Today's Daily Bread

A PLAGUE OF HUNGRY LOCUSTS

Date : Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Passage : Joel 1:1~20
Keyverse : 4  
1
The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2
Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
3
Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4
What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
5
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
6
A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.
7
It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
8
Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9
Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
10
The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails.
11
Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12
The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree - all the trees of the field - are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.
13
Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
14
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15
Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
16
Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes - joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
18
How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19
To you, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20
Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
Joel describes a devastating locust plague that has ravaged the land of Judah, leaving it barren and lifeless. The prophet Joel called on the people to wake up from their drunkenness and to mourn. It isn’t clear if Joel was speaking literally, or if he was describing the invasion of a foreign army as a plague of locusts. Joel compared their grief to that of a young bride who has lost her husband. The destruction affected everyone, farmers, priests, and citizens alike. Crops failed, vineyards dried up, and joy disappeared from the land. These verses also describe what happens when we turn away from God. The consequences of doing so are devastating.

Joel called the priests and people to lament and repent in response to the devastation caused by the locust plague. He urged them to wear sackcloth, fast, and cry out to God; to recognize that the land was suffering, and the Day of the Lord is near. Joel himself calls out to the Lord. “To you, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.” Only God can restore what has been lost.

Prayer: Father, we have sinned greatly against you. We have turned away from you. Help us repent, call out to you and turn back to you.
One Word: Wake up and repent