Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joel 2:1
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
1. Blow ye the horn in Zion ] see, in justification of this rendering of shphr, on Amo 2:2. The horn is to be sounded, in order to give notice of impending danger, and arouse the people to meet it (cp. on Amo 3:6).
sound an alarm ] The word, though it often has the sense of shouting, is used also to denote the long, continuous blast of the horn, which, in contradistinction to a succession of short, sharp notes, was the signal of danger (Num 10:9, though the reference there is not to the shphr, but to the atztzerh).
tremble ] aroused viz., by the ‘alarm,’ from their security.
for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is at hand (or near)] Repeated, with some variation, from Joe 1:15. at hand (or near), exactly as Joe 1:15, Joe 3:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Part I. Chap. Joe 1:2 to Joe 2:17
Description of the present calamity (ch. 1.). The terrible “Day of Jehovah,” of which it is the harbinger (Joe 2:1-11), but which may yet be averted by the nation’s timely repentance (Joe 2:12-17).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Blow ye the trumpet – The trumpet was accustomed to sound in Zion, only for religious uses; to call together the congregations for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months and their solemn days with festival gladness. Now in Zion itself, the stronghold of the kingdom, the Holy City, the place which God chose to put His Name there, which He had promised to establish, the trumpet was to be used, only for sounds of alarm and fear. Alarm could not penetrate there, without having pervaded the whole land. With it, the whole human hope of Judah was gone.
Sound an alarm in My holy mountain – He repeats the warning in varied expressions, in order the more to impress peoples hearts and to stir them to repentance. Even the holy mountain of God was to echo with alarms; the holiness, once bestowed upon it, was to be no security against the judgments of God; yea, in it rather were those judgments to begin. So Peter saith, The time is come, that judgment must begin at the house of God 1Pe 4:17. The alarm being blown in Zion, terror was to spread to all the inhabitants of the land, who were, in fear, to repent. The Church of Christ is foretold in prophecy under the names of Zion and of the holy mountain. It is the stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth Dan 2:34-35. Of it, it is said, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob! Isa 2:3. And Paul says, ye are come unto mount Zion and unto the city of the living God Heb 12:22. The words then are a rule for all times. The judgments predicted by Joel represent all judgments unto the end; the conduct, prescribed on their approach, is a pattern to the Church at all times. : In this mountain we must wail, considering the failure of the faithful, in which, iniquity abounding, charity waxeth cold. For now (1450 a.d.) the state of the Church is so sunken, and you may see so great misery in her from the most evil conversation of many, that one who burns with zeal for God, and truly loveth his brethren, must say with Jeremiah, Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach Jer 14:17.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble – o: We should be troubled when we hear the words of God, rebuking, threatening, avenging, as Jeremiah saith, my heart within me is broken, all my bones shake, because of the Lord and because of the words of His holiness Jer 23:9. Good is the trouble which people, weighing their sins, are shaken with fear and trembling, and repent.
For the Day of the Lord is at hand – The Day of the Lord is any day in which He avengeth sin, any day of Judgment, in the course of His Providence or at the end; the day of Jerusalem from the Chaldees or Romans, the day of antichrist, the day of general or particular judgment, of which James says, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Behold the Judge standeth before the door Jam 5:8-9. : Well is that called the day of the Lord, in that, by the divine appointment, it avengeth the wrongs done to the Lord through the disobedience of His people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joe 2:1
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain.
A ministry morally awakening
In the first eleven verses of this chapter we have a continuation of the address of the prophet to the priests of Judah. It was the duty of the priests to blow the trumpet for the assembling of the congregation, for the removing of the camp, and when they went forth to war; here the trumpet is blown to announce danger, and the consequent need of attention to certain moral requirements.
I. That there are times when the Church is in especial need of a ministry morally awakening. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain. Zion was the meeting-place of the people of God, and may be taken as a type of the Church of God; here the trumpet was used only for sounds of alarm and fear. There was need that those who dwelt in the holy mountain should be aroused to a sense of the impending danger; we should have thought that they would have been sensitive to the judgment of God without such an awakening cry.
1. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it is not solicitous for the moral rectitude of the nation in which it is placed. It would appear as if Zion were ignorant of, or as if it were indifferent to, the apostasy all around it.
2. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it is not alive to the peril of souls it should endeavour to instruct.
3. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it reposes undue confidence in external organisations.
II. That at such times the ministry morally awakening must be charged with the solemn truths of advancing judgment. For the day of the Lord cometh, and is nigh at hand. Thus the ministry of the trumpet announced a terrible day of approaching judgment. The congregations of the present day are averse to these trumpet ministries, they prefer more gentle strains of truth, and prefer to be lulled to slumber rather than to be awakened to stern activity. The Church has need of its sons of thunder as well as of its sons of consolation. It announced these judgments as
(1) Certain,
(2) Near,
(3) Terrible.
III. That the announcement of such truths should have a solemn effect upon those to whom they are addressed. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.
1. It should awaken solemn apprehension. The people would know that the sounding of the trumpet in Zion would foretoken evil to them, and would be deeply apprehensive of the nature and extent of the judgment to follow.
2. It should awaken deep repentance. The terrors of the Lord should persuade men to deep repentance, and should become a forcible argument for a renewed life.
3. It should awaken devout gratitude. While men mourn the advancing calamities they should indeed be devoutly grateful that their advent is so clearly made known, and that they do not come unexpected upon them.
Lessons–
1. That the Church requires to be aroused to a sense of its duty.
2. That the pulpit must give utterance to solemn and awakening truths.
3. That an earnest Church may avert a national judgment. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Warning trumpets
The trumpet is lifted up this time in warning. Sometimes it is lifted up in festival. The trumpet will do one of two things, the performer must tell it what to do. So with every ministry, and every instrumentality of life and nature; it is the intelligent, responsive, directing man that must say what is to be done with the silver lute of spring, or the golden instrument of summer, or the cornucopia of autumn, or the great wind of winter that makes the earth cold and bleak. The trumpet will foretell a coming battle, or it will call to an infinite feast; the man behind it must use it according to the occasion. It is even so with the Bible. There is no trumpet like the Bible for warning, alarm, excitement, a great blare at midnight shaking the whole air with tones of alarm; nor is there any instrument like the Bible for sweetness, gentleness, tenderness, an instrument that talks music to the heart, and that assures human fear that the time of apprehension has passed away. Warning has always been given by the Almighty before His judgments have taken effect. Yet there has always been some measure of suddenness about Divine judgments. The reason is that we cannot sufficiently prepare for them. We may know they are coming, we may tell even to a day when the judgment thunder will lift up its voice; yet when it does sound its appeal it startles and shocks and paralyses the world. Yet, though the warning has always been given, it has always been despised. How few people heed the voice of warning! They call that voice sensational. Were the old preachers to return with their old hell they would have but scant welcome to-day. They were men of the iron mouth; they were no Chrysostoms, golden-throated and golden-lipped; they were men who, knowing the terrors of the law, withheld them not from the knowledge of the people, but thundered right mightily even beside the altar of the Cross. Now all this is in many instances ruled out as theologically behind the time, as from a literary point of view vulgar and odious, and as from a spiritual point of view detestable, and not likely to work in man mightily in the direction of persuasion. We become familiar with warning. No man really believes in the day of judgment. But the warnings given us by men are often partial, and are not unfrequently falsely directed There is not a preacher in the world who could not make a great reputation by thundering against heterodoxy. The world loves such vacant thunder; the Church is willing to subscribe liberally to any man who will denounce the heterodoxy of other people. What we do want is, not to thunder warningly against mistaken speculation, but thunders sevenfold in loudness, to be delivered against the current iniquities of the day. Warning is needed, but let it be of the right kind; warning is a needful element in every ministry, but deliver it at the right door. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The trumpet of Zion
I. What is meant by blowing the gospel trumpet? Trumpets were and are used in martial music, and in festive song. Commissioned by the Lord, and in dependence on God the Spirit, the ministers of Jesus Christ come forth before their people, to offer them, in Gods name, and on His own terms, pardon and peace, life and salvation, through Christ; or, if they reject these, to denounce to them, in His name, the sentence of death and destruction. This is blowing the trumpet. Not content with this, ministers solemnly warn the self-righteous and the unrighteous, the professor and the hypocrite, and those who are at ease in Zion, of their approaching danger. This is sounding an alarm. But what reception have you given to this Gospel?
II. To whom, and where, is this trumpet commanded to be blown, and this alarm to be sounded? Had he been sent to Nineveh, or to the profane part of his own people, we should not feel surprised, but he was sent to the princes and nobles, priests and Levites, aged and honourable; even to his neighbours and personal friends. He was to show to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins. What was the duty of Joel is the duty of every minister of the Gospel now; and the difficulties are very nearly the same. A minister must be faithful to his oath, his conscience, his people, and his God. One reason for blowing the trumpet needs consideration. It is this. The day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand. (J. White Niblock, D. D.)
Warning ministries
The two sentences mean the same thing. To blow the trumpet is to sound an alarm. And the scene is the mount of Gods holiness–the holy mountain where this alarm is to be sounded.
I. What are the enemies against whorl an alarm must be sounded?
1. Ignorance.
2. Superstition.
3. Self-righteousness.
4. Conformity to the world.
5. Hypocrisy.
II. Reasons why this opportunity is taken for sounding an alarm. (The clergyman was pleading on behalf of Sunday and national schools.) The children of the poor need education. The children of this generation will be the fathers and mothers of the next.
III. Offer some encouragement. If you are disposed to listen to the alarm sounded, and endeavour to mind your ways. The first encouraging sign will be that you will learn to know your own state. Second encouraging sign, that you confess your sins. The next sign, your fairly setting to work, from this very hour, to see what can possibly be done for the everlasting good of these children. A most pleasing sign would be this, a looking up to God to do that for these little ones, which you have it not in your power to do for them. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
Alarm in Gods house
I. A sacred scene. The trumpet is to sound the alarm in Zion–in Gods holy mountain–among His people who professed His name. He was to tell them of the awful judgments the Almighty would bring upon the land.
II. Our places of worship may be designated holy mountains.
1. Because there a holy God is worshipped. We cannot feel too much veneration and respect for the house of God. The places where we draw near to God are sacred spots. Holiness becometh His house.
2. Because there holy gifts are imparted. We meet together to receive blessings from God. There He sits, waiting to bestow on us all needful grace, to dispense His favours and to display His power. Holiness is that which we require in order to our enjoyment of God.
3. Because there holy anticipations are realised. We leave for a time the world and its concerns, and endeavour to attend on God without distraction, and feel ourselves surrounded with the Deity.
III. A solemn charge. Blowing of trumpets an ancient custom in Israel (Num 10:3-10). There was a peculiar way of blowing the trumpet when it sounded an alarm. Ministers are to sound the trumpet of invitation, and the trumpet of encouragement. But there are periods when we are to sound an alarm, and show Gods threatened judgments. Concerning four things you need warning.
1. Formality in the exercises of religion. A dead and dull spirit has crept into our churches.
2. Conformity to the world. Here is our special danger in the present day. As Christians, we are delivered from this present evil world. Ought we then to love it, to imbibe its spirit, and follow its maxims? How difficult the line of demarcation between the Church and the world!
3. Deadness to the power of prayer. Prayer is necessary to our prosperity in the Divine life; the more we are in it the more we shall thrive. But is there not a deficiency in the manner and spirit of this exercise, both alone and in the social meeting? God has answered prayer in every age.
4. Inactivity in the cause of Christ. Prayer without exertion is presumption. There is a want of united effort. Union is strength, and there is more of this wanted. A united people is likely to be a prosperous, thriving people–a comfort to the minister, an honour to religion, and a blessing to the world. (Ebenezer Temple.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER II
The prophet sounds the alarm of a dreadful calamity, the
description of which is most terribly worked up, 1-11.
Exhortation to repentance, fasting, and prayer, that the Divine
judgments may be averted, 12-17.
God will in due time take vengeance on all the enemies of pure
and undefiled religion, 18-20.
Great prosperity of the Jews subsequent to their return from
the Babylonish captivity, 21-27.
Joel then makes an elegant transition to the outpouring of the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, 28-30;
for so these verses are explained by one of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb. See Ac 2:16-21.
Prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, which was
shortly to follow the opening of the Gospel dispensation, 31.
Promises of safety to the faithful and penitent; promises
afterwards remarkably fulfilled to the Christians in their
escape to Pella from the desolating sword of the Roman army,
32.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion] This verse also shows that the temple was still standing. All assemblies of the people were collected by the sound of the trumpet.
The day of the Lord cometh] This phrase generally means a day of judgment or punishment.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Blow ye the trumpet: the prophet continueth his advice or exhortation to the priests, who were by office appointed to summon the solemn assemblies, and to call them together by sound of trumpet or cornet; and so would he have the priests to gather the people together to fast, and weep, and pray.
In Zion; which taken largely is the same with Jerusalem, though strictly taken it is the hill on which the city of David, or his royal palace, did stand.
Sound an alarm; give notice that all may be prepared against the enemy, let it be known that the enemy is coining, what danger attends his coming, and what provision should be made.
In my holy mountain; in Jerusalem, in Moriah, on which the temple did stand.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; stand in awe of Gods majesty, fear his displeasure, and do this with a penitent heart, all you that dwell in the land of Canaan, the parched and burnt land.
For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand: see Joe 1:15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Blow . . . trumpetto soundan alarm of coming war (Num 10:1-10;Hos 5:8; Amo 3:6);the office of the priests. Joe 1:15is an anticipation of the fuller prophecy in this chapter.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain,…. This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to blow the trumpets for calling solemn assemblies to meet in Zion, the temple built there, called from thence the holy mountain of God. Here the trumpet is ordered to be blown with a broken quivering voice, a tarantantara, to give notice of approaching danger by the locusts, or those enemies signified by them, and to prepare for it, and return to God by repentance;
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; at the judgments of God coming upon them, and the alarm of them:
for the day of the Lord cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand; the time fixed by him to punish a wicked people, and to pour out his wrath and vengeance on them; the day of his visitation, not in love, but in anger.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
By blowing the far-sounding horn, the priests are to make known to the people the coming of the judgment, and to gather them together in the temple to pray. Joe 2:1. “Blow ye the trumpet upon Zion, and cause it to sound upon my holy mountain! All the inhabitants of the land shall tremble; for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is near.” That this summons is addressed to the priests, is evident from Joe 2:15, compared with Joe 2:14. On tiqu shophar and haru , see at Hos 5:8. “Upon Zion,” i.e., from the top of the temple mountain. Zion is called the holy mountain, as in Psa 2:6, because the Lord was there enthroned in His sanctuary, on the summit of Moriah, which He claimed as His own. Ragaz , to tremble, i.e., to start up from their careless state (Hitzig). On the expression, “for the day of Jehovah cometh,” see Joe 1:15. By the position of at the head of the sentence, and that in the perfect instead of the imperfect, as in Joe 1:15, the coming of the day of Jehovah is represented as indisputably certain. The addition of k qarobh (for it is near) cannot be accounted for, however, from the fact that in the spiritual intuition of the prophet this day had already come, whereas in reality it was only drawing near (Hengstenberg); for such a separation as this between one element of prophesying and another is inconceivable. The explanation is simply, that the day of the Lord runs throughout the history of the kingdom of God, so that it occurs in each particular judgment: not, however, as fully manifested, but simply as being near or approaching, so far as its complete fulfilment is concerned. Joel now proclaims the coming of the day in its full completion, on the basis of the judgment already experienced, as the approach of a terrible army of locusts that darkens the land, at the head of which Jehovah is riding in all the majesty of the Judge of the world. The description is divided into three strophes thus: he first of all depicts the sight of this army of God, as seen afar off, and its terrible appearance in general ( Joe 2:2 and Joe 2:3); then the appearance and advance of this mighty army (Joe 2:4-6); and lastly, its irresistible power (Joe 2:7-11); and closes the first strophe with a figurative description of the devastation caused by this terrible army, whilst in the second and third he gives prominence to the terror which they cause among all nations, and over all the earth.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Threatenings of Judgment. | B. C. 720. |
1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Here we have God contending with his own professing people for their sins and executing upon them the judgment written in the law (Deut. xxviii. 42), The fruit of thy land shall the locust consume, which was one of those diseases of Egypt that God would bring upon them, v. 60.
I. Here is the war proclaimed (v. 1): Blow the trumpet in Zion, either to call the invading army together, and then the trumpet sounds a charge, or rather to give notice to Judah and Jerusalem of the approach of the judgment, that they might prepare to meet their God in the way of his judgments and might endeavor by prayers and tears, the church’s best artillery, to put by the stroke. It was the priests’ business to sound the trumpet (Num. x. 8), both as an appeal to God in the day of their distress and a summons to the people to come together to seek his face. Note, It is the work of ministers to give warning from the word of God of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And though it is not the privilege of Zion and Jerusalem to be exempted from the judgments of God, if they provoke him, yet it is their privilege to be warned of them, that they might make their peace with him. Even in the holy mountain the alarm must be sounded, and then it sounds most dreadful, Amos iii. 2. Now, shall a trumpet be blown in the city, in the holy city, and the people not be afraid? Surely they will. Amos iii. 6. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; they shall be made to tremble by the judgment itself; let them therefore tremble at the alarm of it.
II. Here is a general idea given of the day of battle, which cometh, which is nigh at hand, and there is no avoiding it. It is the day of the Lord, the day of his judgment, in which he will both manifest and magnify himself. It is a day of darkness and gloominess (v. 2), literally so, the swarms of locusts and caterpillars being so large and so thick as to darken the sky (Exod. x. 15), or rather figuratively; it will be a melancholy time, a time of grievous affliction. And it will come as the morning spread upon the mountains; the darkness of this day will come as suddenly as the morning light, as irresistibly, will spread as far, and grow upon them as the morning light.
III. Here is the army drawn up in array (v. 2): They are a great people, and a strong. Any one sees the vast numbers that there shall be of locusts and caterpillars, destroying the land, will say (as we are all apt to be most affected with what is present), “Surely, never was the like before, nor ever will be the like again.” Note, Extraordinary judgments are rare things, and seldom happen, which is an instance of God’s patience. When God had drowned the world once he promised never to do it again. The army is here describe to be, 1. Very bold and daring: They are as horses, as war-horses, that rush into the battle and are not affrighted (Job xxxix. 22); and as horsemen, carried on with martial fire and fury, so they shall run, v. 4. Some of the ancients have observed that the head of a locust is very like, in shape, to the head of a horse. 2. Very loud and noisy–like the noise of chariots, of many chariots, when driven furiously over rough ground, on the tops of the mountains, v. 5. Hence is borrowed part of the description of the locusts which St. John saw rise out of the bottomless pit. Rev 9:7; Rev 9:9, The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared to the battle; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to the battle. Historians tell us that the noise made by swarms of locusts in those countries that are infested with them has sometimes been heard six miles off. The noise is likewise compared to that of a roaring fire; it is like the noise of a flame that devours the stubble, which noise is the more terrible because that which it is the indication of is devouring. Note, When God’s judgments are abroad they make a great noise; and it is necessary for the awakening of a secure and stupid world that they should do so. (3.) They are very regular, and keep ranks in their march; though numerous and greedy of spoil, yet they are as a strong people set in battle array (v. 5): They shall march every one on his ways, straight forward, as if they had been trained up by the discipline of war to keep their post and observe their right-hand man. They shall not break their ranks, nor one thrust another,Joe 2:7; Joe 2:8. Their number and swiftness shall breed no confusion. See how God can make creatures to act by rule that have no reason to act by, when he designs to serve his own purposes by them. And see how necessary it is that those who are employed in any service for God should observe order, and keep ranks, should diligently go on in their own work and stand in one another’s way. 4. They are very swift; they run like horsemen (v. 4), run like mighty men (v. 7); they run to and fro in the city, and run upon the wall, v. 9. When God sends forth his command on earth his word runs very swiftly, Ps. cxlvii. 15. Angels have wings, and so have locusts, when God makes use of them.
IV. Here is the terrible execution done by this formidable army, 1. In the country, v. 3. View the army in the front, and you will see a fire devouring before them; they consume all as if they breathed fire. View it in the rear, and you will see those that come behind as furious as the foremost: Behind them a flame burns. When they are gone, then it will appear what destruction they have made. Look upon the fields that they have not yet invaded, and they are as the garden of Eden, pleasant to the eye, and full of good fruits; they are the pride and glory of the country. But look upon the fields that they have eaten up and they are as a desolate wilderness; one would not think that these had ever been like the former, and yet so they were perhaps but the day before, or that those should ever be made like these, and yet so they shall be perhaps by to-morrow night; yea, and nothing shall escape them than can possibly be made food for them. Let none be proud of the beauty of their grounds any more than of their bodies, for God can soon change the face of both. 2. In the city. They shall climb the wall (v. 7), they shall run upon the houses, and enter in at the windows like a thief (v. 9); when Egypt was plagued with locusts, they filled Pharaoh’s houses and the houses of his servants,Exo 10:5; Exo 10:6. The locusts out of the bottomless pit, Satan’s emissaries, and missionaries of the man of sin, do as these locusts. God’s judgments too, when they come with commission, cannot be kept out with bars and bolts; they will find or force their way.
V. The impressions that should hereby be made upon the people. They shall find it to no purpose to make opposition. These enemies are invulnerable and therefore irresistible: When they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded, v. 8. And those that cannot be hurt cannot be stopped; and therefore before their faces the people shall be much pained (v. 6), as the merchants are in pain for their trading ships when they hear they are just in the mouth of a squadron of the enemies. “One is in pain for his field, another for his vineyard, and all faces gather blackness,” which denotes the utmost consternation imaginable. Men in fear look pale, but men in despair look black; the whiteness of a sudden fright, when it is settled, turns into blackness. What is the matter of our pride and pleasure God can soon make the matter of our pain. The terror that the country should be in is described (v. 10) by figurative expressions: The earth shall quake and the heavens tremble; even the hearts that seemed undaunted, so firm that nothing would frighten them, as immovable as heaven or earth, shall be seized with astonishment. Or when the inhabitants of the land are made to quake it seems to them as if all about them trembled too. Through the prevalency of their fear, or for want of the supports of life which they used to have, their eye shall wax dim and their sight fail them, so that to them the sun and moon shall seem to be dark, and the stars to withdraw their shining. Note, When God frowns upon men the lights of heaven will be small joy to them; for man, by rebelling against his Creator, has forfeited the benefit of all the creatures. But, though this is to be understood figuratively, there is a day coming when it will be accomplished in the letter, when the heavens shall be rolled together like a scroll, and the earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Particular judgments should awaken us to think of the general judgment.
VI. We are here directed to look up both him who is the commander-in-chief of this formidable army, and that is God himself, v. 11. It is his army; it is his camp. He raised it; he gives it commission; he utters his voice before it, as the general gives orders to his army what to do and makes a speech to animate the soldiers; it is the Lord that gives the word of command to all these animals, which they exactly observe. Some think that with this cloud of locusts God sent terrible thunder, for that is called, The voice of the Lord, and was another of the plagues of Egypt, and this made the heavens and the earth tremble. It is the day of the Lord (as it was called, v. 1), for in this war we are sure he carries the day; it must needs be his, for his camp is great and numerous. Those whom he makes war upon he can, as here, overpower with numbers; and whoever he employs to execute his word, as the minister of his justice, is sure to be made strong and par negotio–equal to what he undertakes; whom God gives commission to he girds with strength for the executing of that commission. And this makes the great day of the Lord very terrible to all those who in that day are to be made the monuments of his justice; for who can abide it? None can escape the arrests of God’s wrath, can make head against the force of it, or bear up under the weight of it, 1Sa 6:20; Psa 76:7.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOEL – CHAPTER 2
THE DAY OF THE LORD
Verses 1-10:
Invasion From the North or Coronet Preparation For
Armageddon
Verse 1 calls for the blowing of a trumpet by the priest, the sound of a battle-call in Zion, Jerusalem, the city of God. It was his duty, Num 10:8. The people are still called to tremble, to sorrowful, genuine repentance, asserting that “the Day of the Lord (Jehovah) cometh,” of a certainty, for it is (exists) nigh at hand. The first prophetic allusion is to the Assyrian invasion and captivity, yet the more spiritual application is to that future day or final preparation of the coming of the Lord, v. 1-11, 28-32; Joe 3:9-21. When warned, men become responsible, Eze 33:7-11.
Verse 2 describes that coming day of Israel’s last judgment as one of darkness and gloominess with clouds of thick darkness, like the swarms and plagues of locusts that often obscured the sun, as described Exo 10:14-15; Exo 10:21-23; Isa 8:22. It certifies that there is yet to come a time of intense calamity, Isa 8:22. A great and strong people shall assault them, bringing Divine judgment, 2Ki 18:5; 2Ki 23:5.
Verse 3 describes how a consuming, purging fire is before them, and an undying flame continually burns behind them, to remove all evidence of fruitful Eden from among them in all Judaea. It is further asserted “nothing shall escape them,” the ravages of the Assyrian enemy. What the locusts, drought, and fire had not destroyed, seized or crippled, of food, man and beast, the Assyrians would seize to use or destroy according to their heathen will, 1Ch 19:10; Isa 10:17; Isa 51:3; Eze 36:35.
Verse 4 describes the swarming enemies of Judah. They shall be, in appearance, like horses geared for battle, with battle gear on their bodies, Job 39:20; Rev 9:7. And they shall run like horsemen, very swiftly, on nimble feet. These seem to be figurative, not literal locusts, as in Rev 9:11, with a king over them.
Verse 5 further describes their movement to be as that of leaping chariots or high bouncing chariots on rough mountains. And their sound shall also be similar to the crackle of fire and roaring of waves of fire-flames that devour the stubble. It is the sound of strong people, arrayed in battle gear, moving in for total conquest of the land. The idea is that as swarms of noisy locusts devour the mountain vegetation, then swoop down into the lower plains, so shall these armies come upon Judah.
Verse 6 prophecies that before the face of the enemy invaders the people of Judah shall be much pained, caused to suffer very much. Their faces shall gather blackness from the dusty drought blowing up from the scorching earth even up to the tops of the mountains of Judah, Isa 13:8; Nah 2:10; Jer 30:6.
Verse 7 relates that “they shall run like mighty men,” sturdy, well-trained, hardened soldiers. They are to climb the city walls in Jerusalem, like men of war, not by-pass or skirt the city. This invading throng, like a mighty army of locusts, will not break their ranks for anything. When their eye and heart are set on a certain goal they will neither turn aside nor turn back, but go doggedly on. They are conquerors and swift as God’s instruments of judgment on an idolatrous people, Pro 30:27.
Verse 8 explains the degree of rigid discipline each enemy warrior has achieved. One shall not thrust another fellow-soldier with sword or spear by day or by night. Each marches in “his own path,” his appointed way, doing his own job. So skilled are these
warriors that if they fall on the sword they will not be wounded, because by reflex they had been trained to turn the cutting edge from themselves, even in a sudden fall. For any Israelite in Judah to oppose such a warrior would seem to be suicidal; only later will Israel’s enemy be broken, Dan 11:22.
Verse 9 prophecies how these agile, fleet footed, trained warriors, upon their invasion, will run to and fro, darting from building to building, running upon the city wall, climb to the top of the houses, enter them like thieves, through the windows. Like the invasion of plagues of insects, among beasts and upon men, this Assyrian army is to come upon Judah, bent on her destruction, and void of fear. To resist her was vain, Exo 10:6; Like a thief this army should come, unexpectedly, Jer 9:21. Even so shall the coming of the Lord be, Mat 24:29; Mat 24:44; Luk 12:39-40; 1Th 5:2; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 16:15.
Verse 10 explains that the earth (nature) heaven and earth, shall feel the presence of this mighty, slaughtering army of Assyria. As an expression of Divine judgment over the people and land, Mat 24:29, this army is an instrument of long delayed vengence upon the Lord’s rebellious, idolatrous land, Rev 18:8. Though this was historically fulfilled in the Assyrian invasion of Judah and Israel it has a certain prophetic element as yet to be fulfilled in Daniel’s 70th week of God’s regathering and judging Israel in her own land, as the time of Armageddon approaches, at the end of the Gentile Dispensation and the church age, Rev 16:14; The end of the Day of the Lord, the battle of Armageddon, and of the 70th week of Israel’s final national judgment is described, Rev 19:11-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
This chapter contains serious exhortations, mixed with threatening; but the Prophet threatens for the purpose of correcting the indifference of the people, whom we have seen to have been very tardy to consider God’s judgments. Now the reason why I wished to join together these eleven verses was, because the design of the Prophet in them is no other than to stir up by fear the minds of the people. The object of the narrative then is, to make the people sensible, that it was now no time for taking rest; for the Lord, having long tolerated their wickedness, was now resolved to pour upon them in full torrent his whole fiery. This is the sum of the whole. Let us now come to the words.
Sound the trumpet, he says, in Zion; cry out in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble. The Prophet begins with an exhortation. We know, indeed that he alludes to the usual custom sanctioned by the law; for as on festivals trumpets were sounded to call the people, so also it was done when anything extraordinary happened. Hence the Prophet addresses not each individually; but as all had done wickedly, from the least to the greatest, he bids the whole assembly to be called, that they might in common own themselves to be guilty before God, and deprecate his vengeance. It is the same as though the Prophet had said that there was no one among the people who could exempt himself from blame, for iniquity had prevailed through the whole body. But this passage shows that when any judgment of God is impending, and tokens of it appear, this remedy ought to be used, namely, that all must publicly assemble and confess themselves worthy of punishments and at the same time flee to the mercy of God. This, we know, was, as I have already said, formerly enjoined on the people; and this practice has not been abolished by the gospel. And it hence appears how much we have departed from the right and lawful order of things; for at this day it would be new and unusual to proclaim a fast. How so? Because the greater part are become hardened; and as they know not commonly what repentance is, so they understand not what the profession of repentance means; for they understand not what sin is, what the wrath of God is, what grace is. It is then no wonder that they are so secure, and that when praying for pardon is mentioned, it is a thing wholly unknown at this day. But though people in general are thus stupid, it is yet our duty to learn from the Prophets what has always been the actual mode of proceeding among the people of God, and to labor as much as we can, that this may be known, so that when there shall come an occasion for a public repentance, even the most ignorant may understand that this practice has ever prevailed in the Church of God, and that it did not prevail through inconsiderate zeal of men, but through the will of God himself.
But he bids the inhabitants of the land to tremble. By these words he intimates, that we are not to trifle with God by vain ceremonies but to deal with him in earnest. When therefore, the trumpets sound, our hearts ought to tremble; and thus the reality is to be connected with the outward signs. And this ought to be carefully noticed; for the world is ever disposed to have an eye to some outward service, and thinks that a satisfaction is given to God, when some external rite is observed. But we do nothing but mock God, when we present him with ceremonies, while there is no corresponding sincere feeling in the heart; and this is what we shall find handled in another place.
