for deliverance is to God Himself. We need His favor!
E. Adding to the severity of what Joel just described, he reminds the people that the grain offering and the drink
offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord (Joel 1:9). These offerings were the elements necessary for the
worship ministry to go on in the house of the Lord, and they were used daily in the sacrifices offered to God in the temple.
1. The people could not present offerings to God because the elements themselves were gone, and they had no
money to purchase them from afar. As New Testament Christians, this is a foreign concept to us. In our day, this would
be like losing the church building and the church staff getting fired because there are no funds left to empower the
church programs and worship services.
2. The devastations of the locust plague made temple offerings impossible because the offerings required grain or
animals. The reason this was such a severe dilemma was because the house of the Lord was the vehicle of God’s
presence to the community. It was unthinkable to the people of God that the crisis could accelerate so intensely as to
prohibit the necessary economics and supplies to run the worship ministry in Israel.
V. DEVASTATION OF THE LAND (JOEL 1:10-12)
The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you
farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has
dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree – all the trees of the
field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. (Joel 1:10-12)
A. As Joel continues he describes the horrendous state of the land whose people did not cry out to the Lord. The
field is depleted of strength; the land is widowed. There is neither supply of staples nor foods for pleasure-no grain or oil,
no fruit or wine. The sweetness of life has vanished. Each description reveals the continuing crisis, the escalating
repercussions of the locust invasion. For an agricultural society, this distress could not get worse.
B. There is a tremendous relationship between God’s people and the land on which they dwell. When Joel described
the land as mourning, he was contrasting it to the prospering land in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). After Adam sinned,
God caused a curse to come upon the land. But when He called Israel to Himself, He promised to prosper their land if
they would diligently heed His voice (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).
C. In the judgment of the locust plague, we see the great connection between the peoples’ relationship with God and the
prosperity of the land. The earth, the physical land, and the people of God are all part of God’s economy. God loves the land
and He loves His people; when one prospers, the other prospers as well. The land is the source of life for the people of
God; yet when they are not in right relationship to God, the earth mourns and groans under the weight of sin (Romans
8:20-22; Isaiah 24:4-5). This reality was what Joel was touching when he described the mourning land.
D. Though the land has been mourning since Adam sinned, when sin is heightened in a geographic area, the
groaning intensifies. It is subject to captivity, “defiled under its inhabitants” (Isaiah 24:5). When God liberates the human
race from bondage, He will also liberate natural creation. When the Lord returns and rules for a thousand years
(Revelation 20), the Millennial earth will be liberated and the natural created order will be set free from the curse it has
known for the last six thousand years.
1. We see touches of this blessing that the kingdom of God will bring to the natural order even in our day. George
Otis, jr., goes to great lengths to document the supernatural transformation which occurs in regions all over the earth
when people corporately invite Jesus to be Lord of their region. There are over seventy-five places across the globe
where the power of God is breaking out in such intense revival that various areas of their existence are touched by the
glory of God.
2. George has hours of video footage on these places, showing how even the agriculture has been supernaturally
touched, the vegetables and fruit dramatically transformed. He showed a carrot from one of these places – it was about
two feet long and about six inches in diameter! This will be so common in the Kingdom Age, in the Millennial Kingdom
when the earth returns back to its conditions in the Garden of Eden. Until then, the land is under a spirit of bondage that
is parallel to the bondage of the human race, and when sin escalates among the people of God, so does devastation in
the land.
E. Joel describes the oil as failing (Joel 1:10). Olive oil was a major staple in the people’s diet, and thus, it was no
small thing to lose. But it also had many other uses. In that day, when the olive groves were barren, the people did not
have light at night. In today’s terminology, this means that the electricity went out. The olive oil was also used medicinally,
hygienically and in fragrant perfumes. Thus, when the oil failed, some of the medicines were in jeopardy, some of the
methods of cleansing were lost and the perfumes necessary for people’s fragrance were taken. In those days, showers
were fewer and farther between, so soap and perfume were important commodities!
F. In the drought, the food supply was cut off; seeds, the hope for future food, shriveled beneath the ground for lack
of water (Joel 1:17). The store houses and the barns – the businesses and grocery stores of the ancient world – were in
shambles. Animals groaned under the pain of hunger, livestock could not find pasture and the seep suffered. Raging fires
followed the drought as lightning struck. Because aridity is the perfect environment for a spreading fire, all the trees of
the field and the open pastures were devoured (Joel 1:19).
G. Joel tells us how all these devastations affected the people. “Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men”
(1:12). Hopelessness had set in upon the nation and its spirit was broken. There was no solution. This will be the same
response when the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments are released as described in the Book of Revelation. No one will be
able to come up with brilliant ideas as to how to make the plagues and judgments go away.
H. God had Israel backed into a corner. God Himself was their only solution. But still the nations ear was not tuned to
God, and so a spirit of despair set in. Unenlightened to God’s hand in it all, the people were utterly hopeless and
miserable. God’s ultimate aim was that they would come to the place of concluding that their one source and one answer
was God alone. In the place of broken strength, He was urging them to reach for Him as their deliverer.
