Monday, January 31 A nation has come up into my land, mighty and without number.​—Joel 1:6.

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Monday, January 31

A nation has come up into my land, mighty and without number.—Joel 1:6.

 

The prophet Joel was predicting a military attack. (Joel 2:1, 8, 11) Jehovah said that he would use his “great army” (Babylonian soldiers) to punish the disobedient Israelites. (Joel 2:25) The invading army is rightly called “the northerner” because the Babylonians would invade Israel from the north. (Joel 2:20) That army is likened to a well-organized swarm of locusts. Of them, Joel says: “Each [soldier] advances in his course. . . . Into the city they rush . . . Onto the houses they climb, through the windows they enter like a thief.” (Joel 2:8, 9) Can you picture the scene? There are soldiers everywhere. There is nowhere to hide. No one can escape the sword of the Babylonians! Like locusts, the Babylonians (or, Chaldeans) invaded the city of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. The Bible reports: “The king of the Chaldeans . . . felt no compassion for young man or virgin, old or infirm.”—2 Chron. 36:17. w20.04 5 ¶11-12

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In our personal ministry, we have to demonstrated perseverance like that of the locust—even in the face of indifference and opposition?—Heb. 10:39