Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joel 2:32
And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
32. Those however who have responded to the grace given to them ( Joe 2:28 f.), and are the true servants of Jehovah, will be secure, even in the midst of such alarming manifestations (cf. Joe 3:16 b).
call on ] this is the conventional rendering of the Hebrew phrase employed; but it means properly to call with, i.e. to make use of the name in calling; and it may denote (according to the context) either to proclaim (Exo 33:19), or to announce publicly, celebrate (Isa 12:4; Psa 105:1), or as here, to invoke (so Gen 4:26; Gen 12:8, and most frequently). The meaning is of course not an invocation rendered merely by the lips (the “Lord, Lord” of Mat 7:21), but one which is also the expression of the genuine feelings of the heart. In the context, it is evident that the prophet is speaking only of the Jews; but the terms used by him are perfectly general (“whosoever”); the conditions of salvation are not membership in Israel, but trust in God: hence implicitly others besides Israel are included in the expression; and in this wider sense the words are quoted by S. Paul (Rom 10:13) to shew that the Greek not less than the Jew is entitled to share in the salvation of the Gospel.
shall be deliverance ] there shall be those that escape (R.V.), viz. from the impending judgment (comp. in the Hebr. Isa 4:2; Isa 37:32). The same words in Oba 1:17 “But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,” whence indeed the clause following, “as Jehovah hath said,” makes it probable that Joel quotes them.
and among the fugitives (shall be) those whom Jehovah calleth ] i.e. among the fugitives who in various places escape the disaster there will be some whom Jehovah will also call to His salvation. The reference is probably to the Jews dispersed among the heathen: amongst these also there will be some worthy to participate in the deliverance more abundantly shared in by their brethren of Judah and Jerusalem.
The word rendered fugitives is the one which regularly denotes those who succeed in escaping after an engagement, the capture of a city, &c., as Jos 10:20 (“the fugitives which took flight of them”), 28, 37, 39 (R.V. none remaining; but the root, as Arabic shews, means to run away in fright): comp. Jos 8:22 “left them no fugitive, and none escaping”; similarly Jer 42:17.
The words from Joe 2:28 to Joe 2:32 ( delivered) are quoted in Act 2:17-21 [46] by St Peter, with reference to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. It would be incorrect, however, to regard a particular occasion as exhausting the fulfilment of the prophecy. Joel’s words like Jer 31:33 f., for instance, look rather to that fuller illumination to be enjoyed in general by God’s people in the future, which is to be a characteristic of the Christian Church throughout the ages; they are “not a prediction of the event of Pentecost, but of the new order of things of which Pentecost was the first great example” (A. B. Davidson, Expositor, March, 1888, p. 208).
[46] In the main (though there are slight deviations) from the LXX. ‘Notable’ ( ) in Joe 2:20 as here in LXX. Joe 2:31: is a rend. of (as though = ) elsewhere; see Joe 2:11; Jdg 13:6; Hab 1:7; Mal 1:14; Mal 4:5. The phrasing of Act 2:39, “For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God may call,” is evidently based upon Joe 2:32 b.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord – To call upon the name of the Lord, is to worship Him, as He is, depending upon Him. The name of the Lord, expresses His True Being, That which He is. Hence, so often in Holy Scripture, people are said to call on the Name of the Lord, to bless the Name of the Lord, to praise the Name of the Lord, to sing praises to His Name, to make mention of His Name, to tell of His Name, to know His Name but it is very rarely said I will praise the Name of God (Psa 69:31; Hebrew), for the Name rendered the Lord, expresses that He is, and that He Alone is, the Self-Same, the Unchangeable; the name rendered God is not the special Name of God. Hence, as soon as people were multiplied and the corrupt race of Cain increased, people began, after the birth of Enos, the son of Seth, to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen 4:26, i. e., in public worship. Abrahams worship, in the presence of the idolatries of Canaan, is spoken of, under the same words, he called upon the Name of the Lord Gen 12:8; Gen 13:4; Gen 21:33; Gen 26:25. Elijah says to the prophets of Baal, call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the Name of the Lord 1Ki 18:24. Naaman the Pagan says of Elisha, I thought that he would come out to me, and stand and call on the Name of the Lord his God 2Ki 5:11. Asaph and Jeremiah pray God; Pour out Thy wrath upon the pagan that have not known Thee, and upon the kingdom (families Jerome) which have not called upon Thy Name Psa 79:6; Jer 10:25; and Zephaniah fortells the conversion of the Pagan, that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent Zep 3:9.
To call then upon the Name of the Lord implies right faith to call upon Him as He is; right trust in Him, leaning upon Him; right devotion, calling upon Him as He has appointed; right life, ourselves who call upon Him being, or becoming by His Grace, what lie wills. They call not upon the Lord, but upon some idol of their own imagining, who call upon Him, as other than He has revealed Himself, or remaining themselves other than those whom He has declared that He will hear. For such deny the very primary attribute of God, His truth. Their God is not a God of truth. But whosoever shall in true faith and hope and charity have in this life worshiped God, shall be delivered, i. e., out of the midst of all the horrors of that Day, and the horrible damnation of the ungodly. The deliverance is by way of escape (for such is the meaning of the word , he shall be made to escape, slip through (as it were) perils as imminent as they shall be terrible. Our Lord uses the like word of the same Day, Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man Luk 21:36. Those who so call upon Him in truth shall be heard in that day, as He says, Ask and it shall be given you; Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you Mat 7:7; Joh 16:23.
: That calling on God whereon salvation depends, is not in words only, but in heart and in deed. For what the heart believeth, the mouth confesseth, the hand in deed fulfilleth, The Apostle saith, No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit 1Co 12:3; yet this very saying must be weighed not by words, but by the afflictions. Whence, we read of Samuel, And Samuel among those who call upon His Name, and of Moses and Aaron, These called upon the Lord, and He heard them Psa 99:6.
For in Mount Zion … shall be deliverance – Repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in the Name of Jesus, in all nations, beginning at Jerusalem Luk 24:47. There was, under the Old Testament, the center of the worship of God; there was the Church founded; thence it spread over the whole world. The place, whither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord Psa 122:4, where God had set His Name, where alone sacrifice could lawfully be offered, stands, as elsewhere, for the whole Church. Of that Church, we are in Baptism all made members, when we are made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of heaven. Of that Church all remain members, who do not, by viciousness of life, or rejecting the truth of God, cast themselves out of it. They then are members of the soul of the Church, who, not being members of the visible communion and society, know not, that in not becoming members of it, they are rejecting the command of Christ, to whom by faith and love and in obedience they cleave. And they, being members of the body or visible commumion of the Church, are not members of the soul of the Church, who, amid outward profession of the faith, do, in heart or deeds, deny Him whom in words they confess. The deliverance promised in that Day, is to those who, being in the body of the Church, shall by true faith in Christ and fervent love to Him belong to the soul of the Church also, or who, although not in the body of the Church shall not, through their own fault, have ceased to be in the body, and shall belong to its soul, in that through faith and love they cleave to Christ its Head.
