Special Blog Post #2

1)  Re-present the parts of the text you are interpreting.

I think that the best way to tell the Bible and “re-present” it, is to just use it directly tell it, the following is from Joel 2. And I am using verses 13 through 21. I think that these 9 verses really get a good group of the down and the up and leaving it with a positive point. 

Return to the LORD your God, 
   for he is gracious and compassionate, 
slow to anger and abounding in love, 
   and he relents from sending calamity. 
¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent 
   and leave behind a blessing— 
grain offerings and drink offerings 
   for the LORD your God.

 ¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion, 
   declare a holy fast, 
   call a sacred assembly. 
¹⁶ Gather the people, 
   consecrate the assembly; 
bring together the elders, 
   gather the children, 
   those nursing at the breast. 
Let the bridegroom leave his room 
   and the bride her chamber. 
¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, 
   weep between the portico and the altar. 
Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD. 
   Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, 
   a byword among the nations. 
Why should they say among the peoples, 
   ‘Where is their God?’”

The LORD’s Answer

 ¹⁸ Then the LORD was jealous for his land 
   and took pity on his people.

 ¹⁹ The LORD replied^[a] to them:

   “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, 
   enough to satisfy you fully; 
never again will I make you 
   an object of scorn to the nations.

 ²⁰ “I will drive the northern horde far from you, 
   pushing it into a parched and barren land; 
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea 
   and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea. 
And its stench will go up; 
   its smell will rise.”

   Surely he has done great things! 
 ²¹ Do not be afraid, land of Judah; 
   be glad and rejoice.

2)  Explain why the text or the aspect of the text that you've chosen to focus on needs to be interpreted.

 I think that this particular part needs interpretation because the entire section before it talks about famine, death, and destruction.  The book of Joel really is a lament; however, there are parts that show God’s goodness and faithfulness.  This is a case where this passage, in itself, is simple, but when it is sandwiched with the weeping and lament, one can very easily read over it.  I think that Joel needs to be studied more.  It is a book in the Bible and to be honest, when I saw that we would be reading it, I was not sure if it was a book that was canonized or if it was something that was “probably written back then” so it must be true.  For that reason I think that is needs an interpretation because of its lack of popularity. 

3)  Tell what you take the work to mean. 

This section of Joel is about Joel telling the Israelites to not give up.  That they need to focus on God and not leave God, like every other time they did.  Joel talked about how God was patient and that He was still there for them. Sure the Israelites were going through a famine that was the worst in many generations, but God still cared. Just think about Job and how much he struggled.  Joel calls for a fast, in hopes that God would take away the famine and bring back the good.  He then calls for basically a church service, or a chapel service.  Joel tells the priests to call out to God.  I think that Joel went with the old adage, “ye have not because ye ask not.”  Then finally after all that, the passage says that the Lord relented and took the famine and bugs away. That very “army” that God sent among them, He removed.  “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”  God basically calls the Israelites the laughing stock of back in the day.  He is basically calling the Israelites the little nerd kids that get stuck in their own locker, a trash can, or given a swirly in middle and high school.  If a little wimpy kid is smart, he will get the biggest, badest bully of them all and befriend him. Once he does that, as long as the wimpy kid is nice to the big kid, he will always have a body guard.  I think that God could be considered to be the Israelites “body Guard.” When it says that God would drive the northerners into the desert, that is a tough thought but I would rather be in a desert and make it out than be driven into the Dead Sea or Mediterranean Sea and drown.  If so many people died that there was a stench, the Israelites serve an amazing and incredibly powerful God.  Just before God goes and “removes the threat” Joel talks about how God is sending new Grain, Wine, and oil. I think that the Grain, Oil, and Wine are a very important in the sense that without those three commodities, their world would not revolve.  I think that it would be comparable to meat and food for Grain; soda, coffee, and water for Wine; and electronics for Oil.  Just think what would happen if all food were to disappear?  Aside from complete panic, the world would be in ruin and death.  The Israelites did not have water to drink, so they had wine which was safe to drink. I would hate to have nothing to drink if all water was rancid and putrid.  And as for electronics, when was the last time anyone used something that did not use a computer?  I am on a computer right now, and I think that everyone uses some form of electronics all day every day. 

3)  Supply evidence from the text to support your interpretation. 

My evidence supported comes from the part about where God sent the enemies of Israel.  Directly stated is my favorite form of revelation of information.  When I think about what the Grain, Oil, and Wine mean to me, that’s slightly what I put.  Obviously the Bible is not going to directly compare their culture with ours.  This is just a very general comparison, and I am sure that there are better.  I kind of sat back and read it and thought about what this would have been like back in the day, and in the middle of a desert where there was a famine going on.  Then I wrote on it. I don’t think that it was incredibly profound what I thought about and pondered but I think that it is very accurate and that we should dig more into the obscure books of the Bible, such as Joel, Amos, and Obadiah.

4)  Explain why or how the interpretation matters or could matter for yourself and/or for the reader.

Why is this important? Well, the world is not always happy and fun.  There will be times where we will go through a drought or rocky point in life.  We will think that God is ignoring us or that all hope is lost but in all reality God still loves us and is there for us.  I think that life will always balance out.  Sure, someone is struggling, but as that Christian song goes, “though the sorrow last may last for the night, but the joy comes in the morning.”