The Bright Side of Dark
Read Joel 1:1–2:27
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1. The Lord gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
2. Hear this, you leaders of the people. Listen, all who live in the land. In all your history, has anything like this happened before?
3. 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. . . .
6. 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.
7. It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare.
8. Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
9. 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. Joel 1:1-3, 6-9
If you could convey one message to the next generation, what would it be? What piece of invaluable advice would you pass on to them? Would it be financial, political, spiritual, or something else?
In this passage, the prophet Joel urges parents to pass on to their children the stories he is about to tell them—to open up the details of their past, to tell what has happened to them, to reveal the hidden details that kids would never know. They’re not pleasant stories, but they contain a valuable lesson: Obey God or endure the consequences.
God urged the parents of Judah to tell their children all about the terrible events that Joel was about to describe. God wanted them to pass along the important lessons they learned through these horrible events (Joel 1:3).
Is there any point in telling others about the downturns you’ve had because of bad choices? After all, some people think they have nothing to offer. They think that their mistakes have canceled out all successes, leaving them nothing to share. But they are wrong. God can use people’s wounds to heal others. The apostle Paul, for example, wrote, “These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
Give younger people your own testimony of God’s truth—disobeying God can bring pain and consequences—and you do them a world of good. Telling these stories can help others avoid your mistakes and duplicate your successes. God can use your wounds to heal others. God’s rebukes and lessons to you can help teach others, especially if the lessons were painful or difficult to learn.
