Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joe 1:2-3
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joe 1:2-3
This calamity was so striking that the attention of the present and all future generations is directed to it.
1. Old men. “Hear this, ye old man.” “Days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom,” and none are too old to learn. Men of the greatest age and ripest experience have more to learn in life, especially if their lot has fallen in grievous times. If our stock of knowledge be not increasing it is wasting. All should hear the voice of judgments. “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.”
2. All the inhabitants of the land. Lest any should escape, all the people are urged to give earnest attention. What concerns one concerns all. None like to hear evil tidings, but they must be pressed upon men sometimes. When God speaks, when vital interests are at stake, all should hear. “Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.”
3. Children of another generation. God’s dealings with the present age have a relation to the future. The events of one nation are lessons to all nations. Whatever concerns humanity concerns all men. Generation must declare to generation the wonders of God’s love and the might of his judgments. Our woes must be warnings to posterity, and our corrections their instructions (1Co_10:6). If the memory of God’s love does not stir up to gratitude, the memory of woe must entreat them to repentance. “Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons” (Deu_4:9; Deu_6:6-7; Deu_11:19).
The Purpose. The present generation must hear and the future be taught for a wise purpose. People are negligent, persist in sin, and bring punishment upon themselves. Hence they must be taught,--
1. That God watches over men’s conduct. This fact is constantly impressed upon our minds by God’s ways in providence and in creation. Men cannot sin and defy the visitations of God with impunity. Our children may learn this lesson, future generations may read it in our history without our experience.
2. That God directs the events of history. All events are under his control and are overruled for the fulfilment of his will. Yet men “regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands” (Psa_28:5). Israel forgot God in his dealings with them. Even at the Red Sea, amid the greatest displays of mercy and judgment, they could not discern him (Psa_88:11; Psa_106:13). 3. That God warns men of their danger. Those who forget God’s works are in great danger, and have need of Divine teaching. Israel was a favored nation, a standing testimony of God’s truth and existence to idolatrous peoples. Israel’s sufferings were a warning to all nations to avoid Israel’s guilt. God designs to educate the world in the knowledge of his love and power. The lessons are given to one man to relate to another, written in the experience of one age that another may be impressed; “that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” (Preacher's Homiletical)
1. Old men. “Hear this, ye old man.” “Days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom,” and none are too old to learn. Men of the greatest age and ripest experience have more to learn in life, especially if their lot has fallen in grievous times. If our stock of knowledge be not increasing it is wasting. All should hear the voice of judgments. “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.”
2. All the inhabitants of the land. Lest any should escape, all the people are urged to give earnest attention. What concerns one concerns all. None like to hear evil tidings, but they must be pressed upon men sometimes. When God speaks, when vital interests are at stake, all should hear. “Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.”
3. Children of another generation. God’s dealings with the present age have a relation to the future. The events of one nation are lessons to all nations. Whatever concerns humanity concerns all men. Generation must declare to generation the wonders of God’s love and the might of his judgments. Our woes must be warnings to posterity, and our corrections their instructions (1Co_10:6). If the memory of God’s love does not stir up to gratitude, the memory of woe must entreat them to repentance. “Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons” (Deu_4:9; Deu_6:6-7; Deu_11:19).
The Purpose. The present generation must hear and the future be taught for a wise purpose. People are negligent, persist in sin, and bring punishment upon themselves. Hence they must be taught,--
1. That God watches over men’s conduct. This fact is constantly impressed upon our minds by God’s ways in providence and in creation. Men cannot sin and defy the visitations of God with impunity. Our children may learn this lesson, future generations may read it in our history without our experience.
2. That God directs the events of history. All events are under his control and are overruled for the fulfilment of his will. Yet men “regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands” (Psa_28:5). Israel forgot God in his dealings with them. Even at the Red Sea, amid the greatest displays of mercy and judgment, they could not discern him (Psa_88:11; Psa_106:13). 3. That God warns men of their danger. Those who forget God’s works are in great danger, and have need of Divine teaching. Israel was a favored nation, a standing testimony of God’s truth and existence to idolatrous peoples. Israel’s sufferings were a warning to all nations to avoid Israel’s guilt. God designs to educate the world in the knowledge of his love and power. The lessons are given to one man to relate to another, written in the experience of one age that another may be impressed; “that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” (Preacher's Homiletical)
A SUMMONS TO PENITENCE
We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be God’s mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory of God’s loving kindness ought to have kept His people faithful and loyal, but since grace and love had failed to affect them awful judgments were announced. A small insect, the locust, was to prostrate man’s boasted power. The four kinds of locusts here described and which doubtless devastated the country, were also symbols of the four world-empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, which were to lay waste the Holy Land. Such judgments call for acts of repentance, such as fasting, humiliation, and intercession. There are days in national experience when it becomes us to gird ourselves and lament. The ministers and elders of the Church should lead the way. Where there has been infidelity to the great Lover of souls, when the visible Church or the individual member has turned from Christ to the wanton world, then joy withers away, Joe_1:12, spiritual worship ceases, Joe_1:9, and there can be neither peace nor safety until there has been repentance and return. (F.B. Meyer)
Tell Your Children-Parental Duty
As far as life and means permit we must prepare for the instruction of the future youth, and transmit the doings of God by succeeding families. The word of God is for this and every age. The doctrines of that word are not effete, but adapted to our wants, and will exert an influence as long as the race shall last. 1. God’s word explains God’s providence, that we may know the author, cause, and design of our affliction. 2. What we learn in the school of providence we should transmit to posterity. “That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children” (Psa_68:6).
I. What is to be told? This, i.e. the judgments of God upon Israel.
II. To whom are they to be made known? (a) Your children. (b) Their children, and (c) Another generation. Four generations are to keep up the remembrance.
III. How are they to be known? “Tell, Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of arithmeticians; reckon up the several years with the several calamities thereof to your children and nephews, that they may hear and fear, and do no more so” (Deu_19:20).
Family Religion. I. The fathers’ knowledge the children’s heritage. II. The fathers’ fall the children’s preservation (Treasury of David-Spurgeon).
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"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." — Joe_1:3
In this simple way, by God's grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in the land-the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord's arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday school teachers, or other friendly aids; these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty-who so fit to look to the child's well-being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honor the Lord and receive his smile.
(Charles Spurgeon-Evening Devotions)
Exo 13:14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:
Psa 145:4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
See also:
Exo_10:1-2, Deu_6:7; Jos_4:6-7, Jos_4:21-22; Psa_44:1, Psa_71:18, Psa_78:3-8; Psa_145:4; Isa_38:19
I. What is to be told? This, i.e. the judgments of God upon Israel.
II. To whom are they to be made known? (a) Your children. (b) Their children, and (c) Another generation. Four generations are to keep up the remembrance.
III. How are they to be known? “Tell, Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of arithmeticians; reckon up the several years with the several calamities thereof to your children and nephews, that they may hear and fear, and do no more so” (Deu_19:20).
Family Religion. I. The fathers’ knowledge the children’s heritage. II. The fathers’ fall the children’s preservation (Treasury of David-Spurgeon).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." — Joe_1:3
In this simple way, by God's grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in the land-the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord's arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday school teachers, or other friendly aids; these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty-who so fit to look to the child's well-being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honor the Lord and receive his smile.
(Charles Spurgeon-Evening Devotions)
Exo 13:14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:
Psa 145:4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
See also:
Exo_10:1-2, Deu_6:7; Jos_4:6-7, Jos_4:21-22; Psa_44:1, Psa_71:18, Psa_78:3-8; Psa_145:4; Isa_38:19