As the Lord hath said – By the prophet Joel himself. This which he had said, is not mans word, but Gods; and what God had said, shall certainly be. They then who have teared and loved God in this their day, shall not need to fear him in that Day, for He is the Unchangeable God; as our Blessed Saviour says; heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away Mar 13:31. God had said of both Jews and Gentiles, united in one; Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful to His land and unto His people Deu 32:43.
And in the remnant – While foretelling His mercies in Christ, God foretells also, that few they be that find them Mat 7:14. It is evermore a remnant, a residue, a body which escapes; and so here, the mercies should be fulfilled, literally, in the fugitives, in those who flee from the wrath to come. All prophecy echoes the words of Joel; all history exemplifies them. Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, all foretell with one voice, that a remnant, and a remnant only, shall be left. In those earlier dispensations of God, in the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; in His dealings with Israel himself at the entrance into the promised land, the return from the captivity, the first preaching of the Gospel, the destruction of Jerusalem, a remnant only was saved. It is said in tones of compassion and mercy, that a remnant should be saved. The remnant should return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God (Isa 10:20; add Isa 10:21-22; Isa 6:9-13, etc.). The Lord of hosts shall be for a crown of glory to the residue of His people Isa 28:5. The Lord shall set His Hand to recover the remnant of His people which shall be left (Isa 11:11, add 16). I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them Jer 23:3. Publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel Jer 31:7. Yet I will leave a remnant, that ye may have some that escape the sword among the nations Eze 6:8. Therein shall be left a remnant which shall be brought forth Eze 14:22. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel (Mic 2:12; add Mic 4:7 : Mic 5:3, Mic 5:7-8). Who is a God like Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? Mic 7:18. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity (Zep 3:13; add Zep 2:9). The residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city Zec 14:2. It is then a summary of the declarations of the prophets, when Paul says, Even so, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded Rom 11:5, Rom 11:7. And so the prophet says here;
Whom the Lord shall call – He had said before, whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. Here he says, that they who should so call on God, shall themselves have been first called by God. So Paul, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord 1Co 1:2. It is all of grace. God must first call by His grace; then we obey His call, and call upon Him; and He has said, call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me Psa 50:15. God accounts our salvation His own glory.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joe 2:32
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This gracious promise is an instance of the merciful providence of God, so universally displayed in His prophetic revelations, whereby, in the midst of His severest threats of vengeance, He still reserved for His people a refuge against despair. Observe how fatal are the consequences of that state of mind against which it was intended to be a remedy. Despair of Gods forgive ness thrusts men into a recklessness of their own spiritual concerns, from which no reasoning can arouse them as long as their state of desperation continues. For why should a man turn to God if He will not receive him? The universal doctrine of Scripture is, that none shall have recourse to God in vain. The Jews did not understand the full import of Joels prophecy. No prophecy explains itself, nor can its meaning be thoroughly understood, until the event predicted has come to pass; and then the event and the prophecy will throw light upon each other, and the wise counsel of God from the beginning will be made manifest. We find the fulfilment of Joels prophecy in the early times of the Christian dispensation, and especially in the siege and capture of the holy city. From the dangers of those days the converted Jews escaped. That fulfilment is typical of a more general judgment to come. The third chapter of Joel must be considered as a prophecy hitherto unaccomplished. Some think it refers to the return of the Jews to their own land. (James Randall, M. A.)
A great proclamation
I. The time of this proclamation is present. The time spoken of by Joel began at Pentecost. The Holy Ghost, who then came down to earth, has never returned; He is still in the midst of the Church, performing moral and spiritual miracles in our midst. To-day complete salvation is promised to every one that believeth in Jesus.
II. The wide range of the proclamation. Whosoever. All classes, all ages, all conditions, all degrees of guilt and misery and wickedness.
III. How plain and simple is the requirement. Call on the name of the Lord. This is The plain mans pathway to heaven. Believe and live. What does calling on the name of the Lord mean?
1. To believe in God as He reveals Himself in Scripture.
2. To call upon His name in prayer.
3. To confess that name.
As the requirement is plain, so the assurance of blessing is positive. Shall be saved. Remember that this is a personal blessing to you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A wide Gospel
I. As uttered by Joel. It has a special reference to national and temporary circumstances. Joel depicts the judgments of God on Judah, and calls to repentance. He exhorts to trust in the Lord for deliverance. Then predicts extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; and hints at terrible convulsions of nature in the last times.
II. As quoted by St. Peter (Act 2:21).
1. He gives to the whole passage a Christian signification. Sees in the events of the day of Pentecost an accomplishment of verses 28, 29. Quotes the text as an exhortation to his hearers to call on the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. As reiterated by St. Paul (Rom 10:13). The text now gains its widest Christian meaning.
2. It is coupled here with Isa 28:16, and made applicable to the whole world.
3. It is thus extensive; none are excluded. Intensive; every individual is exhorted to personal faith in Jesus.
IV. As true to ourselves.
1. It points to a means of safety.
(1) Pro 18:10.
(2) Jesus is our Lord.
(3) Running to and into Him is renouncing all trust in self, and taking shelter in His merits and atonement.
2. By a simple way.
(1) Illustrate by Act 25:11-12.
(2) A believing appeal to Jesus means deliverance from the curse of an offended law, from the penalty of sin.
(3) Salvation by His intercession.
3. Open to all.
(1) Illustrate by Deu 19:2-3.
(2) Jesus is the refuge of all sinners.
(3) Every one may be saved by Him.
None are so sin-stricken that they cannot call. None so guilty that they may not call. None so righteous that they have no need to call. (J. H. Barnett.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 32. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord] col asher yikra beshem Yehovah, “All who shall invoke in the name of Jehovah.” That CHRIST is the Jehovah here mentioned appears plain from Ro 10:13-15, where the reader had better consult the notes. “This refers,” says Bp. Newcome, “to the safety of the Christians during the Jewish and the Roman war.” It may: but it has a much more extensive meaning, as the use of it by St. Paul, as above, evidently shows. Every man who invokes Jehovah for mercy and salvation by or in the name, JESUS-that very name given under heaven among men for this purpose-shall be saved. Nor is there salvation in any other; and those who reject him had better lay these things to heart before it be too late.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem] Our blessed Lord first began to preach the Gospel in Mount Zion, in the temple, and throughout Jerusalem. There he formed his Church, and thence he sent his apostles and evangelists to every part of the globe: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Of the Jews there was but a remnant, a very small number, that received the doctrine of the Gospel, here termed the remnant that the Lord should call; kore, whom he calleth. Many were called who would not obey: but those who obeyed the call were saved; and still he delivers those who call upon him; and he is still calling on men to come to him that they may be saved.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Yet when nature seems out of course, and such terrible convulsions overthrow all states and kingdoms, and nothing but ruin and destruction appear on every side, yet then most certainly
it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord; whoso heareth the gospel, repenteth of sin, believeth in Christ, and prayeth for grace, peace, and glory; whoso worshippeth the Father through the Son in truth and faith;
shall be delivered; either delivered from those sad outward afflictions, or else, which is infinitely better, from eternal miseries, which will swallow up the unbelieving and impenitent world. When the Jews who rejected Christ were destroyed by the Romans, all (as Eusebius reports) the Jews that believed in Christ and submitted to the gospel escaped.
