A Terrible Army

A Terrible Army

Q: The prophet Joel said an army of what had invaded the land?

• a. Philistines
• b. Amorites
• c. locusts

In the movie The Land Before Time 5: The Mysterious Island, a cloud of swarming leaf gobblers (locusts) eat all the green plants in the Great Valley. Because the dinosaurs depend on plants for food, they go on a search for a place with food where they can live. As they journey, they find the leaf gobblers have left a lot of devastation, and not many green plants, throughout the land. The dinosaurs have many adventures before finding a place to stay until the green plants of the Great Valley grow again.

In the Bible, Joel, a prophet to the southern kingdom, describes a plague of locusts. Locusts are one of the worst things that can happen to farmers who depend on their plants for a living. Locusts can cover miles of land at a time, stripping it of everything green. Once they pass through, all the plants are gone, and the trees are stripped of their bark and leaves. The land is desolate.

Joel told the people in Judah that the devastation the locusts caused was nothing compared to what would happen to them when God’s judgment came on them. Joel told the people to turn from their sins and return to worshiping God while there was still time.

Today, God wants people to turn back to him. If they repent of their sins (which means they turn away from their sins) and seek God’s forgiveness, he offers them an eternal home in heaven.

For You

God still calls people to himself. He promises to be with them while they are here on earth and to provide an eternal home in heaven. Take time to read about it in John 14 and Revelation 21.

Answer: c

A vast army of locusts has invaded [the Lord’s] land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness.   Joel 1:6

(The Whole Story: Joel 1–2)