Joel

A devastating locust invasion had come upon Judah. The people are called to awake, weep, and wail, as the two men in the middle right of the painting are doing.

The fig tree is splintered and stripped bare, without even leaves. It appears in the upper center, with Mount Zion in the background. The fields are ruined, the wine has dried up, and the trees have withered.
Starvation and drought have spread across the land. Fire devours the pastures, animals die, and the streams dry up. Beneath the trumpet of the Lord, the cracked earth shows the severity of the drought.
The trumpet announces darkness and gloom. The army of the Lord is approaching like the locust swarm.
Yet judgment is not the only message.
If the people repent, the Lord will have pity on them. He will restore what has been lost and pour out His Spirit upon His people.
Repentance is a difficult thing to draw. I made many sketches before deciding that repentance could be shown as turning your back on one direction and going another way.
That is why there are two groups of people in the painting. One group believes they can face what is coming without God. The other has turned, repented, and is learning from Joel what God requires of them.
The book then moves from Judah’s suffering to the judgment of the nations that remain in rebellion against God. Those judgments are contrasted with the blessing He promises to bestow upon Judah and Jerusalem.
The same God who allows the locusts, drought, and warning also offers mercy, restoration, and the outpouring of His Spirit.
The Day of the Locust.
The Day of the Lord.
The judgment of the nations.
The blessing of God’s people.