In Mount Zion; in the true church, typified by Zion, the city of David; and in Jerusalem; not local Jerusalem; there was the chief place of slaughter, blood, fire, and death; but mystical Jerusalem, the church and city of the Messiah;
shall be deliverance; salvation, whether temporal or eternal, or both;
as the Lord hath said; according as God hath promised; and this promised deliverance gives the believer satisfaction and rest, whether in life or by death.
And in the remnant, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also, whom the Lord shall call; called of God to be his peculiar people; called to the knowledge of Christ, to profess his name, to believe in Christ, and by him to wait for eternal life and glory, Joh 10:16; Act 13:46; Rom 11:4,5,7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. call on . . . name of . . .LordHebrew, JEHOVAH.Applied to Jesus in Ro 10:13(compare Act 9:14; 1Co 1:2).Therefore, Jesus is JEHOVAH;and the phrase means, “Call on Messiah in His divineattributes.”
shall be deliveredasthe Christians were, just before Jerusalem’s destruction, by retiringto Pella, warned by the Saviour (Mt24:16); a type of the spiritual deliverance of all believers, andof the last deliverance of the elect “remnant” of Israelfrom the final assault of Antichrist. “In Zion and Jerusalem”the Saviour first appeared; and there again shall He appear as theDeliverer (Zec14:1-5).
as the Lord hath saidJoelherein refers, not to the other prophets, but to his own wordspreceding.
callmetaphor from aninvitation to a feast, which is an act of gratuitous kindness (Lu14:16). So the remnant called and saved is according to theelection of grace, not for man’s merits, power, or efforts (Ro11:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered,…. Or “saved”, as in Ac 2:21; from those miseries and calamities before described, from the impending ruin and destruction of the city; and so it was, that those that believed in Christ, that were in the city, had an intimation of it beforehand, and removed from thence to a place called Pella w, and so escaped being involved in the common calamity: though this also may be understood of a spiritual deliverance and salvation by Christ, from sin, Satan, and the world, and from the second death, and wrath to come, and out of the hands of every enemy; which such share in who call on the name of the Lord, pray to him for grace and mercy, life and salvation, through Christ; that have a spiritual knowledge of God in Christ, real and sincere desires after him, and trust and confidence in him, which this phrase supposes; and which also includes the whole worship of God, internal and external, performed in a spiritual and evangelical manner; see Ro 10:13;
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said; either by this prophet, or some others before him; see
Ps 14:7; this cannot be understood literally of Mount Zion and Jerusalem, unless it be of deliverance out of it; not in it, for Jerusalem was the seat of blood, confusion, and distress; but mystically of the church of Christ, often called Zion and Jerusalem,
Heb 12:22; hither the deliverer came, here he is, and to be seen; from hence the word of the Lord came, the Gospel of salvation, which proclaims deliverance to the captives; here it is to be heard, met with, and found, Isa 2:3;
and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call; not merely externally, by the outward ministry of the word; but internally, according to his purpose, and by his grace, powerfully and effectually, to the special blessings of grace here, and eternal glory hereafter: these are the remnant according to the election of grace; the little flock to whom God gives the kingdom; the few that enter in at the strait gate; the little city, and few men in it, delivered by the poor wise man; these share in the deliverance of Zion, and shall be certainly and completely saved, with an everlasting salvation. This may respect not only the remnant, or a small number of the Jews that believed in Christ, upon his first coming, and the preaching of the Gospel by his apostles, but the call and conversion of them in the latter day; which sense connects the words better with the following chapter.
w Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 5. p. 75.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We said yesterday that the Prophet denounced future calamities, that he might thus stimulate men, distressed by many evils, to seek God: we indeed know how tardy we are by nature, except the Lord goads us continually. The subject, then, on which we discoursed yesterday tended to show, that as so many and so grievous calamities would press on the Jews, all would be miserable who fled not to God, and that this consolation only would remain to them in their extreme evils: but now the Prophet seasonably adds, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Having then stimulated men to seek God, he now gives them firm assurance of being saved, provided they in sincerity and from the heart fled to God.
This is indeed a remarkable passage, for God declares that the invocation of his name in a despairing condition is a sure port of safety. What the Prophet had said was certainly dreadful, — that the whole order of nature would be so changed, that no spark of light would appear, and that all places would be filled with darkness. What, therefore, he says now is the same as though he declared, that if men called on the name of God, life would be found in the grave. They who seem to be even in despair, and from whom God seems to have taken away every hope of grace, provided they call on the name of God, will be saved, as the Prophet declares, though they be in so great a despair, and in so deep an abyss. This circumstance ought to be carefully noticed; for if any one takes this sentence of the Prophet by itself, though then it would not be frigid, it would not yet be so striking; but when these two things are joined together, — that God will be the judge of the world, who will not spare the wickedness of men, but will execute dreadful vengeance, — and that yet salvation will be given to all who will call on the name of the Lord, we see how efficacious the promise is; for God offers life to us in death, and light in the darkest grave.
There is, therefore, great importance in the expression, והיה ueie, ‘Then it shall be;’ for the copulative is to be regarded as an adverb of time, ‘Then whosoever shall invoke the name of the Lord,’ etc. And he uses the word “deliver;” for it was needful to show that the saved differ nothing from the lost. Had the Prophet used the word “preserve,” he would have spoken less distinctly; but now when he promises deliverance, he bids us to set up this shield against trials even the heaviest; for God possesses power sufficiently great to deliver us, provided only we call on him.
We now then understand what the Prophet had in view: He shows that God would have us to call on him not only in prosperity, but also in the extreme state of despair. It is the same as though God had called to himself the dead, and declared that it was in his power to restore life to them and bring them out of the grave. Since then God invites here the lost and the dead, there is no reason why even the heaviest distresses should preclude an access for us or for our prayers; for we ought to break through all these obstacles. The more grievous, then, our troubles are, the more confidence we ought to entertain; for God offers his grace, not only to the miserable, but also to those in utter despair. The Prophet did not threaten a common evil to the Jews, but declared that by the coming of Christ all things would be full of horror: after this denunciation he now subjoins, ‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.’