I. A Day is coming when the nations of the earth will faint for fear (Luke 21:26). Their strength and hope will be utterly
broken. God will allow world affairs to come to a very desperate place, and there He will give the same invitation He gave
to His people in Joel’s day. He will say, “Now that those things in which you wrongly hoped are removed, now that your
self-reliance is broken and you cannot deliver yourself, cry out to Me and seek My favor!” God will bring the nations of
the earth to such a place of crisis that they must choose God as deliverer or rage against Him. The peoples will mourn
he absence of their human strength and all their secondary means of finding safety. They will cry out to Him in that Day,
returning to Him in wholeheartedness.
VI. NO IMMUNITY FROM THE CRISIS
A. Highlights of three groups that were affected by all of these natural disasters coming upon the nation: the drunkards
(Joel 1:5), the farmers (Joel 1:11), and the priests (Joel 1:13). Joel’s point in highlighting these three categories of people
was to emphasize that all classes were affected by the crisis and would continue to be.
B. The drunkards were the poor class and the homeless street people. They are those whose one thrill was wine.
To those who, already despairing of life, were wasting their lives on passing pleasure, Joel urged, “Wail, all you drinkers
of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth” (Joel 1:5). The drunkards were greatly impacted
by the locust plague and needed to be warned for the coming day of the Lord. The poor class often suffers the most in
days of turmoil.
C. Second, Joel addressed the farmers, or the working class. Farming was a primary occupation in the agricultural
society of that day. The working class is those who say, “Wait a second, I put in a hard day of work nearly every day of
the week. I am not cheating anyone! Why should I be affected by a coming crisis?” Yet Joel’s message calls them to alert.
D. Finally, Joel spoke to the priests, the spiritual leadership of the nation. These also represent the upper class, the
aristocrats, who were shocked to be impacted by these desolations. Though the priests were not necessarily the ruling
class, they related to them.
E. Every class of society was greatly impacted by the locust plague and the effects that followed. Nobody was immune
to the devastation; and in that sense, everyone was put into the same class – those in need of God’s deliverance. When
God presses His hand down upon a geographic area in judgment, wine will not deliver the poor; money will not deliver the
rich; and hard work will not deliver the businessmen. Everyone is in need.
F. John saw this situation of a dilemma in which no class of society was immune. When God brings justice on the
earth, the playing ground is leveled.
1. All will seek to hide from the wrath of God.
“The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders … every slave and every free man, hid
themselves in the caves and in… the mountains” (Revelation 6:15).
2. All will need to take the mark of the Beast to buy and sell food and fuel, etc.
He (false prophet) causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark … no one may
buy or sell except one who has the mark. (Revelation 13:15-17).
3. All classes will be destroyed at the Battle of Armageddon.
The flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men … the flesh of all people, free and slave, both
small and great. (Revelation 19:18)
VII. LAMENTING IN THE CRISIS
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. (Joel 1:8)
A. While addressing all classes of society, describing how no one was exempt from the mounting pressures of the
plague’s aftermath, Joel shocks his listeners into the sobriety of his call. Using a horrifying analogy, he likens the nation
to a virgin mourning the death of her husband.
1. The picture is that of a virgin bride whose groom dies before the marriage is consummated. They give their vows
in the ceremony and go to the great celebration; yet on their way to the honeymoon, the one she loves is taken from her.
Thus, she puts off her wedding dress and clothes herself in sackcloth – unspeakable anguish.
2. A bride in sackcloth is a contradictory of terms because a bride never wears sackcloth, the garment of mourning,
on her wedding day. Yet, such will be the agony of Israel’s state if they do not heed Joel’s warning.
3. Joel was calling the nation to high alert, to the necessity of coming before the Lord in wholeheartedness. He was
describing the approaching anguish described in Joel 2 as so unspeakable that it could be likened to a bride in sackcloth
on her wedding day. That was the appropriate picture for how the whole nation would feel when the crisis touched them.
It is hard to imagine a greater tragedy than a bride losing her husband right after the ceremony.
4. Ye Joel saw, by the Spirit of God, the severity of the coming devastation. It was a day so painful and so all-
consuming that it would make business-as-usual literally impossible. If a bride was told on her wedding day that her new
husband was about to die, she would immediately move out of the place of celebration and into the place of mourning.
There would be nothing else on her mind, nothing of grater priority than the crisis before her.
B. Joel’s urgent call in this passage is that the people of God make it top priority to respond to God concerning the
coming crisis. Right now across the body of Christ, our careless position toward the devastation that is coming is hardly a
concern to us! Though it may make some individuals’ “top ten list”, it is still very low on the list. It is not a priority to the
unbelieving community – they don’t even believe it. And the majority of these who profess faith in Christ do not believe
it either. Yet, God is beckoning us with a very severe message and a very sober invitation. He wants us to enter into the
kind of mourning that is likened to a bride in sackcloth on her wedding day.
C. With the coming crisis in view, we must develop a corporate history in God. If we respond to God with our whole
heart today, we will not be novices when the calamity hits. We want to the draw together as believing communities and
say “yes” to Him now, getting a history in God before the crisis crescendos al across the earth. God wants to give grace
to His people in times of trouble. He wants us to be carriers of His presence and power, cutting off a clot of things before
they happen and releasing great blessing to the nations of the earth. If our hearts are connected with His, if we become a
people who tremble at His word, then when things begin to shake all around us, we will be in the right place at the right
time. With a corporate history of crying out to God and acquiring intimate knowledge of His heart, we will shine like lamps
in the darkness.