Suffering happens… to all of us. 

We can try to hide from it and try to steer clear of it, but we cannot escape the fact that this world will, eventually, cause us some kind of pain.  It is a broken world.  So, the question becomes not “Will we suffer?” but “How will we handle the suffering when it comes?”  How can we suffer well. 

Here are three ways to handle suffering from the book of Joel… 

… but first, a little about Joel.

Joel was a minor prophet in the Old Testament.  “Minor” prophet does not mean that he was less than the “major” prophets, like Jeremiah and Daniel.  It simply means that his book has less pages in it.  For instance, Isaiah, one of the major prophets in scripture, has sixty-six chapters.  Joel, on the other hand, has three.  So, not less important.  Just… brief.

Joel lived several hundred years before Jesus was born.  Most scholars place him anywhere from 700 BC to 860 BC.  Regardless of the exact year, when Joel wrote to the people of Judah, they were in the midst of…

… a plague of locusts.  

Now, you may recall that a plague of locusts was the eight of ten plagues brought about in Egypt because of Pharaoh’s treatment of the Hebrew people.  You can read about that plague of locusts in the book of Exodus… or watch Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments on some kind of streaming service…

That’s not this plague.  This plague was hundreds of years later, and, from what we see in Joel’s text, this plague was not a consequence of any particular sin.  It simply happened.  The climate was right – the temperatures… the humidity… the drought… They all combined and led to… a locust plague.

Did you know locusts plagues still happen!?

In 2019, hundreds of billions of locusts swarmed through parts of East Africa and South Asia.  It has been marked as the worst locust swarm in a quarter-century.  During this infestation, millions of locusts even attacked the The Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. 

In 2020, locusts swarmed Nagpur, India.  And, though locust swarms are not uncommon in that part of the world, it was reportedly the worst infestation in 26 years.

Now, locusts don’t bite, or sting, or carry diseases that affect humans.  So, on the surface, they may simply seem a nuisance.  However… 

… locusts eat everything. 

The locust plague in the book of Joel has destroyed everything in its midst. 

“Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.”  ~ Joel 2:3

Joel gives quite a vivid picture in chapters 1 & 2.  These locusts are in the sky, on the ground, and everywhere in between.  

“A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.”  ~ Joel 1:6

Fig trees —> Destroyed

Fruit trees —> Destroyed

Wheat stalks —> Destroyed

Fields —> Destroyed

Olive oil —> Dried up and gone

Every vine… every pomegranate… every palm tree… every apple tree… even the bark on the trees.  

Gone.

This devastation is affecting everyone and everything in its path.  

As we read in Joel 1:5, even the “drunks” of the town are weeping, because the locusts ate all the grapes, so there isn’t even wine in which to drown one’s sorrows.  

There is nothing left.  

On top of that, there’s a drought… And, on top of that, because of the dry land, there are fires… There is one devastation after another, after another… As they say, “when it rains, it pours”, except there was no rain.      

This, my friends, was a season of suffering; and, the suffering was touching every single part of these people’s lives.

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Have you ever been there?

Have you ever been in a season where “when it rained, it poured”?  As one woman said to me years ago, “I truly don’t feel like there is one single area of my life that is going well.  My marriage is miserable.  My job is a mess.  My finances are a wreck.  My health is a struggle.  My friendships are broken.”  The locusts were eating everything in her life.   

Maybe you’re not in a season of all-encompassing suffering; but yet, you suffer.  Perhaps, you are in the midst of a situation that has brought you to your knees, and you are overtaken with the pain of it.

Joel’s words to the people of Judah are still words for us today.  

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Here are three ways to “suffer well” in the midst of hardship:  

1. When you are suffering… grieve.

Pain demands to be felt.  If we don’t allow ourselves to feel it, and we stuff it down… way down inside of us… it will still come out of us, just in different ways that are (probably) not helpful.  

When the locusts overtook the lives of those in Judah, one of the very first things Joel said to the people was “Mourn!”

Joel told them to mourn. 

“Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.” ~ Joel 1:8 

Joel told them to despair and wail.

“Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.” ~ Joel 1:11

Joel told them to put on sackcloth.

“Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn… come, spend the night in sackcloth…” ~ Joel 1:13

Joel commanded them, “Allow yourself to feel the pain.  Allow yourself to admit that this is horrible.  Allow yourself to exclaim that this is devastating.  This is now a marker in your life that will be told, perhaps, for years to come.” (Joel 1:3)

Suffering well begins with grief.  

One of the most loving things we can do for another person (and ourselves) in suffering is to give the permission to mourn.  