But as Paul cites this place in Rom 10:11, and extends it to the Gentiles, we must inquire in what sense he takes the testimony of the Prophet. Paul means to prove that adoption was common to the Gentiles, that it was lawful for them to flee to God, and familiarly to invoke him as a Father: ‘Whosoever,’ he says, ‘shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ He hence proves that the Gospel ought to have been preached even to the Gentiles, as invocation arises from faith: for except God shines on us by his word, we cannot come to him; faith, then, is ever the mother of prayer. Paul seems to lay stress on the universal particle, Whosoever; as though he said, that Joel did not speak of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, that he testified that God would indiscriminately, and without exception, receive all who would seek him. But Paul appears to misapply the Prophet’s words; for Joel no doubt addresses here the people, to whom he was appointed as a teacher and prophet. What Paul then applies generally to all mankind seems not to have been so intended by the Prophet. But to this there is an easy answer; for the Prophets after having spoken of the kingdom of Christ, had no doubt this truth in view, that the blessing in the seed of Abraham had been promised to all nations; and when he afterwards described the miserable state in which the whole world would be, he certainly meant to rouse even the Gentiles, who had been aliens from the Church, to seek God in common with his elect people: the promise, then, which immediately follows, is also addressed to the Gentiles, otherwise there would be no consistency in the discourse of the Prophet. We therefore see that Paul most fitly accommodates this place to his subject: for the main thing to be held is this, that the blessing in Christ was promised not only to the children of Abraham but also to all the Gentiles. When, therefore, the Prophet describes the kingdom of Christ, it is no wonder that he addresses the Jews and Gentiles in common: and then, what he said of the state of the world, that it would be full of horrible darkness, undoubtedly refers, not to the Jews only, but also to the Gentiles. Why was this done, except to show that nothing else remains for them but to flee to God? We then see that an access is here opened to the Gentiles that they may with one consent call on God together with the Jews.
If there is promised salvation and deliverance to all who shall call on the name of the Lord, it follows as Paul reasons that the doctrine of the Gospel belongs to the Gentiles also; for their mouths must have otherwise been closed, yea, and the mouths of us all: had not God himself anticipated us by his word, and exhorted us to pray, we must have been dumb. It would have been a great presumption in us to present ourselves before God, except he had given us confidence and promised to hear us. If then the liberty of praying is common to all, it follows that the doctrine of salvation is common to all. We must now also add, that as deliverance is promised to all who shall call on the name of God, his own power is taken from God, when salvation is sought in any other but in him alone: and we know that this is an offering which he claims exclusively for himself. If, then, we desire to be delivered, the only remedy is, to call on the name of Jehovah.
He afterwards adds, For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Jehovah has promised. The Prophet here intimates, that though the people might seem apparently to have been destroyed, yet God would be mindful of his covenant so as to gather the remnant. Such, indeed, was the slaughter of the people, that no hope whatever, according to the flesh, remained; for they were scattered through various parts of the world; there was no social body, no distinct nation, no civil government, no worship of God. Who, then, could have thought that the Church of God would survive? Nay, the probability was, that after thirty or fifty years, the name of Abraham and of his seed would have become wholly extinct; for they had joined in one body with the Chaldees and the Assyrians. That scattering then was, as it were, the death of the whole nation. But God, by Joel, declares here, that there would yet be deliverance in mount Zion and in Jerusalem; that is, “Though I shall for a time exterminate this people, that the land may remain desolate, there shall yet be a restoration, and I will again gather a certain body, a Church, on mount Zion and in Jerusalem.” This is the substance.
We learn from this place, that however much God may afflict his Church, it will yet be perpetuated in the world; for it can no more be destroyed than the very truth of God, which is eternal and immutable. God indeed promises, not only that the state of the Church shall be perpetual, but that there will be, as long as the sun and moon shall shine in heaven, some people on earth to call on his name. Since it is so, it follows, that the Church cannot be utterly subverted or wholly perish, however severely and heavily the Lord may chastise it. However great then the scattering of the Church may be, the Lord will yet gather members, that there may be a people on earth to show, that he who is in heaven is true and faithful to his promises. And this truth deserves a careful attention; for when we see the Church scattered, immediately this doubt creeps into our minds, “Does God intend wholly to destroy all his people, — does he mean to exterminate all the seed of the faithful?” Then let this passage be remembered, “In mount Zion there will be deliverance,” after the Lord shall have punished the profane despisers of his name, who abused his patience, and falsely professed his name.
But he adds, As Jehovah has promised, which serves for confirmation; for the Prophet bids us here to regard God rather than our own state. When indeed we believe our eyes, we cannot but think sometimes that it is all over with the Church; for when God inflicts heavy punishment on his servants, there seems to us no remedy; and when we believe the diseases of the Church to be incurable, our hearts immediately fail us, except God’s promise comes to our minds. Hence the Prophet recalls our thoughts to God, as though he had said, “Judge not of the safety of the Church by sight, but stand and rely on the word of God: he has spoken, he has said, that the Church shall be perpetual.” Let us plant our foot on this promise, and never doubt but that the Lord will perform what he has declared.
But it is subjoined by the Prophet as a sort of correction, And in the remnant whom Jehovah shall call: and it was necessary to state this distinctly, lest hypocrites, as they usually do, abuse what had been said. They who occupy high stations in the Church, and pass in name for the children of God, swell, we know, with great confidences and boldly trifle with God; for they think that he is bound to them, when they make a show either of external badges or of profession, in which they glory before men: they think this display sufficient. We may indeed gather from many parts of Scripture, that the Jews were inflated with this false presumption of the flesh, that they imagined God to be bound to them. Hence the Prophet shows, that he did not address all the Jews indiscriminately, because many of them were spurious children of Abraham, and had become degenerated. If then under this pretense alone they wished to lay hold on the promise of salvation, the Prophet shows that they were excluded from the Church of God, since they were not legitimate children, after having departed from the faith and piety of their father Abraham. He therefore mentions remnant: and by this word be means, in short, that the whole multitude could not be saved, but only a small number.