The Prophet now adds threatening, that he might stir up the minds of the people: For coming, he says, is the day of Jehovah for nigh it is. By these words he first intimates that we are not to wait until God strikes us, but that as soon as he shows signs of his wrath, we ought to anticipate his judgment. When God then warns us of his displeasure, we ought instantly to solicit pardon: nigh, he says, is the day of Jehovah. What follows has a regard to the end which we have mentioned; for the Prophet paints the terrible judgment of God with the view of rousing minds wholly stupid and indifferent.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JOELOR A PROPHETS CALL TO REPENTANCE
Joe 1:1 to Joe 3:21
IN taking up the study of the Book of Joel, we want to express the hope that many of you will read and reread this volume. Its brevity makes its reading the task of only a single sitting, and its clear forceful style is sufficiently attractive to invite a second perusal; while a third and fourth review would aid materially in making evident the plan of the Book, and the purposes of the Prophet.
In discussing Hosea, we called attention to the fact that the order of these volumes, as they appear in our Bible, was not necessarily the order of their origin. The date of the Book of Joel is difficult to determine. Hosea told us the king under whom he prophesied, made mention also of the four kings of Judah who reigned in his time; and so definitely fixed for us the period of his prophecy. But the Book of Joel provides no such guide-posts. We know nothing of his personal history, and although the name of his father is given, that name appears nowhere else in sacred story. So we are left without information regarding his family. The result is that students of the Word have parted company when they came to discuss Joels place in history, the majority putting him back as far as 810 to 758 B.C. while others, with some array of arguments, bring him down as late as 500 B. C. We need not stop to enter into this discussion, since what Joel has to say is of equal weight and authority whether uttered at the one time or the other. He was Judahs Prophet, just as Hosea and Amos were Prophets of Israel.
His purpose in writing this prophecy seems to have been twofold, to reveal Gods judgment against sin, and the Day of the Lord, when men should turn from their iniquity to worship * * in spirit and in truth, and the golden Age would be on. In the Hebrew text this Book is divided into four chapters; in your English version, into three chapters; in fact, into no chapters at all. Its form is more like that of a sermon than a book. And while certain parts of it are given to the discussion of certain phases of his subject, the prophecy is worthy to stand as a single discourse, only passing from one subject to another as the preacher makes progress from point to point.
We have elected, therefore, to discuss this volume under terms that will cover the entire Book, following, largely, its own arrangement of thought.
UNFAITHFULNESS AND AFFLICTION
It is not difficult to see that the first chapter opens with a description of a dire affliction which has fallen on the land: an affliction such as had not been in the days of the oldest inhabitants, nor even in the days of their fathers; an affliction which made such an impression upon the generation of Joel that he expected them to tell their children, and their children to repeat it to their grandchildren, and the grandchildren to give it to the generations to come.
The unfaithfulness of Judah was assumed, not described. The Prophets appeal to the people to turn unto the Lord is proof positive that they had turned from the Lord. But he says nothing as to the nature of that turning, and nothing as to the extent of it. It would seem altogether probable that the arrangement of Joel in the Scripture Canon is due to this fact. Hosea had so vividly portrayed the apostasy of Israel and Judah that those who gathered these prophecies into one Book might say Joel fits after Hosea. Hosea tells the condition of the people, and Joel describes the judgments that had come in consequence. If there is any one thought abundantly illustrated in the Old Testament, and often emphasized by the Great Teacher Himself, it is the dire fate of those who are unfaithful to the Lord God. It is found in the writings of practically every Prophet of the Old Testament, and it burns with new meaning when Gods Beloved Son speaks to that subject. In Mat 24:48, we have Jesus description of the faithless servant, and also His severe judgment against him. Joel is not out of date, therefore; he has a message for this generation. It is the message which the Apostle Paul repeated when he said, He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
The affliction, here, is expressed by the processes of natural law. The scourge which Judah saw is brought about by the locust, or grasshopper. George Adam Smith calls our attention to the fact that though the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm and the caterpillar are all mentioned here, they are simply four separate terms for the same devouring insectthe locust, and might be translated properly in these words, That which the shearer left the swarmer hath eaten; that which the swarmer hath left the lapper hath eaten; and that which the lapper hath left the devourer hath eaten.
No man, who has ever looked upon Kansas or Nebraska, in locust years, would charge the Prophet Joel with extravagance in the language which he here employs; and possibly Palestine and vicinity have seen more dreadful scourges. Dr. Doughty, in his volume entitled Arabia Deserta speaks of having seen in this very country clouds of locusts which devoured everything before them: While a traveler to South Africa tells of the space of ten miles on each side of the Sea-cow river, and eighty or ninety miles in length, the whole surface of which was literally covered with these pests; Another was reported, from Syria, concerning a season when the whole face of the mountain was black with them: when the effort to stop their onward march by trenches and fires proved utterly useless; when it required days for their armies to pass a single point, and when the noise of them, as they marched and foraged, was like that of a heavy shower falling on a distant forest. Driver declares that when in an erect position the appearance of these insects, at a little distance, is like that of well-armed horsemen. Ail these testimonies, and more, that might be easily given, corroborate the realism of Joels words in picturing what had occurred to Judahs possessions.
We call your attention to the fact that these insects, which may hatch at any season, in innumerable companies, and march forth to consume the very land itself, were regarded by the Prophet as judgments against Judahs sin. It is so that a great many of those wide-spread calamities that visit neighborhoods, and touch even nations, whether inaugurated of God or no, are yet taken possession of by Him, and employed to teach the afflicted the effects of unfaithfulness. To illustratethe ground often cleaves asunder and earthquakes have shattered its parts, but when one opened at the very feet of Korah and followers and swallowed them up and all that appertained to them, Moses felt it was a Divine judgment against their conspiracy. For a long time people have read Bulwer Lyttons volume The Last Days of Pompeii to see the evident connection between the awful sins of that people, which, like those of Sodom, called to Heaven for judgment, and that fateful hour when the silent mountain, whose solitary flickering light had already sent a word of warning, poured forth a torrent of death, and smote men and women, by the hundreds and thousands, leaving them in the very acts of their iniquity so that when the day of exhuming should come, the Judge would be justified or having overthrown the city.
It is only a short time since, that Martinique, with twenty-five thousand inhabitants, had poured upon it a flood of lava which left but one living man in all its limits. He was preserved not because he was righteous, but because he was so vile that they buried him in the lowest cell of one of their prison houses, and even then his flesh was roasted until he has walked the earth bearing the marks of a judgment like the mark of Cain. Let no man misunderstand me! Jesus Himself once distinctly taught that God was not sending these calamities upon certain individuals because they were sinners beyond the rest.
There were present at that season some that told Him, of the Galilean whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luk 13:1-5).
If Joel saw in this devastation of the land by the locusts an occasion of repentance, it was not for the farmers or gardeners whose fruits and vegetables were most utterly destroyed, but for the whole people to learn the lesson, search themselves and see if there were any wicked way in them! And today Jesus seems to be saying to us what God said to this ancient people, and what His Son said to those who reported the Galilsean blood shed by Pilate, Repent!
God, therefore, is confessedly over all. We doubt if Joel meant to suggest that God had, by any miracle, made ready this myriad of locusts, but he did mean to say that all power in Heaven and in earth is with Him, and whatever comes to pass must be by His permission. Even the offensive thingsHis hand is upon them. Few subjects enjoy a greater agreement on the part of the Old Testament Prophets than this touching the Divine presence. Joels name is significant. The very word means The Lord is God. And who can sound the depths of that word, or explore the heights of that thought? Joseph Parker has justly said, The ease or difficulty with which a man can surrender God depends, if I may say, upon the use to which he has become accustomed to put the mysterious term. If God has been but a nebulous and speechless dreama veneration without a corresponding moralitythe act of surrender will be as indefinite as itself. But in our case, as Christian believers and Christian teachers, God is in every part of our life; He has manifested Himself to us; He has taken up His abode with us; the Spirit of His Son is in our hearts, crying, Abba-Father! He searches us and tries us; He acts directly and judicially upon every motive; He guides us with His eye; He besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us; to Him our hearts aspire in instinctive as well as in reasoned prayer; the spontaneous outstretching of our hands is towards His holy Temple, if haply we may touch His strength, and feel secure because He is almighty. When we do wrong, our eyes are darkened as with a cloud, and when we do well our hearts feel upon them the light of a smile. That is our case now; in such circumstances surrender would be destruction. We have, if I may so put it, gone too far in our use of God to turn away from Him and yet retain our identity intact. We live and move and have our being in God. We have passed the merely argumentative stage. God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. This was the old Jewish conception; this is also the Christian conception; and this is the true conception. God * * over all, God blessed for ever
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.
Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come? (Joe 1:14-15).
This Prophet saw God in the storm just as surely as in the sunshine that was to follow. God was present there in the time of their sorrow and witnessed their suffering just as surely as He would be present when the sorrow had passed, and all sighing had fled. With the great Apostle of the New Testament he believed that in Him we live, and move, and have our being.
REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION
At the end of the eleventh verse of the second chapter he has finished his word-picture of devastation, and has reminded his auditors that the Infinite Father, the Lord of Heaven and earth, is in command of this terrible army, and hence his appeal,
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.
Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? (Joe 2:12-14).
In their affliction He would have His people hear the Fathers voice. It is a blessed suggestion. Our hours of suffering, our seasons of sorrow can be converted into Divine speech, if our hearts turn to Him. As you know by repeated assertions, we do not belong to the company who lay every calamity to the charge of God. Our afflictions we do not count a certain evidence of the Divine disfavor. We have an adversary who is pleased to lay his oppressive hands upon us, but we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and like Job of old, Satans attack may, under God, become our season of blessing. Or, like the Son of Man, his temptations and trials may afford a positive triumph through the Divine grace.
I asked of my spirit within me
A question that troubled me quite
A querulous question of nature,
Because I was short in my right:
I asked it to search out the reason
Why trouble should light upon earth,
And tears should be mingled with blessing,
And moans with the ringing of mirth.
But a voice, like the voice of an angel,
Said, Turn thee, and question again;
God never afflicts for His pleasure,
Nor troubles the children of men.
His hand is the hand of a Father,
His chastening is good in disguise,
Though the clouds which are resting upon you
May darken this truth from your eyes.
And then, said the voice growing softer,
Some things which you counted Gods wrath,
Are only His wonderful blessing,
Revealing themselves in your path;
And that which you counted evil,
Was happily an angel of light,
Gods beautiful angel of sorrow,
Who winged his way through the night.
Repentance was the Prophet Joels appeal. He was like Jonah in his opinion of the character of God when he repeated the words of the Lord,
Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil (Joe 2:12-13).
He knew, with the Psalmist, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Psa 51:17). You remember Jonahs words when he complained that God had saved Nineveh, I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. And Joel entertains the same opinion of Him. It is a strange thing that any man knowing his own past, studying the Divine treatment accorded his fellows, or looking into the Scripture to hear what God would say, can reach another conclusion.
Joel believes that this repentance should begin with the leaders of religious opinion,
Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people,
O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? (Joe 2:17).
Hosea has already said, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledgea charge against the priests, and reminds them Like people, like priest? Pentecosts will never come to the Church until Gods Prophets, the men who stand in the pulpit, and through whom the congregations voice their prayers, have made themselves right before the Lord. Long since I have ceased to complain of the pew. I confess to you that I believe profoundly that the pew is what the pulpit makes it. The opinions prevailing among the people are the direct product of the speech of the sacred desk.
When John Wycliff was attempting to recover true religion he declared that it was the business of the preacher to preach the Word and argued that out of false preaching comes the spiritual deadness of the people; that the friars of his time had affected the depravity of the Church, and he announced, then, a truth which ought now to be sung in the ears of every seminary professor, and become the conviction of every theological graduate, namely, It is Gods Word that should be preached. Gods Word is the bread of the soulthe indispensable, wholesome bread. Therefore, to feed the flock in the spiritual sense without Bible truth, is the same thing as if one were to prepare for another a bodily meal without bread. Gods Word is a live seed which begets regeneracy and a spiritual life. Now the chief business of the preacher is to beget and to nourish up members of the church. Therefore it is Gods Word he must preach. Then only will he succeed. I confess I cannot help asking myself sometimes whether I am a worthy successor of my fathers in the Protestant faith.
It has been claimed that every new era has been created by a preacher. Guizot is the authority for the opinion that Paul did more for liberty and free institutions than any other man of two millenniums, Froude only voices what is universally accepted when he affirms that Luther created the Reformation. It was certainly Savonarola who redeemed Florence more effectively than any grand jury of modern times has been able to cleanse Augean stables of municipal life. Dwight Hillis thinks that Caedmon, Bede, Bunyan and the translators of the King James version of the Bible opened up for us the springs of English literature. Cromwell wrote that the Puritan preacher destroyed the Divine right of kings. If the religious leaders are all right, Gods people may behave foolishly, as they did under Moses, but, after all, their leadership will insure their progress through the Wilderness, and their eventual possession of the Promised Land.
But this call to repentance was associated with the promise of restoration. The Prophet Joel knew this to be within the Fathers will and power. He said,
God * * is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.
Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? (Joe 2:13-14).
No man will either doubt that willingness or question that power when once, like the Prophet, he has seen God.
Oh, to know the heart of God.Love so deep, so high, so broad,Help me, Lord, to fully prove,All it means that God is Love!
This Book also gives us
THE APOCALYPSE IN OUTLINE
Joel, the Prophet, had a vision of the end of the age centuries before John, the Apostle, put foot on Patmos.
He saw the Pentecost to come.
It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit (Joe 2:28-29).
On the day of Pentecost Peter interpreted and applied these words. When the mockers said,
These men are full of new wine * *
Peter, standing up with the Eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them * * (Act 2:13-14).
This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy (Act 2:16-18).
There are those who profess to have no interest in prophetic studies, who speak of it with scorn as if such studies were mere speculations; but the truth is, until a man works himself into the meaning of prophecy there is for him no plan for the ages, and a great majority of Gods promises are without practical application. To get into the spirit of prophecy is to discover the key of Scripture study. Many of you remember Dr. John Robertson, of Glasgow, Scotland, who, a few years ago in this pulpit, broke unto us the Bread of Life. One day in my study I asked him the question how he came to be a pre-millennialist? He answered, The Worlds Fair compelled me to assume that position in Scriptural study. At the request of Mr. Moody, I came over from Scotland to join with the famous evangelists from the ends of the earth, in a Chicago campaign in the Name of Christ. Day after day I was face to face with defeat. I saw quickly that for every convert to the Gospel that we were making, the Adversary, and his emissaries, were winning a score to such conduct as meant their destruction, and I became despondent over the situation. All the while such men as Moody, Torrey, Chapman, Dixon, Wharton, Pierson, and Gordon not only kept their courage, but seemed positively confident of eventual victory. I was unable to understand their spirit, and when I asked them why they were not discouraged, they answered by pointing to the promises of the prophecies. Though prejudiced against the pre-millennial theory, I made up my mind to see what the Scripture had to say upon the subject, and lo, to my amazement, when once I began to work upon the subject in honest spirit, the meaning of prophecy was made clear, and the Coming of my Master burst forth from the Sacred page, and became to me also the Blessed Hope.
Ah, beloved, if Abraham, living when he did, was privileged of God a look down the ages that revealed to him the day of the Son of Man, and thereby gladdened his heart, who will say that God does not intend us to do what Joel didforesee the conquests to come?
He also saw the special privilege of the Age of the Spirit. He knew that in that day it should come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall he delivered (Joe 2:32).
Evangelism was in his perspective. He saw the Jew and the Gentile alike, brought under the Divine benediction. Even Peter did not fully understand the sweep of His promise.
I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh Jew and Gentile alike. Nor the depths of it Your sons and your daughters * * and your young men, * * and your old men * * and on My servants and on My handmaidens.
That this was to be the portion of men irrespective of station or nationality, Joel made perfectly evident.
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves * * together round about: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about (Joe 3:9-12).
Then he proceeds to show that all this opposition will be in vain. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great (Joe 3:13).
Such has been the history of many of His movements in this age of the Spirit. No human opposition or hellish device has been able to retard the progress of our God who is marching on.
Dr. A. B. Simpson tells us that there is an old frontispiece in Wyclifs first Bible representing the cause of truth and the Holy Scriptures by a bright flame, while all around it are the enemies of the truth, with the devil at their head trying to blow it out. The bishops, the priests, the cardinals, and the Pope, with the devil himself leading them, blowing and blowing until it seems as if they would burst. But instead of blowing it out, they only blow it in, and it blazes and blazes until they are scattered before its consuming breath. This is ever true of the cause of Christ. Opposition, persecution, and misrepresentation only strengthen it, as we have all had such good reason often to prove. Nobody can hurt us but ourselves and when the enemy shall come in like a flood let us quietly ask the Spirit of the Lord to lift up a standard against him, and we shall hear a voice proclaiming, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Finally, this apocalyptic vision represents alike, millennial glory and terrible judgment. Judgment is repeatedly expressed in this volume. It will be attended by the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the cessation of the shining stars; by the shaking of heaven and earth; by the revelation of the power of God, and His righteous wrath against sin. I shall not attempt to depict the scenes of that judgment, beyond what the Prophet has said. I agree with Henry Van Dyke that there is much concerning this judgment which we ought not to try to peer into, and explain with our little limits of reason. It is not ours to pronounce judgment upon our fellow creatures; the one thing of which we are certain is that God will never do injustice to a single soul; but in every nation, whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. The rest we may leave in silence with God, and fear when He speaks against sin.
Of that millennial glory we are enamoured.
It shall come to pass in that day * * the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim * *
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion (Joe 3:18; Joe 3:20-21).
It is in harmony, beloved, with the twentieth and twenty-first chapters of the Book of Revelation. It is the picture of the consummation of the Ages when the Adversary shall go down into the eternal depths; after which
The Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful (Rev 21:3-3).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter still urges repentance, directs for a meeting of the people, and assures that God will have compassion.
Joe. 2:1. Blow] Priests must sound an alarm, as if foreign invasion nigh.
Joe. 2:2. Darkness] Four terms used to indicate the intense calamity (Exo. 10:22; Isa. 8:22). Swarms of locusts literally obscure the sun. People] numerous and most formidable. Like] Expressive of extraordinary judgments (cf. 2Ki. 18:5; 2Ki. 23:5).
Joe. 2:3. Fire] They consume. Eden] Fruitfulness. Nothing] No herb, plant, nor tree, shall escape. The word used elsewhere of persons who escape, suggests that we should not linger by the type of locusts only, but think of enemies more terrible, who destroy not harvests only, but men, bodies and souls.
Joe. 2:4. Appearance] like horses prepared for battle (Job. 39:20; Rev. 9:7); swiftness and sound like chariots on rough mountain-tops.
Joe. 2:6. Pained] with terror. More terrible than the locusts, says an Arab proverb. Blackness] from anxiety and fear (Lam. 4:8). Heb. flames (Isa. 13:8), to glow with heat: some to lose colour, to grow pale (Jer. 30:6). 79] depict their military order and discipline; it is vain to resist (Exo. 10:6). A picture perfectly true to nature, says Jerome and others.
Joe. 2:10.] Heaven and earth feel their presence like a tempest-cloud of Divine wrath, covering all in darkness (Mat. 24:29),
Joe. 2:11.] Lord of the locusts, say Mohammedans, commands and makes the meanest the instruments of vengeance (Rev. 18:8).
HOMILETICS
THE ALARM IN ZION.Joe. 2:1
In the dreadful calamities described what must be done? Jehovah shows that the danger can only be averted by repentance, humiliation, and reformation of conduct. In this verse the prophet interprets present chastisements, and lays a foundation for intimations which follow. Alarm must be given, the people roused, and called to solemn assembly.
I. The place of alarm. In Zion. Zion was once the seat of Divine government and consecrated by Gods presence. The Church of Christ is now the holy mount, the city of the living God, and the school of instruction to the universe. It is the spiritual palace of the Great King, who rules his people by his Spirit, and governs the world by his providence. Here he displays tokens of love and judgment. Great everywhere, his judgments are specially great here. It is a solemn thing when judgment begins in the house of God. But he will not permit sin in his own residence. The Church must be conspicuous in its elevation, adorned with holiness, and loyal in obedience. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of God from Jerusalem.
II. The means of the alarm. In times of old it was the duty of the priests to warn the people and blow the trumpet (Num. 10:8). Ministers now must sound the alarm and declare the wrath of God against the unrighteousness of men. The watchmen of Zion must be awake, sound and take the alarm they give. They must be sons of thunder. They must not hesitate nor seek to hide the truth. The blast must wax louder and louder to startle thoughtless men. Ministers must never grow cold, careless of their own, and pitiless of the danger of others. When Perkins of Cambridge uttered the word damned, a solemn awe struck his hearers and the echo of it lasted many days. Whitfield brought tears in the eyes of old people, when he cried in the spirit of his Master, O Glasgow, Glasgow! Blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
III. The reasons for alarm. For the day of the Lord cometh.
1. The danger is near. The day cometh. Many ridicule and call earnest men enthusiasts. Others cry, Be calm, there is no need for that ado; but the prophet of God sees the danger and urges swift escape. The day is nigh at hand, and not afar off; seen in present judgments and will come in sudden terror. Men are warned now of judgment to come and of enemies gathering together for fearful destruction. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
2. The people are careless. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. Though danger is nigh yet men neglect or despise it. They should tremble, start up from apathy and sullen indifference, and haste to the refuge. How stupid for persons in face of impending ruin to sit in ease! They provide in summer for winter, in youth and health for age and sickness, but strive not to escape spiritual death. They seek to ward off temporal evils, but eternal destruction is not foreseen and prepared for. Few hear the distant thunder which betokens the coming storm. In their fancied security they laugh at those who prepare for the evil day, laugh on the brink of that day which, unless sovereign grace intervene, will make them wise too late. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see, but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
THE DARK DAY.Joe. 2:2; Joe. 2:11
With four terms the day of Jehovah is described as a day of judgment. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Darkness fell upon Egypt (Exo. 10:22), and enveloped Sinai at the giving of the law (Deu. 4:11). This typical of the mysteries of God and the miseries of men.
I. The profound mystery of the day. As clouds of locusts darken the sky, so obscurity hangs over all Divine proceedings. We know that all calamities are judgments of some sort; that we are tried and judged now, already made manifest to God, and that a day is nigh when all must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. But when and how the day will come no man knoweth. God veils his purpose and splendour. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Wisdom prepares for events, folly rushes on and falls into the confusion. Walk by faith, do present duty, and cease to speculate. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
II. The great misery of the day. As clouds indicate obscurity, so darkness denotes misery. The darkness of the locusts would be unparalleled. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it. Present punishments are only the beginning, the foretastes of eternal. If justice and judgment distress men now, what will they be at the day of final accounts? The destruction of the temple, and the rejection of the Jews, signal visitations upon churches and nations, are faint symbols of the terror of that day. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.
III. The overwhelming destruction of the day. So great and terrible is the day, that the words are wrung from the prophet, Who can abide it? The displays of power will be omnipotent. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? It consumes like a fire and none escape or resist it. God has not diminished in majesty and might. As he discomfited Egyptians, so will he overcome his enemies at last. He ruleth by his power for ever. Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? There is only one way of escape. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through Christ I am,
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
THE ARMY OF THE LORD.Joe. 2:4-11
The locusts are led by Jehovah, under his command, and sent to execute his will. Lord of the Locusts is one of the names of God in Mohammedan writings.
I. Numerous and strong. A great people and strong (Joe. 2:2). What more countless or mightier than the locusts? asks Jerome. Each small and contemptible in itself, is made powerful by the strength of God. All agencies, human and Divine, are pliable to his hand, when he wants instruments of displeasure.
II. Courageous and swift. As the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Their heads are exceedingly like that of a horse. In flying they make a noise like rushing wind, and loud as dashing waters, says a traveller. Like war-chariots rattling on rough mountain-tops, they speed to do their work. The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle (Rev. 9:7). And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle (Joe. 2:9).
III. Universal and ill-omened. As a morning spread upon the mountains, like dawn ushering in a day of darkness and gloom. Or with yellow lustre on their wings, produced by the rays of the sun, they sweep down the mountains and announce the advent of terrible calamity. Travellers have noticed this feature. The day before the arrival of the locusts, says one, we could infer that they were coming, from a yellow reflection in the sky, proceeding from their yellow wings. As soon as this light appeared no one had the slightest doubt that an enormous swarm of locusts was approaching.
IV. Orderly and well-equipped. Neither shall one thrust another. All keep their rank, march in ease and battle-array. They charge like heroes, mount the walls and assail fortified cities with dauntless might. Like Davids army, they know how to keep rank, and diverge not to the left or right. They close up as comrades fall, and keep unbroken in military array (Joe. 2:7-8). Having surmounted the walls, they storm and sack, and rush through the city in fearful speed. The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.
V. Terrible and destructive.
1. The land is desolated. Like a devouring fire, they consume every green thing on the earth. Yea, and nothing shall escape them. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the pleasant land desolate.
2. The inhabitants are alarmed. They inspire terror, as universal and abject as that caused by an invading army. Before their face the people shall be much pained, all faces shall gather blackness. In the agony of despair Eastern nations wait their approach to-day. They shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
3. Portentous signs in heaven and earth appear. The earth shall quake and the heavens shall tremble (Joe. 2:10). Take this in connection with the next, and we see the terrible day, the dissolution of the social fabric, symbolized by signs. Sun and moon grow dark and stars withdraw their light, because Jehovah comes to judge (Isa. 13:13; Jer. 10:10; Nah. 1:5-6). Nature is clothed in mourning, the universe trembles from predictions of judgment to come. Three sentences give the reason, for God does this(a) Because his army is very great. (b) Because this powerful army executeth his word. (c) Because the day of judgment is so great and terrible that no one can stand before the wrath of the Judge.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Joe. 2:7. They are on Gods message and they linger not, but rejoice to run their course (Psa. 19:6). Men can mount a wall few at a time, the locusts scale much more steadily, more compactly, more determinately and irresistibly. The picture unites the countless multitude, condensed march, and entire security of the locusts with the might of warriors [Pusey].
On his ways. So each Divine judgment is directed, not by chance; adapted and weighed by infinite skill; and reaches in time and method just that person for whom it is intended. Nothing is lost, nothing escapes.
The judgments of God. I. The nature of the judgments. A day of darkness and gloom, none like them before or since. Most awful and extraordinary. II. The executors of the judgments. Not lions and beasts of savage name, but small and insignificant creatures, united, ranked, and commanded by the Divine leader; swift, furious, and irresistible in attack. III. The effects of the judgments. The execution most terrible
1. In the country. The garden of Eden was turned into a desolate wilderness. In front and rear the army was like a devouring fire. No green thing escaped.
2. In the city. They climbed the wall, and, as a thief, entered the windows and ransacked the place. No fortifications nor force can resist the commissions of God (Jer. 9:21). If the weakest creatures cannot be turned aside, and the smallest judgments cannot be resisted, what of the greatest? what of the last of all?
They shall not break their ranks. Joe. 2:7. Unity is strength. The weakest efforts and agencies combined are powerful for good or evil. Rank and order are necessary to accomplish any victory. Confusion and disorder weaken; but when each goes on his way, patiently and perseveringly does his duty, success will be gained. Small armies, well disciplined and marshalled for battle, have vanquished and scattered hosts of disorderly foes.
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Learn
1. The resources of God to punish are abundant.
2. The power of God to punish is(a) omnipotent, and (b) irresistible.
3. The times of God to punish are ominous.
Joe. 2:11. The camp of God.
1. Birds and beasts of prey. The meanest and mightiest creature. The lion in the forest and the moth in the sun.
2. The elements of nature. Winds and tempests, thunder and lightning, obey his will. Sun, moon, and stars cease to shine, and darkness covers the earth.
3. The hosts of heaven. Angels, armed with vengeance, destroy the first-born of Egypt and the army of Sennacherib. The resources of the universe are under his command to bless or to destroy.
What is creation less
Than a capacious reservoir of means,
Formed for his use, and ready at his will?
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joe. 2:1-3. Alarm. We might reasonably expect that the world would gather round the feet of the teacher. There is need for alarm, for men are indifferent. There is a way of escape, but men know or heed it not. Multitudes pass on and perish in the evil day. Noah regarded the signs of the times, and moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house. He that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
Be wise to-day; tis madness to defer:
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life. [Young.]
Joe. 2:4-11. Locusts. The head is exceedingly like that of a horse [Theodoret]. Their noise is like the rushing of a wind [Forbes]. When they alight and feed, the plains are all covered. They make a murmuring noise as they eat, and they devour herbs, trees, and forage without restraint. They overshadow the sun, says Pliny, the nations looking up with anxiety, lest they should cover their lands. The height of walls cannot hinder the charge of the mighty; they enter not by the gates, but over the walls. They fly, by the disposal of God ordaining, in such order, as to hold each his place, like the minute pieces of mosaic, fixed in the pavement by the artists hands, so as not to incline to one another a hairs breadth [Jerome]. Nothing in their habits is more striking than the pertinacity with which they all pursue the same line of march, like a disciplined army [Thompson]. They teach us the necessity of unity, steadfastness, and order. Many prefer an individual course instead of going by bands. They belong to no cohort, and are under no discipline. The strength of the Church lies in united, concentrated action. Every soldier well-disciplined and in his ranks; every officer at his post, and ready for the contest; each under rule, helpful to each other and to the common cause.
Joe. 2:11. Voice. Lest God should be forgotten, he is represented as commanding a mighty army in the midst of judgments. Their presence indicates his presence and power. The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle (Isa. 13:4). He called the Medes and Persians to execute judgments upon Babylon. He sent forth his armies and destroyed Jerusalem, and burnt up their city (Mat. 22:7). Hence the threefold ground of terror.
1. His camp is very great.
2. He has strength to accomplish his purpose by the weakest instruments.
3. When this purpose is accomplished, it will be a terrible day to the enemies.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE EXECUTORGOD USING NATURAL AGENTS
TEXT: Joe. 2:1-11
1
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
2
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither, shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
3
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and none hath escaped them.
4
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run.
5
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
6
At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale.
7
They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war; and they march every one of his ways, and they break not their ranks.
8
Neither doth one thrust another; they march every one in his path; and they burst through the weapons, and break not off their course.
9
They leap upon the city; they run upon the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter in at the windows like a thief.
10
The earth quaketh before them; the heavens trembled; the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining:
11
and Jehovah uttereth his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
QUERIES
a.
Could this particular locust plague be as unprecedented as Joel says in Joe. 2:2 (cf. also Joe. 1:2)?
b.
Do locusts really behave as Joel describes them here?
c.
