Reading for August 15th

Read Joel 2.18-27 God's renewal of the land.
Joel anticipates new harvests to replace those the locusts have destroyed.
Each crop ruined in 1.1-2.17 is to be restored.
In verse 20 the northern army in Hebrew is simply "the northerner," used for the locust here because it is a traditional designation of the enemy, since enemies invaded from the north, or because the locusts themselves came in from the north, as did the first swarms in the 1915 plague in Jerusalem.
The eastern sea is the Dead Sea and the western sea is the Mediterranean Sea.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 14th

Read Joel 2.1-17 The call to repentance.
In verses 1-3 turning again to the priests whom he had just addressed (1.13-18), Joel directs
them to blow the trumpet in Zion (a synonym for Jerusalem), assembling all the people to ask
for God's forgiveness (vv. 15-17).
In verse 2 darkness and clouds are traditional images associated with the day of the LORD,
but they may also refer here to the dense swarms of locusts that can obscure the sun.
In verses 4-11 Joel develops in detail his comparison of the locust swarms with an invading army.
In verse 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing: While not abandoning ritual-he directs the priests to lead the people in a liturgy of repentance-Joel see genuine religion as a matter of inner renewal,
as is common among the prophets.
Like other prophets, Joel regards disasters like this as acts of divine judgment that require repentance, but unlike them, he does not describe the particular sins that be believes have brought on this punishment.
Gracious and merciful...This is an adaptation of a traditional description of God (Ex 34.6-7; Jon 4.2).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 13th

Read Joel 1.5-20 The call to mourning.
Joel summons three groups into mourning: consumers of wine (vv. 5-10), farmers (vv. 11-12),
and priests (vv, 13-18).
Then he cries out to God himself (vv. 19-20).
In verse 6 a nation has invaded my land begins an extended metaphor, by which Joel compares
the incoming locust swarms to an invading army (compare 2.2, 4-11, 25).
In verse 7 their branches have turned white: In this and other vivid details of decimated vegetation, Joel's description matches that of eyewitnesses of Jerusalem's last great locust plague in 1915.
In verse 15 the day of the LORD is a prophetic theme that reappears throughout Joel
(2.1, 11, 31; 3.14).
In verse 19 Joel uses the metaphor of fire together with the metaphor of an army for the
devouring locust (compare 2.3).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 12th

Read Joel 1.1-4 The locust plague.
Joel introduces the locust  plague as one unparalleled in the living memory of his people
(compare 2.2).
In verse 4 the four terms for locust here and in 2.25 may refer to stages in the growth of the locust.
The meanings of the Hebrew terms are unclear, and the translations, cutting locust, etc., are only suggestions.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 11th

Read 1 Thessalonians 5.23-28 Epistolary closing.
The passage is framed with a prayer or blessing form (5.23, 28) that reminds the congregation of the letter's themes: the survival of the community because of God's initiative (1.4; 2.12); sanctification (3.13; 4.3-4, 7-8); and the end time (1.10; 2.19; 3.13) which orients the community's life toward distinctive, blameless living.
In verse 24 one who calls an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 10th

Read 1 Thessalonians 5.12-22 How the congregation should live.
In verse 12 those who...have charge of you, "leaders" or patrons in the congregation
who provided the means for the congregation to survive.
In verse 14 Idlers: NRSV, perhaps influenced by 2 Thess 3.11, uses this specific noun
rather than the more general "disorderly ones."
It is not a comment about laziness, but about those who have not fully embraced the
end-time orientation and need for holy living.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 9th

Read 1 Thessalonians 4.13-5.11 The expectation of the end times.
Paul shows the distinctiveness of a community expecting the Lord's coming.
In verse 4.16 God's trumpet, see Ex 19.16, 19; Isa 27.13; Joel 2.1.
In verse 17 meet, a term used of a delegation going out to meet a ruler.
In verse 5.3 labor pains, see Jer 6.24; 13.21; 22.23; Hos 13.13; Mic 4.9.
In verse 5 children light, an expression that occurs in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1 QS 1.9-10; 3.13).
In verse 8 on military imagery, see Isa 59.17.
In verse 10 who died for us, an early formulation of belief about Christ.
Comments or Questions...