When therefore we speak of the salvation of the Church, we ought not to gather into one bundle all who profess themselves to be the children of God; for we see that hardly one in a hundred worship God in truth and without hypocrisy, for the greater part abuse his name. We see, at this day, how dishonest is the boasting of the Papists; for they think that the Church of God dwells among them, and they scorn us because we are few. When we say that the Church of God is to be known by the word and the pure administration of the sacraments, “Indeed,” they say, “could God have forsaken so many people among whom the gospel has been preached?” They think that after Christ has been once made known, his grace remains fixed, and cannot by any means be taken away whatever may be the impiety of men. Since then the Papists so shamefully lay claim to the name of Church, because they are many in number, it is no wonder that the Prophet, who had the same contest with the Jews and Israelites, had here expressly mentioned a remnant; as though he said, “In vain do the ungodly boast of God’s name, since he regards them not as his people.” The same truth we observe in Psa 15:0, and in Psa 24:0; where the citizens of the Church are described; they are not those who pride themselves on external symbols, but who worship God with a sincere heart, and deal honestly with their neighbors; such dwell on the mountain of God. It was not a difficult thing for hypocrites to thrust themselves into the sanctuary, and to present there their sacrifices to God; but the Prophet shows that none are owned by God, but those who have a sincere heart and pure hands. So also in this place Joel says, that this Church indeed would be saved, but not the vast multitude, — who then? the remnant only.
But the clause which follows must be noticed, Whom Jehovah shall call. We have already seen that the Church of God consists often of a very small number; for God counts not any his children, but those who devote themselves sincerely and from the heart to his service, as Paul says ‘Whosoever calls on the name of God, let him depart from iniquity;’ and many such are not found in the world.
But it is not enough to hold, that the Church of God is only in the remnant; it must be also added that the remnant abide in God’s Church for no other reason but that the Lord has called them. Whence then is it that there is a portion in the Church, which shall remain safe, while the whole world seems to be doomed to destruction? It is from the calling of God. And there is no doubt but that the Prophet means by the word, call, gratuitous election. The Lord is indeed often said to call men, when he invites them by the voice of his gospel; but there is what surpasses that, a hidden call, when God destines for himself those whom he purposes to save. There is then an inward call, which dwells in the secret counsel of God; and then follows the call, by which he makes us really the partakers of his adoption. Now the Prophet means, that those who will be the remnant shall not stand by their own power, but because they have been called from above, that is, elected. But that the election of God is not to be separated from the outward call, I allow; and yet this order ought to be maintained, that God, before he testifies his election to men, adopts them first to himself in his own secret counsel. The meaning is, that calling is here opposed to all human merits, and also to virtue and human efforts; as though he said, “Men attain not this for themselves, that they continue a remnant and are safe, when God visits the sins of the world; but they are preserved by his grace alone, because they have been chosen.” Paul also speaks of the remnant in Rom 11:0, and wisely considers that passage, ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand.’ [1Kg 19:18.]
It is then God’s peculiar province to keep those who fail not: and hence Paul says that they are the remnant of grace; for if God’s mercy were taken away, there would be no remnant among the whole human race. All, we indeed know, are worthy of death, without any difference: it is therefore the election of God alone which makes the difference between some and others. Thus we see that the gratuitous goodness of God is extolled by the Prophet, when he says that a remnant shall be saved, who shall be called by the Lord: for it is not in the power of men to keep themselves unless they are elected; and the gratuitous goodness of God is the security as it were of their salvation. Now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(32) Deliverance.Or, perhaps better, those that escape. St. Paul quotes from this verse (Rom. 10:13), transferring the reference to the Messianic advent, to prove the universality of the deliverance effected by our Lord, who abolished the difference between Jew and Greek. In His Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, freed from the persecutions and defilements of the world, there is salvation for all who call upon the name of the Lord, their names are inscribed upon the roll as citizens of Zion.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. Though a day great and terrible, it will be such only to the nations (Joe 3:2); the true worshipers of Jehovah need have no fear.
Whosoever A very comprehensive word, but it is clear from the context, “for in Mount Zion and Jerusalem there shall be those that escape” (R.V.) that the prophet is concerned primarily with the Jews.
Call on the name of Jehovah Not merely with a cold ceremonial or heartless repetition of phrases, but with spiritual, heartfelt worship. To call is equivalent to to worship. The condition of escape is not membership in the Israel according to the flesh; even those within Israel need something more to assure their salvation on that day namely, a true, whole-hearted devotion to God.
For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance Better, with R.V., “those that escape.” This limits salvation to the Jews, and, among the Jews, to only a part.
As Jehovah hath said This sounds as if Joel were referring to an earlier prophecy. The promise actually occurs in Oba 1:17; it is quite possible, therefore, that Joel is dependent on the latter.
The remnant Those that escape the judgment of the great day. The thought of the prophet seems to be that not only the Jews who are in Jerusalem on that day will escape, but that some true worshipers are found also among the Jews who are scattered among the nations. These Jehovah will call to his salvation. That the prophet has in mind believers among the heathen is made improbable by the threat of the utter destruction of the nations in chapter 3.
The apostle Peter quoted Joe 2:28-32 a, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as having been fulfilled by that event. However, the fulfillment cannot be limited to that one event; the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was simply the beginning of the fulfillment which is being continued even now, and will continue until all flesh shall be blessed with divine illumination. Therefore the promise should be regarded “not as a prediction of the event of Pentecost, but of the new order of things of which the day of Pentecost was the first great example” (A.B. Davidson, Expositor, 1888, p. 208).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joe 2:32. Whosoever shall call, &c. This expression seems to have a double meaning in the sacred writings. Sometimes it signifies to call oneself by or to be called by the name of Jehovah: thus, Gen 4:26. As it is in the margin of our Bibles; Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord; that is to say, to be called the sons of God, in opposition to those who were called the sons of men. See Gen 6:2. Jdg 18:29. Isa 44:5; Isa 48:1. In other places, the expression unquestionably signifies solemn invocation or worship of God; and in whatever sense you understand it, the meaning is, that all Christians, who are named from Christ their Lord, or all the true worshippers of God, should escape the calamities of this dreadful day. It is added, In mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance. This terrible day was to fall on mount Sion and Jerusalem; nevertheless the true worshippers of God should escape thence, and not share in the common calamity. Nor should this be the case only of those who dwelt in Jerusalem; but of all the rest whom Jehovah should call: the remainder of all the true worshippers and obedient and faithful followers of God, not only in Jerusalem, but in all other places, should, according to the promise of God, have a merciful escape, and a gracious deliverance afforded them. See Mat 24:21-22. All these predictions were abundantly accomplished in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. See Chandler.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The heavy judgment coming upon the people of Israel is here set forth.
1. The alarm is spread. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain, to give notice of the invading foe, and to prepare them for the approaching danger. This was the priest’s office, who, as the watchman upon Zion’s walls, must warn sinners of the wrath of God ready to light upon them, and urge them, while there is hope, to flee from it. The judgments at the door should make the people tremble, and the fatal day is nigh, to punish the transgressors, a day of darkness, &c. when the very sun should be obscured with clouds of locusts; or, as their phrases may signify, the deepest calamities would overtake them; as the morning spread upon the mountains, coming suddenly, and spreading universally and irresistibly; or the air should be so darkened with the swarms of insects, that at mid-day the light should not exceed the dawning of the morning.