Joel said to the people, “This is total devastation, guys.  And, you know what?  You’re allowed to be sad about it.  You’ve lost a huge part of your lives.  You can cry.”

I really love that, because it’s so honest.  Sometimes, especially with us “church people”, when we hear something really devastating, we want to skip the grief and jump to the hope.  So, when we have a friend in need, with a newfound suffering, we feel compelled to instantly say, “Don’t cry… It’ll be okay…. God can heal this… Just have faith… This will get better….”

It’s not that those things aren’t true; but, sometimes, we forget to first acknowledge the pain… the heartbreak… the feelings of hopelessness.  Acknowledging those things doesn’t mean you lack faith in God.  It simply means you’re human.

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2. When you are suffering… turn towards God.

Taking the time to mourn matters; but also, in the same breath that Joel calls them to mourn, he calls them to call out to the Lord… turn to Him, seek Him, acknowledge Him. 

“‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’  Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God…'”  ~ Joel 2:12-13a

Essentially, Joel is calling the people of Judah to “Wake up!  You’re getting hit in the head with locusts!”  Should you mourn?  Absolutely.  But also, start praying.  Start asking the Lord God what He might want you to be seeing and understanding in all of this.  

All of us, in some way, in the midst of our grief, need to remember…

God is speaking to us through the events of our lives.    

He speaks… and, so often, though it isn’t ideal or fun, He speaks in the desert wastelands.

When bad things are happening, one of the first questions a person may ask is, “Where are you, God?”

What if His answer is, “I’m right here, trying to talk to you.”

God does not go into hiding during our suffering.  He doesn’t shut his eyes to what we are experiencing.  He doesn’t leave us to our own devices with a pat on the back and a “good luck”.  He is far closer than we could ever imagine.  And, He is speaking.

How does God speak?…

We want to go to church and hear a word from God…

We want someone to call us up and tell us exactly what we should do…  

We want a big, neon sign as we drive down the interstate…

When I was a teenager, seeking direction, I would open my Bible, close my eyes, put my finger on a random part of the page, and say, “Lord, show me the answer!”  Then, I would end up reading some random verse in Zephaniah or Habakkuk, trying to make sense out of what it might be saying for my life.  (Yeah, not the best strategy… I wouldn’t suggest it.)

We know that God speaks to us through His Word.

We know that God speaks to us through prayer.

We know that God speaks to us through other people.

What we often forget is that God speaks to us through our circumstances – the good, the bad, and the ugly (perhaps, devastating) ones.  Whatever is happening to us… God sees it.  He knows it.  And, He wants to reveal something to you about Himself in it.  

As the Lord God said to that (major) prophet, Jeremiah, long ago, while those people were also in the midst of a massive season of struggle…

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”  ~ Jeremiah 29:13

  

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3. When you are suffering… remind yourself of hope.

The first chapter and a half of Joel is bleak.  It is filled with pain, anguish, heartache, and struggle.  But, that’s not the end of the story… 

“I will restore what the locusts have eaten.” ~ Joel 2:25 

Ya know, the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament.  It is the same God.  It is all the LORD.  

And, Joel speaks the same message that Jesus, the Son of God, came speaking hundreds of years later.  “Repent and believe.” … “The day of the Lord is coming.” … “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” …

Suffering is not the last word. 

Death is not the last word.  The Lord God gets the last word, and it is good.  

We worship the God who restores.  We worship the God who transforms.  We worship the God who makes dead things come back to life.  We worship the God who saves. (That’s actually what “Jesus” means. “God Saves.”)

The same Lord God of Joel that promises to restore what the locusts have eaten is the same Lord God that raised his very dead, in the grave for three days, Son back to life.

The first chapter and a half of Joel is bleak, but the last chapter and a half is full of beauty… and hope. 

Don’t forget the hope.  Though this chapter of your life is bleak… though this season of your life is dim… the Lord God, all throughout His Word, promises that, one day, all broken things will be fixed… all broken hearts will be mended… all broken lives will be restored. 

And, they will stay that way.

Forever.  

So, friends…

May you, in whatever struggles you are facing today, give yourself permission to grieve… cry… mourn. 

May you turn your heart and your mind towards God. 

May you make space for Him to speak into your life.  And…

May you cling to hope. 

Though this world is broken now, the Creator and Sustainer of all things will not leave it that way in the end.  He is the God who restores. 

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”  ~ 1 Peter 5:10-11

Written by Danielle Walker

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For more resources on suffering, see How to Teach Our Kids to Suffer Well

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