“Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”
~ Joel 1:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like bugs? Are there bugs in your house? Your grandpaa is sure that your ma would not like it at all if there were bugs in her house. Other than for some tiny ants, your grandmaa does not have bugs in her house. Your grandpaa two or three times a year will spray a bug spray which is supposed to kill the bugs who decide that they want to live in the same house where your grandmaa and grandpaa live. When your grandmaa lived in Bolivia, your grandmaa had to fight a lot more bugs there than what she has to fight here in Guatemala. Your grandmaa is not scared of bugs; your grandmaa just does not like to have bugs crawling around in her house. Your grandmaa and grandpaa one night had to sleep in a bed that was about the size of the bed that you sleep in James. The small bed was in a house in San Javier, Bolivia. The bed was right under an open window. There was a fluorescent light right outside the window. This light stayed on through the night. Lights attract bugs. It was really warm the night that your grandmaa and grandpaa stayed in a San Javier house. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had bugs all night long trying to keep them company. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had to climb out of bed over and over again all through the night to chase out of the bed all the beetles and the other bugs that wanted to sleep with them. The night was not a fun night for your grandmaa and grandpaa. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will never sleep again in a bed under an open window where there is a light on all night long right outside the window. Would you be able to sleep with beetles and other kinds of bugs crawling around in the very same bed in which you are trying to sleep? Have you ever seen a centipede? A centipede is like a worm that has supposedly at least one hundred legs. Your grandpaa called a black centipede that is found in Bolivia an eleven inch centipede. Your grandpaa made regular trips as a minor allocation to a small town called Chochís. Chochís is on the railroad line that goes from Santa Cruz to the border between Bolivia and Brazil. Your grandmaa would travel sometimes with your grandpaa on trips that he made by train to Chochís. Your grandpaa would be asked to preach on the Sundays that he was in Chochís. While your grandpaa preached, your grandmaa would sit on a bench that had been put against a sidewall of the church. The other benches in the church faced your grandpaa as he preached. One of the dads in the church jumped up all of a sudden one Sunday and rushed over to where your grandmaa was sitting. Your grandpaa had no idea what Miguel was doing. Miguel had spotted an eleven inch centipede crawling behind your grandmaa’s legs under the bench on which your grandmaa was sitting. An eleven inch centipede is about as thick as a water hose. The sting or bite of an eleven inch centipede is poisonous. Miguel ended up beating the eleven inch centipede to death. Your grandpaa is sure that your ma would never want to have one of these black eleven inch centipedes crawling around her house.
How would you like to have locusts everywhere around your place? Have you ever seen a locust? A locust is much like an overgrown grasshopper. Locusts can be eaten. John the Baptist ate locusts when he lived in the desert waiting for Jesus to grow up to begin His ministry on planet Earth. One of the minor prophets who God had scribe messages to pass on to God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids, was Joel. God had Joel use locusts as an example of an evading army that He was going to send to completely wipe out everything that the Israelite guys and gals were growing in the land that God had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . why do you think that God would have everything destroyed in the land that He had given to His specially chosen guys and gals to live? God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to worship Him versus worshipping inanimate gods made from wood, stone and metal. How would you like it if your grandpaa only wrote about things that make you feel worse than what you already feel? How would you like it if a guy or gal always told you how bad things are and/or are going to be? Joel’s message from God to God’s specially chosen guys and gals is that things are going to get a whole lot worse than what they already were. Joel – in Joel 1, is just about as pessimistic as a guy can get. Joel, in verse 3, tells the guys and gals who God specially chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals, to “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” the reason why God did what He told them that He would do.
Do you think that your ma and dad should always tell you what God is doing in their lives? Do you think that you should always tell your kids what God is doing in your lives? God impressed on Joel to tell God’s specially chosen guys and gals that things were going to get a whole lot worse for them. God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to wake up to what was taking place around them, to begin fasting for His sake and to get back to worshipping Him instead of . . . God’s specially chosen guys had become drunks. God would give His specially chosen guys and gals a wakeup call when He sent swarms of locusts to their land. An enemy army would do to the guys and gals who God had specially chosen for Himself what the locusts did to the crops in the land that God had given to His specially chosen guys and gals. Joel warns God’s specially chosen guys and gals that an enemy army would be entering into the land that God had given to them and that this enemy army would destroy everyone and everything. The locusts would eat all the wheat, barley and grapevines. Nothing would be left for guys, gals and kids and animals to eat. Bugs are like sin. Sin will destroy the lives of guys, gals and kids who are not obedient to God.
Joel 1 (160)