2. The army is marshalled in battle array. A great people and a strong, supplying by multitude what they singly want in might; nor were there ever before, nor shall there be hereafter, such ravages committed by them in Judaea. As they advanced, they swept the land as with the besom of destruction; and behind them the country looked black and barren as if fire had devoured it; so that what was as the garden of Eden before them, quickly appeared as a desolate wilderness, nothing escaping their devouring jaws. Swift and bold as horses, they rushed on; and, as rattling chariots over the rugged mountains, the sound of them was heard afar off, leaping as they advanced, and terrible as the roaring of devouring fire, which spreads resistless on every side; marching firm, embodied in exact battalion, as soldiers keep their ranks. In vain against them the sword is drawn; they elude the stroke, or those that fall are not found wanting, so vast is their multitude. Not only the country is devoured by them, but the cities are covered, the houses are filled with them; and these were the forerunners and emblems of the Chaldean armies, which should in like manner spread desolations on every side, destroy the country; sack the cities, plunder and make captive the inhabitants, and leave Judaea a wilderness without man or beast. Note; (1.) There is no fence against God’s judgments. (2.) The sound of them in other lands should be to us loud calls to repentance.
3. Great would be the terror spread through the had by these invaders. The people, seized with pangs as a woman in travail, would be in the deepest consternation, and every face gather blackness, livid as the corpse from which the spirit is fled. The very earth shall quake before them, the heavens tremble, and the luminaries thereof be darkened, obscured by the locusts; or figuratively, it bespeaks the deep distress of the inhabitants, from the king upon the throne to the lowest of the people. And well indeed may they tremble who see the wrath of God thus revealed against them. For,
4. This is his doing. It is his army, that marches under his direction, animated by his voice, who, as their captain, leads them on to victory, too numerous to be opposed, too strong to be resisted, since they are sent to execute his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? Note; The impenitent sinner must needs perish, unable to oppose the arm of Omnipotence, or bear up under the strokes of his fierce anger.
2nd, To oppose these desolating judgments, when they came, were vain; to avert them, before they arrived, was yet possible; and the way is prescribed:
1. By a penitent return to God.
[1.] Let a solemn fast be proclaimed, (see chap. Joe 1:14.) and all summoned to appear before God, from the highest to the lowest, from the hoary head to the babe that sucks the breast; the universal judgment called for deep and universal abasement: nor must the bridegroom or bride be absent. In public calamities all private joys must be swallowed up.
[2.] Let the priests, with deepest mourning and most fervent supplications, pour forth their complaints to God, and, standing between the porch and the altar, on which now no sacrifices smoked, with tears of heartfelt woe cry unto God, if mercy yet is to be found, Spare thy people, O Lord: they plead that relation which, though an aggravation of their sin, yet ministers a ground for hope that yet the Lord would not utterly cast them off; and give not thine heritage to reproach, by driving them into strange countries to seek for food, or suffering them, thus impoverished, to fall an easy prey into the hands of their enemies, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Not only their lives and characters but God’s glory was concerned; and for his own great name’s sake, though they deserved no favour, they must plead for his interposition. Note; (1.) The ministers of God must themselves be deeply affected, if they would affect the hearts of their people. (2.) Mercy is all that a miserable sinner can ask at God’s hand.
[3.] Let the people join their ministers with prayers and tears, and heartfelt humiliation, and (without which every outward expression of distress is but hypocrisy) turn unto the Lord their God in simplicity and truth, deeply convinced of the evil of their sins, and truly abhorring themselves in the view of them; putting away the accursed thing, and cleaving to the Lord with full purpose of heart, through his grace, to approve henceforward their unshaken fidelity to him. In this way, sinners as we are, a door of hope will yet be opened for us.
2. The most powerful arguments are suggested to engage them hereunto. He is called the Lord your God, who has not yet disclaimed his relation to them, for he is gracious and merciful; and, though highly provoked, he is not inexorable; he delights not in the death of a sinner; slow to anger, unwilling, even after repeated offences, to destroy the guilty; waiting with astonishing patience; and of great kindness, ready to receive him the moment he relents and returns; and repenteth him of the evil, changing the afflictive dispensations of his providence towards the penitent, and, instead of wrath, thinketh upon mercy: and surely nothing can break the obdurate heart, if such tender pity and undeserved compassion lead us not to repentance. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, averting the heavy temporal calamities threatened, of which they might entertain good hope if they turned truly to him, and have a blessing behind him, not as departing from them, but as coming to their rescue, and staying the ravages of the locusts; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord our God? for their desires were more intent on having God’s altar supplied than their own tables covered; and this was a gracious evidence of the truth of their repentance.
3. God gives them the strongest assurance that he will hear their prayer, and will both help them and glorify himself. He will be jealous for his land, for his great name’s sake, and pity his people in their deep distress. Their plenty shall be restored, their reproach be removed, and their devourers destroyed, and cast in heaps into the sea, filling the air with the stench of their putrid carcases; because he hath done great things, because of the mischief they have occasioned; or, for he will do great things, God will make bare his arm for their rescue, and do for them the great things promised in this and the following verses. Some apply this to the destruction of Sennacherib’s army; and probably these locusts, both in their invasion and destruction, were a figure of the Assyrians. Note; God will assuredly hear when his believing people cry; and their enemies and his shall know the fierceness of his wrath.
3rdly, Many great and precious promises are here added, for the comfort and joy of the faithful people of God.
1. Their fears shall be all removed. The Lord will do great things for them; rescuing them wonderfully from the hands of every enemy, whether the locusts or Chaldeans; as he will also save the souls of sincere believers in Christ Jesus from every spiritual foe, and deliver them from the fears of guilt, and the powers of corruption.
2. Their joys shall be restored. Their temporal comforts shall abound; the devastations of the locusts shall be repaired; the pastures which had been devoured shall spring afresh, watered with the dew of heaven. The rain, moderately descending in its season, shall fertilize the soil, and cause their corn, their vineyards, their olive and fig-trees, to shoot vigorously, and bring forth fruit abundantly; so that their garners should be filled, and their fats overflow. And, what is far better than even their restored plenty, he will give them spiritual consolation, and the sanctified enjoyment of their comforts. They shall rejoice in the Lord their God, ascribing to him the praise of all their mercies, and happy in a sense of his love and favour. By experience now they shall be brought to know God’s gracious presence in the midst of them, and that he alone is God, even their God, and none else; all idols being utterly rejected by them, and his great name alone adored and exalted: and this will be most eminently the case, when that teacher of righteousness (as the words may be rendered, instead of the former rain moderately) whom God would send, even the divine Messiah, should come, and by his own obedience unto death work out, and in his Gospel direct us to, that great atonement and redemption, which is the grand source of every believer’s joy.
