Tell Your Children
What people went through with those locusts is ‘something to talk about’ and undoubtedly they will tell their children and grandchildren (1: 3). But what will they tell? That even ‘a plague of locusts’ (or whatever) can be handled, that if we are responsible for it we must amend our ways and change direction, and if not we must accept it and God will help us to a new future. Thus the story becomes a creed, a statement of how to handle life, linking together past, present and future, seeing everything as within the purposes of God and demonstrating that once you have grasped it through one disaster you are better equipped to apply it to other disasters — again and again.
Children need to know that their God is the God of all nations, but how? Our first impression here is that ‘all flesh’ (2: 28) did not really mean ‘all flesh’ but ‘all (Judah and Jerusalem) flesh (v 1). The text is not too clear but the key word is ‘judgement’. Jehoshaphat means ‘Yahweh judges’, and it is hardly surprising that they see God as one who will pronounce judgement on others (vv 1-8).
Children, however, must not be lulled into a false sense of confidence or apathy. To exercise his judgement God will always need people to fight his corner (vv 9-12). The creed is not simply something you say but something you do. On occasions plowshares will have to be beaten into swords, nations will have to rouse themselves and warriors will have to be warriors (vv 9-12), not only to achieve liberation from oppressors but also in the never-ending battle against tyranny in all its forms, including those alien forces which cause disasters (which is what we still fear), and the Creed, the fruit of experience, is a pertinent reminder, based on experience, that God is always in control even if at times it feels as if he isn’t.
With this conviction they can pull themselves together and take heart. The tide is coming in on their shore (vv 13ff), Judah has a new future, and the prophet ends on a note of triumph.