LOCUSTS INVADE WALL STREET
By Leroy Garrett, Denton, Texas

Our guest essayist today has been a favorite author of our family for years. We receive his regular essays in his ongoing series, "Soldier On" and this one first attracted the attention of my friend Bob Tinsky and he urged me to consider using it in this website. After reading Leroy Garrett's essay it was not a difficult decision to write Leroy and ask his permission to publish this essay on our website. We urge you to read this essay and come to your own conclusions. THE WORDWRIGHT

Because of a devastating invasion of locusts a prophet emerged in Israel who saw the devastation as the judgment of God, and called upon the nation to repent of its sins. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," he urged, as he called upon them to "Wake up" to what was happening to them.

The prophet was Joel, concerning whom we know nothing except that the locust invasion, which had destroyed his own vines and fig trees, got his attention. He saw in it "the Day of the Lord," which was to bring promises as well as judgment. We remember Joel as the prophet that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost -- on the birthday of the church -- to the effect that God's spirit was to be poured out on all nations.

Joel has its purple passages. A church group visiting President Truman sought to dissuade him from military action in Korea by quoting the Bible -- Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3-- to the effect that nations are to beat theirs swords into pruning hooks and their spears into plowshares. The President surprised them by pointing out that the Bible also says, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." The President was quoting Joel 3:9.

Truman may not have understood that Joel was giving the earlier prophets an ironic twist. In summoning the nations to a holy war in the valley of Jehoshaphat God was bringing them to judgment for their warmongering. There they were in the valley before God caught red handed with their military hardware that had been instruments of peace.

Joel believed that the locusts were sent by God as a wake-up call to Israel. He has the Lord saying of the locusts, "my great army which I sent to invade you" (Joel 2:25). The destruction was so severe that "The beasts of the field also cry out to you, for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire has devoured the open pastures" (Joel 1:20).

It was so bad that the priests were called on "to weep between the porch and the altar" (Joel 2:17). His descriptions are graphic: the fields and the fig trees are wasted, the grain is ruined, the oil fails, the land mourns, the people's faces have turned white for want of food.

The prophet's call for repentance assures the people that the God they have offended is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness," (Joel 2:13) and that he will forgive. Unlike the indifference usually shown such prophets, the people repented. Joel and Jonah, who to his dismay elicited repentance from Nineveh, may stand alone among the Old Testament prophets, in attaining such results.

This led Joel to speak of a blessed future for Israel, which included the equality of women: There would be no gender test in the outpouring of God's spirit (Joel 2:29). The apostle Peter indicates that this began to be fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2:16), but when it comes to "no gender test" we are not there yet here in the 21st century.

But Joel could see a glorious God's tomorrow in an unknown future. A "Day" will come in which "the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk" (Joel 4:18). The dark and dreadful locusts gave way to a bright and living hope.

If there is a Joel among us today he might well see the economic meltdown on Wall Street as an invasion of locusts sent from God. The "locusts" would be the greedy corporate bosses at the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the self-serving politicians in Washington, along with all those who lusted for ill-gained wealth in the housing industry.

The editor of U S. News, who describes the present crisis as "the worst destruction of wealth in our history," says there are 12 million homes across America that are worth less than their mortgage, and many are worth far less. Should half of these drop the keys in a box and walk, the loss would reach the trillions and undermine any effort to save the banking industry.

Greed is behind it all -- greed for an easy buck, and greed for a luxurious home that was beyond one's ability to pay for. And a lot of innocent people have been badly hurt by it all, and there are likely to be many more.

So, as bad as things are, it could get worse. I have asked several friends, all of whom are "comfortable" (a euphemism for rich), how they have fared during the crunch. They have all lost a lot of money. But many of us are so wealthy that we can lose large sums and still be well off. We are so spoiled by prosperity that it takes lots of locusts to get our attention!

I am not saying that God causes nations to suffer such tragedies as 9-11 or a financial meltdown, but I do believe that when such things come -- in whatever way they come -- he uses them in an effort to get our attention. They can be a call for repentance. But we have to be aware of our sins and of our need for God's saving justice before we can heed the call to reform our lives.

That was Joel's advantage. The locusts kept coming -- the prophet was aware of different kinds -- until there was nothing left. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. Repentance toward God has a chance when we have nowhere else to turn. It is when the sky grows dark from a cloud of locusts that our ears are opened to a message of hope.

If we do not heed these wake-up calls to take the weightier matters of life more seriously -- and to come to terms with the price of greed -- this may be but the beginning of our woes. Joel's cry, "Rend your hearts!" is a good place for us to start.

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THANK YOU LEROY! There is a passage tucked away in one of the smaller books of the New Testament, I John 2:15-17, which in the King James Version has been a Scripture I have memorized when a divine axiom is called for; however the Jerusalem Bible translation is a fitting translation to quote at this time: "You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer - the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions - could ever come from the Father but only from the world; and the world, with all its craves for, is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains for ever." THE WORDWRIGHT

You may read more of Leroy Garrett's essays by visiting his website: www.leroygarrett.org
Click on "Soldier On."