3. They shall never be ashamed; never have cause to be so, through want of food, as before: or rather, the Lord their confidence will never disappoint the hope of his faithful people; he will be their rock and refuge in every time of need.
4. The very beasts that groaned and cried to God, shall have the cause of their fears and cries removed. The pastures of the wilderness do spring; even to them hath God respect, for his mercies are over all his works, Jon 4:11.
4thly, The promises from Joe 2:28 to the conclusion of the chapter, evidently look forward, in the first place, to the introduction of the Gospel, and its establishment in the world; and, secondly, to those last and glorious days which shall precede and usher in the universal reign of Christ: and in all the former troubles of the people of God, the prospect of these blessed days was a great support under their afflictions.
1. There shall be a most plenteous effusion of the Spirit, as on the apostles at the day of Pentecost, to which this prophesy is expressly applied, Act 2:16-17 and afterwards upon all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, who should be made partakers of the Holy Ghost, both of his miraculous powers, as well as the ordinary gifts and graces that he bestows; the latter of which still continue, though the former have ceased, yet perhaps not for ever. Old and young, persons of both sexes, should alike partake of this blessing, and even the meanest servants and hand-maidens not be excluded from this unspeakable gift. Thus they should be enabled to prophesy; either to foretel things to come, as Agabus, the daughters of Philip, and others, Act 11:28; Act 13:1; Act 21:9-10.; or to speak the truths of God to the edification of others; or to join in his praises with enlarged hearts; in all of which senses the word prophesy is used.
2. A scene of dreadful prodigies shall follow, which had their primary accomplishment in the dreadful ravages of the Roman army in Judaea, and the strange sights and appearances in the air which ushered in the destruction of Jerusalem, and will also precede the final coming of the eternal Judge, and usher in the great and the terrible day of the Lord. Happy would it he for the sinner, if the tremendous views of that awful day’s approach might alarm his conscience, and awaken his concern, to fly to the bosom of Jesus for shelter from the wrath to come, that he may be hidden there in the day of the Lord’s fierce anger.
3. The faithful in that great day are secured from fear of evil. It shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered, as those were who believed in Jesus, and fled to Pella on the approaching siege of Jerusalem. And, more generally, this must be extended to all Christ’s faithful people, who in and through him find salvation from all the great enemies of their souls; and, waiting upon him by faith in ceaseless prayer, obtain from him help in every time of need. For in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, in the gospel church, shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, who is faithful to all his promises; and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call, when he collects his ancient people from all their dispersions, cuts off all the obstinately impenitent, and brings in the fulness of the Gentiles. Blessed and happy are they who have a part in this salvation: may my lot be with them!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! let us both pause over this most striking Chapter, and looking up for the fulfilment of the sweet promise at the close of it, in our own personal interest beg that we may indeed, and in truth, realize and enjoy the precious blessings there contained. Let us observe what is here said, then look to the Gospel and mark the full confirmation of it; and then, as souls convinced of divine truth, ponder well the sacred contents, and see to it that we neither of us fail of this grace of God.
Behold how solemn and how sure the great day of God is proclaimed. There is, there must be a day coming, in which all these alarming judgments, which the former part of this Chapter relates in figure, will be manifested in reality! Oh! for grace to sanctify the solemn truths in our houses, and families! Ye ministers of my God! do ye not find cause, in the present awful hour, when the Lord’s judgments are in the earth, to blow the trumpet in our British Zion, and to sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain! Yea! do ye not weep between the porch and the altar, and bear testimony to the truths of your Lord in an holy jealousy and zeal for his honor; crying out with one of old; mine eyes run down with water because men keep not thy law! Ye fathers and mothers of the rising generation! will ye not gather your little ones, and present yourselves with the very infants that hang at the breast before the Lord, to implore the Lord’s mercy in the present impending evils, that the Lord may be jealous for his land, and pity his people. And oh! ye humble followers of the Lord Jesus, on whom this spirit of grace hath been poured out, the sure token of Jesus’ love, and your interest in him! See to it, that ye manifest a spirit of grace and supplication, hath been given you, and is continually in your daily walk, by besieging the throne with earnest cries and prayers, that will take no denial for Zion in her present alarming state of languishing. Go, my brethren, go into the very retirings of a covenant God in Christ, seeing that you have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus; and give him no rest nor peace, until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Oh! for the Holy Ghost, in his infinite mercy, to pour out of his sevenfold gifts, in a copious fulness, upon all the Lord’s heritage, now Jesus is returned to glory, that all the redeemed may be earnest at the throne, until there shall be a deliverance in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joe 2:32 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Ver. 32. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever, &c. ] Lest any good soul, hearing the former heavy menaces, should say with the disciples, Mar 10:26 , “Who then can be saved?” or, with those despondents in Jer 2:25 , “There is no hope,” the prophet concludeth with this comfortable corollary,
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be delivered
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance
As the Lord hath said
And in the remnant whom God shall call
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in mount Zion. Compare Isa 46:13; Isa 59:20. Oba 1:17. Zec 14:1-5. Rom 11:26.
Jerusalem. As distinct from Mount Zion. See App-68.
deliverance = a delivered remnant. Compare Joe 2:3.
as = according as.
hath said: by Joel and other prophets.