Does God really talk to the locusts? (Joe. 2:11)
PARAPHRASE
Sound the long alarm blast on the far-sounding-horn from the midst of the Holy city and from the Holy mountain. Awaken all people from their lethargy in both Judah and Israel and cause them to tremble with fear for the day of Jehovahs judgment comes. It is, in fact, upon us. His day is a day of darkness and gloom; the darkness will be so impenetrable that no one will be able to find escape. A great and powerful people is coming and they will glimmer in the sunlight all yellow like the yellow glimmering rays of dawn upon the mountains. The likes of such am invasion has never been seen before nor shall it ever be afterward like this for many generations to come. This day of God is like a fire that destroys everything. The land before was like the garden of Eden compared to the utter desolation of it now. Nothing has escaped the devastation.
These locusts look like miniature horses as they run to the attack. They rattle like chariots driven charging over the rough mountain roads. They crackle like the fire as it devours dry stubble in the field. They come upon the countryside advancing like an army equipped for battle. When they come, all the people become distraught and grow pale with fear. These locusts, they run to the attack like warriors of valor; they assault the walls like trained soldiers marching in ordered columns without even so much as breaking their ranks. They do not jostle one another but follow in orderly ranks; there is no weapon that will stop them or detour them. They leap and crawl upon everything in the city; they run up and down the walls and climb into the houses through the windows. The earth seems to sway as they run over it and the sky seems to shake and tremble as the great sweeping clouds of these locusts darken the sky so that the sun by day and the stars by night cannot be seen.
The Lord Jehovah is the Commander of this army. His omnipotent voice thunders His orders to them and they execute His word. The Day of Jehovah is great and very terriblewho can be saved from it?
SUMMARY
Joel states unequivocally and in graphic description that the locust plague came at the direct command of Jehovah God. God commanded it to stir up the people to repentance and dependence upon Him.
COMMENT
Joe. 2:1 BLOW YE THE TRUMPET IN ZION . . . SOUND AN ALARM . . . FOR THE DAY OF JEHOVAH . . . IS NIGH AT HAND; The trumpet to be blown here is the shophar which is probably a rams horn called the far sounding horn. Trumpets have always been associated literally and symbolically with warning (cf. Num. 10:5 ff; Eze. 33:1 ff). Hendriksen, in his book, More Than Conquerors (a commentary on the book of Revelation), interprets the Seven Trumpets of Revelation chapter 8 thusly:
These trumpets of judgment, chapters Eze. 8:11, indicate series of happenings, that is, calamities that will occur again and again throughout this dispensation (the Christian dispensation). They do not symbolize single and separate events, but they refer to woes that may be seen any day of the year in any part of the globe. Hence, the trumpets are synchronous with the seals.
. . . these trumpets of judgment are clearly retributive in character. Terrible calamities befall the wicked in order to punish them for their opposition to the cause of Christ and for their persecution of the saints. Yet even by means of these judgments God is constantly calling the ungodly unto repentance. These woes do not symbolize Gods final and complete displeasure. On the contrary, they indicate His initial judgments. They are charged with serious warning, not with final doom . . . The very function of the trumpet is to warn (Eze. 33:3).
Observe also that these trumpets of judgment affect the various parts of the universe: the land, the sea, etc.
Joel is making the same interpretation of the locust plague and drought which has come upon the land. These calamities are Gods trumpet warnings to call the sinful people to repentance. God uses natural agents in every age to turn impenitent people from their rebellious ways back to dependence upon Him. If they will not turn back to Him, He sends judgments of wrath upon them. These are principles of the Divine government of the universe which are constantly in force and which God executes through secondary causes day by day, year after year, millennium by millennium. The Old Testament prophets, covering nearly a thousand years of history, give us, in their inspired pronouncements and interpretations of natural calamities as judgments and warnings of God, a divinely revealed philosophy of history.
At this point we take the liberty of quoting at length again from Dr. Hendriksens More Than Conquerors in regard to Gods judgments as the commentary speaks on Revelation 15-16.
In the history of the world a definite and ever-recurring order of events is clearly evident:
Through the preaching of the Word applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit churches are established. Again and again this happens. (With the O.T. prophets we think in terms of a faithful remnant being called out by the preaching of the Wordparenthesis ours). They are lightbearerslampstandsin the midst of a world that lies in darkness . . .
Again and again Gods people are persecuted by the world. They are subjected to many trials and afflictions. (seals).
Again and again the judgments of God are visited upon the persecuting world. These judgments again and again fail to move men to repentance (trumpets).
. . . The question now arises: whenever in history the trumpets of judgment, the initial plagues, fail to result in penitence and conversion, what then? Does God permit such impenitence, such hardness of heart, to go unpunished until the final judgment of the last day? Must we conceive of Gods wrath as being completely pent up until the second coming . . .?
The answer in brief is this: whenever in history the wicked fail to repent in answer to the initial and partial manifestation of Gods anger in judgments, the final effusion of wrath follows. Final, though not complete until the judgment day. These plagues are the last. They leave no more opportunity for repentance. When the wicked, often warned by the trumpets of judgment, continue to harden their hearts, death finally plunnges them into the hands of an angry God . . .
Hence, throughout the history of the world Gods final wrath again and again reveals itself; now it strikes this one; then another. It is poured out upon the impenitent. Thus a very definite connecting-link is established between the vision of the trumpets, chapter 811, and that of the bowls, chapters 15, 16. Trumpets warn; bowls are poured out.
Throughout history, especially during this entire new dispensation, God is using every department of the universe to punish the wicked and impenitent persecutors of his people. Whoever refuses to be warned by the trumpets of judgment is destroyed by the bowls of wrath. For one individual a certain calamity may be a trumpet of judgment, while for someone else that same event may be a bowl of wrath. Thus, the disease which hurled King Herod Agrippa I into hell served as a warning to others . . .
So it was true in the days of Joel. The locust plague and the drought became a warning trumpet of Gods wrath upon rebellion and sin and called those who were humble and penitent enough to hear back to Gods word and His will. Those who heard and heeded became part of the faithful remnant. They would be the people through whom God would carry out His covenant promises and bring from them the Messiah. Some undoubtedly perished during the plague and drought. Those who died in sin and rebellion against God died under the judgment of God. In the wisdom of God they had had their last opportunity to repent. They rejected it. Gods wrath fell upon them. Perhaps some who believed in God and were following His ways died also, but death did not harm them (cf. Zep. 2:3; Nah. 1:7). Those who died in the Lord were blessed (Rev. 14:13).
Joe. 2:2 A DAY OF DARKNESS . . . A GREAT PEOPLE . . . STRONG . . . THERE HATH NOT BEEN EVER THE LIKE, The darkness here may be either literal or symbolic or both. When this great people (the locusts) came down upon them, myriads upon myriads, their coming would make the sky black. Darkness is also used to symbolize judgment or times of foreboding. The term people is a figurative way of describing the locusts (cf. Pro. 30:25 ff). They will behave like an army and will go about their destruction with what seems to be a methodical intelligence beyond the native capacity of an insect. This would be one of the most unique disasters to happen to Judah so much so that it might be said, nothing like it has ever been or ever shall be!
Joe. 2:3 . . . THE LAND IS AS THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE THEM, AND BEHIND THEM A DESOLATE WILDERNESS; Compared to what the land looked like after the locusts finished with it, it was like the garden of Eden before, The fire before and after them probably is a poetical description of the utter devastation that sweeps over the land, at their coming, overwhelming everything before it and leaving nothing behind it. In the National Geographic Magazine, 1915, from which we have quoted before, let us describe further the locust devastation. The first swarms of locusts in February, 1915, came in such thick clouds as to obscure the sun for the time being. In 1915 the sections where no eggs had been laid or where the eggs had been carefully removed by governmental orders did not suffer from the creepers, but later the full-grown locusts came and cleaned up every bit of vegetation. On a television documentary, December 1966, sponsored by the National Geographic, one was able to see motion picture film of locust plagues in the Near East. These films substantiated Joels graphic description in every respect! The prophet did not exaggerate!
Joe. 2:4 THE APPEARANCE OF THEM IS AS . . . HORSES; There is an old Arabian proverb which goes, The locust has the form of ten of the giants of the animal world, weak as he isface of a mare, eyes of an elephant, neck of a bull, horns of a deer, chest of a lion, stomach of a scorpion, wings of an eagle, thighs of a camel, legs of an ostrich, and tail of a serpent. Theodoret, a bishop of Syria, said, . . . you will find the head of the locust exceedingly like that of a horse. In Joe. 2:4, however, Joel is concerned with their behavior which is like that of cavalry horses.
Joe. 2:5 LIKE THE NOISE OF CHARIOTS . . . LIKE THE NOISE OF A FLAME OF FIRE . . . John wrote in Rev. 9:9 ff, the sound of their wings was as the sound of many horses rushing to battle . . . They are described by the National Geographic as a loud noise, produced by the flapping of myriads of locust wings . . . resembling the distant rumble of waves. One who has heard them says, their noise may be heard six miles off. Others have likened their sound to all sorts of deep, rumbling sounds of torrential rivers or water-falls. One ancient wrote, . . . there is a certain sharp sound, as they chew the corn, as when the wind strongly fanneth a flame. The noise of their foraging upon the vegetation crackles like a fire as it licks up the dry stubble of a wheat field.
Joe. 2:6 . . . PEOPLES ARE IN ANGUISH . . . FACES ARE WAXED PALE . . .; One man who witnessed just such a plague wrote of the people, . . . the people become as dead, saying, we are lost, for the Ambadas (so they call them) are coming. . . . there were men, women, children, sitting among these locusts, as stupefied . . . they answered that they had no courage to resist a plague which God gave them for their sins. The verb translated anguish is the same verb used of women in birth travail (cf. Jer. 30:5-7). Their anxiety causes the color to drain from their faces and they grow pale as the dead.
Joe. 2:7 THEY RUN LIKE MIGHTY MEN; . . . CLIMB THE WALL . . . MARCH . . . AND BREAK NOT THEIR RANKS. National Geographic: Once started on their course, nothing could stop them; walls were scaled, they rolled on like a mighty, unconquerable flood. Their ranks remain unbroken by obstacles. Man can mount a wall a few at a time, but locusts pour over a wall in a literal flood.
Joe. 2:8 NEITHER . . . THRUST ONE ANOTHER . . . MARCH EVERY ONE IN HIS PATH; . . . THEY BURST THROUGH THE WEAPONS . . . They travel like a well-disciplined, regimented army in close-order-drill without jostling one another. They move in one body, giving the appearance of being organized and directed by one leader. Nothing checks or retards their attack. Nothing makes any impression upon them. Men have tried to kill them with canon fire, water-filled trenches, fire-filled trenches, insecticidessprayed from airplanes, with clubsbeating them to death by the millionsbut still they come, impervious to any weapon. Like waves they roll over one another on and on, and let themselves be stopped by nothing. Bundles of straw are laid in rows and set on fire before them; they march in thick heaps into the fire, but this is often put out through the great mass of those advancing from behind who march right on over the corpses of their dead companions. The sight is utterly appalling! On the television program referred to before it was stated that man, with all his modern scientific means of dealing out death, has not yet found a way to stop the locust.
Joe. 2:9 THEY LEAP UPON THE CITY . . . RUN FOR THE WALL . . . CLIMB INTO THE HOUSES . . . ENTER IN AT THE WINDOWS. National Geographic: Disastrous as they were in the country, equally obnoxious they became about the homes, crawling up thick upon the walls and squeezing in through cracks of closed doors or windows, entering the very dwelling rooms. Women frantically swept the walls and roofs of their homes, but to no avail. They even fell into ones shirt collar from the walls above. A lady, after being away from home for half a day, returned with 110 of them concealed within the skirts. Whenever touched, or especially when finding themselves caught within ones clothes, they exuded from their mouths a dark fluid, an irritant to the skin and soiling the garments in a most disgusting manner. Imagine the feeling with a dozen or two such creatures over an inch long, with saw-like legs and rough bodies, making a race course of your back. Another man who experienced such a calamity in 1646 wrote, . . . when the door was opened, an infinite number came in, and the others went fluttering about; and it was a troublesome thing when a man went abroad, to be hit on the face by those creatures, on the nose, eyes, or cheeks, so that there was no opening ones mouth, but some would get in. Yet all this was nothing; for when we were to eat, they gave us no respite; and when we went to cut a piece of meat, we cut a locust with it, and when a man opened his mouth to put in a morsel, he was sure to chew one of them. The television report of December, 1966, showed that airplanes flying through clouds of locusts spraying insecticides were forced to the ground because the thickness of the locusts made visibility for flying impossible!
Joe. 2:10 THE EARTH QUAKETH BEFORE THEM; THE HEAVENS TREMBLE . . . National Geographic: When anything neared their thickened masses, it seemed as if the entire surface of the ground moved, producing a most curious effect upon ones vision and causing dizziness, which in some was so severe as to produce a sensation not unlike seasickness. The clouds of locusts caused the entire atmosphere to be in a state of commotion as if the very heavens trembled.
Joe. 2:11 JEHOVAH UTTERETH HIS VOICE BEFORE HIS ARMY . . . HE IS STRONG THAT EXECUTETH HIS WORD; FOR THE DAY OF JEHOVAH IS GREAT AND VERY TERRIBLE; AND WHO CAN ABIDE IT? To this day the nations of the Near East speak of the locusts as Yaish Allah, Allahs army. God does use natural phenomena to execute His warnings and judgments. He uses natural elements of weather, laws of nature, wild beasts and insects, and heathen nations and leaders (Isaiah 10) to execute His vengeance upon the ungodly, even now! Hendriksen in More Than Conquerors again, on chapters 45 of Revelation concerning the Throne of God: These chapters do not merely give us a picture of heaven. They describe the entire universe from the aspect of heaven. The purpose of this vision is to show us, in beautiful symbolism, that all things are governed by the Throne-Occupant. All things; hence, also our trials and tribulations. That is the point. Hence, the description of the Throne precedes the symbolic prediction of the trials and tribulations which the church must experience here on earth . . . Behold, a Throne! The Throne is the very center of the universe. The universe of the Bible is . . . theocentric. Here, too, is the true philosophy of history. The newspapers and radio announcements give you the headlines and news-flashes. The magazines add the explanations. But these explanations are, after all in terms of secondary causes. The real mind, the real will whichwhile fully maintaining the responsibility and freedom of the individual instrumentscontrols this universe in the mind, the will of the Almighty God! Nothing is excluded from his dominion. And so God can use the king of Assyria as the rod of His anger and the staff of His fury (Isaiah 10) and He can stir up the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to release the captive Jews (2Ch. 36:22 ff; Ezr. 1:1 ff). And so the locusts are Gods mighty army. When He commands that they go forth to destroy, none can stop them. If man cannot stop an army of locusts when God sends them, who can be saved from any of Gods judgments? Joel will take up this question in the next section when he presents Gods Plan for Repentance.
QUIZ
1.
What does trumpet signify symbolically in Hebrew literature?
2.
In what way is the locust plague a warning? a judgment?
3.
Do locusts appear and behave with such frightening appearance as Joel describes?
4.
Are they impossible to stop? Can not modern methods of insect control stop them?
5.
Does God Himself control these locusts or did this plague just happen and Joel attribute its happening to God?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
II.
(1) Blow ye the trumpet.The preaching of the prophet increases in its intensity. Behind the locusts, exemplified by them, there is a still more terrible visitation. He sees on the horizon a mustering of the nations hostile to his people, bent on destroying them. Let the priests stir up the people for a fast, and for the defence of their land by the trumpet. The locusts have done their symbolical work, they have left their mark on the country. Now the day of Jehovah, the manifestation of His power, is approachingit is imminent.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE SCOURGE THE FORERUNNER OF THE DAY OF JEHOVAH; HIGH TIME TO REPENT, Joe 2:1-17.
Several expositors see in the locusts of Joe 2:1-11, a swarm different from that described in chapter 1. Credner thinks that the swarm of chapter 1 appeared in the fall, and on its departure left eggs which, in the following spring, were hatched out, and so formed an even more numerous host. It is more likely, however, that we have to do with only one swarm. The difference in the description is due to the fact that in chapter 1 the prophet is concerned primarily with the calamity already wrought; only briefly does he touch upon its deeper significance (Joe 2:15). In Joe 2:1-11, the same scourge of locusts is in his mind, but now he thinks of it chiefly as the immediate precursor of the terrible day of Jehovah. Joe 2:1-17, therefore, is an expansion of Joe 1:14-15. This apocalyptic significance of the locusts accounts for the highly poetic description of the swarms which, likened to a hostile army, are called the army of Jehovah coming to judgment (Joe 2:1-11). Although the command is already given there is still a possibility of mercy. If the people return to God with a contrite heart the calamity may yet be averted (Joe 2:12-14). The address closes with an earnest summons to the whole congregation to assemble for prayer and fasting in the house of God, and with instruction to the priests concerning the manner of their ministry (Joe 2:15-17).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. By the blowing of the horn the priests are to warn the people (Amo 3:6) of the near approach of the day of Jehovah and to gather them into the temple to pray. The latter thought is not expanded until Joe 2:15.
Trumpet Better, horn. See on cornet, Hos 5:8. Evidently the priests are addressed, which would indicate that the signal was intended also to summon the people to worship. Before speaking of the latter the prophet describes the calamity that calls for penitence and prayer.
Zion One of the hills on which Jerusalem stood. First mentioned as a Jebusite fortress which David captured, and whose name he changed into City of David. Its exact location is still a matter of dispute. Christian tradition identifies it with the southwest spur, but it was more likely in the southeast. After the building of the temple the name was extended so as to include the temple hill; so here. The signal is to be given from the top of the temple mount, so as to be heard far and wide.
Holy mountain Called holy because it was separated as the dwelling place of the Holy One of Israel (Psa 2:6; see on Hos 11:9; Zec 14:20).
Tremble It is high time to awake from careless indifference, for this is not an ordinary calamity; it forebodes the near approach of the day of Jehovah (Joe 1:15).
In order to make more effective the appeal which is to follow, the prophet pictures in 2ff. the terror of the day as signalized by the present calamity. The first half of the verse is closely connected with Joe 2:1, it describes the day as a day of darkness gloominess clouds thick darkness Four synonyms, for the sake of emphasis intense, impenetrable darkness (Zep 1:15; Eze 34:12). Three of the words are used in Deu 4:11, of the darkness in which Sinai was enveloped when Jehovah descended upon it in fire; the fourth is applied in Exo 10:22, to the plague of darkness. Darkness is in the Old Testament a very common figure for calamity (Isa 5:30; Isa 8:22; Isa 9:2); here it is a very appropriate picture, for all writers agree in speaking of locusts as clouds darkening the sun. “These creatures do not come in legions, but in whole clouds. All the air is full and darkened when they fly. Though the sun shine ever so bright, it is no brighter than when most clouded.” “Soon after my arrival at Barosh I saw a swarm of locusts extending a mile in length and half a mile in width. They appeared in the distance like a black cloud. When they came nearer from the east the black swarm darkened the rays of the sun and cast a dark shadow like an eclipse” (Forbes).
As the morning Better, R.V., “dawn.” This does not belong to the preceding; it opens the description of the present calamity, which is not the day itself, only the dawn.
As See on Joe 1:15. It is in every respect like the dawn, because (1) as the dawn introduces the day, so the present calamity marks the beginning of the day of Jehovah; (2) the reflection of the sunlight from the wings of the locusts produces a glimmer that may be likened to the light of dawn. “The day before the arrival of the locusts we could infer that they were coming from a yellow reflection in the sky, proceeding from their yellow wings. As soon as the light appeared no one had the slightest doubt that an enormous swarm of locusts was approaching” (Alvarez). (3) Whether there is the additional thought that the locusts came from the east, where the dawn becomes first visible, is doubtful.
Spread upon the mountains Not in apposition to “day” (A.V.), nor is parus, “spread out,” the predicate of an indefinite subject (Keil); it is rather the predicate of the subject “a great people and a strong”; so that the whole sentence should be read, “Like dawn lies spread out upon the mountain a great people and a strong” (Joe 2:5).
People The army of Joe 2:11 and of Joe 2:25, the swarms of locusts (Joe 1:4). The rest of Joe 2:2 points back to Joe 1:2. The present calamity has no analogy in the past, no matter how far back one goes; nor will it ever be equaled in the future; it stands out unique and without parallel (Exo 10:14). It is because of the enormity of the plague that Joel regards it as the forerunner of the final judgment, and it is on this account that he uses the hyperbolical expressions.
The destructiveness of the great and powerful people is further described in Joe 2:3. All is lost; the beautiful country has become a wasted desert.
Fire before behind them a flame Literally, him, or it, the swarm of locusts. Like fire the locusts have swept over the country; whatever was in their way they have devoured, they have left behind nothing but destruction and ruin (compare comment on Joe 1:19). A most appropriate figure. “A few months afterward a much larger army alighted and gave the whole country the appearance of having been burned.” “Wherever they settled it looks as if fire had devoured and burned up everything” (Forbes). “It is better to have to do with the Tartars than with these destructive animals; you would think that fire follows their track” (Volney). “Bamboo groves have been stripped of their leaves and left standing like saplings after a rapid bush fire, and grass has been devoured so that the bare ground appeared as if burned” (G.A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve, 403; also Tristram, 316). The following expression emphasizes the destructiveness still more: before them the land was as the garden of Eden Fertile, rich in verdure, pleasant to look upon (Gen 2:8 ff.). A similar comparison of the restored land with the garden of Eden is found in Eze 36:35; our passage may be dependent on that in Ezekiel, though not necessarily.
Desolate wilderness Such as Egypt and Edom will become (Joe 3:19; compare Jer 12:10).
Nothing shall escape Better, R.V., “none hath escaped.” The future tenses in Joe 2:3-11 should be rendered, as in R.V., as present or past tenses, describing a condition present to the prophet and his listeners.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Young Locusts Appear As A Judgment From God Despite All Efforts To Prevent Them ( Joe 1:19 to Joe 2:3 ).
It may well be that after describing the initial locust invasions in chapter 1 Joel now goes on to deal with the next stage of the invasions when the locust eggs hatch out and become voracious grubs and then small grasshoppers.
Locusts tend to swarm when the weather is very hot, so that the opening words of this passage may refer to fires caused by a hot, dry summer. This would explain why the water brooks had dried up. But equally well it may apply to fires started by farmers desperate to save some of their crops and fruit trees from the advancing locusts. Or indeed both may be in mind. Fires were, in fact, the only way in which the desperate farmers could set up a barrier against the advancing young locust hordes, even if it often failed in its purpose. It was felt to be better than doing nothing, and as the farmers got more desperate the fires would become larger.
Joel appears speaking in Jerusalem where news has come in of the locust invasion and its effects, which he interprets as a Day of YHWH, a day when YHWH is exercising His judgment. And he calls on the priests to blow the ram’s horns to sound the alarm before the hopping locusts arrive in Jerusalem. He also calls all the people to tremble at the fearsome nature of what is happening, and then describes the sight of the approach of the yellow-winged swarming locusts out of the morning sun in terms of the dawn spreading on the mountains. And so great are the different swarms of locusts that he describes them as being unlike anything seen before, in terms similar to those used of the swarm of locusts in Exo 10:14, compare also Exo 10:6.
He then reiterates his description of the burning fields, possibly set on fire to battle against the locusts, and also with it describes the effects of the passing of the young locusts on the vegetation of the land, turning the land from fruitful land into a barren wilderness.
Analysis of Joe 1:19 to Joe 2:3 .
a
b Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble (Joe 2:1 a)
c For the day of YHWH has come, because a day of darkness and gloominess is near, a day of clouds and thick darkness (Joe 2:2 a).
b As the dawn spreads on the mountains, a great people and a strong, there has not ever been the like, nor will be any more after them, even to the years of many generations (Joe 2:2 b).
a A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns, the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, yes, and none has escaped them (Joe 2:3).
Note that in ‘a’ the fire burn throughout the land, and in the parallel the same occurs. In ‘b’ the alarm is sounded and the people tremble, and in parallel is what they tremble at, the huge invasion of young locusts streaming over the land. Centrally in ‘c’ it is the day of YHWH, a day of gloom and darkness.
Joe 1:19-20
O YHWH, to you do I cry,
Because the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned all the trees of the countryside,
Yes, the beasts of the field pant to you,
Because the water brooks are dried up,
And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.’
The passage commences with a heartfelt cry to YHWH as he learns of the way that the fields are burning as a result of the farmers’ efforts to hold back the army of young locusts. What the locusts had not eaten the fires were destroying. And the consequence was that the wild animals could only call on YHWH because water had become short, and the fires had devoured their pastures in the wilderness.
The land may well also have been suffering under semi-drought conditions, the type of hot summers that often brought out swarms of locusts in large numbers, thus causing the water brooks to dry up, a process hastened by the fires now partly out of control.
Joe 2:1
‘Blow you the ram’s horn in Zion,
And sound an alarm in my holy mountain,
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of YHWH has come.
Observing what he did, and recognising that it came from the hand of YHWH, Joel called on the priests to blow the ram’s horn, sounding the alarm from the holy mountain (probably the Temple mount) to all who were round about. And he wanted it to shake up the inhabitants and make them tremble as they recognised that the day of YHWH had come, the time of His judgment of Judah.
This was not, of course the final day of YHWH as he recognised, for he describes that in chapter 3. Rather it was a localised ‘day of YHWH’ aimed at the present generation.
Joe 2:2
For a day of darkness and gloominess is near,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
As the dawn spreads on the mountains,
A great people and a strong,
There has not ever been the like,
Nor will be any more after them,
Even to the years of many generations.’
He expands on what this day which has come near is like. It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness (compare Amo 5:18-20; Zep 1:15), both to their spirits psychologically and to their eyes literally, as the huge mass of flying locusts blotted out the sun. And as he does so he lifts his eyes and sees the sun glinting on the yellow wings of the locusts, seeing them as being like the dawn spreading on the mountains.
His description of them as ‘a great people and strong’ is reminiscent in its use of people of Pro 30:25, ‘the ants are a people not strong’ where locusts are also mentioned ‘having no king’ over them. The Jews therefore saw insects which came together in large numbers as ‘peoples’. Compare also Joe 1:6. The statement that ‘there has not ever been the like, nor will be any more after them, even to the years of many generations’ is reminiscent of Exo 10:14 where in describing the plague of locusts in Egypt Moses says, ‘before them there were no such locusts as they, nor after them will be such’. This demonstrates that both statements were hyperbole, and that neither has in mind a final plague larger than any other. Indeed ‘even to the years of many generations’ limits the statement to a time in the not too distant future eschatologically speaking. It is simply saying that it was not of the norm and was something that only happened once, say, in a hundred years.
It is interesting, however, that God is often spoken of as being in darkness (Psa 18:11), and in clouds (Exo 16:10 and often; Psa 18:11-12) and thick darkness (Exo 20:21; Psa 18:9), in order to shield His glory from His creation, which is a reminder to us that even in the darkest hour God is with us. In the midst of the Day of YHWH He would still be watching over His own.
Joe 2:3
‘ A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns,
The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness,
Yes, and none has escaped them.
Joel then draws attention to two aspects of the locust invasions, referring again to the fires lit both to prevent them moving forward, and in order to prevent them turning back, and to the effect of the voracious hordes on the land as they turned what was virtually a Garden of Eden (land in full growth) into a desolate wilderness denuded of all vegetation. The land was being doubly destroyed.
For the use of fire in driving back the locusts consider Dr Thomson’s words cited in the introduction, and how he also described how he vainly attempted to save his own garden from their depredations. ‘By the next morning the head of the column had reached my garden, and hiring eight or ten people I resolved to rescue at least my vegetables and flowers. During this day we succeeded by fire, and by beating them off the walls with brushes and branches, in keeping our little garden tolerably clear of them, but it was perfectly appalling to watch this animated river as it flowed up the road and ascended the hill above my house. At length, worn out with incessant skirmishing, I gave up the battle — and surrendered the remainder to the conquerors.’ We can therefore imagine the position of farmers and vineyard owners who saw their whole livelihood being destroyed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joe 2:18-32 A Description of the Latter Rain Joe 2:18-32 provides a description of the latter rain. From a prophetic point of view, the latter rain refers to the harvest time in the last days leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Some teach that there will be a financial harvest within the body of Christ, paymasters whom God will raise up to finance the preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. This financial abundance is described in Joe 2:18-27. The second phase of this latter rain is described out as a pouring out of God’s Spirit. As the Gospel is preached and souls are saved, the Holy Spirit will be poured forth across the world into the hearts of men and women. This phase is described in Joe 2:28-31 as God performs signs and wonders upon the earth through the body of Christ walking in the gifts of the Spirit. The third phase of this harvest is described in Joe 2:32 as a time of deliverance and reestablishment of Jerusalem as the place of worship for all nations.
Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Joe 2:28
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Prophet Urges Repentance
v. 1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, v. 2. a day of darkness and of gloominess, v. 3. A fire, v. 4. The appearance of them, v. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains, v. 6. Before their face, v. 7. They shall run like mighty men, v. 8. Neither shall one thrust another, v. 9. They shall run to and fro in the city, v. 10. The earth shall quake before them, v. 11. and the Lord shall utter His voice before His army, v. 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, v. 13. and rend your heart, v. 14. Who knoweth if He will return, v. 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion, v. 16. gather the people, v. 17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Joe 2:1-11
These verses contain a further description of the calamity occasioned by the locusts and the appearance presented by them; the calling of a congregational meeting for penitence and prayer; the reason assigned in the coming of the day of the Lord.
Joe 2:1
Blow ye the trumpet (margin, cornet) in Zion, and sound an alarm (or, cause it to sound) in my holy mountain. The shophar, or far-sounding horn, and probably the chatsoterah, the hazar or silver trumpet, were called into requisition. The priests are urged with great vehemence, as tiqu shophar and hariu imply, to apprise the people that the day of Jehovah’s terrible judgment was near at hand, and to prepare for it. This alarm was to be sounded from Zion, the dry or sunny hill, the holy moun-rain. The noun qadosh like tsadiq, is applied to persons, therefore the noun qodshe is used. It rose to an elevation of 2539 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. It was the place of the ark in David’s day, and so of the visible symbol of the Divine presence, and therefore the holy mountain, though subsequently Moriah was chosen as the temple-hill. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. The effect here precedes the cause, as if what is upper. most in the heart comes first to the lips; while the abruptness may, perhaps, express the excitement and intensity of feeling. But how could the Lord’s day be said to have come (ba is perfect), and yet to be near at hand? Hengstenberg replies that, in the intuition of the prophet, it had already come, though in reality it was only drawing near. Keil’s solution of the difficulty is more satisfactory: every particular judgment that takes place in the history of God’s kingdom is the day of the Lord, and yet only approaching as far as the complete fulfilment was concerned.
Joe 2:2
A day of darkness and of glooming, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. It was, indeed, a day of Divine judgment, a day of sore distress. Besides the common terms for “darkness” and “cloud,” there are two other terms, , thick and dense darkness, such as ensues after sunset; the root , though not used in the Hebrew, is cognate with the Arabic afala, properly, to “set as the sun:” compare naphal, nabhal, abhal; while is blended from the triliterals , a cloud, and , to be dark (compare and ), darkness of donas, thick clouds.
