Repo Men
or Feasts in Joel 1
The prophets were God’s “Covenant sheriffs,” hammering on the door with the broken contract like repo men from hell. They don’t want your car. They want your blood.
It should not surprise us when their words follow the Covenant structure. The first chapter of Joel is, once you know what you are looking at, a beauty and a terror. The prophet uses the Annual Feasts as a theme. It turns out that the Lord’s rebellious people will be the meat on the table.
T R A N C E N D E N C E – SABBATH disturbed
The word of the LORD (Transcendence)
…..that came to Joel ["The Lord is God"] (Delegation)
……….the son of Pethuel ["mouth of God"]. (Covenant Head)
……………Hear this, you elders, (Un-ethic-al Rulers)
……….And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! (Covenant Body)
…..Has [anything like] this happened in your days, (Day of Coverings)
Or even in the days of your fathers? (Succession)
Notice that the Word-baton is passed from the Lord to Joel to the people in stanza one. Then, we take one step out in the fractal, and it is the same Word being passed from these people to their children, children who will not be passed over, children who will suffer the plagues as the offspring of Pharaoh.
H I E R A R C H Y – PASSOVER removed
Tell your children about it,
…..[Let] your children [tell] their children,
……….And their children another generation.
……………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.
[No Rest, no Glorification, no Day 7]
The second half of this stanza is an ironic Covenant body, a glorious swarm united by an unholy spirit that brings de-Creation.
E T H I C S 1 – Firstfruits fail
Awake, you drunkards, and weep; (Creation)
…..And wail, all you drinkers of wine, (Division – Mourning)
……….Because of the new wine, (Ascension – Firstfruits)
……………For it has been cut off
……………from your mouth. (Testing – Wilderness)
……….For a nation has come up against My land,
……….Strong, and without number; (Maturity – Gentile Hosts)
…..His teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, (Conquest – Atonement)
…..And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
[Again, failure to abide, dwell, in God's rest.]
The next stanza had me confused for a minute. The vine and fig tree looked to be the “Tabernacles” of stanza 3. But stanza four is a de-Creation. The prophets runs the matrix backwards, winds the days of the Creation week back to nihil.
E T H I C S 2 – Pentecost (harvest) fails
(Booths destroyed – no Shekinah fire)
He has laid waste My vine,
And ruined My fig tree;
…..(Day of un-Coverings, un-Atonement)
…..He has stripped it bare and thrown [it] away;
…..Its branches are made white.
……….(un-Trumpets – no bridal fanfare)
……….Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
……….For the husband of her youth.
(un-Pentecost covers all the feasts but as a single failed harvest):
……………un-Sabbath
……………The grain offering and the drink offering
……………Have been cut off from the house of the LORD;
………………..un-Passover
………………..The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD.
…………………….un-Firstfruits
…………………….The field is wasted, The land mourns;
…………………………un-Pentecost (Spirit taken away)
…………………………For the grain is ruined,
…………………………The new wine is dried up,
…………………………The oil fails.
…………………….un-Trumpets (brothers ashamed)
…………………….Be ashamed, you farmers,
…………………….Wail, you vinedressers,
………………..un-Coverings
………………..For the wheat and the barley;
………………..Because the harvest of the field has perished.
……………un-Booths (no Ingathering)
……………The vine has dried up, (No King)
………………..And the fig tree has withered; (No Covering Veil)
…………………….The pomegranate tree, (No Tabernacle)
…………………………The palm tree also, (No Wilderness Oasis)
…………………….And the apple tree — (No Fruits – Maturity)
………………..All the trees of the field
……………are withered; (No Succession)
How amazing was that!
Ethics 3 is the Incense Altar, the fragrant smoke from the sacrifice, the Elders with bowls of Incense.
E T H I C S 3 – Trumpets warnings to the elders
Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. (Ark – Genesis)
…..Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; (Veil – Exodus)
……….Wail, you who minister before the altar; (Altar – Leviticus)
……………Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
……………You who minister to my God; (Table – Scarlet cloth)
………………..For the grain offering and the drink offering
………………..Are withheld from the house of your God. (Lampstand – Numbers)
……………(Incense Altar – Deuteronomy – Law repeated)
……………Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; (Genesis)
……………….. Gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land (Exodus)
…………………………[Into] the house of the LORD your God, (Leviticus)
……………………………..And cry out to the LORD. (Numbers)
Looks like their bodies would be scattered in the wilderness. How subtle.
……….(Mediators – Joshua – Day of Atonement)
……….Alas for the day!
……….For the day of the LORD [is] at hand; (Ironic Light!)
………….It shall come as destruction from the Almighty...
………….(Firmament ripped, rolled up – Judge at the door)
The “Pentecost” of this stanza ends with no rest. Notice that there is a three-level de-forming (the “seed” Bridegroom’s House), then the Pentecostal grain, then a three-level de-filling (the bridal “herds” who need shelter). The first triplet works from the ground up, and the second works from the top down to the ground. Then follow the sacrificial animals, the sheep who “suffer punishment.” This is some sublime poetry.
…………………….(Return to a Landless—cropless—wilderness)
…………………….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.
Finally, the chapter ends with Israel on the Land as a sacrifice on the four-cornered altar. The holy fire descends and she is consumed. What is interesting is that the symbols in this cycle point largely to the Temple, the Edenic spring, which would be devoured by fire. It even has the trees at the centre of the garden (as many cycles do).
…………………………O LORD, (Ark)
……………………………..to You I cry out; (Veiled face)
………………………………….For fire has devoured
………………………………….the open pastures, (Altar)
………………………………………And a flame has burned
………………………………………all the trees of the field. (Lampstand)
…………………….……………The beasts of the field
………………………………….also cry out to You, (Incense)
…………………….……….For the water brooks are dried up, (Laver)
…………………. … And fire has devoured the open pastures. (Shekinah)
Notice that the final line is not missing from this stanza. Rest for the Land will be achieved because the incineration will be complete.
Now, we are still within the “Day of Atonement” cycle, (the prophet likes to expand some points into their own cycles!) Trumpets should follow, and we find that chapter two begins: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!” At this stage of the game, I’d say the book of Joel is a single, fractal, de-Creational chiasm.
This might all seem too much for some Bible commentators, but it does work like clockwork. There are those who still dispute this method, and this amazes me. Yes, one needs to be something of a poet, but if I were a Bible scholar who had no poetic sense, I might be tempted to go home and find something more useful to do, like set myself alight.