remnant = an escaped set,
shall call = is going to call.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
remnant
(See Scofield “Jer 15:21”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
that: Psa 50:15, Jer 33:3, Zec 13:9, Act 2:21, Rom 10:11-14, 1Co 1:2
for: Isa 46:13, Isa 59:20, Isa 59:21, Oba 1:17, Oba 1:21, Joh 4:22, Rom 11:26, Heb 12:22
and in: Isa 10:22, Isa 11:11, Isa 11:16, Jer 31:7, Mic 4:6, Mic 4:7, Mic 5:3, Mic 5:7, Mic 5:8, Joh 10:16, Act 2:39, Act 15:17, Rom 8:28-30, Rom 9:24, Rom 9:27, Rom 11:5, Rom 11:7, 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14
Reciprocal: Gen 4:26 – Enos Gen 12:8 – called Psa 87:2 – The Lord Psa 105:1 – call Isa 1:9 – a very Isa 4:2 – them that are escaped Jer 8:19 – the Lord Amo 9:8 – saving Mic 7:18 – the remnant Zec 13:8 – but Zec 14:16 – that every Act 7:59 – calling Act 26:6 – the promise Rom 10:13 – whosoever Rev 14:1 – mount
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Joe 2:32. Shall he delivered is ex-pressed by shall be saved in Acts 2; Acts 21, which shows that the two ex-pressions mean the same. To call on the name of the Lord, means to look to Him for the means of salvation. (See Act 22:16; Rom 10:13.) Mount Zion and Jerusalem are named together because the former was a special spot in the latter city. Deliverance means the same as be saved in Act 2:21. Remnant is from sariyd, which Strong defines a survivor.” It is said with reference to the Jews who were to be still serving God at the time the Spirit was to be given. It is true that the benefits of the Gospel were for all nations, but the Jews were given the first opportunity of receiving them. (See Act 13:46; Rom 1:16; Rom 2:10.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joe 2:32. And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Whosoever, having heard the gospel, shall repent and believe in Christ, and call on him, or shall make application to God in prayer through him, shall be delivered Namely, from temporal and eternal destruction: thus St. Paul interprets this passage, Rom 10:13. For to believe in Christ, give ourselves up to him, and profess ourselves his disciples, is the most effectual, and indeed the only effectual means of escaping the judgments coming upon the unbelieving and disobedient, and likewise of being preserved from the wrath to come. The prediction, as it stands here in the prophecy, chiefly refers to those in Jerusalem who believed in Jesus as the true Messiah; for these, having a firm faith in what he had said, upon seeing some of the signs come to pass which he had foretold should precede the destruction of Jerusalem, they quitted the city in time, and so saved their lives, and escaped all those dreadful calamities which the unbelieving Jews suffered during the siege. For in mount Zion, &c., shall be deliverance The gospel is described as taking its rise from Jerusalem, and as being from thence carried to all nations. The deliverance, therefore, here said to be in mount Zion, is deliverance by embracing the gospel, which had its rise there. Or mount Zion and Jerusalem may be here put for the gospel church, the mystical Jerusalem, the city of the Messiah, the only place of salvation present and eternal. As the Lord hath said That is, according to his promises and declarations by his prophets. And in the remnant Or, among the remnant, whom the Lord shall call Namely, to believe in Christ, and by him to wait for eternal life. Or, whom the Lord shall appoint to be preserved. This may primarily be understood of those who were converted by the preaching of Christ and his apostles, and who therefore escaped the vengeance which involved the rest of the nation, Act 2:40; 1Th 2:16. These are called the , such as should be saved, or delivered, Act 2:47. But there is another remnant of the Jews included in this promise, who shall be converted at the end of the world, when the obstinate and incorrigible shall be destroyed. In this sense the word remnant is often understood: see the margin. This sense of the word agrees well with what follows in the next chapter.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:32 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call {u} on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the {x} remnant whom the LORD shall call.
(u) God’s judgments are for the destruction of the unbelievers, and to exhort the godly to call upon the name of God, who will give them salvation.
(x) Meaning the Gentiles by this; Rom 10:13 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The promise continued that whoever would call on the name of Yahweh would be delivered. The day of the Lord described earlier in this chapter involved God judging the enemies of His people, and this eschatological day of the Lord also involves divine judgment. Therefore the deliverance in view must be from divine judgment (cf. Rom 11:26). Specifically, there will be people on Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem who escape, even among the survivors of previous distresses whom Yahweh has chosen for deliverance (cf. Isa 51:3; Zec 13:8).
The Apostle Paul quoted this verse and applied it to spiritual salvation (Rom 10:13). His usage does not fulfill what God promised here, namely, physical deliverance before the coming day of the Lord. Paul meant that just as God will deliver all who call on Him in that future day of the Lord, so He will deliver all who call on Him for salvation from sin. They will avoid the terrible day when all unbelievers will suffer condemnation by their Judge (Rev 20:11-15).
The Apostle Peter also quoted this passage (Joe 2:28-32) in his Pentecost sermon (Act 2:14-36). He said that what the people of Jerusalem were witnessing, which they mistook for drunkenness, was what Joel had spoken of (Act 2:16-21; cf. Act 10:45). Many interpreters believe that Peter meant that Joel’s prophecy was completely fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. [Note: E.g., Dillard, p. 295.] This can hardly be what he meant, however, because much of what Joel predicted in this passage did not occur on the day of Pentecost, specifically the celestial phenomena. The day of Pentecost was not the day of the Lord that Joel predicted.
Another interpretation of Peter’s meaning is that part of what Joel predicted was fulfilled on Pentecost, and the rest awaits fulfillment in the future day of the Lord. [Note: E.g., Kaiser, p. 189.] This double or partial fulfillment view makes most sense to me. God poured out His Spirit on the church on the day of Pentecost, but He will also pour out the Spirit on Israel in the eschatological future. The problem with this view is that the promises of the outpouring of the Spirit and the other miracles are so intertwined that separating them by thousands of years seems unnatural. Moreover, Peter quoted the whole passage in Joel, not just the promise of the Spirit’s outpouring. In contrast, Jesus only quoted part of Isa 61:1-3 when He said that that prophecy was fulfilled when He read it in the Nazareth synagogue (Luk 4:18-21).
A third possible interpretation is that Peter meant that what happened on Pentecost was similar to what Joel had prophesied God would do in the future day of the Lord. He drew a comparison and pointed out an analogy, but he did not claim fulfillment. Similarly, Jesus said, "This is my body," in the Upper Room. Both expressions are metaphors, according to this view. This view sees the entire fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy in the eschatological future. The outpouring on the day of Pentecost was simply a foreview of what the Lord will do in the future (cf. Gal 3:28). The day of Pentecost was not the day of the Lord that the prophets spoke of here and elsewhere.
There is not much practical difference between views two and three. View two sees the outpouring on Pentecost as a partial fulfillment, and view three sees it as a foreview of the fulfillment. [Note: For a fuller discussion of the views regarding Peter’s use of this prophecy, see my notes on Acts 2:16-21.]
"Peter quoted this passage in Acts 2 because (a) it related to the outpouring of God’s Spirit (Act 2:4; Act 2:15-16), (b) it stressed his theme of repentance (Act 2:21; Act 2:37-39), and (c) it fit with his understanding that the Jews were about to enter the Day of the Lord, leading up to the return of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus (Act 1:6-8; Act 2:36; Act 3:19-21)." [Note: Dyer, p. 743. Cf. Wiersbe, p. 338.]
The day of the Lord that Joel predicted here begins with the Tribulation (cf. Dan 9:24-27; Revelation 6-18), continues through the return of Christ and the Millennium (cf. Revelation 19-20), and culminates in the eternal state (cf. 2Pe 3:10-13; Revelation 21-22). The signs in view picture what the Book of Revelation describes further as occurring in the Tribulation, and the pouring out of the Spirit will occur at the beginning of the Millennium. Then all believers will possess the Spirit and will have the ability to receive fresh revelations from the Lord. Forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are two of four great blessings of the New Covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:24-30).
"Joel envisioned the outpouring of the Spirit as being confined to Jews, but in the progress of revelation and history, we discover that Gentiles are included as well, for they too are incorporated into the new covenant community." [Note: Chisholm, Handbook on . . ., p. 374.]