(1) Some understand this darkness literally, as in the description of the plague of locusts in Egypt it is written, “They covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened.”
(2) Others understand it figuratively, as light denotes prosperity, and darkness adversity. Thus Kimchi says, “Affliction is likened to darkness, as joy is likened to light.” At the same time, he mentions the literal exposition: “Or,” he says, “through the multitude of the locusts the land is darkened;” and refers to Exo 10:15, “For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened.”
As the morning spread upon the mountains.
(1) Some explain this of the locust-army stretching far like the morning light, as it breaks over the hills. Thus Pococke, “If shachar be rendered, as most generally, the morning, and the light thereof meant, then the meaning thereof seems to express the sudden coming and the widespreading of the thing spoken of, so as not to be hindered, in that resembling the morning light, which in a moment discovers itself on the tops of the mountains (on which it first appeareth), though at never so great a distance one from another.” The wide and quick diffusion of this plague, like that of the morning light, is the thing meant. But
(2) Keil understands shachar of the yellow light which proceeds from swarms of locusts as they approach, and translates, “Like morning dawn spread over the mountains is it” (i.e. the glimmer on their wings). “The prophet’s meaning,” he adds, “is evident enough from what follows. He clearly refers to the bright glimmer, or splendour, which is seen in the sky as a swarm of locusts approaches, from the reflection of the sun’s rays from their wings.” Thus the subject is neither yom nor am, which the Vulgate, contrary to the accents, joins to it.
(3) Others. again, connect the expression closely with the “darkness” preceding, and translate, “Like the morning twilight spread upon the mountains,” that is, before it descends into the valleys. Rather, as Wunsche, “Like the gray of the morning,” etc. (comp. Exo 10:15 and and ). Exposition
(1) is confirmed by Rashi, who says, “The locusts and the palmer-worms are spread over the mountains, as the morning dawn is spread through (in) an the world.” Similarly Aben Ezra, “Like the dawn which is diffused in an instant.” Kimchi’s comment is fuller, but to the same effect: “As the morning dawn which is spread over the mountains as in an instant, for there is called the beginning of the sun in his going forth, because of their height; so then the locusts are spread and extended over the land in an instant.” With this exposition of the clause we may compare Virgil’s
“Postera vix summos spargebat lumine montes Orta dies.”
“The following daybreak had scarce begun to sow the mountain-tops with light.”
There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. This is a hyperbolic mode of speech, to denote the extraordinary and unusual severity of the disaster. The Hebrew commentators are at pains to reconcile what appears to them a discrepancy. They say, “It was never known before or since that four kinds of locusts came to-together;” as for the plague of Egypt;there was but one sort of them, they say. The correct explanation is that the like had not been in the same country, that is, the land of Judaea, though elsewhere there might have been the like, as in Egypt before, or in other countries since.
Joe 2:3
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth.
(1) The fire was the extreme drought preceding them; and the flame refers to the devastation of the locusts, for the places laid waste by them presented the appearance of being burnt with fire, the locusts consuming not only the grain and grass, but the very roots.
(2) Or it may refer to the locusts themselves; their destructive power being as though fire spread along before them. and flame swept the ground behind them.
(3) Or the fire may have been literally such, the people, in self-de fence, kindling it to stop, or turn aside, or drive away the advance of the locust-army.
(4) Keil explains this burning heat, heightened into devouring flames of fire, as accompaniments of the Divine Being “as he comes to judgment at the head of his army,” like the balls of fire which attended his manifestation in Egypt, and the thunder and lightning amid which he descended at Sinai. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. This reference by the first of the prophets to the first book of the Bible is noteworthy. The country before them, with its fertile fields and valuable vineyards, its fruit trees, and pleasant plants, and various cereals resembled a paradise. As they proceeded the corn was consumed, fruit trees and forest trees alike stripped of leaves and left barked and bare, the grass and verdure withered; so that after them nothing was to be seen but a desolate wilderness. Yea, and nothing shall escape them.
(1) That is, either nothing shall escape the locusts; or
(2) Keil contends that the meaning is that “even that which escaped did not remain to it,” and refers lo to the land.
Joe 2:4-6
These verses describe the appearance of the locusts and the alarm which their presence causes.
Joe 2:4
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses. They arc said to resemble horses in the shape of the head; hence the Germans call them Heupferde, or hay-horses, and the Italians cavalette. This resemblance had been noticed long ago by Theodoret, who says, “If any one should examine accurately the head of the locust, he will find it exceedingly like that of a horse.” And as horsemen, so shall they run. In rapidity of motion they resembled running horses (parashim). Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap. This is the next circumstance noticed about them, viz. the noise of their motion. Their motion was peculiar; it was springing or leaping, and, when they sprang or leaped, the noise they made resembled the rattling of a jerky two-wheeled war-chariot over a rough mountain-road.
Joe 2:5
The first clause may be understood
(1) according to the Authorized Version, whereby the leaping is attributed to the locusts, or
(2) asper may be understood after chariots, and then the leaping is predicated of the chariots. The last clause of the same verse is capable of three constructions, namely
(1) “They shall leap (yeraqqedim being supplied) as a strong people set in battle array;” or
(2) “The noise (qol understood) shall be as the noise of a strong people set in battle array;” or
(3) “They are as a strong people set in battle array.” Kimchi interprets according to (2), “As a strong people that is set in array to fight with the people who is opposed to them, who make a great noise and shouting in order to strike terror into their enemies.”
Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble. This was the noise made by them, not when they were properly in motion, but when alighting on a district they devoured every green thing in plant, or shrub, or treethe noise, in fact, which they made when feeding. It resembled the crackling of flame ever a field of grain or stubble set on fire. Such was the noise they made when marching, and such the noise they made when foragingthe one was like the rattling of a chariot, the other the crackling of fire. Cyril notices this peculiarity as follows: “They say that their alighting in the fields is effected not without noise; but that a certain shrill noise is produced by their teeth, while they chew into pieces the prostrate grain, as of wind scattering flame.” Thus Thomson also says, “The noise made in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower on a distant forest.” As a strong people set in battle array. Their progress is thus described: “Their steady though swift advance and regular order resembled an army well equipped and in battle array on its line of march.” Cyril says of them, “By reason of their innumerable multitude, not easy to be encountered, but rather very dangerous to be met with.” Again he says, “They are an irresistible thing, and altogether invincible by men.” Here again the prophet’s description is confirmed by the observation of intelligent eye-witnesses. Referring to Solomon’s statement, “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands,” Dr. Thomson says, “Nothing in their habits is more striking than the pertinacity with which they all pursue the same line of march, like a disciplined army. As they have no king, they must be influenced by some common instinct.”
Joe 2:6
Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. Peoples or nations writhe in pain or tremble at the sight of them, lest they should settle on their fields and gardens, destroying the “golden glories” of the one, and the “leafy honours” of the other. In the second member the word is
(1) generally connected with , a pot, rad. , to break in pieces, and translated accordingly. Thus the Septuagint: “Every face is as the blackness of a pot;” the Syriac also: “Every face shall be black as the blackness of a pot;” in like manner the Chaldee: “All faces are covered with soot, so that they are black as a pot.”
(2) But Aben Ezra connects the word with , to beautify, glorify, adorn, and translates, “They withdraw (gather to themselves)their redness (ruddiness);” that is, they become pale. The ‘Speaker’s Commentary ‘ adopts this view of the expression, and illustrates it by Shakespeare’s fancy of the blood being summoned from the face to help the heart in its death-struggle
“Being all descended to the labouring heart;
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
Attracts the same for aidance ‘gainst the enemy:
Which with the heart there cools and ne’er returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again.”
The parallel usually cited in favour of asaph being employed in the sense of withdrawing is, “And the stars shall withdraw their shining” (Joe 2:10; Joe 3:15). This proceeds on the supposition that asaph and qabhats have the same meaning of “gathering “gathering up, gathering in, withdrawing. But D. Kimchi quotes his father (Joseph Kimchi) as objecting to this rendering, on the ground of the distinction which he asserts to prevail between them. Asaph, he says, “is used of gathering together, or in, that which is dispersed, or net present; but qabhats is not so used.”
Joe 2:7-9
The prophet, having mentioned the consternation and terror occasioned by the approach of locusts, proceeds to compare them to an army well equipped and overcoming all impediments.
Joe 2:7
They shall run like mighty men. This either refers to their extreme nimbleness or rapidity of motion (compare the Homeric , and the like), or describes their running to an assault with intrepid valour and unwearied vigour. They shall climb the wall like men of war. This marks the success of their assault; they scale the walls and make good their attack. And they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. Their march is as irresistible as it is orderly. In their onward march each pursues his way, allowing no obstacle to arrest or retard his course; while in a collective body they proceed and maintain their serried ranks unbroken. The verb is probably cognate with , to twist, and thus to turn aside. Thus the LXX.: “They shall not turn aside their tracks;” so also the Syriac and Jerome translate it; but the Chaldee compares it with , a pledge, and, as the deposit is detained till the pledge is redeemed, takes in the meaning of delay. Rosenmuller explains it in the sense of change or exchange, from the Qal, signifying “to receive on loan,” and the Hiph; “to give on loan.” Otherwise it is to “interweave” (equivalent to ), “change.” The sense of the whole is their not diverging to either side, nor straggling out of rank.
Joe 2:8
Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path. “And not one shall stand aloof from his brother.” This is either the sequence of their not breaking rank, or perhaps it is a co-ordinate particular in the detail. They neither straggle away from each other, and so fall out of rank, nor do they crowd and crush and press each other while keeping rank. The order of their march is perfect, every one keeping his proper place and in the proper path. And when they fall upon the sword (margin, dart), they shall not be wounded. The meaning is either
(1) that the weapons shall not wound them, or intransitively, as in the text, they shall not be wounded, , to cut, or break in pieces, being here synonymous with , to wound; or
(2) that they do not cut off, break off, or interrupt their course. No force of arms can stay their progress or step their advance. On this clause Kimchi remarks, “This army is not like other enemies, which you may hinder by the sword from coming upon you; but these light upon the swords, and are not wounded by reason of their lightness? He also remarks on , “Because he compares them with men and heroes, he uses , although this word does not apply except to the sons of men.”
Joe 2:9
They shall run to and fro in the city (or rush to the assault of the city. Wunsche, and so LXX; “They shall seize upon the city”); they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. In the first clause the comparison with an army still continues. The attack has succeeded, the city has been taken by assault, the victorious troops are running to and fro in the city; so far the locusts are fitly represented by an army vigorous in its advance, steady in its march, resistless in its assault, victorious in its attack, and masters of the captured city. The remainder of the ninth verse is not equally applicable to the figure and the fact in common, but belongs exclusively to the locusts themselves; they creep up the wall, climb up upon the houses, and find ingress even at the windows. “There is no road,” says Jerome, “impassable to locusts. They penetrate into fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and even the recesses of the bedchambers;” while Theodoret remarks of locusts that” not only when flying, but by creeping along the walls, they pass through the windows into the houses themselves.” Thus there was no spot to which they could not find access, and no place secure from their assault. Yashoqqu. Aben Ezra and Kimchi both connect this word with shoq, a leg. The latter says, “It has the signification of shoq, a leg, and he mentions this word in respect to the locust, because its legs are long; and further, because it is continually going and seldom resting; and thus he (Isaiah) says, ‘As the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them,’ as if he said, ‘a continual going up and down.'”
Joe 2:10, Joe 2:11
These verses picture the dreadful consequences of the then present and temporary visitation of the locusts, and of the future and final judgment of which it was a type. The earth shall quake before them;
(1) the locusts. The heavens tremble. The alighting of the locusts on the earth would make it quake, and their flight through the heavens would make it tremulous. As applied to the visitation o! locusts, the language would be hyperbolical, unless we accept Jerome’s explanation as follows: “It is not that the strength of the locusts is so great that they can move the heavens and shake the earth, but that to those who suffer from such calamities, from the amount of their own terror the heavens appear to shake and the earth to reel.”
(2) Before him; i.e. Jehovah himself amid the storm; and all in accordance with fact. But a greater judgment than that of the locusts is typified by the language of the prophet. Kimchi observes on this (tenth)verse that “all the expressions are parabolical, or figurative, to set forth the greatness of a calamity; for this is the usage of Scripture, as, ‘The sun shall be darkened in his going forth,’ and the like.” So also Abarbauel on this verse: “Which all is a parabolical expression of the calamities of the Jews.” Aben Ezra understands it differently: “Men of the earthquake.” Rashi: “The heavens quake and tremble because of the punishment that comes upon Israel.” The second part of the verse, as also the verse following, appear to us to indicate this. The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army. That a storm succeeded and put an end to the plague of locusts, and that the darkening of the sun and moon and stars signified the obscuration of the heavenly luminaries by the storm-clouds that overspread the heavens and darkened the face of day, would fall short of expressions of such solemn grandeur as are here employed by the prophet, Besides, our Lord applies language of the same import to the last judgment in the Gospels: “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” Thunder, no doubt, is the voice of the Lord, which he utters while marching at the head of his army to execute judgment and manifest his wrath against his enemies. For his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Three reasons are here assigned for the preceding sublime description of Jehovah coming to judgment at the head of his hosts. These are the following: the greatness of his army in number and might; the power with which his army executes his word of command; and the terrible character of the day of judgment when the vials of Divine wrath shall be poured forth.
Joe 2:12-14
The judgment of the locusts was typical of the great day of judgment. The tartars of that day were designed to bring the people to repentance. Thus judgment was mingled with mercy.
Joe 2:12
Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with great fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. At this period of sore judgment God, by the prophet, calls upon the people to return and repent, to fast and to weep, to grieve inwardly and mourn outwardly for sin. He also instructs them how to engage in the duty of humiliation aright and acceptably. The humiliation was to be that of the heartsorrow of heart for the sins by which they had offended God, inward shame on account of those iniquities by which they had wronged their own souls and marred their own best interests. But while there behoved to be this inward contrition, outward expressions of it were also required. Genuine sorrow and shame for sin were to be accompanied by fasting, tears of penitence, and other indications of mourning. With all your heart. Kimchi comments thus: “That your repentance be not with a heart and a heart.”
Joe 2:13
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. Where there is real contrition of spirit because of sin, outward manifestations are both suitable and proper, though not by way of display or for sake of ostentation. But they were reminded, on the other hand, that mere outward manifestations avail nothing unless there also exist the deep inward feelings which are in harmony with and naturally underlie those manifestations. Out of such inward feelings those outward expressions properly originate; hence, after the exhortation to fasting and weeping and mourning, it is added, “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” To rend the garments, among the Jews, was a token of great grief, and imported that the individual who did so was overwhelmed with excessive sorrow, or had encountered some terrible calamity. Thus we read of Jacob, on receiving his son Joseph’s coat of many colours, rending his clothes, putting sackcloth on his loins, and mourning for his son many days (comp. also 2Ch 34:27). In these instances the sorrow was deep and genuine and bitter. It was possible, however, to exhibit the external signs of grief without any such corresponding inward feeling of sorrow; just as it is still possible for men to draw near to God with their lips while the heart is far from him. To prevent such hypocritical pretence they are commanded to rend their hearts, and not their garments only. There was no impropriety in rending their garments in token of great grief for sin and of great indignation against themselves for their folly, but the command imports that they were not to rest in the outward sign without the reality of the thing signified. For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. To the exhortation he subjoins the encouraging manifestation of the Divine character with which God, ages before, had favoured Moses, substituting for “truth” the trait of character best suited to the present emergency. tie is not an absolute God or an inexorable God, but their covenant God and Father who invites them even to himself, against whom they had so heinously sinned and whom they had so grievously offended.
Joe 2:14
Who knoweth if he will return and repent; that is, return from and repent of his purpose of executing judgment. And leave a blessing behind him; that is, leave behind him when returning from the exercise of judgment to resume his seat on the heavenly throne, the blessing being a replacement of the harvest fruits which the locusts had consumed, even a meat offering and a drink offering, for the service of the sanctuary as well as sustenance to supply the people’s own bodily wants. Jerome explains the question of Joe 2:14 with much judgment as follows: “Lest perchance they might either despair on account of the magnitude of their crimes, or the greatness of the Divine clemency might make them careless.” Besides
(1) the interrogative rendering, there is
(2) that of the Chaldee, followed by Rashi and Kimchi.
The latter says, “He that knows the way of repentance, let him repent, and God will repent of this evil.” Also in addition to
(1) that is, Authorized Version, he (i.e. God) “shall leave a blessing,” there is
(2) that of Rashi and Aben Ezra, who explain as follows: “Perhaps God will repent, and that army shall leave a blessing, out of which they may make a meat offering and a drink offering.”
Joe 2:15-17
“The harsh blast of the consecrated ram’s horn called an assembly for an extraordinary fast. Not a soul was to be absent. Like the fiery cross, it convened old and young, men and women, mothers with infants at their breasts, the bridegroom and the bride on their bridal day. All were there stretched in front of the altar. The altar itself presented the dreariest of all sightsa hearth without its sacred fire, a table spread without its sacred feast. The priestly caste, instead of gathering as usual upon its steps and its platform, were driven, as it were, to the further space; they turned their backs to the dead altar, and lay prostrate, gazing towards the Invisible Presence within the sanctuary. Instead of the hymns and music which, since the time of David, had entered into their prayers, there was nothing heard but the passionate sobs and the loud dissonant howls such as only an Eastern hierarchy could utter. Instead of the mass of white mantles which they usually presented, they were wrapt in black goat’s-hair sackcloth, twisted round them, not with the brilliant sashes of the priestly attire, but with a rough girdle of the same texture, which they never unbound night or day. What they wore of their common dress was rent asunder or cast off. With bare breasts they waved their black drapery towards the temple, and shrieked aloud, ‘Spare thy people, O Lord!'” Such is Dean Stanley’s vivid picture of the circumstances and scene described by the prophet in the above verses. A scene exceedingly similar occurs in the commencement of the ‘OEdipus Tyrannus’ of Sophocles
“Why sit ye here, my children, younger brood
Of Cadmus famed of old, in solemn state,
Your bands thus wreathed with the suppliants’ boughs?
And all the city reeks with incense,
And all re-echoes with your hymns and groans;
And I, my children, counting it unmeet
To hear report from others, I have come
Myself, whom all name OEdipus the Great.”
Joe 2:18-27
form the sequel of this chapter in the Hebrew, but five additional verses make up the chapter in the Authorized Version. These are divisible into two parts. In the first division the prophet assures his countrymen of the bestowal of temporal mercies, and in the second of the promise of spiritual blessings.
Joe 2:18
The futures of this verse with vav consec, are properly taken as perfects; nor is there any inconsistency, provided we understand, as following Joe 2:17 and preceding Joe 2:18, the fact that the priests had engaged in the penitence enjoined, and offered the supplication to which they had been summoned; neither is the omission of any express mention of the circumstance thus supposed to intervene between these verses any valid objection, especially as the grammar favours the view in question. Then follows a manifestation of God’s mercy in answer to the assumed penitence and prayer of his servants. God’s jealousy and pity are both engagedhis jealousy for his land, and his compassion for his people. His jealousy is figurative, and the allusion is probably to that of a husband who is jealous on account of any dishonour done to his wife, and who resents it more keenly than a dishonour offered to himself. The pity is such as God ever manifests to his people when penitent; for “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.”
Joe 2:19
Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith. The Lord’s answer comes in the shape of a promise of relief of which man and beast were so sorely in need. The promise, with deliverance from distress, couples ample abundance. The corn and the wine and the oilthe three great temporal blessings, equivalent to food, refreshment, and ornamentwhich the locusts had destroyed, as we read in Joe 2:10, God hero promises to restore, and to restore not merely to the extent that was barely necessary, but in full and abundant measure, so that they would be satisfied therewith.
(1) The verbs of fulness or want, clothing and unclothing, going or coming and dwelling, govern an accusative; hence has the accusative here; sometimes it is constructed with or .
(2) There are two constructions of a participle with a pronoun as subjectthat in which the pronoun is written in its separate form in immediate connection with the participle, and that in which it is appended as a suffix.
(3) The words dagan from dagah, to multiply; yitshar from tsahar, to shine; and tirosh from yarash, to take possession of the brain, have each the article prefixed, to emphasize the products restored by the Divine mercy. The article, no doubt, is prefixed to the names of classes of objects generally known. And I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. No more would they be a reproach or byword among the heathen, sneered at, as though God had abandoned them in his sore displeasure, or through sheer impotence had been unable to help them. All this God promised to do in answer to the prayers of his people. Such was the result of penitence, and such the power of prayer. Cherpath is a second accusative, or, more correctly, an appositional accusative to ethkem. The construction with le frequently takes the place of the second accusative, as in the seventeenth verse of the same chapter.
Joe 2:20
But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea. This verse promises the destruction of the devastator. The prophet here specifies the means by which the Eternal was going to restore the blessings of harvest. The order of sequence is invertedthe effect preceding the cause; thus, re. storation of prosperity and plenty goes before, and the cause thereof, being relief from invasion and loss, follows after. Nor is there anything singular in this, as men are more alive to recovery from a distressful state of any kind than to the remedy which effects it. The “army” of this verse we still hold to be the tribes of locusts, which, like an invading army, with its numerous regimental divisions, had overrun the land, scattering dismay and distress wherever it advanced; yet from this very verse, and the expression “northern” in particular, it has been argued that it cannot refer to locusts, but to human invaders symbolized by locusts and the havoc wrought by them.
(1) The north is not the native land of locusts; it is rather the souththe Arabian, Lybian, or Egyptian desert. But
(2) “northern” may denote the quarter from which the locusts appeared to the prophet in vision to enter the land; or, driven upward by a south wind which regularly blows, as we are informed, in those regions during spring, and then to the north of Palestine by an east wind which blows with similar regularity in summer, and again into and ultimately out of Palestine by the north wind blowing in the autumn. “In this case,” says a writer in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ “the northern plague would have been a natural expression for an inhabitant of Jerusalem to use in speaking of the locusts; as natural as it would be for a Londoner to speak of a pestilence that had commenced its ravages in Great Britain at Edinburgh, as coming to him from the north, though it were originally imported from France or Spain.” The word
(3) may symbolically denote “calamitous,” according to the explanation of some, since calamity is so frequently represented as coming from the north, so that the north is more or less identified with diasaster; thus we read in Jer 4:6, “I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.” It may, however, be safely admitted that, by the locust, the northern or Assyrian enemies of Judah, who advanced from the north as the most accessible quarter for attack, are in a subsidiary sense represented. The expulsion of these enemies brings relief; they are driven into a parched, and so desert and desolate, land; “and there,” as Kimchi observes, “they shall die because they shall find nothing to eat.” That land may be either the Idumaean desert south of Judah or Arabia Deserta. Thus the main body of the great locust-army perishes in the southern desert; while the van of the army is driven into the Dead Sea, and the rear of it into the Mediterranean Sea. Or, more literally, the face of this locust-host was towards the east, or front sea, that is, as already intimated, the Dead Sea eastward; his hinder part toward the west, or hinder sea, that is, the Mediterranean westward. Thus they were driven in every other direction than that by which they came, namely, south, east, and west. In marking the quarters of the world, the Jews faced the east, so that the west was behind them, the south on their right hand, and the north on their left. We have thus a most vivid picture of the speedy and total destruction of the locusts. After expulsion, no danger was to be apprehended from them, for, blown into the sea or desert, they perished at once and for ever. The terms employed are very graphic; thus, mealekem is much more than mikkem would be, and imply that a heavy burden was lifted from upon, or up off the face of a desolated land, and the heart of a distressed people. And his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things; margin, magnified to do. The stench emitted from the putrefying bodies of those locusts would be sickening and stiflingsufficient to occasion a pestilence. Many testimonies from travellers and others prove the reality of both circumstancesthe ill savour and its pestiferous nature. Several expressions in this verse are applicable enough to an army, as in the last clause, where he is said to do great things, or literally, “magnified to do,” that is, magnified himself in his doings; it may, however, apply equally well to the great destruction by the locust-army. There is no doubt the superadded notion of haughtiness along with that of great doings. It really means that, as an instrument of God, they had effected a fearfully violent desolation, and this is assigned as a reason for the total destruction of those locusts.
Joe 2:21-23
In these verses the land and beasts and men are addressed respectively. Thus the promise is fully developed. In Joe 2:21 the prophet summons the earth; in Joe 2:22 the beasts of the field; and in Joe 2:23 the sons of Zion; all are called to joy and gladness on account of the great deliverance from destruction which the Lord had wrought for them. They are all called on to rejoice in the great deliverance; the land, personified, is summoned to exult and rejoice for the great things God now promises to do or is doing to it. If the locusts had done great things in destruction, God will do great things in deliverance. The beasts are also personified, and forbidden to be afraid; for whereas they had groaned and cried for want of herbage when the pastures were burnt up, those pastures are now beginning to spring, and the fruit trees yield their strength. The children of Zion are invited to rejoice, not only in the delivered land, or springing pastures, or fruitful figs, or blooming vines, or other trees however useful or ornamental; but, as became them with their superior intelligence, in the Lord their God, as the Father of mercies and the Giver of every good and perfect gift, whether temporal or spiritual. At the same time, their temporal wants would be attended to, and their land fertilized by the suitable and sustaining shower. The prophet individualizes the earth, the beasts of the field, and the sons of Zion.
Joe 2:21
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. The land had suffered severely from the drought connected with the locusts; but is now summoned to joy and gladness. The prophet assigns for this an appropriate reason: the locusts had done great things in damaging it; Jehovah now does great things in their destruction. When the earth clothes itself with verdure, and brings forth its fruits and flowers and various products, it is said, by a bold but beautiful personification, to rejoice and even exult. Thus the Latins said in like manner, Rident arva, ridet ager. Things are now reversed. Instead of mourning, is exultation; instead of mourning and its visible emblem in girding with sadness, there is joy and gladness; instead of the day of the Lord: very great and terrible or fearful, is “Fear not.” Semachi is fem. imper. Qal in pause for the ordinary simchi.
Joe 2:22
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field. The dumb animals had groaned in distress for food, but now they too have cause to rejoice, and are here called on to do so; and the suitable cause in their case is also specified. It is as follows: For the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. He thus specifies the ground of gladness in their case also, pointing to the fresh green of the pastures and the fruit hanging in rich abundance and variety on the trees. The fruits of vines and fig trees are net, it is true, the food of the beasts of the fields; but the revival of vegetation in trees, the higher and larger growths, the chief factor in which is moisture, comprehends the revival of the smaller growths of herbs, grasses, and plants, the proper sustenance of cattle. Kimchi’s explanation is that “as the tree bears its fruit in the inhabited part of the world, so in the wilderness the places of pasture grow green.” Aben Ezra, who never loses an opportunity of directing attention to contrasts wherever they exist, contrasts “Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field,” in this verse with “the beasts of the field cry also unto thee” at the close of the preceding chapter; also “the pastures of the wilderness do spring” with “the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness;” likewise “the tree beareth her fruit” with “all the trees of the field are withered.” It has been observed that all plants, even shrubs and trees, spring up at the first as the fresh young juicy green of plants, ; then they develop into or , grass: into herb, ; and into tree, is not the plural for , but singular, after the analogy of (Psa 96:12). Nasaperi, equivalent to “lift up, bear,” is more poetical than asah peri, equivalent to “make fruit;” so in Latin, surgunt fruges. The expression, “yield their strength,” puts the cause for the effect; the strength of the tree produces the fruit and centres in it.
Joe 2:23
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. They had keenly felt and deeply bewailed the unparalleled catastrophe which had befallen laud and cattle and inhabitants, and also themselves among the number. The sons of Zion are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the capital, in which was the national sanctuary for the worship of Jehovah. Not only are the inhabitants of Jerusalem included, but, as the capital often stood for the whole country, all the inhabitants of Judah are comprehended under the “children of Zion.” The ground of their gladness and joy in God is: For he hath given you the former rain moderately (margin, a teacher of righteousness, or for righteousness), and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Omitting for the present the disputed word hammoreh, we have the great blessing which was so much needed. The blessing bestowed was twofoldnegative in the destruction of the locusts and deliverance from their ravages; and positive in the plentiful rainfall, geshem, the great and beneficent fertilizer of the dried-up and desolated land. But this abundant rain is more closely particularized as the early or October rain, moreh, which, falling at the seed-time in autumn, promoted the germination and growth of the seed just sown; and as the latter, or March rain, malqosh, which, bestowed in the spring season a short time before harvest, matured the crops. The geshem, or shower, may be regarded here as the generic name, and of these the two species are the moreh and malqosh, from laqash, to be ripe or late, just explained. The word hammoreh in the early part of the verse is translated
(1) “teacher” in the Chaldee and Vulgate, by Jerome, by Abar-banel among the Hebrew commentators, who refers it to Messiah; among modern commentators by Hofman, referring it to Joel himself, by Hengstenberg, who understands it of the ideal teacher or collective body of messengers from God. Keil also renders, “the teacher for righteousness,” and applies the expression to the instructions of Moses, the priests, and the prophets, not excluding Messiah himself. He also understands the prophet to speak of both spiritual and material blessings, giving a fuller exposition of the latter in verses 23-27, and of the former in verses 28-32 and in the last chapter. The two considerations that seem to have most weight with Keil in inclining him to this exposition arc the presence of the article with moreh, and the non-physical sense of litsdaqah; hence Ewald’s “rain for righteousness,” i.e. a sign from God of their being adopted again into righteousness. But weight-stones and scales have tsedeq attached in the physical sense of correctness, while ethical rightness is only an inference or subordinate notion (see Le 19:36; Psa 23:3). The translation
(2) of “rain” is, we think, justly entitled to the preference from the context. Among promises of repairing the damage done by the locusts, it would be obviously out of place to introduce the notion of “a teacher.” Of the Hebrew expositors, Aben Ezra and Kimchi both understand the word in the sense of rain; the former says, “In my opinion it is the same as yoreh;” and the latter, “Hammoreh is the same as yoreh.“ So also Calvin, Rosenmuller, Hitzig, and Wunsche. The etymology also is favourable to this view, for both yoreh and moreh are from the verb yorah, to throw (Hiph; cause to throw), throw down as drops, wet, besprinkle, equivalent to , and as the Qal and Hiph. sometimes coincide in meaning, we may safely conclude moreh synonymous with yoreh, the meaning of which is unquestionably “rain,” specially . (a) Rain in right measure, then, we take to be the true meaning; not (b) rain according to righteousness, as though God, in accordance with his righteousness, repented of the evil he thought to do unto them, and, in consequence of their forsaking their sins, sent the fertilizing rains. Again, barishon is rendered by some (a) as if keba–rishon were equivalent to “as in the former time;” thus the LXX; ; Vulgate, Sicuti in principio. But we prefer (b) the rendering, “in the first month;” so the Chaldee, “In the month Nisan, or March.” The Hebrew commentators explain it in like manner; thus Rashi, “In the first monthin Nisan;” Aben Ezra, “And the meaning of ‘in the first’ is in the first month;” Kimchi, “The explanation of the rain that is called moreb, he sends it down to you in its season, which is Marchesvan, and he causes to descend to you in like manner the malqosh (the latter rain) in its season in the first month, which is Nisan.” The blessing of the rain was thus greatly enhanced by being sent in the right measure and at the suitable season.
Joe 2:24-27
In these verses the prophet pictures the blessed effects of the abundant rain on the parched and barren land. Joe 2:24 presents a contrast to Joe 2:10-12 of Joe 1:1-20.; while the promise of corn and wine and oil in Joe 1:19, with which the present is closely connected, is performed. The perfects exhibit the Divine promise as actually accomplished.
(1) The word , from , to separate, denotes the pure grain separated from the husk or chaff and straw.
(2) is” to run,” and in Hiph.,” to cause to run” as of fluids, then overflow; and Pilel in Psa 65:10, shoqeq, “to cause to overflow.”
(3) , equivalent to , is a vessel bored or hewn out, then the vat into which the wine trodden out in the wine-press, or the oil trodden out in the oil-press, flows; while is the press in which wine or oil, especially the former, is trodden out.
I will restore to you the years.
This denotes either
(1) the greatness and violence of the destruction made by the locusts, or
(2) it implies that, only for the timely interposition of Jehovah in destroying the locusts, the people would have had to sustain the loss of the harvest, not of one year only, but of severalin other words, the disastrous effects of their ravages would have been felt for a number of years; but
(3) not that the locusts invaded the land several successive yours. The absence of the copula before yeleq, and its presence before the last two names, viz. ehasil aud gazam, prove that these three names, being thus co-ordinated, are either epithets or species of ‘arbeh: thus, the losses of the years which the locust, or multitudinous one, hath eatenthe licker and the devourer and the biter (or gnawer)were compensated. Abarbauel maintains these names of the locusts to refer to the four world-powers that one after another desolated Palestine: “For they,” he says, “were the army of Jehovah and the messengers of his providence to punish Israel by their means.” The effect of the plentiful supply of their wants and of the full satisfaction enjoyed thereby becomes the occasion of devout acknowledgment of God as their Protector and Patron, and of the warmest expressions of gratitude for his goodness, so they praise the Name of the Lord their God, that had dealt wondrously with them; literally, had acted towards them even to the doing of wonders. Then follows the practical conclusion, very poetically expressed, and comprising the assurance of the presence of God among his people, his sole Divinity and sure protection of them, a guarantee of his grace to them at all times, freedom from reproach and shame evermore. Thus closes the promise of temporal or material bless-tugs. “Ye shall recognize,” says Kimchi, “that I am in your midst, hearing your cries.”
Joe 2:28-32
These verses form a chapter (the third) by themselves in the Hebrew text, but in the LXX. and the Authorized Version they conclude Joe 2:1-32. In them the prophet passes on to spiritual blessings.
Joe 2:28, Joe 2:29
And it shall come to pass afterward (‘acharekhen). This intimates the time when the promised blessing is to be bestowed, and must be read in the light of New Testament exposition; for Peter, in quoting the words (Act 2:17, etc.), varies the prophet’s note of time by substituting an explanatory phrase, viz. , “in the last days”an expression which, as is acknowledged, refers to the days of the Messiah or the last days of the old dispensation. The apostle thus defines more closely the somewhat indefinite expression of the Hebrew. After this specification of the time, he proceeds to state the blessing to be bestowed. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. The word shaphak, employed by the prophet to express the outpouring of the Spirit, implies the bestowal of the gift in great abundance, as Calvin clearly pointed out: “For shaphak,” he says, “does not mean merely to give in drops, but to pour out in great abundance. But God did net pour out the Holy Spirit so abundantly or copiously under the Law, as he has since the manifestation of Christ.” The Spirit was indeed communicated in Old Testament times, but that communication was restricted in two ways in quantity, and in the number of recipients; the former was comparatively scanty and the latter few, whereas the word here applied to its communication implies a rich supply, like a copious rainfall. After the specification of the time, and the mention of the blessing, with its implied plentifulness, comes its wide diffusion, or general distribution”all flesh,” or “all mankind,” as the Hebrew expression denotes; and that without regard to age, or sex, or state. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. Sons and daughters without distinction of sex; old men and young men without reference to age; servants and handmaids without regard to social position. Thus it is with the Spirit of God as with the Son of God, of whom the apostle says, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uucircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” The blessing of salvation through the Son of God and by the Spirit of God is wide as the world in its offer, and free to all who accept itwithout national distinction, for there is neither Jew nor Greek; without social distinction, for there is neither bond nor free; without sexual distinction, for there is neither male nor female; without ceremonial distinction, for there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; without intellectual or educational distinction, for the barbarian and even the Scythian, the lowest type of barbarian, are free to share the blessing. The vegam before the “servants” and “handmaids,” rendered in the citation by Peter, not as in the LXX. by a simple , but by , and in the Authorized Version “and also,” is an emphatic addition to the previous enumeration, equivalent to “nay more” and implying something extraordinary and unexpected, that not only the weaker sex, but the meanest of both sexes, were to participate in the blessing. “Not a single case,” says Keil, “occurs in the whole of the Old Testament of a slave receiving the gift of prophecy.” The mode in which spiritual commmunication is
(1) according to some is that of visions to the young, whose fancy is more vigorous; that of dreams to the old, in the decadence of their mental powers; while to the sons and daughters the gift is prophesying. Others more correctly
(2) understand prophecy as the general term for speaking under the Spirit’s influence or instructing by Divine inspiration; while the two forms of prophetic revelation are dreams when the mental “faculties are suspended by natural causes,” and visions or trances when “suspended by supernatural causes,” the communication in either case being supernatural. This prediction began to be fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost.
Joe 2:30
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. Along with the wonderful distribution of gifts and graces at the Day of Pentecost, attention is directed to portents of destructive visitation; after a dispensation of mercy follows a dispensation of wrath; mercy and judgment thus succeed each other in the providence of God. The visitation of mercy may, by way of contrast, suggest that of judgment; or the connection of this and the following verses with the preceding may be the plague of the locusts, the mind passing on from that visitation to the visitation at the destruction of Jerusalem, as also to that which shall take place at the judgment of the last day. Our Lord, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, seems to mingle the portents which were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem with those that shall usher in the judgment-day. There may Be some doubt whether the expressions before us are to Be understood literally or figuratively. In either case coming events were casting their shadows before; and the appearances enumerated, whether taken in a literal or figurative sense, were symbolical of great revolutionary changes. The expressions themselves reflect the miracles of Egypt. Of the wonders on earth which the prophet first mentions, the blood brings to mind the changing of the Nile-water into blood; the fire reminds us of the fire that ran along upon the ground, mingled with the hail; while the smoke carries back our thoughts to the wonderful events of the wilderness and of the encampment at Sinai, when, as Jehovah descended upon the mount, “Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace.”
Joe 2:31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. These wonders in the heavens follow the wonders on earth, and these obscurations of the heavenly bodiesthe darkening of the sun and the dull blood-like appearance of the moonwere portents of coming judgment. These miraculous phenomena, if literally employed, may refer to those portentous sights which, as the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus testify, were witnessed, both by besiegers and besieged, during the siege and before the destruction of Jerusalem. But taken symbolically, as is preferable, blood symbolizes bloodshed; fire, the firing of a town in time of war; and pillars of smoke, the clouds of smoke rolling up to heaven from the burning or smouldering ruins of a town or city set on fire by the enemy; while the darkening of the sun and the turning of the moon into a dull blood-red would portend approaching judgment, and a change, political and ecclesiastical, in the existing constitution of things. Here particularly, by reading Joel’s prophecy in the light of the New Testament, we shall understand with tolerable clearness the meaning of the symbols of the sun and moon. The symbolic language of Joel’s prediction found its fulfilment, at least in part, within less than half a century from the time when Peter spoke. Scarce forty years from that Pentecostal outpouring and the ruling powers, civil and ecclesiastical, of the Jewish nation came to an end. The Jewish Church and Hebrew commonwealth went out in darkness. The moon of the latter began to wane from the first day the Roman power was set up in Palestine, but at the destruction of the capital the light of that moon was extinguished for ever; the sun of the former was long getting obscured by clouds, but at last it underwent a total and final eclipse. But why, it may be asked, are sun and moon thus symbolic of rulers superior and inferior, or of rulers of greater and less importance, or of rulers in Church and state? By the original constitution of these luminaries, as specified in the record of Creation, they were actually appointed to this, and so naturally enough the physical here, as elsewhere, underlies the symbolic, as we read, “God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.” Thus what was commenced when Judaea became a Roman province was completed when Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple burnt by the Roman army under Titus. “The day of the Lord” is an expression very common with the prophets, and always expressive of some severe visitation or special judgment. Thus we read in this same Book of the Prophet Joel, “The day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” Again in Amo 5:18, “The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” But other days of judicial visitation were not to be compared with this. The day of Babylon’s destruction is called by Isaiah simply “the day of the Lord;” so Jeremiah speaks of the day of the destruction of Pharaoh’s army at the Euphrates as “the day of the Lord;” and Joel himself designates the day of Jerusalem’s destruction of Nebuchadnezzar as “the day of the Lord.” But the day mentioned in the text before us is “that great and notable day of the Lord,” and so it was the day of the final destruction and desolation of Jerusalem.
HOMILETICS
Joe 2:1-3
The purposes for which a trumpet was blown and an alarm sounded.
I. THE PARTICULAR PURPOSE ON THIS OCCASION.
II. THE PLACE WHERE THE WARNING WAS GIVEN.
III. THE PRIESTS WHO WERE TO SOUND THE ALARM. We are informed in Num 10:8 that it was the “sons of Aaron, the priests,” that were to blow with the trumpets, either in sounding the alarm of war, or convening an assembly of the people, or for the journeying of the camps. Similar is the duty of the ministers of religion.
IV. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE WARNING IS ADDRESSED. They are all the inhabitants of the land without exception, for all more or less add their quota to the national sin, share consequently in the national danger.
V. THE PECULIARITIES OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES SO VIVIDLY PICTURED BY THE PROPHET. While the peculiar circumstances of the visitation which the prophet portrays intensify the approaching disaster, they at the same time emphasize his preceding exhortation. In this picture of the prophet we have
(1) his description of the day of the Lord, and
(2) the destruction that succeeded.
The description represents that day as a day of darkness and, by way of gradation, of gloominess, that is, of still greater darkness; as a day of clouds and of densely dark clouds; as the morning gray, the darkest hour between midnight and dawn, spread upon the mountains. The locust-people that made it so were great in number and great in strength, unequalled in the past and unparalleled in the future, through all the rolling years of many generations. The destruction was terrible in the extreme, as if a devouring fire went before them and a burning flame followed them. The havoc they made reduced a garden to a desert, and Eden itself to a wilderness; in a word, it was unescapable.
Joe 2:4-11
The way in which God executes his judgments.
In these verses we are taught many important and solemn lessons in connection with the Divine judgments and their execution.
I. THE AGENTS EMPLOYED.
1. These may appear to us in themselves very insignificant; but when executing his commission and armed with his wrath they are truly terrible. To the eye and to the ear that terror made its appeal; the sight of them was awe-inspiring, the sound of them frightful. Both on the march and while feeding they caused sounds harsh and horrible.
2. The natural effect of their approach was pain and fear. The people to whom they came were affrighted by their appearance, but still more were they alarmed for their property, which they well knew was exposed to havoc and utter destruction. How men should stand in awe of the judgments of God, and especially of sin as that which brings down those judgments! “Stand in awe, and sin not!”
II. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THEIR MISSION.
1. The ministers of the Divine vengeance do their work speedily. Never did mighty men do their work more speedily, and never did men of war, with all their training and organization, do it more thoroughly. They do their work systematically, each marching according to the appointed plan, while none leaves his proper path or quits his allotted rank. Without either struggling or jostling, they advance directly and determinedly to accomplish the work assigned them. They in consequence do their work surely. Resistance is in vain and escape impossible; it is thus with the agents and instrumentalities which God employs for the purposes of deserved wrath.
2. Should not men, when sent as messengers of his mercy, observe like order and regularity, like system in arrangements and speed in execution? It is thus with the heavenly messengers; for God makes his angels swift as the winds and strong as the fiery flames in bearing God’s messages and in ministering to God’s saints.
III. THE ALARMS OF MINOR JUDGMENTS. Weak and mean as the instruments of his wrath were individually, God made them by their multitudinous masses a mighty engine for spreading desolation and terror. It needs but a slight touch of his finger to lay men’s possessions, or comforts, or enjoyments in the dust.
Joe 2:12-17
These verses summon the people
To humiliation for sin, and thanksgiving for mercy.
God, by his prophet, does not forbid the outward sign of sorrow, so customary among Orientals and common among the Jews; he rather insists upon the presence of the thing signified, without which the sign was more a mockery than a reality.
I. THE OCCASION OF THE HUMILIATION. It Was an earnest time with the people of the southern kingdom. Terrible desolation had been made in the land of Judah. An army of locusts had been the agents of Divine vengeance; sin had been the cause; the author of the punishment was God. “The prophet had described at length the coming of God’s judgments as a mighty army. But, lest amid the judgments men should (as they often do) forget the Judge, he represents God as commanding this his army, gathering, ordering, marshalling, directing them, giving them the word when and upon whom they should pour themselves. Their presence was a token of this. They should neither anticipate that command nor linger. But as an army awaits the command to move, and then, the word being given, rolls on instantly, so God’s judgments await the precise moment of his will, and then fall.”
II. THE NATURE OF THE HUMILIATION.
III. THE MOTIVES TO HUMILIATION.
IV. THE METHOD OF THEIR HUMILIATION.
1. A great variety of circumstances is to be attended to.
(1) There is the signal to be given: “Blow the trumpet in Zion.”
(2) Serious preparation made for a fast: “Sanctify a fast.”
(3) The summoning of a solemn assembly: “Call a solemn assembly.”
(4) The convocation of the people: “Gather the people” (‘am); and,
(5) when they were thus convened and in consequence came together, they were consecrated into a solemn assembly (qahal): “Sanctify the congregation.”
(6) The constituent elements of the assembly embraced the oldest and the youngest, with ages intermediateelders and sucklings, and even children of tender years; nor could the newly married, who at other times were exempted from war or pressing duties, claim exemption now; nay, on the very day of their bridal, the bridegroom was called forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet to join the multitude of mourners, and share in the public humiliation and national sorrow.
2. The services of the occasion were to be conducted in an orderly and becoming manner. Everything connected with the house and service of God requires to be done decently and in good order. Thus, in the passage before us, nothing is left to haphazard; nor did anything remain to be improvised on the spur of the moment, and after the assembly met.
(1) The persons who were to conduct the solemn service were appointedthe priests, the ministers of the Lord;
(2) the place they were to occupy was pointed outbetween the porch and the altar;
(3) the part they were to take in the duties of the day was assigned themweeping for their own sins and the sins of the people;
(4) the prayer they were to pray was prescribed to them.
3. The prayer itself
(1) pleads for sparing mercy re-echoed in the petitions of the Litany, “Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.” The second petition of the prayer deprecates the prospect of God’s heritage becoming a reproach, and being ultimately enslaved by their heathen neighbours through feebleness and destitution which had been occasioned by the famine.
(2) The plea suggested by the prophet to the people is twofold, and forms the ground of each petition. It is “thy people, O Lord; thy heritage.“ They were still God’s people, punished, severely punished, and, it must be added, severely punished for their sins, but now penitent and petitioning for pardon. They were still more; they were God’s heritage, his peculiar treasure, segregated from the surrounding nations and set apart for the communication of his revelations, and to be the conservators of his oracles. Nor was there any presumption in reminding God of this; they were only acting as God’s remembrancers in relation to both his purpose and his promise. The glory of God as well as the good of his people was imperilled. “Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” In this way the heathen used to boast, as we learn from the boastful words of Sennacherib when he asks, “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?” Even such are the words of Jehovah himself when he asks, in relation to the vanities of the heathen, “Where are now their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?”
Joe 2:18-20
These verses prove
The efficacy of prayer.
No one who believes in a personal God, no one who believes in a God who rules and governs all, and no one especially who believes in the Bible as the Word of God, can doubt or deny the efficacy of prayer.
I. HERE FOLLOWS IN A SERIES GOD‘S REGARD TO HIS PEOPLE AND RESPONSE TO THEIR PRAYERS. He regards their impoverished condition, be repairs their losses, he removes their reproach, and he repels the immediate cause of their desolation.
1. The restoration of amicable relations is promised. The first promise here is of a general nature, and includes God’s acceptance of and affection for penitents. He graciously acknowledges his covenant relation to them and special interest in them. Both their persons and their property are owned by him. The people are his people; their land is his land. The land of promise was his in a peculiar sense; but God has respect to the possessions of his people, wherever situated; their concerns and enjoyments are precious in his esteem. The consequence is, the implied avowal of a twofold relationship, marital and paternal. “Thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married;” these words of the Prophet Isaiah distinctly express the former of the two relations referred to, while the feeling of jealousy springs therefrom. Thus, as a husband is jealous of the honour of his wife and of himself, and ready to resent any insult or injury offered to his partner, so the Lord promises to be jealous for his landthat land to which he admits by implication such an endearing and delicate relation. And “as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Like a tender, compassionate parent, he pities his people in any season or circumstances of distress, and pledges his love and power for their relief.
2. A rich supply of temporal blessings is guaranteed. This would naturally suggest itself as a practical and particular result of the general statement of the dual relationship already avouched.
(1) This supply is very comprehensive; it includes at once all that is requisite fur nourishment, for refreshment, and for ornament-corn, wine, and oil.
(2) It is very satisfactory; for the supply, either from its abundance or the accompanying blessing, is fully adequate to the requirements of the casethey shall be satisfied therewith. Plenty of itself does not always produce satisfaction: the blessing of God is needed to make men content; hence “godliness with contentment is great gain.”
(3) It is very comfortable; for it comes in answer to prayer, and thus brings with it a token of God’s good pleasure. The promise is not introduced by “The Lord will say,” but by “The Lord will answer and say,” clearly connecting it with the prayers of his people, and evidencing at the same time his love to and interest in them.
(4) It is very observable; attention is drawn to it by a “Behold.” God will have his people to take notice of his hand in the mercies he bestows, and to mark the contrast in their condition which his merciful interposition brings about. The hand that smote them now salves their wounds; they had suffered from distress and want, now they are blessed with plenty.
3. The rolling away of their reproach is an additional blessing. The heathen had exulted over them in the day of their calamity; their reputation had suffered by the visible marks of the Divine displeasure upon them, from which the inference had been either that they had forsaken God, or that he had forgotten them; and that there had been unfaithfulness on his side or on theirs, or on both. Now, however, they have returned to him in penitence, and he has received them in mercy; and thus their reproach is rolled away, and their reputation retrieved.
4. The removal of all cause of fear. The promise of plenty is backed by the assurance that the power which plagued them is doomed to destruction. The invading army that had destroyed so much is now in turn to be dispersed and defeated.
(1) They had made a fruitful land barren and desolate, and now they are to be driven away into a land barren and desolate, there to perish for ever.
(2) They had been the rod in God’s hand for the punishment of a sinful people; and now that that rod has done its work, it is broken in pieces and flung away. Nothing is left of those pestilent swarms save the stench of their putrefying carcases; so with those wicked instruments which a wise Providence sometimes employs for the chastisement of his disobedient children, nought shall remain of them except the ill odour of their memory.
(3) The relief is complete. “When an affliction,” it has been observed, “has done its work, it shall be removed in mercy, as the locusts of Canaan were from a penitent people, not as the locusts of Egypt were removed in wrath from an impenitent prince, only to make room for another plague.” They had done great things to the detriment of God’s people, and dealt much mischief to their possessions and property; now God does yet greater things for the benefit of his people, and in the destruction of their enemies.
Joe 2:21-27
Loss repaired.
These verses contain an amplification of the pre ceding promises by way of stronger assurance and greater comfort to his people There is also an application of the same, in which, by a bold but beautiful personification, the laud itself, beasts of the field, as well as the children of Zion, are called to joy and gladness.
I. REJOICINGS ENJOINED.
1. The call to joy is addressed to things animate and inanimate, to animals rational and irrational; while the expression for joyfulness is suitably and sufficiently raised. Negatively, it is the absence of fear; positively, it is gladness and exultation.
2. The contrast is also very expressive. When the plague of locusts was approaching or had actually arrived, the land mourned; now it is called on not only to lay aside fear and divest itself of all apprehension, but to leap for joy and rejoice.
II. REASONS ASSIGNED. In each case the cause of rejoicing is subjoined.
1. First comes the general statement, “For the Lord will do great things;” more correctly, “hath done great things.” He had done great things and terrible in chastising his erring children and punishing his enemies; but much greater things and more gracious he did when he repelled the invader and relieved his distressed people. Great things does God do in wrath, greater still in mercy.
“And though his arm be strong to smite,
‘Tis stronger still to save.”
2. The next reason assigned for rejoicing contains several particulars relating to the pasture-grounds and fruit trees. The pastures had been devoured as by fire; now they spring into new life, and are clothed with fresh young grass. The vine was dried up, the fig tree languished, the pomegranate, palm, and apple tree, yea, all the trees of the field, were withered; now they yield their strength, and are become vigorous and fruitful. When a man’s ways please the Lord, his enemies are at peace with him, and the very stones of the field are in league with him; in like manner, when God is at peace with his people and they with him, through mutual reconciliation cemented by the blood of the cross, all the creatures of God are their servants.
3. The third reason assigned is the gift of rain, suitable and seasonablethe former rain and the latter rain, with the necessary results, namely, floors full of wheat, and vats overflowing with wine and oil. Pusey follows those who understand moreh in the sense of “teacher,” as the Targum, which renders the clause, “Has restored to you your instructor [or, ‘instructors’] in righteousness;” and the Vulgate, “Teacher of righteousness;” the Septuagint, followed by the Syriac and the Arabic, “The foods unto righteousness.” His comment is, “It seems most probable that the prophet prefixes to all the other promises that first all-containing promise of the coming of Christ. Such is the wont of the prophets, to go on from past judgments and deliverances to him who is the Centre of all this cycle of God’s dispensations, the Son manifest in the flesh Him Joel speaks of as the Subject of rejoicing: ‘Exult and joy in the Lord thy God; for he giveth [or, ‘will give’] thee the Teacher unto righteousness,’ i.e. the result and object of whose coming is righteousness.” He further adds, “The early and latter rain, coming respectively at the seed-time and the harvest, represent the beginning and the completion; and so, by the analogy of earthly and spiritual sowing, growth, and ripeness, they represent preventing and perfecting grace; the inspiration of good purposes and the gift of final perseverance, which brings the just to glory consummated; the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and the going on unto perfection.”
III. REPARATION FOR YEARS OF LOSS.
1. Sin had been the cause of Israel’s calamity; the instruments that brought about the calamity were commissioned by God, and therefore called his great army. Small and insignificant as the individuals composing that army were, by their multitude they became great, and by the Divine commission they became mighty. The loss inflicted was consequently great. It had continued for several successive years, the change in the order of these instruments of destruction implying, according to some, not the order of attack, but the successiveness of the inroads made, and that for year after year.
2. The losses sustained are now to be repaired, such is the graciousness of God’s dealings with his people when penitent. Years of plenty are to succeed the years of famine, and the losses of the latter are to be counterbalanced by the abundance of the former. It is no unusual thing with God to restore double, even as he promises, saying, “Even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee.” Thus he did with Job; the Lord gave the patriarch twice as much as he had before, and blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. Men’s sins deserve all the chastisement that comes upon them; it is not because of man’s merit, but in virtue of God’s great goodness, that any compensation whatever is made them.
3. Thus it is with afflictions in general when we have the sanctified use of them. In such a case we are gainers, not losers, by affliction. When we return to him by means of repentance, he returns to us in the way of restitution. He repents him concerning his servants; he makes them glad according to the days wherein he has afflicted them, and the years wherein they have seen evil.
IV. RETURN OF PRAISE TO GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS.
1. God’s goodness takes visible shape when he bestows the great abundance of good things promised to his people; that goodness is greatly enhanced when the sufficiency of food and of temporal good things is accompanied with satisfaction. Men sometimes have a sufficiency and eat, but are not satisfied; again they eat, and are satisfied, but forget their Benefactor, and fail to thank him for his bounties.
2. The return which God expects, and man is bound to make, is praise to the Name of the Lord. This return of praise includes several items here clearly expressed or implied. There is
(1) an acknowledgment of the privilege of having the Lord for our God in covenanta covenant well ordered in all things and sure; there is
(2) an acknowledgment of his providence in so wondrously dealing with us; there must be
(3) an acknowledgment of the performance of his promises, so his people who trust in him have no reason to be ashamed, and are never put to shame; there must be, moreover,
(4) an acknowledgment of his presence in the midst of his people, to provide for, protect, and preserve his people; there must, in addition to all this, be
(5) an acknowledgment of the peculiarity of his relation to usthe Lord our God, and none else, so that we have reason to rejoice, not only in the good things he gives us, but in the good hand that gives them, even the hand of a father who corrects us when we offend, and comforts us when we repent, and who intertwines our good, temporal and spiritual, with his own glory.
Joe 2:28-32
The dispensation of the gospel.
The prophet had exhibited the wisdom and mercy of the Divine dispensationsGod’s pity for penitents, and the happiness of all who seek and serve him. “He will be jealous for them, and have compassion on them; he will plead their cause, avert his judgments, drive away their enemies, answer their prayers, and supply their wants; and the greatness of those things that have been done against them shall only enhance their gratitude for the still greater things that he will do for them.” Accordingly, he now passes from temporal benefits to spiritual blessings.
I. THE DISPENSATION OF THE GOSPEL IS A SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION. To a sorely chastened people such temporal mercies as are promised in the preceding verses must have been very delightful, and the great change of their condition consequent on repentance must have been as marvellous as it was merciful. But the prophet, looking away forward into the future, foretells the coming of a far more eventful eraan era marked by the bestowal of far richer and more abundant blessings.
1. The period referred to was to be subsequent to the calamities already endured, and the comforting compensations that followed. Long after the storm of adversity then present would be overpast, and after the state of peace and prosperity that would succeed, there would come a time of unparalleled blessing. The fulfilment of this prophecy began at the Day of Pentecost.
2. The plenitude of blessing. Then the droppings of the Spirit, that had been vouchsafed to patriarchs and prophets and the people of God under the old economy, would give place to a downpouring of the Spirit without stint and without restriction. This outpouring of the Spirit, in his gifts and graces and consolations, would extend to all nationalities, Gentile as well as Jew; and to both sexes, daughters and sons alike; and to all ages, both young and old; and to all classes, bond as well as free, servants and handmaids together. Not to the seed of Abraham, nor to the land of Israel, would the blessing be confined, but all flesh would be permitted to see the glory of the Lord, and the inhabitants of all lands would be privileged to come and worship before him. Peter himself scarcely comprehended the full extent of the blessing until he was specially commissioned to open the door of faith to the Gentiles.
3. Particular instances of the fulfilment present themselvesin the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Gentile Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his friends; in the prophesying of the four daughters of Philip the evangelist, as in that of Agabus; in the vision of Peter in Joppa, and in that of Cornelius in Caesarea some short space previously, as also in those wonderful visions and revelations vouchsafed to Paul when he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words.
4. Prolongation of the blessing. If we consider the effects produced, we shall find that the blessing did not cease at the Day of Pentecost. By the outpouring of the Spirit, no doubt, apostles and evangelists received such discoveries of Divine things as fully fitted them for writing the New Testament Scriptures, for declaring things secret, distant, and future, for founding the Christian Church, and ordering all things aright therein. These extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were confined to apostolic times, and in part to sub-apostolic times, and perhaps a generation after; but the ordinary operations and influences of the Spirit have never ceased from then till now. The extraordinary manifestations of the Divine will produced by the outpouring of the Spirit were only a partial accomplishment of the promise, and meant as a means for the full accomplishment of the same. Besides, it was not intended that all who receive the Spirit, and thereby learn the mysteries of the gospel and attain to the knowledge of salvation, should assume the power of prophesying, or exercise the function of the gospel ministry; for Paul, speaking of spiritual gifts, says, in relation to persons possessing such gifts, “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?” Nor are the revelations vouchsafed something without the Word of God, or beside it, or any way independent of it; for in the most solemn and signal fulfilment of this promise, when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, Peter all along appeals to Scripture, and directs his audience thereto in order to justify the change wrought on them, and vindicate the doctrines he addressed to them. By “prophesy” and “visions” and “dreams,” we may understand the prophet as speaking of “gospel times and mercies, in terms borrowed from the times of the Old Testament; and the meaning is that, as of old, the excellent way and measure of the knowledge of God was by prophecy, vision, and dreams (Num 12:6); so, under the New Testament, beside what was extraordinary, all who get the Spirit of God may, for knowing the mysteries of salvation, be compared with these ancient prophets. And as of old, by these ways of manifestation, men attained to the knowledge of the mysteries of God, so should they by the Spirit of God in the use of ordinary means.”
5. Perfect fulfilment of the promise. Wonderful as the Pentecostal period was for the outpouring of the Spirit in such power and plenty, and superior in energy and extent as the Divine influences then were to those enjoyed during the ages that had preceded, yet they were but droppings to the full flood of gospel light and gospel holiness that shall bless our earth in the glory of the latter day, when all that “see the light or feel the sun” shall know the Lord, and walk before him in the beauty of holiness. Thus the blessing commenced at Pentecost, continuing ever since, shall be consummated in that day when “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.”
II. DAYS OF TRIAL FREQUENTLY FOLLOW TIMES OF SPIRITUAL BLESSING. The people had experienced a merciful relief after the plague of locusts or prostration of their enemies; bat they are warned against carnal security, or the vain supposition that all troubles shall be for ever henceforth banished from their borders.
1. Even after the great outpouring of the Spirit in Messianic times, and specially on the Day of Pentecost, there would be great commotions and terrible convulsions. These took place, as we know, before the dreadful day of the destruction of Jerusalem; and similar catastrophes, whether literal or figurative, shall occur before the still greater and more terrible day of the second coming of Christ to judgment. Through all the interval, times of special spiritual blessing hate been in the past, and shall be in the future, followed by severe testing-times; “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” shall not exempt us from such; even God’s own dear children are not to look for a continuance of halcyon days on earth.
2. Many causes contribute to this. After a time of reformation, or religious revival and refreshing, Satan will seek to sift them like wheat, and stir up all his rage against them. Opposed to the progress of the truth, he will array all the power he possesses and all the agents he can command against the Church. God himself will permit such a winnowing-time as will separate the wheat from the chaff, try the faith, and prove the graces of his people. We never know cur real strength or points of weakness till the day of trial comes. But God will also manifest the greatness of his displeasure against sin by humbling on the one hand those who, during a time of rich spiritual blessing, refuse the offers of his grace and resist his Spirit, and by punishing on the other hand all the enemies, public or secret, of himself and of his people.
3. The coming of Christ to judgment. Whether the wonders in the heaven and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke, with eclipses of the sun and moon, be understood literally of the precursors and presages of on-coming calamities, or figuratively of the calamities and catastrophes themselves, the second coming of the Lord at the general judgment, of which his coming to the destruction of Jerusalem was a sort of dim foreshadow, shall abound with comfort to the saint. as it shall be fraught with terror to the sinner. To the one his coming shall be a day greatly desired, to the other it shall be a day of distress and despair; for while he shall come to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of his grace, he will come to be glorified in the saints, and admired in all them that believe.
III. DELIVERANCE FOR THE SERVANTS OF GOD.
1. The persons delivered are
(1) those who call upon the Name of the Lord. These are the worshippers of God, who worship him in private as well as in public, with heart as well as head, and the confession of whose lips echoes the confidence of the heart. “This calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire towards him, dependence on him, and, as an evidence of the sincerity of all this, a conscientious obedience to him; for without that, crying, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will not stand us in any stead.”
(2) They are described as “called of God,” “effectually called”called not only by the common and ordinary call of the gospel, but called specially into fellowship with God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Such are effectually called “from sin to God, from self to Christ, from things below to things above.” The apostle explains the first characteristic as pertaining to the Gentiles; the second, some restrict to the Jews. We had better refer both to the saints of God, whether Gentile or Jew.
(3) The persons spoken of in this Scripture are further particularized as persons escaped from destruction, and as a remnant left after some fierce fight or terrible judgment. The expression “remnant,” so often used by the prophets, originally referred to those captives who had survived their brethren who had died in exile, or who formed a contrast to the dwellers in Jerusalem; subsequently the expression contained the germ of the. New Testament “election of grace.” This remnant is composed, not only of the small number of Jews that believed in Christ at his first coming, but of “the little flock” (Jew and Gentile) 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.”
2. The place of deliverance. This was Mount Zion and Jerusalem literally, but in a very limited sense, if the reference be to those who escaped from the miseries and calamities of the final and fearful siege of the holy city, as also from its ruin and destruction; such as believed in Christ and were in the city having escaped to Pella, and thus survived the common calamity. It is rather Zion and Jerusalem in the spiritual sense of the Church of Christ where the Deliverer is found, whence salvation proceeds, or rather where, according to the alternative rendering, the delivered, or such as have escaped, are found.
3. The privileges of such are manifold. They have experienced tokens of God’s love upon them, teachings of God’s Spirit within them, the usefulness of God’s Word and ordinances to them; they are favoured with a spiritual frame of soul, and spread the savour of godliness around them.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Joe 2:1
Sound an alarm!
The trumpet-call was used among the Israelites both in their religious solemnities and in the conduct of war. The direction here given is that a summons should be addressed to the nation, calling upon all classes to give heed to the presence of the Lord, and to learn the lessons taught by his awful judgments. We are thus taught that the silver sound of the gospel trumpet is not the only note that reaches our human race; there is also the loud call, the startling alarm, which is especially intended for sinful and inattentive man.
I. SIN AND FALSE SECURITY ARE OFTEN ASSOCIATED. The tempter not only leads men into sin; he persuades them that sin will have no evil consequences. The voice of conscience is silenced; the solemn assurance of Scripture is disregarded or disbelieved. Men sin without foreboding and without fear.
II. HENCE THE NEED OF A SOLEMN AND FAITHFUL NOTE OF ALARM AND WARNING. Ezekiel was taught that one especial function of the prophet is to give the people warning. The watchman who sees the approach of danger is bound to blow the trumpet, that they may not be surprised and taken unawares. Those who are entrusted with a message from God to their fellow-men are directed, whether men hear or forbear, to deal faithfully with souls.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GIVING HEED TO THE ALARM RESTS WITH THOSE WHO ARE WARNED. The warning may be disregarded, the penalty may be incurred, the judgment may be experienced. Or, on the other hand, the alarm may not be sounded in vain. Repentance may prove its reality by sincere resolutions and prayers, and a new heart may produce a new life. Then not only does the prophet deliver his soul; the sinner finds acceptance and salvation.T.
Joe 2:11
Who can abide it?
It is the day of the Lord to which the prophet here refers; the day when the Lord visits the earth, examines his people, inquires into their conduct, and especially into the manner in which they have dealt with his messengers and their message. Then a test shall be applied to the inmost nature, and to the outward life of men; and it is a serious inquiry, “Who can abide it?”
I. NONE CAN RESIST THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE DIVINE JUDGE.
II. NONE CAN ELUDE HIS OMNISCIENT SCRUTINY INTO THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF MEN.
III. NONE CAN QUESTION THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE UPON WHICH HE PROCEEDS.
IV. NONE CAN SHOW CONFORMITY TO THE STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH HE APPLIES.
V. NONE CAN EVADE THE AUTHORITATIVE SENTENCE WHICH HE PRONOUNCES.
APPLICATION. If none can abide the judgment of the future, it will be wise not to seek by repentance and faith reconciliation and acceptance. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.”T.
Joe 2:12
Conversion.
God is not satisfied to utter threatenings and to foretell evil It is truly characteristic of him that he adds words of gracious entreaty, expostulation, and counsel. He would be deserving of our adoring gratitude did he merely express his willingness to receive the returning sinner; but in this passage he deigns to invite and beseech those who have rebelled and who are in danger of perdition, that they convert and repent.
I. WHO ARE THEY WHO ARE THUS ADMONISHED? They are such as have been highly favoured, and have nevertheless disobeyed the Father who has cared for them, rebelled against the King who has been gracious to them. Who amongst men must not be included in this class?
II. TO WHOM ARE THEY INSTRUCTED TO RETURN? “To me,” saith the Lord. It is the offended One, who himself condescends to invite transgressors to reverse their steps, to renounce their disobedience, to cleave unto himself. This is a miracle of grace.
III. WHAT KIND OF CONVERSION DOES GOD REQUIRE? In this passage we have as clear a statement as even the New Testament can supply of the spirituality of true religion. God does not ask for verbal, formal submission; he asks for the return of the heart. Here is involved true penitenceheart-sorrow for sin. Here is involved true faithheart-attachment to God. The heart is emphatically God’s, and it is the heart he asks.
IV. WHAT TOKENS OF SINCERITY IN CONVERSION DOES GOD EXPECT? The true conversion is within; but there will be appropriate evidences that sin is loathed and forsaken. For this purpose the tears and mourning, etc; here described, are to be desired by God and presented by man.T.
Joe 2:13
Spiritual repentance.
Throughout the Scriptures the one indispensable condition of man’s forgiveness and of his acceptance with God, which is insisted upon by all inspired writers, is repentance. It is, therefore, of great importance to have right view of this exercise or posture of the soul.
I. TRUE REPENTANCE DOES NOT CONSIST IN ANY EXTERNAL, CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCE. In the East especially it has always been common to practise rites of a symbolical character in connection with the religious life. Sorrow and penitence are expressed by the rending of the garments. Now, it is in accordance with human nature that the sign should be substituted for the thing signified, the outward observance and ceremony for the feeling. It is an evidence of the divinity and spirituality of the religion of the Old Testament that, in this as in other passages, the mere symbol should be disparaged in comparison with the emotion which it represents.
II. TRUE AND ACCEPTABLE REPENTANCE IS SPIRITUAL.
1. Its seat is the heart. A broken and a contrite heart will not be despised by him who cares nothing for rent garments, for sackcloth and ashes, for loud and repeated lamentations.
2. Its essence is turning unto the Lord, i.e. away from sin and away from self, to him against whom the sinner has offended, and by whom alone the sinner can be justified.
III. TRUE REPENTANCE IS PROMPTED BY JUST THOUGHTS OF GOD AS MERCIFUL AND FORGIVING.
1. In disposition God is gracious, merciful, forbearing. If his only principle of government had been the strict retribution which some have attributed to him, there would be no encouragement to the sinner to repent of sins which could never be forgiven.
2. In his treatment of men, God is characterized by great kindness, such as our poor, stricken, clinging hearts especially need and crave for.
3. In regard to threats and promises, God makes himself known as repenting of the evil. The threat of punishment is not idle. But the revelation of mercy, the promise of grace, is far deeper than all threatening. Denunciations of wrath are for the impenitent and unbelieving; but when sinners repent of their sin, God repents of his purpose to destroy.T.
Joe 2:14
The hope of reconciliation.
This language is figurative, and may be deemed by some open to the charge of anthropomorphism. Yet it is very simple, very natural, and very expressive. God is represented as a king and warrior, who has been offended by his subjects, and who has come down from his palace at the head of his army, to chastise the rebellious; but who has been met with the language of submission and supplication, and whose wrath is averted, so that it is hoped that, instead of punishing he may. show mercy,.and may return to his palace, leaving behind him some tokens of his favour and forgiveness.
I. WHEN MEN THINK OF THEIR OWN ILL DESERTS, THEY MAY WELL FEAR THE CONSEQUENCES OF GOD‘S NOTICE AND ACTION.
II. BUT WHEN THEY THINK OF GOD‘S CHARACTER AND PROMISES, THEY MAY WELL CHERISH THE HOPE THAT HE WILL HAVE MERCY UPON THEM.
III. WHEN FAITHFUL AND REPENTANT, MEN MAY LOOK, NOT MERELY FOR THE REMISSION OF JUSTLY THREATENED PENALTIES, BUT FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF UNDESERVED BLESSINGS.
APPLICATION. If we were to think chiefly of our own sins and unworthiness, the utmost that we could do would be to cherish some faint hope that mercy might be extended to us. Those untaught by revelation, if they have any sense of their sinfulness, cannot go beyond this: “Who can tell if he will repent?” But those who are in possession of the glad tidings which are by Jesus Christ will be guilty of distrusting and dishonouring God, if this be their mental attitude. They have the express assurances of “him who cannot lie,” and who has promised that the penitent and believing sinner shall be pardoned, and put into the enjoyment of all spiritual blessings. They are not, therefore, at liberty to doubt, but are bound to credit and to act upon the revelation of a faithful and merciful God.T.
Joe 2:16
Elders and children.
The occasion is serious. National disaster seems imminent. What shall be done to turn away Divine anger? Let the people be summoned to meet in solemn assembly, and by fasts and prayers let them address themselves to the Divine compassion. And that it may be a truly national and popular act of religion, let no class, no sex, no age, be omitted from the summons, or exempted from the exercises of devotion and intercession. Thus ciders and children are, upon Divine authority, associated in holy services.
I. OLD AND YOUNG ARE ALIKE PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE BOUNTY, ALIKE OBJECTS OF DIVINE CARE.
II. OLD AND YOUNG ARE ALIKE POSSESSED OF SPIRITUAL CAPACITIES AND FACULTIES. It is sometimes taken for granted that children, because of imperfect knowledge and undeveloped intellect, are incapable of any serious part in the religious exercises of the Church. But intelligence is relative. Is not the “grey barbarian lower than the Christian child”? Is not the full-grown man but a babe when compared with heavenly intelligences? Faith is often stronger and prayer is often more genuine in the child than in the adult.
III. OLD AND YOUNG ARE ALIKE NECESSARY TO THE COMPLETENESS OF SOCIAL LIFE. It has often and justly been said, that a community without children would be scarcely human. Providence has so ordered society that those of all ages should live together in mutual intercourse. And no religion can afford to leave out of sight those who are growing up to be the men and women of the next generation. It would indeed be unwise, even ruinous, to so adapt the language and the thoughts in prayer, praise, or meditation to the capacities of the young, as to estrange the mature and intellectual from the services of the Church. Yet there must be milk for babes, as well as meat for strong men. The admonition of the text should reach the ears especially of Christian ministers, “Gather the children.”T.
Joe 2:17
Priestly entreaty.
The priests of the old covenant occupied a position, relatively to religion and to the Church, very different from that occupied by Christian ministers of any special order. Their office was partly fulfilled and superseded by the ministrations of” the great High Priest of our profession,” and partly taken up by the whole body of the faithful, who are “priests unto God.”
I. THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. Priests were:
1. Ministers of the Lord, appointed by him to serve in the offices of religion.
2. Representatives of the people, from amongst whom they were selected by Divine wisdom.
3. Mediators between the laity whom they represented, and the Eternal whom they served in his temple.
II. THE PRIESTLY GRIEF. In time of calamity it was the function of the priests to mourn. They were men, and representative men. They were touched with a feeling of the people’s infirmities. They bore the burden of the nation on their hearts. Between the porch and the altar, it was their sacred function, clad in dark sackcloth, to lift up their voices and to weep.
III. THE PRIESTLY ENTREATY. The simple and touching language, in which the Hebrew priests appealed on behalf of the nation to the mercy of high Heaven, has passed into the Litany of the Christian Church. The supplication for pity and deliverance is urged by the united appeal of the holy assembly in the words, “Spare us, good Lord!”
IV. THE PRIESTLY PLEA. The text does not urge the necessities and sorrows of the people as a motive for Divine interposition, so much as the reputation, the honour, of the God of Israel. If God’s chosen people perish, then Jehovah will no longer be worshipped, and the heathen will triumph over the downfall of the true faith. This lesson we may learn from this plea, that to a rightly judging mind the glory of God himself is the highest, noblest aim that can be sought and striven and prayed for.T.
Joe 2:18-20
Pity and relenting.
The transitions of sentiment with which we meet in the Hebrew prophets are remarkable, but not unaccountable. Threats and promises on God’s part, rebellion and penitence on man’s part, succeed one another with great rapidity. Yet there is order and method in these changes, which are always dependent upon moral and spiritual relations, and are never arbitrary and capricious.
I. THE OCCASION OF DIVINE RELENTING. The deep-seated cause is to be found in the character, the moral nature, of God himself. He is merciful, and delights in mercy. Yet this attribute can be exercised only upon certain conditions, only towards those in a certain attitude of heart. Penitence: humiliation, contrition, entreaty, on the part of Judah, account for the exercise of compassion on the part of God.
II. DIVINE RELENTING LEADS TO THE REMOVAL OF GRIEVOUS EVILS. The northern army of locusts, and perhaps also a hostile force figured by it, should be driven away, and famine and pestilence averted. The penalties of sin, being intended mainly for the correction of offenders, are not retained when their purpose is accomplished. In the midst of wrath God remembers mercy.
III. DIVINE RELENTING PROVES ITSELF BY AN ABUNDANT BENEFICENCE. The Jews were assured that, as a sign that the storm-cloud of wrath was overpast, they should again enjoy the fruits of the earth”corn, wine, and oil.” Those whom God pardons he blesses too; he takes away the wrath to bestow the loving-kindness; the load of trouble is cast into the sea, and “he loadeth with benefits.”T.
Joe 2:21, Joe 2:22
Joy after sorrow.
In highly figurative language the prophet apostrophizes the very soil of Judah, the very cattle of the field. By poetic imagining he transfers the joy of the people to the objects, inanimate and animate, by which they are surrounded. General mercies awaken general joy.
I. THE FAVOUR OF GOD BANISHES FEAR. If natural calamities have power to excite alarm and foreboding, much more is this the case with the displeasure of the Ruler and Judge of all. Men do indeed adopt various devices to silence the voice of fear, to persuade themselves that all will be well with them. But there is no true remedy for painful foreboding except the assurance of Divine reconciliation and acceptance.
II. THE FAVOUR OF GOD CREATES GLADNESS. When the locusts were swept away, the scourge removed, and when the earth resumed its garb of fertility and uttered its promises of fruitfulness, a universal rejoicing took the place of mourning, distress, and alarm. And in the spiritual realm, when the grace and love of God are realized, it is felt that the blessing of God maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow. And the inspired admonitions are felt to be congenial: “Rejoice in the Lord alway;” “Rejoice evermore.”T.
Joe 2:23
Showers of blessing.
In Palestine the hopes of the people for an abundant harvest were always connected with the appointed seasons of refreshing and vivifying rain. This is in Scripture an emblem of spiritual effusions enriching and fertilizing the Church of God.
I. SHOWERS OF BLESSING COME FROM ABOVE.
II. SHOWERS OF BLESSING FALL IN THEIR APPOINTED SEASON.
III. SHOWERS OF BLESSING RESPOND TO THE FAITH AND ENTREATIES OF GOD‘S HERITAGE.
IV. SHOWERS OF BLESSING CREATE FERTILITY AND ABUNDANCE.
V. SHOWERS OF BLESSING AWAKEN THE VOICE, THE SONG, OF THANKSGIVING AND OF JOY.
APPLICATION. There is nothing arbitrary in the bestowal of spiritual blessing. The dews and rains from heaven are bestowed in accordance with Divine wisdom. And spiritual mercies are assured in response to faith and prayer. And God has said, “Prove me now, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing.”T.
Joe 2:27
The God of Israel.
No doubt the less enlightened among the Jews may have cherished superstitious views regarding Jehovah, and have regarded him as their tutelary Deity, just as neighbouring nations thought of Baal or Ashtoreth. But the devout and intelligent believed both in the universal Lordship of Jehovah, and in his special interest in and care for his chosen nation Israel. Thus we, as Christians, holding the Supreme to be God over all the earth, yet consider him to be in a very special sense the God of his own Church, purchased with the precious blood of his Son.
I. THE EVIDENCE WHICH CONVINCES US THAT THE LORD IS OUR GOD.
1. As in the case of Israel, so in our case, God is known by his delivering mercy. He who saved the Jews from locusts and from armies, delivers us from the bondage of sin and death.
2. And, as Jehovah crowned the national life of Israel with plenty and prosperity, so has he made all provision for our spiritual well-being and happiness, in the gift of his Son and in the dispensation of his Spirit.
II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR CONVICTION THAT THE LORD IS OUR GOD. “My people,” says the Lord, “shall never be ashamed;” i.e. because:
1. They shall never be disregarded; their prayers shall always be heard with favour.
2. They shall never be disappointed; the expectations which the Lord awakens he will fulfil.
3. They shall never be forsaken; for he says, “I will never leave thee.”T.
Joe 2:28, Joe 2:29
The outpouring of the Spirit.
We have the authority of St. Peter for applying this prediction to the Messianic dispensation. Joel’s mind was lifted up by the happy prospect in the immediate future for his countrymen, and, as was so often the case, his prophetic gaze pierced the dense mists of futurity, and he beheld “the wonder that should be.”
I. THE PERIOD OF THE GIFT. It is not intended to teach that the bestowal of the Holy Spirit was deferred, and reserved for the Messianic age. Yet no believer in the New Testament can doubt that the Day of Pentecost witnessed an unprecedented outpouring of Divine energy and grace, in itself the herald and the promise of a constant perennial effusion of blessing upon all the Church of the ascended Redeemer.
II. THE NATURE OF THE GIFT. It was an invisible, impalpable grace; its operation took place in spiritual natures. The Spirit of God bestowed those special gifts of inspiration, of faith, of healings, of tongues, which were peculiar to the first age of the Church. The same Spirit conferred the gifts of teaching and administration, which have tended to the edification and increase of the body of Christ. But the choicest and richest of spiritual gifts have ever been those of character and principle, of disposition and habit, which have made the Church the true representative upon earth of its ascended Lord. Of these gifts the chief is love.
III. THE ABUNDANCE OF THE GIFT. The promise is not of scanty drops, but of copious showers. The great Giver delights to give generously, royally, gloriously.
IV. THE RECIPIENTS OF THE GIFTS. The most marvellous part of this magnificent prophecy is the language in which is described the comprehensiveness of the Church of the Lord Jesus.
1. Among these recipients of spiritual grace are men and women. “Your sons and your daughters.” In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.
2. Old and young are alike included among the seers of visions and the dreamers of dreams; for upon every enlightened soul shall stream the light which is not of this world, and which reveals eternal realities.
3. Upon bond and upon free the graces of the Spirit are shed without distinction. Servants and handmaids are participators in the Spirit; for all are free in Christ Jesus.
4. To make this universality explicit, it is expressly said that the outpouring, shall be upon “all flesh,” i.e. upon all humanity. Beyond a prospect like this, the vision of inspired prophets could not extend; the grace of the infinite Giver could not be vaster and more comprehensive.T.
Joe 2:32
The promise of salvation.
As the preceding passage is claimed by St. Peter in the Acts, so this is claimed by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, as referring to the dispensation of the Messiah. The declaration of Joel is descriptive of the gospelthe glad tidings of salvation adapted and published to all mankind. Observe
I. IN WHAT THE DELIVERANCE CONSISTS. Not in exemption or release from temporal calamity or disaster; but in spiritual rescue and emancipationsalvation from sin, its bondage and its penalty.
II. UPON WHAT CONDITION THE DELIVERANCE IS PROFFERED AND PROMISED, Calling upon the Name of the Lord involves:
1. A sense of personal need and danger.
2. A conviction of the power of God to save.
3. Faith in his declared willingness to be the Deliverer of his people.
4. The cry of the heart to God the Saviour.
III. TO WHOM THE PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE IS ADDRESSED. “Whosoever” is a wide, all-embracing term, comprehending not only every class of society, but every nation, and every grade of character. St. Paul himself scarcely went beyond this, when he said that “God is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.”T.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND
Joe 2:28, Joe 2:29
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
These words were to have their fulfilment after the purpose expressed in the twenty-third verse had been accomplished. The marginal translation there is the more correct. Joel called upon the children of Zion to rejoice in the Lord, because he was about to send “a Teacher of righteousness.” This was he of whom Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, said, “We know that thou art a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him.” We must look, therefore, for the fulfilment of the prophecy in our text after the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter was right in recognizing it in the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church at Pentecost (Act 2:16-21). But the baptism of the Spirit is recurrent. The Church has known many a Pentecost. It is within our reach now, and we all sorely need it.
I. THE EFFECTS OF THE EFFUSION OF THE HOLY GHOST may be briefly suggested, so far as they are alluded to in our text. Amongst them may be mentioned the following.
1. Belief in the supernatural. “Visions” and “dreams” were the means of Divine revelation. We read of them in the history of Joseph, Daniel, Ezekiel, and others, mentioned in the Old Testament. Under the new dispensation Peter had visions of angels; Paul saw the angel of the Lord more than once; Stephen beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of God; John gazed on the glories of the New Jerusalem, and rejoiced in visions of his Lord. If such special manifestations are no longer given, spiritual realities around us are not the less confidently believed in by men baptized with the Holy Ghost. What are laughed at by the world as dreams and visions are actual truths and obvious phenomena in Christian experience. Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned.
2. Fearless enunciation of Divine truth. “Prophecy” is used in two senses in Scripture. As the faculty of foretelling future events, it was prevalent in the Christian Church. Agabus, and the daughters of Philip the evangelist, were not alone in their gifts. Even now coming events cast their shadows before on the sensitive souls of believers, whose answered prayers are the beginnings of the Divine purposes. But if we take the phrase in its more ordinary acceptation, there can be no doubt that the baptism of the Spirit gives courage and power for utterance of Divine truth. This the apostles realized. Feeble and trembling before Pentecost, they shook the world by their bold preaching after it.
3. The extension of the covenant. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh“ can only mean the inclusion of the Gentiles in the covenant blessings. And it was the fact that to them also was given the Holy Ghost, which broke down the prejudices of the apostles and led them to the inclusion of these in the Christian Church. God put no difference between Jew and Gentile, nor does he now.
4. The exaltation of the lowliest. The “servants” and the “handmaids,” in other words, the male and female slaves, were not to be excluded. God was no respecter of persons. Onesimus, the fugitive slave, was as true a convert as his master, Philemon.
II. THE ATTITUDE OF SOUL NECESSARY TO THE RECEPTION OF THIS BLESSING, This we may learn from a comparison of the passage with the actual experience of the apostles.
1. The Church should feel profoundly convinced of her weakness. As afflictions brought down the Jews, so the departure of their Lord saddened and disheartened the apostles. They had no strength, and they knew it. Therefore they could only tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2. The Church should cherish strong confidence in the power of God. All that puts natural causes in the place of the Divine energy which is in them, weakens this faith. As the earth is dependent on the rains, and “lives because heaven weeps over it,” so is the Church dependent on the outpouring of the Spirit from on high. According to our faith so it will be unto us.
3. The Church must bestir herself to believing and importunate prayer. Compare the Lord’s parable of the importunate widow. Recall the promise, “Ask, and ye shall receive,” etc. Above all, trust to this explicit declaration, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’A.R.
Joe 2:32
The call of the convicted.
The fulfilment of this prophecy took place on the Day of Pentecost. Then God poured out his Spirit from on high, and the despised disciples were inspired to speak, while multitudes were convinced of their sin against Messiah, and cried not in vain for mercy and salvation. Such results still follow the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in answer to the prayers of the faithful. We will consider the special effect alluded to in our text, namely, the cry of those convicted of sin.
I. THE CONDITION OF THE CONTRITE. They are in danger, or they would not require to be “delivered.” Those who heard the apostles “were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” for they knew that they had sinned against God in the rejection of his Son.
1. They were guilty of sin. Who is not? Even children have evil tendencies which respond to temptation. The heart of a child is like a pool of water which seems perfectly clear, but let it be once stirred, and it is at once beclouded. Sin is a terrible thing. In Scripture it is spoken of as a debt we cannot pay, as a burden we cannot bear, as a thief who robs us, as a leprosy which corrupts us, and as a poison that ends in death. Sin has insulted God and robbed him of his children, and nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. But however widespread and deadly its influence, “whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered.”
2. They were convicted of sin. Unless they had been they would not have called upon God. It is not simply a knowledge that all men are sinners which is required, but a sense of our personal responsibility in regard to sin. There is a great difference between knowing that fire burns, and knowing that we are being burnt.
3. They were convicted by the Holy Spirit. Yet he is called “the Comforter.” He is likened to the dove, to the breath which Jesus breathed, to the dew that lights upon the grass, and to the oil of joy. Nevertheless, it is his work to “convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come;” and in doing so he overwhelms sinners with a sense of shame and peril. But for this, there would be no cry and no deliverance. Pain is a necessary stage of cure in such a disease as sin. If a wound has been long neglected, the wise surgeon will take off all the coverings which have been wrapped over it in ignorance, and will give new agony for a time, if only he is able to get rid of the venom. But after that he will bind it up. So must the Holy Spirit wound before he heals. We must have the broken heart before God can bind it up. Conviction of sin shows that God has not given us up.
II. THE CRY OF THE CONTRITE. It has been said that we are not saved by prayer, but we cannot be saved without it. Prayer is the soul going to its refuge, or rather it is the soul laying hold on the hand that draws it into the refuge.
1. Prayer is the ordinance of God. It is as much a law as is the law of gravitation, and is proved by experiment, not by a priori argument as to its probability. True, God is our loving Father; but unless we arise and go to him as the prodigal did, we shall not have the welcome and the kiss, the robe and the music.
2. Prayer implies faith and hope. We must have faith in the character of Godin his “Name,” to use the phrase in our textthat is, in what he has made known of himself. For example, he is revealed to us as the Holy One; so that we can only go to him when we are really wishing to forsake sin, to be helped out of it instead of being helped in it. He is omniscient; therefore thoroughness in confession is required, for he knows us so perfectly that we dare not dissemble, nor cloke our sins before him. And he is almightywell able to give us the pardon and deliverance we need. His “name” is “Jesus,” for he shall save his people from their sins. Add to faith in his character faith in his nearness. It is useless to cry to one who is out of hearing. He is a God near, and not far off.
3. Prayer may be a simple call. It is a cry rather than a statement. The Pharisee told God much, but he did not pray. The publican smote upon his breast and cried for mercy; and God heard his prayer, and he went down to his house justified.
III. THE PROMISE TO THE CONTRITE.
1. They shall be delivered:
(1) From the forebodings of doom.
(2) From the terrors of an awakened conscience.
(3) From vain efforts at self-reform.
(4) From the power and from the love of sin.
2. Deliverance will come through faith in the crucified Saviour. To this the Jews were brought on the Day of Pentecost. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,”
3. Deliverance will follow on the cry for mercy. All are encouraged to call upon the Lordthe backslider, the uneducated, the child, the degraded and abandoned. “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”A.R.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Joe 2:1-11
The ministry of alarm.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,” etc. Zion was the meeting-place for the people of God, and may be fairly taken as a type of the true Church in all ages. We may take these verses as setting forth one aspect of the Church’s ministry, namely, the ministry of alarm.
I. IT HAS TO ANNOUNCE A JUDGMENT THAT IS TERRIBLE. How graphically and appallingly does the prophet set forth the tremendousness of the calamity that was about being inflicted on Judah! It was a day of “darkness and gloominess,” a day of “clouds” and of “thick darkness,” etc. We have here:
1. The executors of the judgment. Whom did the Almighty Governor of the world now employ to execute his judgments? The magnates of the earth, or the illustrious legions of heaven? No; locusts. He brings them out by millions, and marshals them as his battalions, to fight against sin and crush the sinner. So dense are their crowds, that they darken the sun and conceal the stars. So rapid their movement, and so closely do they jostle together, that their noise is like “the noise of chariots on the top of the mountains.” The sunbeam falleth on their glazed wings, so that they appear as a “fire that falleth before them, and behind them as a flame that burneth.” They move with such order and force that their appearance is like “horses ‘ and “horsemen.” The meanest insect is God’s messenger; the little locust he employs as an officer of his justice.
2. The effects of the judgment. “The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them as a desolate wilderness.” Note the power of combination. These little insects singly were comparatively powerless; in combination they moved with a resistless energy. Unity is strength. This terrible judgment, however, is but a faint shadow of that more terrible judgment that awaits this wicked world, “when the Sou of man shall come in all his glory, with his holy angels,” etc. “I saw, and, behold, a great white throne,” etc.
II. IT HAD TO ANNOUNCE A JUDGMENT THAT WAS APPROACHING. “The day of the Lord cometh; it is nigh at hand.” This terrible army of insects was now in the course of formation, and was gathering together for the fearful work of destruction. The Church now has to give warning of a judgment that is coming. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away,” etc. Yes, it is coming. Its dim rays of dawn are seen on the tops of the distant hills; the terrible sun will break forth in the heavens ere long: it will indeed be “the day of the Lord.” The Church’s work is to warn every man, to blow the trumpet of alarm, give it a blast that shall startle the thoughtless generation.D.T.
Joe 2:12, Joe 2:13
Soul-reformation.
“Therefore also now,” etc. Observe here three things in relation to soul-reformation.
I. ITS PROCESS. Turning to the Lord, “Turn ye unto the Lord your God.” The unregenerate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his Father’s house and gone into the “far country” of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul-reformation is not turning from one doctrine, or Church, or habit to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; there is “fasting,” and “weeping,” and “mourning,” and the “rending of the heart.” Soul-reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins. “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight .
II. ITS URGENCY. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord.” Yes, now is the time; there is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now:
1. Because the work is of the most paramount importance.
2. Because the time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your soul’s sake adjourn not this for a single hour.
III. ITS ENCOURAGEMENT. “For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” The word deprecateth would be better than “repenteth.’ The inflicting of sufferings on his creatures is repugnant to his nature. “He desireth not the death of the sinner.” What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate father!D.T.
Joe 2:15-17
An urgently demanded meeting.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion,” etc. Men are constantly assembling themselves together for one purpose or anotherpolitical, commercial, scientific, entertaining. But of all the meetings, none are so urgent as the one indicated in the text.
I. IT IS A MEETING CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF COMMON SIN. All the people of Judah had sinned grievously, and they were now summoned together on that account. No subject is of such urgent importance as this. Sin, this was the root of all the miseries of their country. It behoved them to meet together in order to deliberate how best to tear up this upas, how best to dry up this pestiferous fountain of all their calamities.
II. IT IS A MEETING COMPOSED OF ALL CLASSES. The young and the old were there; the sad and the jubilant; even the bridal pair; the priests and the people. The subject concerned them all; all were vitally interested in it. Sin is no class subject. It concerns the man in imperial purple as well as the man in pauper’s rags.
III. IT IS A MEETING FOR HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. “Let the priests and the ministers weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord!” It was not a meeting for debate or discussion, for mere social intercourse and entertainment; but for profound humiliation before God.
CONCLUSION. No meeting in England is more urgently demanded to-day than such a one as this.D.T.
Joe 2:18-24
Interaction of the Divine and human.
“Then will the Lord be jealous,” etc. These verses refer to the removal both of the actual calamity under which the nation were suffering, namely, the plague of locusts, and also to the removal of that calamity which was to come upon them by the invasion of a foreign foe, namely, the Assyrians. The latter is evidently referred to in Joe 2:20 : “I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.” Henderson implies that the passage in Zep 2:13, “He will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness,” is sufficient to prove that the term “northern” here refers to the Assyrian power. However, for homiletical purposes, it scarcely matters whether the locusts, Assyrians, or any other destructive enemy are referred to. The grand question isWhat are the truths contained in the paragraph that are of universal importance and application? The following are clearly deducible.
I. THAT THE MATERIAL CONDITION OF A PEOPLE DEPENDS UPON THE DIVINE OPERATIONS. Two things are referred to in the passage as the works of the Almighty towards the Jewish people at this time.
1. The withdrawal of calamities. “I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate.” When terrible calamities come upon a people, such as hosts of destructive insects, or pestilence, famine, or war, who but the Almighty can remove them? Men may and ought to employ means; but futile for ever will be all human efforts without the co-operation of Almighty power. This fact should teach us ever to look to him and him only for deliverance from evil at all times, both material and moral.
2. The bestownent of blessings. “The Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen.” The productions of the earth are dependent every moment upon Almighty power. At his bidding the most fertile regions of nature are struck into barrenness, and deserts and wildernesses become fertile and beautiful as Eden. The pseudo-scientist of this age traces the operations of nature to what he calls “laws,” a term to cover his ignorance. But true philosophy as well as the Bible teaches that nature is absolutely in God’s hands. “He causes the sun to rise and to set.” He poureth down the genial showers and sealeth the heavens. A practical recognition of him in all the phenomena of nature is what reason and religion demand. “Every good and perfect gift,” etc.
II. THAT THE DIVINE OPERATIONS ARE INFLUENCED BY THE MORAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. We are taught here, that the removal of the calamity and the bestowment of the blessing came upon the people in consequence of the moral humiliation for their sins, described in the preceding verses. The priests and the ministers of the Lord wept between the altar, and said, “Spare thy people, O Lord!” etc. “The porch before the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits high, twenty broad from north to south, and ten from east to west. The altar was that of burnt offering in the court of the priests. Here, with their backs toward the altar, on which they had nothing to offer, and their faces directed towards the residence of the Shechinah, they were to weep, and make supplication on behalf of the people.” That the Divine conduct towards us depends upon our conduct towards Heaven, is inexplicable to us although clearly taught in the Word of God. Indeed, consciousness assures us that he is to us what we are to him. It is absurd to suppose that God will alter the laws of nature because of human prayers or human conduct, says the sceptic scientist. But what laws of nature are more manifest, more universal, settled and unalterable than the tendency of human souls to personal and intercessory prayer? From every human heart the world over, there goes up to the great Spirit in some form or other a prayer, either for self or others. Every aspiration is a prayer”God help me! God help thee!”
“God help him!” “God help them!” Point out to me a human soul where the spirit of these is not being breathed out every day. Scripture abounds with examples too numerous here to write of God apparently altering his conduct on account of man’s supplications.
III. THAT THE RIGHT MORAL CONDUCT OF A PEOPLE WILL ENSURE THEM DIVINE BENEDICTIONS. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” In these verses there is a beautiful gradation. First, the land which has been destroyed by the enemy is addressed in a prosopopoeia; then the irrational animals which had suffered from the famine; and lastly, the inhabitants themselves. All are called upon to cast off their fears, and rejoice in the happy change which God would effect. Desolation, barrenness, and famine would disappear, and times of prosperity and happiness return. It is too clear for either argument or illustration, that if you change the moral character of any country from ignorance to intelligence, from indolence to industry, from intemperance to self-discipline, from sensualness to spirituality, from enmity to love, that the whole material region in which they live may abound with plentifulness and beauty. Such a change throughout the whole human population to-day will give to all a new heaven and new earth.D.T.
Joe 2:25-27
Twofold restoration.
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,” etc. These words refer to a twofold restoration.
I. THE RESTORATION OF LOST MATERIAL MERCIES. “I will restore you the years that the locust hath eaten,” etc. That the prophet has here in view the plague of locusts described in Joe 1:1-20; cannot well be doubted. The names, though placed in a different order, are identical with those there specified. “My great army.“ They are called God’s great army, a name still given to them by the Arabs. Though a scourge lasted only one year, yet, as they not only destroyed the whole produce of that year, but also what was laid up in store for future years, the calamity was great. The loss of these God promises to recompense or make good by not only furnishing them with an abundance of temporal enjoyments, but affording them a delightful experience of his presence and favour as their covenant God. This promise is amplified in verses 26, 27. Restoration in God’s peculiar work. Who can restore the earth but him? An insect may destroy a giant; but God alone can restore the life of a dying flower. Restoration is God’s constant work. From death he brings life to all nature. Spring is the grand annual illustration of it. God restores lost temporal blessings to his people in two ways.
1. By giving back the same in kind, as in the case of Job.
2. By bestowing that which answers the same purpose.
II. THE RESTORATION OF LOST RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. What are these?
1. Worship. “And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, that hath dwelt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.” True worship is one of man’s greatest and most original privileges of his being. True worship is supreme love for the supremely good. The loss of this has been man’s crime and ruin; the restoration of this is his salvation. When men come to praise the Lord as they ought to, they reach the heaven of their being.
2. Communion. “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else.” Loving fellowship with the infinite Father is also another privilege which we have lost. The restoration of this is the consummation of blessedness. “In thy presence is fulness of joy.” This last restoration is the most urgent and the most glorious one. The restoration of lost material mercies to a man, community, or country, is a Divine work for which gratitude should be cherished and practically exemplified; but the restoration of lost religious privileges, the true worship of God and true fellowship with him, is the transcendent restoration. When this is realized, the world’s redemption is completed.D.T.
Joe 2:28-32
The gospel age.
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,” etc. Peter quotes this passage, but not with literal accuracy. Divine inspiration secures not uniformity of phraseology, but uniformity in facts and principles. We are authorized in regarding the passage as pointing to the gospel age; or, as Peter says, to the last days. The days of the Messiah are indeed the last days of the world. The passage teaches four things in relation to these last days: this gospel age as connected
I. WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Flesh here stands for humanity. Under the gospel dispensation, the influence of the Spirit would be:
1. Universal, not limited to sex. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Not limited to age. “Your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams.” The redemptive influences of the gospel are like the rolling atmosphere and the shining sununiversal in their aspect.
2. Illuminating. It would bring the light of God’s thoughts upon the soul. They “saw visions and dreamed dreams and prophesied.” That is, men under its influence would receive and reflect God’s eternal truths.
II. WITH PRODIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS. “I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.” These words may perhaps be properly regarded as a highly poetic representation of that revolution in governments, Churches, and all other human institutions which would inevitably follow the working out of the Divine ideas and spiritual influences of these last days (Isa 13:10; Isa 34:4). WhenChristianity enters with all its renovating power the individual soul, what a revolution! What wonders in heaven, what signs on earth, what blood, fire, and vapour of smoke! It is so also when it enters a community; then it shakes the heavens and the earth of social and political life.
III. WITH A TERRIBLE DAY. Peter calls it a notable day. The primary reference in all probability is to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. It was indeed a terrible day. But there is another terrible day still before us, a day of which the destruction of Jerusalem is but a faint shadow and typethe day of general judgmentthe day when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. What a day will that day be”day of judgment, day of wonders,” etc.!
IV. WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF SALVATION TO ALL. “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered;” or, as Peter has it, “shall be saved”saved from the thraldom, the guilt, the damnation, of sin. “Whosoever”thank God for this “whosoever”!D.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Joe 2:1. Blow ye the trumpet, &c. The prophet in the preceding chapter describes the locusts as the army of God; and now, in pursuance of the same metaphor, exhorts the people to prepare to meet them, in the same terms as if they were alarmed to oppose an enemy, which was always done by the sound of the trumpet. The trumpet in Zephaniah is the same which sounds in Joel; and therefore both proclaim the same event;the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. See Zep 2:1-2. The same famine, drought, and destruction from the Almighty, are foretold by Jeremiah: and indeed the destruction of Jerusalem, and the subsequent captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, are mentioned by all the prophets who lived from the days of Uzziah to those of Zedekiah; in the eleventh year of whose reign the city was besieged. See Sharpe’s Second Argument.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
SECTION II
The Day of the Lord cometh! Repentance alone can avail to meet it. Hence the Demand for a Day of Public Humiliation
Joe 2:1-17
1 Blow the trumpet1 in Zion,
Sound2 an alarm on my holy mountain.3
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
Because the day of Jehovah cometh,4
It is nigh at hand.
2 A day of darkness and of gloom,5
A day of clouds, and of thick mists,6
Like the morning7 dawn spread upon the mountains;
So shall come a people numerous and mighty,
The like of which hath never been before,
And the like of which shall not come again,
In the years of many generations.
3 A fire devoureth before them,
And behind them a flame burneth;
Before them the land is as the garden of Eden,8
And behind them a desolate wilderness,
And nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like9 the appearance of horses,
And like horsemen shall they run.
5 Like the noise of chariots, on the tops of mountains10 they shall leap,
Like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble.
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people11 are in pain,
All faces gather paleness.12
7 They shall run like mighty men,
They shall climb the wall like men of war;
And they shall march, each one in his way,
And they shall not turn aside13 from their paths.
8 And no one shall press upon another,
They shall march each one in his path;14
And though they rush15 upon the dart, they shall not be wounded.
9 They shall run to and fro in the city,
They shall run upon the wall;
They shall climb upon the houses,
They shall enter behind the windows like a thief.
10 Before them the earth trembleth,
The heavens quake,
The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
And the stars withdraw their brightness,
11 And Jehovah shall utter his voice before his host,
For his army is very great,
For he that executes his word is mighty;
For great is the day of Jehovah, and very terrible,
And who can endure it?
12 Yet even now,16 saith Jehovah,17
Turn unto me with all your heart,
With fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation,
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments.
And return to Jehovah your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and of great kindness,
And repenteth Him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth?18 He may return and repent
And leave a blessing behind,
A meat-offering and a drink-offering
For Jehovah your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Sanctify a fast,
Call a solemn assembly;
16 Gather the people,
Sanctify a congregation,
Assemble the old men,
Gather the children,
And those that suck the breasts;
Let the bridegroom desert his chamber,
And the bride her closet;
17 Between the porch and the altar,
Let the priests weep,
The ministers of Jehovah,
And say,
Spare thy people, O Jehovah,
And give not thy heritage to reproach,
That the heathen should rule over19 (or use a bye-word against) them;
Wherefore should they say among the heathen (the peoples)
Where is their God?
EXEGETICAL
This portion of the prophecy consists of two parts. The first is contained in Joe 2:1-11, in which the prophet explains more fully than he had before done, the misery that was coming on the land, a harbinger of the great and terrible day of the Lord. The second part includes Joe 2:12-17, and declares that timely repentance would secure Gods gracious help, and therefore that the priests should earnestly deal with the people to this end.
Joe 2:1. Blow the Trumpet in Zion. This is a call to the priests. They must give a signal of alarm from Zion, which is to be understood not in the local sense, but as including the whole of Jerusalem. Then comes the more precise locality, the holy mountain. The design of this signal is to arouse the inhabitants of the land, and to apprise them that an event of terrible magnitude is close at hand. The Day is the judgment day of the Lord. There is a climax in the clauses announcing its approach, it is coming, it is near, i. e., its coming is not an event of the far distant future, but it will be very soon.
Joe 2:2. The Day is one of darkness. Four terms are used to show how intense it will be. See Exo 10:22; Deu 4:11. It will be darker than that of Egypt, and than that of Sinai. Here the darkness is to be understood in a literal sense, for by the vast swarms of locusts, the sun would be obscured (Joe 2:10, and Exo 14:15). That the prophet had these swarms of locusts in view is evident from what follows. belongs to the following . As the early morning dawns upon the mountains, so this people comes. This, says Keil, is to be understood of the shining caused by the reflected rays of the sun from the wings of a swarm of locusts. [Some, says Dr. Pusey, have thought that there is here an allusion to the appearance which, the inhabitants of Abyssinia well know, precedes the swarm of locusts. A sombre yellow light is cast upon the ground from the reflection, it is thought, of their yellow wings. But that appearance seems to be peculiar to that country.F.] The image naturally exhibits the suddenness and universality of the darkness, when men looked for light. As to the meaning of , expositors are greatly divided. Bauer thinks that the points of comparison are the quickness with which, and the wide extent over which the dawn spreads itself. Credners view is, that as the morning light overspreading the hills is a symbol and pledge of life and joy, so these clouds shall come overspreading the land with darkness and misery. [Wnsche takes it in the sense of the morning gray, i. e., the time when the morning is wrapped in a sort of darkish or dusky gray; the meaning being, that the nature of this day will be made known, just as the gray dawn of morning proclaims the coming day.F.] There hath not been ever the like. The phrase seems to have been borrowed from Exo 10:14,a passage on which the prophet, in a general way, seems to have had his eye,where the same thing is said of the plague of locusts sent upon Egypt.
Joe 2:3. A fire devoureth. This description is based on what had been already experienced, namely, that the desolation caused by locusts had been attended usually by drought and terrible heat. But now the heat grows into a fierce flame, analogous to the awful displays when God revealed Himself at Sinai. So here, the army of locusts is Gods host. . That which has escaped, namely, the fire, or the desolation caused by it, has not remained in the land. [This is a strained sense. The exposition of Newcome, Pusey, and Wnsche is more natural and sensible. There is nothing that has escaped it, i. e., this army. Pusey adds, the word being used elsewhere of the persons who escape,captivity or captives,suggests in itself that we should not linger by the type of the locusts only, but think of enemies more terrible, who destroy men.F.]
Joe 2:4-5. Their appearancein battle array. The entrance of this fearful host is described. The head of the locust has a certain resemblance to that of the horse. Their celerity of movement is compared to that of horsemen; and in Joe 2:5, the noise caused by their leaping is likened to that made by chariots on rough mountain roads, so that their appearance is somewhat similar to that of an army advancing in battle array. Their noise in devouring plants and herbs is also compared to the crackling of flames in a field of stubble. [Pusey: The amazing noise of the flight of locusts is likened by those who have heard them, to all sorts of deep sharp rushing sounds. The prophet combines purposely things incompatible, the terrible heavy bounding of the scythed chariot, and the light speed with which these countless hosts should in their flight bound over the tops of the mountains where God had made no paths for man.F.]
Joe 2:6. Before them the peoples, etc. here has the usual sense of peoples, nations, since the day of the Lord would not be confined to one country. All faces lose their glowing color, i. e., the blood retires from the cheeks, so that they grow pale. is here to be taken in the sense of in Joe 2:10; Joe 3:15.
Joe 2:7. They shall run, etc. With resistless power they advance and march toward their goal. They run to attack. In like manner they climb the wall. = to change or shift the way, i. e., to turn from ones way and go into that of another, so that the latter, is hindered. [Pusey: They are on Gods message and they linger not. Men can mount a wall few at a time; the locusts scale it much more steadily, compactly, irresistibly. The picture unites the countless multitude, condensed march, and entire security of the locusts with the might of warriors.F.]
Joe 2:8-10. And no one shall press, etc. Those behind shall not press upon those before. No weapons can stop the advance of this host; or arrest its march. They rush through, or between, or under the darts, or swords. They go forward as if no obstacles were in their way. Of course this does not mean that any attempt was actually made to oppose their progress, but simply that it would be vain to resist them, by the means ordinarily used to arrest an army (Joe 2:9), comp. Exo 10:6. The picture in Joe 2:7-9 is perfectly true to nature. Jerome (in loc.) says, We have ourselves lately seen this very thing in this province (Palestine). When the locusts come and fill the whole space betweeen earth and sky, they fly in perfect order, as if obedient to a divine command, so that they look like the squares of a pavement. Each one holds its own place, not diverging from it even so much as by a fingers breadth. To these locusts nothing is impenetrable, fields, meadows, trees, cities, houses, even their most secret chambers. The accounts of more recent observers agree with this description. There is a design in this picture so elaborate in its details. The more terrible the visitation of locusts appears, the more certain would it be, that when the day of the Lord came, this host would become Gods instrument in the infliction of his judgment. What follows in Joe 2:10 is fully consonant with the fact, though there is some rhetorical amplification, as the prophet, once for all, sees in the swarm of locusts not a mere natural phenomenon, but an evidence of the coming of the day of the Lord. The view we take of an event naturally gives a certain coloring to the picture of it, and a certain climactic amplication is proper, when the event is one that surpasses all previous experience. Before them, or it, i. e., this great and mighty people. The earth trembles. What more natural than that heaven and earth should be terrified by such a host,one so dreadful in fact, so much more dreadful when viewed as the host of an avenging God? This most awful effect cannot, indeed, be seen or heard, like these marching hosts and the noise they produce; it can only be felt, and thus all the wider scope is given to the terrified imagination. The obscuration of the sun, moon, and stars is real, but this darkness becomes more fearfully impressive, since the locust swarms appear as a tempest cloud of divine wrath. (Comp. Jer 13:10; Eze 12:7; Mar 13:24.)
Joe 2:11. And Jehovah shall utter his voice. Probably a real event is referred to,a thunderstorm in connection with the coming of the locusts. The prophet hears the thunder not so much with his outward ear as mentally, recognizing it as a manifestation of God. Only such displays of power as those described in Joe 2:10-11, would befit the greatness of the host sent to do Jehovahs will, and the terribleness of the day of the Lord that was coming,a day so terrible as to wring from the prophet the inquiry, who can endure it? See Jer 10:10; Mal 3:1.
Joe 2:12-17. Yet even now, etc. Though the anger of God is so clearly revealed that men may see his day coming, yet He says, Turn unto me, and thus points out the way in which his anger may be averted. If they repented, they would escape these judgments, and find God gracious. With all your heart. This is the most essential thing, and so is named first, yet this hearty repentance will also manifest itself outwardly. But the prophet warns the people that a merely external repentance will effect nothing (Joe 2:13), comp. Psa 51:19; Eze 36:26. Such repentance, however, as that described in Joe 2:12-13, will avail, because He is gracious (Exo 34:6; 2Sa 24:16). Therefore is there hope that He will avert his judgments. Who knoweth. That God is such as He is here described is beyond a doubt, but whether, under present circumstances, He will display his mercy, is not so certain. This depends on the conduct of the people, and hence the prophet would have them to bear in mind, that pardon would not come to them as a matter of course, and that their repentance must not be of an easy and formal kind. He will return. Jehovah is conceived of as on his way from heaven for the purpose of judgment; but He may stop, and return to heaven. Leave behind Him, i.e., when He returns to heaven (Hos 5:5). A blessing, i. e., an abundant harvest, so that there may be no lack of those offerings, the materials of which had been destroyed by the locusts (Joe 1:9-13). Instead of a day of judgment (involving a greater desolation than any as yet experienced), there was hope that God would give another crop to replace the one destroyed (Joe 2:5). Since repentance opened such prospects of blessing, the priests should summon the people to meet for the purpose of humiliation and prayer, and they should themselves, in the name of the people, implore Gods mercy.
Joe 2:16 repeats what was said before in Joe 1:14, but more in detail. Sanctify a congregation, i., e., call a meeting of the congregation for sacred purposes. No age should be excepted, because the entire people deserved punishment and needed to repent. Even the joy of the bridegroom and the bride must give place to penitential mourning. What the priests should do, when the people were assembled, is defined in Joe 2:17. They shall stand between the porch and the altar, i. e., immediately before the entrance to the sanctuary and turning toward it, they should pray to God, appealing to Him in behalf of the people as his own covenant people.
[Pusey: The porch in this, Solomons temple, was in fact a tower in front of the Holy of holies, of the same breadth with the temple. The brazen altar for burnt-offerings stood in front of it. The space between the porch and the altar, became an inner part of the court of the priests. It seems to have been a place of prayer for priests. It is spoken of as an aggravation of the sins of those twenty-five idolatrous priests, that here, where they ought to worship God, they turned their backs toward the temple of the Lord to worship the sun. Here Zechariah was standing, when the spirit of God came upon him, and he rebuked the people, and they stoned him.F.]
THEOLOGICAL
1. The day of the Lord (Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1; Joe 3:4-14), is a phrase used only by the prophets. If, as some think, Obadiah is the oldest, the phrase occurs first in Oba 1:15, and next in the above marked places in Joel. If this view of the relative ages of these prophets be correct, we may assume that the phrase was introduced into prophetic language by Obadiah. Certainly Joel uses it in a way to show that he regarded the idea expressed by it as one well known to those for whom he prophesied, though, as Ewald suggests, the expression may be here presented in its oldest and simplest form. As the king of a vast empire,Ewald adds,may for a time so completely disappear from the view of his subjects, as to be the same as if he had ceased to exist, and then suddenly reappear among them, in the fullness of his power to hold a long delayed assize, so the Invisible One may put off, or seem to put off the day when He will appear as the Supreme Judge. The idea of the day of the Lord is closely connected with that of Jehovah as king, who as such has a day for men,a day in the pregnant sense of the word, a day for judgment. Jehovah as king must and will, in due time, suddenly and miraculously judge and subdue all who are in rebellion against Him. He will subject all things to his own holy and righteous control, thus showing that his will is the only and absolute rule; and will rectify all that is now disorderly in the condition of things on the earth. As Israel was then the kingdom of Jehovah in a special sense, the day for Israel as Gods people, would be the epoch of their perfect and glorious deliverance from all their enemies. This appears in Joel 3. The day is that one on which Jehovah sits in judgment on all his foes, and when Israels prosperity begins. Yet it is even for Israel a day of judgment,one that shall make it manifest whether they are faithful or not to their obligations as Gods people. If not, even they shall be destroyed, unless timely repentance intervenes. This view is presented in chaps, 12. Thus while the ultimate result of the judgment will be the salvation and glory of Israel, the immediate design of the day of the Lord is the punishment of the heathen as the enemies of his people, and of the latter as well if untrue to their covenant relation. Hence all the predicates that describe the day, mark it as one of judgment. It is great and very terrible (Joe 2:11; Joe 3:4); dark and gloomy (Joe 2:2; Amo 5:18; Isa 2:12). In the announcement of this day, Israel is not so much consoled, as warned against self-conceit and security,a warning all the more earnest on account of the uncertainty of its coming. Hence men should be always ready for it. Still, Joel does not as yet seem to know how far the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah may be faithless to their calling as Gods people, nor what divine judgment shall overtake them. He sees them, on the one hand, menaced by judgments, but on the other hand, by their penitence averting them, so that actually these judgments in their destructive power fall upon the heathen alone, while Israel and Judah are redeemed and glorified. The is the of the New Testament. Joel, however, does not use the phrase day of the Lord with reference to the hope of Messiahs coming, since we find no such hope in any part of his prophecy.
2. The next question is this,Considering the day of the Lord as one of menace to Israel, how was it regarded by the prophet himself? We begin by saying that the day, as viewed by Joel, was not marked by a series of events, but by a single, sudden, and conclusive act. And therefore Keil applies modern speculative notions to the exposition of the phrase, when he says, each particular judgment by which God chastises his own people for their sins, or destroys the enemies of his kingdom, may be regarded as a moment in the day of the Lord. If so, why should Joel connect the approach of that day with the visitation of locusts? As already mentioned in Joel 1. the allegoric signification assigned by some to the locusts (i. e., hostile hosts), has arisen out of the union of two heterogeneous things. This allegoric sense may be found in those other prophets, one of whose chief themes was the judgment to be inflicted upon Israel by means of heathen nationsa judgment which then appears as the day of the Lord for Israel. But the verbal text will not admit of this principle of interpretation in Joel 1. The objection, however, does not hold in Joel 2, where the prophet describes the entrance of swarms of locusts into the land as an actual event, and also designates it as the coming of the day of the Lord. Some interpreters take the locust visitation as a presage and a symbol of an invasion by hosts of a different kind, partly on the ground that it is denoted as the coming of the day of the Lord, and partly from the use of the term northern in Joe 2:20, which cannot be applied to the locusts. There is, however, not much force in the first of these considerations, for while there is, in a general way, an obvious analogy between the swarms of locusts and an invading army, much is here said about the one that will not apply to the other. The reference to Isaiah 13. is more to the purpose, for he quotes the very words of Joel, and describes the judgment of Babel in terms that show that he understood the locust invasion in an allegoric sense. But though the language of the two prophets is so similar, it does not follow that they refer to the same events, nor that their words are to be understood in precisely the same sense.
But there are positive difficulties in the way of the allegoric interpretation of this chapter. For example, what can be meant by driving the locusts into the sea (Joe 2:20)? Again, the question arises, if Israel is threatened by an enemy, by what one? The word northern proves nothing. It is strange, on this theory, that while Joel describes the judgment on Israel by some foe, he gives us no hint even by which to identify him. There is no indication that the heathen nations were to be the chosen instruments for this purpose. On the contrary, what they do against Israel is exhibited as a crime which shall bring down Gods judgments on their own head. This method of exposition also overlooks the differences in the times when the several prophets lived. In Joels days, the great empires had not yet appeared as the special instruments of Gods judgments on his covenant people. In this character they had not yet come within the range of the prophets vision. He knew, indeed, that Israels sins deserved, and would receive chastisement, but he had not yet been told that the heathen nations would be Gods agents in inflicting it. Whenever they are named, it is as being themselves the objects of wrath, while Israel appears as a penitent and the recipient of Gods mercy.
But it may be said that while the prophet describes a real locust visitation, he sees in it, at least to a certain extent, a type of the day of the Lorda day of judgment; or in other words, what the land had already experienced might warn its inhabitants that they would have a still more bitter experience when that day arrived. But the difficulty is that if we suppose one event to be in any sense formally typical of the other, we find in the minutely detailed account of the type much that in no way corresponds with the antitype. The darkness, the terror, and the desolation produced by the locusts might be in themselves typical, but these are the features on which the least emphasis is laid by the prophet.
The view which we prefer is this. The land had been desolated by locusts to an unparalleled extent. The prophet had reason to fear that this was the harbinger of a worse calamity of the same sort. He sees in the visitation the beginning of the day of the Lord. The locust army is led by God himself, and hence the lively colors of that picture of it which he draws. The plague of locusts and the day of the Lord are not to be taken as two distinct things. They differ, not like the type and the antitype, but as the beginning and the end of the same thing. And so he says, the day of the Lord cometh, it is near. He sees its approach, still he hopes that the repentance of the people in answer to his earnest appeals, will ward off its further effects,that Israel, warned and taught by the earlier and merely relative judgment, may escape the final one, and that the enemies of Gods people alone shall be overwhelmed by it. The day of the Lord in the highest sense of the words, did not, indeed, come with the calamity by which Israel was then chastised, but each preliminary judgment was really the precursor and pledge of the absolute and final one. All that we can affirm is that the prophet saw in this locust visitation not merely a natural phenomenon, but the finger of God. In these terrible scenes he hears the voice of the Living God calling his people to repentance. As Gods messenger he reechoes the earnest appeal, knowing that ere long He will come to judge his people, though the exact time of his coming none can tell.
3. The plague of locusts was a punishment of the nations sins. The prophet, therefore, demands hearty repentance, and a return to God. He, however, does not name the sins which had brought down this chastisement. There seems to have been no one prevalent form of corruption at that time; and, in particular, there is no distinct trace of idolatry. But this shows how earnest God is in punishing sin, since not only do gross iniquities awaken his displeasure, but also sins of the heart, though there may be no outward display of them. His love to his people also appears, since He summons them to repentance, in circumstances, in which, without such a call, they might have sunk into a condition of dangerous security. The earnestness of the prophet is also shown by his recognizing these calamities as divine judgments for sin, and his evident belief that although the people might outwardly seem to be in the right way, they might really be at the same time ripe for punishment. The repentance he demands, should consist essentially of turning with the whole heart to God, and which would outwardly manifest itself by fasting, weeping, and rending the garments. These were expressive symbols, and on this very account there was danger of putting them in the place of the inward feelings which they implied and represented. Against this mistake he warns the people, rend your hearts and not your garments. But even their sorrow for sin, however real, would be of no avail without an actual turning to God. The repentance which He demands, is such as both has its seat in the heart, and displays itself in the life. Prayer for pardon is a prominent feature of the public solemn humiliation described in Joe 2:17. As the whole land had been already chastised, and was still threatened with a severer infliction, the repentance suited to the occasion was not simply that of individuals, but of the whole nation as such. Of course, this national penitence has its root in that of individual men, but it does not rest there. As Israel had only one legal sanctuarythe Temple,all public religious ceremonies must take place there, and through the ministry of the one priesthood. The public fast-day demanded by the Prophet is a Biblical precedent for the observance of similar days in Christian times and lands. They are as proper under the New Economy as they were under the Old. In this penitential prayer, there is not only an appeal to Gods mercy, but a declaration that his honor is concerned in the continued existence of Israel as his people. To abandon Israel wholly would give occasion to the heathen to blaspheme, as if God had been unable to save his people, or had forgotten his promises to do so. This relation, and these promises were not designed, nor did they really tend to beget a sinful security, but to keep alive in the hearts of Gods people an humble faith and hope. Israel bows I under Gods hand, but at the same time trusts Him as his God. This relation of ancient Israel is repeated, but in a far higher form and degree in the sonship of Gods people under the New Covenant.
Repentance is necessary. It alone can help, yet the punitive justice of God has also its influence for good. For while it is certain that the righteous Lord will punish sin, his grace, and pity, and patience are no less certain. And so if there be no defect in the repentance of the sinner, forgiveness will not be wanting on the part of God. This truth is most emphatically expressed in Joe 2:18, where a rich promise immediately follows a severe menace. Yet the observation of Reiger is a very just one, namely, that the true penitent must and will leave wholly in Gods hand the mitigation of the temporal punishment which he may have brought upon himself on account of his sins.
HOMILETICAL
Joe 2:1. Blow the trumpet. It is the office of a minister of Gods Word, when great calamities are imminent, to sound an alarm, and call men to repentance. The day of the Lord, etc. All the remarkable judgments with which God visits individuals, or a land, are harbingers of the final judgment of the world, and whatever there is of the terrible in the former, will be found in the latter, in a far higher degree, by godless sinners. How stupid the security of those who, in the face of such events, with ruin impending over their heads, are not disturbed even for a moment. The day of the Lord cometh. (1) Nothing is more certain than the fact of its coming. (2) But nothing is more uncertain than the time of its coming. The call to prepare for it should be continually sounding. It does not come so quickly, perhaps, as we in our impatience often wish, but it will come more quickly than the secure imagine. Its delay is not designed to beget wantonness in men, but only showsas we should gratefully ownthe long suffering of the Lord, who desires not that any should perish; God warns men often, and for a long time, but at last the decision will come. We should not be hasty in predicting when the day of the Lord will come, but we should be reminded of it in all the visitations of his providence, and we should try to put ourselves in the light of that day. As the special divine judgments will find their completest accomplishment in that last great day of wrath, they are so described as to fill mens minds with a wholesome terror, and to convince them how utterly unable they shall be to endure it.
[Pusey: Joe 2:1. The trumpet was wont to sound in Zion only for religious uses: to call together the congregations for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months, and their solemn days with festival gladness. Now, in Zion itself, the stronghold of the kingdom, the holy city, the place which God chose to put his Name there, which He had promised to establish, the trumpet was to be used only for sounds of alarm and fear. Alarm could not penetrate there, without having pervaded the whole land. Good is the trouble which shaketh carnal peace, vain security, and the rest of bodily delight, when men, weighing their sins, are shaken with fear and trembling, and repent.F.]
Joe 2:2. A day of darkness. A day of judgment is a manifestation of Gods wrath against sin, after the measure of his grace which seeks to save and bless them has been exhausted. Hence darkness is its proper symbol.
[Henry: Extraordinary judgments are rare things and seldom happen, which is an instance of Gods patience. Let none be proud of the beauty of their grounds any more than of their bodies, for God can soon change the face of both.F.]
Joe 2:6. The people tremble. An ever-growing dread will accompany and enhance the terrors of approaching judgment. Men in their wanton security are all the while preparing the material of such fear.
[Henry: When God frowns upon men, the lights of heaven will be small joy to them. For, man by rebelling against his Creator, has forfeited the benefit of all his creatures. None can escape the arrests of Gods wrath, can make head against the force of it, or bear up under the weight of it.
Pusey: The judgments of God hold on their course, each going straight to that person for whom God, in the awful wisdom of his justice, ordains it. No one judgment or chastisement comes by chance. Each is directed and adapted, weighed and measured, by infinite wisdom, and reaches just that soul for which God appointed it, and no other, and strikes upon it with just that force which God ordains it.F.]
Joe 2:11. Very great is his army. God can use any creature as his instrument to do his work. How many and mighty the hosts which He can send against men! The smallest things can become his agents to produce the greatest results. The mightiness of God, and the weakness of men, are here most distinctly displayed. Who can endure? No one who does not turn in penitence to God. This is a most momentous question, which we should often and seriously ponder. O what a creature is man! How proud when trouble is at a distance! How powerless and despairing when it overtakes him!
Joe 2:12. Yet also even now, etc. These words introduce the exhortation to repentance, to guard the people against the notion, that, when the prophet called on them to repent, and assured them that they would escape punishment if they did so, he was speaking in a sort of formal way, and in his own name. Both the exhortation and the promise come from God. When repentance enters, then comes help and hope. Repentance alone can ward off divine judgments. It is not enough that repentance be strong in its outward manifestations, as fasting and weeping, it must also be deep-seated, hearty, and not superficial. Turn unto the Lord. A call that is both needful and salutary, though, alas, too often unheeded. Grief for sin is only the half of repentance, it must be accompanied by a real turning to God. Only thus, O man, shalt thou obtain pardon; only thus will there be an actual turning away from sin. Sinner! despair not on account of thy misdeeds. Is Gods wrath against sin very great? His grace in pardoning it is greater still. So rich is the grace of God that the prophet is at a loss for words adequately to describe it. How ready God is to repent Him of the evil! Make a trial of his readiness and see. He who does not seek Gods grace as a penitent will never know how great it is. How much more willing is God to leave behind Him a blessing rather than a curse. No one would ever truly repent unless grace planted in the heart the seeds of faith and hope. Though a gracious hope grows slowly, yet the wavering heart will often be, in a secret way, sustained by it, and such a soul will better apprehend it than one filled with overmuch confidence.
[Jeremy Taylor: Although all sorrow for sins hath not the same expression, nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble, yet it is not a godly sorrow, unless it really produces these effects; i. e. (1), that it makes us really to hate, and (2) actually to decline sin; and (3) produces in us a fear of Gods anger, a sense of the guilt of his displeasure; (4) and then such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure; which, if it express not in tears and hearty complaints, must be expressed in watchings and strivings against sin; in patiently bearing the rod of God; in confession of our sins; in perpetual begging of pardon; and in all the natural productions of these according to our temper and constitution; it must be a sorrow of the reasonable faculty, the greatest of its kind.
Pusey: Although the mercy of God is in itself one and simple, yet is called abundant, on account of its divers effects. For God knows how in a thousand ways to succor his own.F.]
Joe 2:14. A meat-offering, etc. Gods glory and our salvation are so intimately conjoined, that the pardon of the guilty is facilitated thereby, since the salvation of the sinner redounds to the glory of God.
[Henry: Now observe: (1) The manner of the expectation is very humble and modest. Who knows? Some think it is expressed thus doubtfully to check the presumption of the people, and to quicken them to a holy carefulness. Or, rather, it is expressed doubtfully, because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident, as that God is gracious. (2) The matter of the expectation is very pious, they hope God will return and leave a blessing behind Him, not as if He were about to go from them, and they could be content with any blessing in lieu of his presence, but behind Him, i. e., after He has ceased his controversy.
Pusey: God has promised forgiveness of sins to those who turn to Him. But He has not promised, either to individuals or churches, that He will remit the temporal punishment which He had threatened. He forgave David his sin (against Uriah). But the temporal punishment of his sin pursued him even on the bed of death. God often visits the penitent soul, and by some sweetness with which the soul is bathed leaves a token of his renewed presence.F.]
Joe 2:15-16. Sanctify a fastGather the people. Fasting is a refined external discipline, promotive of prayer and piety. Only we must take care not to make a merit of it.The people. By penitence and prayer, an entire community may be saved from a great calamity.Children. Parents should be aroused to a deeper sorrow for their sins by the thought of their young children, who are also members of Gods Church, and included in his covenant. As little children share in the calamities caused by the sins of their parents, their common distress should be presented before the Lord, and deliverance from it asked.The Bride. In seasons of general distress and danger, we should abstain from the most innocent enjoyment.
[Henry: It is good to bring little children, as soon as they are capable of understanding anything, to religious assemblies, that they may be trained up betimes in the way they should go.Private joys must always give way to public sorrows, both those for affliction, and those for sin.
Robinson: It is very consolatory to observe, even in the midst of this terrific visitationthe last harbinger of the Saviours comingan invitation of mercy. If men will then but seek the Lord with their whole heart, in deep humiliation, and turn away from their sins, He will be inquired of. At the eleventh hour, when the time for work is all but gone, they may find admission into his vineyard. Happy is it when outward afflictions of any kind lead us to true repentance.F.]
Joe 2:17. Let the Priests. The special duty of the priesthood was to exhort the people to repentance, to stand between them and the Lord and pray for them, and hence it is the duty of every Christian, as a spiritual priest, to stir up his fellow Christians to repentance, and to pray for them.Spare Thy People,a petition full of humility and confidence, i. e., look upon our needs, but remember also thy glory, O Lord! What we need is Gods mercy. We can appeal to what his grace has made of us. There is the strongest antithesis between Gods people and the heathen, just as there is between God and idols.Where is their God. God will never abandon his people,a truth full of comfort to them, though it affords no ground for carnal security. On the contrary, it is fitted to stimulate us to be faithful to Him, as He is faithful to us.
[Henry: Ministers must themselves be affected with those things wherewith they desire to affect others.The maintaining of the credit of the nation among its neighbors, is a blessing to be desired and prayed for, by all that wish well to it. But that reproach of the Church is especially to be dreaded and deprecated which reflects upon God.F.]
Footnotes:
[1]Joe 2:1.The of the Hebrews, according to Jerome, was a metal instrument in the shape of a horn, and had a tone of extraordinary power. Its root, , to be bright, refers either to the metallic glitter of the instrument, or its clear ringing sound.
[2]Joe 2:1.And sound. And is omitted in the Vulg., Sept., Arab., Chald., and five MSS. omit . There is more energy in the passage without it.
[3]Joe 2:1.Holy mountain. is a noun, lit., mountain of my holiness, The adject. is only applied to persons and never to things.
[4]Joe 2:1.The daycometh. The perf. is used as the present to express the certainty of the event.
[5]Joe 2:2.Darkness and gloom. is often connected with , to express a kind of climax. Its root is not used in Heb., but we find it in the Arab. .
[6]Joe 2:2.Clouds and thick mists. , formed apparently from , a cloud, and , to be dark, corresponding to the Greek . Here, too, a gradation is marked.
[7]Joe 2:2.Like the morning dawn, etc. The Vulg. renders it, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a people much and mighty, but the accents will not admit of this. Newcome has it, like the dusk, but this suggests evening rather than morning. It properly means the gray of the morning, while the sun is still far below the horizon. It is one of the names of the Nile, from the turbid color of its water.
[8]Joe 2:3.Eden. , an old Semit. word, found also in various dialects in the sense of pleasure, like the Gr. . In the sing, with zere on the penult., it always means Paradise. With seghol on the penult., it is the name of a part of Mesopotamia. In the plur. form it denotes pleasures. Psa 36:9; 2Sa 1:24.
[9]Joe 2:4.Is like. is here used compar., and not, as Theodoret supposes, intens.
[10]Joe 2:5.On the tops of mountains, etc. must be connected with , they shall leap, and not with ; the latter union is forbidden by the accents, and by the use of the word chariots, whose noise is only heard on level ground.
[11]Joe 2:6.Peoples. The plural form is used, not as Credner supposes, with reference to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but simply to denote people generally.
[12]Joe 2:6.Paleness. is variously understood. The Sept. render the clause , as the burning of a pot. The Chald., Syr., Vulg., Arab., become like a pot or have the blackness of a pot. But there is nothing in the nature of the thing, or in the etymology of the word, to warrant the blackness of our E. V. Cramer explains rather than translates the words: all faces contract their muscles. The root of the word is , to be beautiful, to glow: and it literally means ruddiness. This gathers, or withdraws itself, and the countenance becomes pale.
[13]Joe 2:7.They shall not turn aside. is variously explained. Many expositors take it in the sense of pervertere, as if it were , to bend. Others get its meaning from the Arab. , to split, or divide. One MS., De Ross, has the reading, , they strike not out behind, like horses. The sense is, they move in a compact mass, bending neither to the right nor the left, forwards nor backwards.
[14]Joe 2:8.Each one in his path lit., the mighty one, , used here Poetically for .
[15]Joe 2:8.Though they rush, etc. The meaning of this line is plain enough, i. e., nothing can arrest their march; but the renderings of it are various, growing out of the senses given to . De Wette renders it: Und zwischen Waffen strzen sie hindurch, brechen den Zug nicht ab.Wnsche: Und hinter dem Wurfpiess fallen sie, nicht brechen sie ab. On the whole, I prefer the rendering of Tregelles: Though they rush, etc.
[16]Joe 2:12.Yet even now. Credner, without reason, supplies a after .
[17]Joe 2:12.Saith Jehovah. is most frequently used as the part. pass. constr. =the voice of Jehovah is.
[18]Joe 2:14.Who knoweth. The interrogative particle is omitted here as in Jon 3:9. The question is expressed only by the tone. Holzh. takes the phrase to=every one knows, i. e., it is quite certain; but this sense is too absolute.
[19]Joe 2:17.Rule over. The primary meaning of is to make like, and in its nominal form it has the sense of similitude, parable, proverb, song. Scholars have been a good deal puzzled how to reconcile the signification of making like and ruling, which last sense the word undoubtedly has in many places. When used in this last sense it is usually followed by , rarely (Wnsche says never) by or . Tregelles renders it in this place, to sing a song of derision, and De Wette, spotter, which, I think, the context favors. Pusey and Wnsche insist on the sense of our E. V. rule over.F.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The same subject is continued in this Chapter as in the former, the dreadful day of the Lord’s judgments is solemnly described. But the close of the Chapter comes in with the sweetest promises of blessing in the outpouring of the Spirit.
Joe 2:1
The Chapter opens with a solemn call to sound the trumpet in Zion. This was the office of the priests, to blow the trumpet, of what kind soever it was, whether the war trumpet, or the trumpet for the calling of assemblies, or the jubilee trumpet, or the new moon, or fast trumpet. See Num 10 ; Lev 25:9 , etc. But certainly, the great leading object of the whole was with an eye to the gospel, as the close of this Chapter manifests. And nothing can be more beautiful in relation to the joyful sound, than the figure of a trumpet, when the true ministers of Jesus loudly proclaim in his Zion, redemption by his blood, and the day of the Lord Jesus at hand. Isa 27:13Isa 27:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Conversion (Ash Wednesday)
Joe 2:12
A great national calamity, either impending or just passed, was the occasion of the prophecy of Joel. It is traceable to national sin, and its remedy is national repentance.
The words of our text bring before us a matter which is peculiarly fit for Ash Wednesday consideration the doctrine of Conversion; for conversion is the first step in that life of penitence to which Lent calls us. But conversion is a subject about which there is much misunderstanding.
I. What Conversion is not.
a. Many persons confound conversion with regeneration, with which it has hardly anything in common. The grace of regeneration can be given but once, for we can only be born once, but conversion may be necessary many times in our life, as often indeed as we turn away from God.
b. Conversion is not always the same in every one. With some, like St. Paul, it is instantaneous; with others it is gradual, and so free from any special manifestation that they can hardly tell when they were converted.
(c) Conversion is not everything, it is only the first step in the life of penitence, and of little use if it does not lead to the fullness of Christian fellowship.
II. What Conversion is. It is the turning of the will to God. By the gift of free will, which God has bestowed upon us, we are able to make our actions meritorious by doing them freely, with the love of God as their motive, and the glory of God as their end.
III. There are Many Degrees of Sin Possible in Man.
a. We can live in open rebellion.
b. We can compromise, and while serving God outwardly, we may fall short of conformity to His will.
IV. Conversion.
a. Must be thorough. We must turn to God with our entire will.
b. The accompaniments of conversion are, fasting, weeping, and mourning; these are signs of deep penitence, and all are fruits of a thorough conversion.
A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, p. 161.
References. II. 12. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes (1st Series), pp. 36, 38. II. 12, 13. E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation (2nd Series), p. 138. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 58. Bishop How, Plain Words (1st Series), p. 33. II. 17. J. Keble, Sermons for Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 352. II. 25. F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man, p. 292. J. Vaughan, Old Testament Outlines, p. 273. II. 26. J. Keble, Sermons for Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 249. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1098. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1541. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (2nd Series), p. 220. II. 28. E. Bayley, Sermons on the Work and Person of the Holy Spirit, p. 221. II. 28-32. Ibid. p. 1.
A Message of Deliverance (Ash Wednedsay)
Joe 2:32
This verse occurs three times over in the Scriptures, once here in the old dispensation, once again on the birthday of the new, and once again thirty years later, when the great Apostle was facing the problem of the admission to the Church of the Gentiles.
I. The Message Proclaimed:
a. By the Prophet Joel. Nearly three thousand years ago the words were spoken first. Judea had reached a period of prosperity, but both king and people had forgotten to walk humbly with their God. And Joel tells, in language which cannot be misunderstood, what must happen to a nation which will live without God. Is there then no hope for the people? He passes on to tell them of the hope that there is in the Lord (Joe 2:12-13 ). Even the fire of prophecy burns up afresh. Joel sings a song which is full of joy (2:24). Further still he looks to the dawn of the new dispensation. ‘I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.’ Then further still, to the end of the dispensation on earth altogether. Then, even then, it shall come to pass that ‘whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered’.
b. By St. Peter. Eight hundred years later, when the Day of Pentecost has come, St. Peter is about to preach the first Christian sermon, and our text was his text. When the sermon was over, there was such a result as proved God’s blessing on his interpretation of the text: for men were moved, not in hundreds but in thousands, to ask the great question, ‘What shall I do?’
c. By St. Paul. The world rolls on again for thirty years, steadily becoming worse, and the Apostle to the Gentiles, grasping for the first time with full force the magnificent width of the Christian Church, also takes up this text, and looking round on all the darkness of the heathen world, on the hollowness which was creeping even then into the infant Church, he declares with emphasis that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
II. A Message for Today. That was the message with which the Church went out into the world, that is the message the Church has preached ever since, and it is the message the Church delivers Today. And Today, as we enter upon this holy season of Lent, we do well to remember that the message has never at any time lost its force. Do not let us explain it away. Do not let us think it cannot be accepted literally. It is exactly and literally true. By that message we must be judged some day. If it be ‘easy’ as some say to call upon the Lord, it is only because all that was hard was taken by Him and borne for us. Do not let us think that salvation is so complicated a thing that it cannot be contained in a message like that It is true that salvation is a very wide and deep thing, but the first thing it must mean to every soul is salvation from the wrath of God. The criminal under sentence of death must first be pardoned, and know it, before he can come out and live a life worth living. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,’ aye, even now, ‘shall be delivered,’ shall be saved from the wrath upon him because of original sin, from the burden of the guilt which belongs to him from actual sin, shall know that he has passed from death into life, the life which Christ gives him as a gift.
III. A Personal Question. Have you ever made one real effort to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved? This is the question I would press home upon you at this Lenten season. What does the message mean? Simply this faith, which acknowledges Jesus as the Saviour. Faith first, which looks up to Him believing that He is able to do what I long for Him to do. Then, secondly, simple acceptance. I must be ready to take what He gives, to accept it, to believe it, to rest upon it.
References. II. 32. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1931. III. 14. J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. i. p. 109. III. 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 379. R. F. Norton, The Hidden Guest, p. 233.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Night and Day In Zion
Joe 2
The whole chapter is one of the most picturesque description to be found in all the record even of ancient prophecy. It is full of judgment, and it is full of gospel. The whole morning is darkened with locusts, yet at eventide there is light. Merely as an exercise in the pictorial art, were it nothing more, this chapter ought to stand amongst the masterpieces of literature. No man who had any regard to his own literary reputation could have written this could have written thus in such broad, startling, tragic contrast; he would have said, The rules of art require different treatment, so as to secure something like proportion; some respect must be paid even in fiction to the genius of probability. Here you have thunders, lightnings, tempests, all the winds of heaven let loose upon the shaking earth; and presently, apparently without sufficient cause, there is a great lull, the dark sky breaks out here and there into translucent blue, and presently the whole firmament glitters with light, gleams with tender beauty, and the earth seems to be lifted up to celestial altitudes, and, without the process of learning, to be able to sing with the angels. It will be worth while, from a merely literary point of view, to study this wondrous narrative mayhap we may find it to be more than literature; but the Lord will allow us to enter his sanctuary by many doors, even by the great public door above whose massive portals are written words of tender welcome and boundless hospitality, or by a little postern gate which we may be called upon to stoop before if we would enter with safety. The great thing to be done is to enter the sanctuary: no matter whether by the one door or by the other; to be in God’s temple, to be seated at God’s table, is the one thing needful.
The trumpet is lifted up this time in warning. Sometimes it is lifted up in festival. The trumpet will do one of two things; the performer must tell it what to do. So with every ministry, and every instrumentality of life and nature; it is the intelligent, responsive, directing man that must say what is to be done with the silver lute of spring, or the golden instrument of summer, or the cornucopia of autumn, or the great wind of winter that makes the earth cold and bleak. The trumpet will foretell a coming battle, or it will call to an infinite feast; the man behind it must use it according to the occasion. It is even so with the Bible. There is no trumpet like the Bible for warning, alarm, excitement, a great blare at midnight shaking the whole air with tones of alarm; nor is there any instrument like the Bible for sweetness, gentleness, tenderness, an instrument that talks music to the heart, and that assures human fear that the time of apprehension has passed away. Warning has always been given by the Almighty before his judgments have taken effect. Yet there has always been some measure of suddenness about divine judgments. The reason is that we cannot sufficiently prepare for them. We may know they are coming, we may tell even to a day when the judgment thunder will lift up its voice; yet when it does sound its appeal it startles and shocks and paralyses the world. Is the Lord going to sow the Cities of the Plain with the awful seed of fire and brimstone? Will he plough the land with lightning, and fill its furrows with this fatal seed? Will he hide from Abraham the thing which he doeth? Will he not call away the righteous from among the wicked, that they be burned not by the impartial and indiscriminating fire? Is the Lord about to make all heaven one water-cloud, and pour it down upon the earth in an avenging deluge? Is there not a prophet of the Lord in the midst of the people to tell that the rain is gathering, that a fountain is being fashioned that shall open its mouth in infinite torrents, and destroy the sinful world?
Yet, though the warning has always been given, it has always been despised. How few people heed the voice of warning! They call that voice sensational. Were the old preachers to return with their old hell they would have but scant welcome to-day. They were men of the iron mouth; they were no Chrysostoms, golden-throated and golden-lipped; they were men who, knowing the terrors of the law, withheld them not from the knowledge of the people, but thundered right mightily even beside the altar of the Cross. Now all this is in many instances ruled out as theologically behind the time, as from a literary point of view vulgar and odious, and as from a spiritual point of view detestable, and not likely to work in man mightily in the direction of persuasion. We become familiar with warning. No man really believes in the day of judgment. Many a man will assert it, probably few within the Church would care to deny it; many are delighted to hear it proclaimed; but who really, inmostly, with his heart’s heart, with his soul’s soul, believes that he shall have to give an account for every deed and word done and spoken in the flesh? There are some burdens we could not carry and do life’s daily business. The Lord is very merciful herein, that he does not require us to carry all this weight of warning, all this thunder of doom; it is enough, if properly used now and then, to know that God has in his possession a glittering sword, and that he will judge the earth in righteousness; then the burden is lifted from us, and we go about the day’s business with a little time to attend to the little day’s comparative trifles. We have time for music and for innocent mirth, and for the reciprocation of offices that perish in the using; forasmuch as man, flesh and blood, created out of the dust, a wind, a creature that finds his metaphor in the flying shuttle, could not carry this burden of judgment day by day, night by night; his brain would reel under the weight, and in insanity he would find his only release
But the warnings given us by men are often partial, and are not unfrequently falsely directed. There is not a preacher in the world who could not make a great reputation by thundering against heterodoxy. The world loves such vacant thunder; the Church is willing to subscribe liberally to any man who will denounce the heterodoxy of other people. Men who are fattening themselves at the table of wickedness like the devil of heterodoxy to be tethered to the deepest hell; it does not disturb them, they are willing to pay tribute if by so doing they may pass another gate that opens into some wider liberty and finer licentiousness of action. We do not need such warning. There is nothing easier than to sit beside a glowing fire, with our feet plunged into carpets of velvet pile, and to dictate by the hour maledictions against earnest men who somehow have lost the sight of one eye, or momentarily the sight of both, and are groping as only blind men can grope after things essential and eternal. We have had enough of such warning in all ages; it is empty, blatant, pointless, often unjust and cruel, because based upon misunderstandings and misapprehensions. What we do want is, not to thunder warningly against mistaken speculation, but thunders sevenfold in loudness to be delivered against the current iniquities of the day. Let a man speak against wickedness, and he will be killed! Let any prophet, even fiery and fearless as Joel the prophet of the oven of the Lord, stand up and speak against drunkenness, gluttony, sharp practice, malfeasance, and that man will be invited to no smoking tables; he will be a death’s-head at any feast to which he may have found unexpected and unwelcome access. Yet that is the warning which the age requires; and no man can give it and live. Speak against a false conception of the constitution of the Godhead, and there are rich men who will subscribe to your funds hundreds and thousands of pounds; stand up and declare that never will you permit a false theory regarding the inspiration of the Scriptures, and there are fat debauchees that will clap their gluttonous hands, and look out of their evil eyes all manner of approval; but assail iniquity, measure the wand and see if in its yard there be six-and-thirty inches, lift up the scales to know whether they are equal, search the candle of life with the fire of the Lord, and you will soon be crucified; no man will subscribe to your funds; you will be legalists, you will be moralists, you will be persons who do not understand the evangelical religion. Better be without the patronage of such men; it makes all work easy now, it takes the rust out of every hinge for the passing moment, but by-and-by the gain will burn the hand that takes it, and the man who has taken it will discover that though he has sat at the table of the Lord, his name is Judas Iscariot.
Warning is needed, but let it be of the right kind; warning is a needful element in every ministry, but deliver it at the right door. To hear some men stand up and claim to be the guardians of truth and orthodoxy and sound doctrine would distress the heart if it did not amuse the imagination. That men who are never troubled with an idea, brains that never saw heavens and creations and universes proceeding moment by moment fast as the seconds can fall from the fountain of eternity that such men should have patronised the Lord is an intolerable and inexplicable irony. We do not then deprecate warning, blowing of the trumpet in Zion; we simply ask that it be directed to the right end. Lycurgus was the noblest of Spartans; he was a rigorous disciplinarian; in some aspects he was the admired and all but idolised of his country; but when he denounced the misuse of its wealth, when he levelled his guns against the corruption of his day, he was stoned in the city that was proud of him, and had to seek refuge from common ruffianism behind the altar of the temple; his flesh was cut by the ruffians’ cane, and whilst the blood ran down his noble face no word of reproach escaped him. Let any an reprove the iniquities of his day, thunder against the malpractices of corporations and all other institutions, and he will be struck in the face, he will be stoned on the streets, he will be hated in conversation, and the rich thieves that live to old age on their plunder will never subscribe to his funds. God be thanked! there is a redeeming point in their awful reputation.
The imagery of Joel is of the most vivid, exciting, and alarming kind. He still bases his vaticinations upon the desolating action of the fourfold and four-named locusts. The locust was a fact, and not a metaphor; yet though the locust was the direst fact in the history of the country, it was but a poor symbol of the corruption which had brought upon that country avenging hosts. If the chapter ended with the eleventh verse, it would be the volcano of the Bible; but from the twelfth verse another tone comes in and rules the wild turbulence into domestic music:
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” [John never wrote tenderer words; Paul never welcomed the people to the heart of Christ with larger and tenderer liberality of hopefulness and love.] “Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?” (Joe 2:12-14 .)
That is the Gospel before the Christian era in the narrow historical sense. These words can never be displaced from the religious literature of the world until their spirit has been fulfilled. Men sing them, ministers preach from them, prodigals have their attention called to them, if haply their hearts may be subdued into penitential softness. “Rend your heart, and not your garments”; let your repentance be moral, not ceremonial; imagine not that God cares for torn robes, except they be torn in consequence of an inner agitation, yea, the very agony of self-reproach and self-distrust. Many would be prepared to rend a garment that would be a cheap sacrifice, withal it would be dramatic and pictorial; but the Lord will not have it so. The word of the Lord is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow. “Rend your heart” that is the offender: “Rend your heart” that is the liar. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Repent in your souls; do not use words of repentance apart from the feeling of contrition. It is an evil thing that the lips should give hospitality to eloquent penitence when the heart does not feel the agony of contrition. By such familiarity we come to ruin; by such custom do we take the wonder out of God’s miracles; yea, by such monotony do we destroy the infinite pathos of the Cross of Christ. “Rend your heart”; be sorry for your sin, not for its consequences. He cannot repent who says in the morning after his debauch he would he had been better last night, for his head to-day burns like a furnace. That is false reasoning and false morality, if the soul seek to avail itself of it as an appeal to God, instead of that profound vital conviction as to the sinfulness of sin, which alone can lead the heart to the Cross of the Son of God. There must be no church-going where the spirit is absent from the sanctuary; then church-going is a rending of the garment; there must be no lavish subscription to fill up the pit dug by the iniquity of men. “Rend your heart, and not your garments”; by broken-heartedness, and not by rags ceremonially manufactured, is the Lord of heaven to be appeased. This is the Old Testament. Verily it might be the New.
This gospel in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, is divinely offered, it is not humanly conceived: “Therefore also now, saith the Lord.” All gospels come from heaven. All the flowers come from the sun. We grow nothing, as of the earth earthy, alone and exclusively. Every wee modest daisy in the sod was born really in the sun; it does but accept the sod as a cradle until its eyes are opened to look upon its true nativity. Every Christian word is a tone of supernal music; every great proposition that charms the imagination and creates new hope in the heart is a revelation from above. Nor must we read without emphasis properly directed and apportioned the words “thus saith the Lord.” In English they amount to a mere statement; that is to say, a mere point in a passing incident. It is not so the word “saith” is used in the Hebrew tongue; as used originally, it signifies that it is the divine word, part of the divine essence, a symbol of the divine quality. “Thus saith” that is a token of authority; virtue has gone out of God and gone to redeem the world. There are those who say they must have a “thus saith the Lord” for everything; let them be careful lest they regard that form as a mere sign. There is nothing merely signal about it; when the honest man utters a word he utters his heart; when the sincere soul prays every syllable is as a drop of blood. When we have a “thus saith the Lord,” the emphasis is to be thrown into the word “saith,” for it indicates that the Lord’s heart has moved out towards the children of men, and that the Lord’s pity is announcing a gospel to prodigals.
In the fifteenth verse the trumpet is blown again:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.” [And so the Lord is pleased to direct the people to pray and seek himself, and desire that their reproach may be taken away.] “Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” (Joe 2:15-17 .)
Now we shall have a change of expression. From the moment that earnest prayers go up to heaven all the clouds will begin to disperse, and the rich blue sky will shine above the penitent returning earth. So we read, “Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.” Not “the” land, as if it were a mere geographical district; not “the” people, as if they were any people; but “his” land and “his” people, touching the deepest, tenderest chord in the mystery of the divine nature.
“Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen” ( Joe 2:19 ).
But what has become of the land that the locust has desolated? All the green things have been eaten, Eden has been turned into a wilderness, the fig tree has been barked, the forest yesterday green with beauty is to-day like an army stripped naked, whose shivering shoulders are turned to the bleak wind.
“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do springy for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed” ( Joe 2:21-26 ).
What a declaration is this! We thought the land was given over to night, and lo, the day-spring from on high hath visited it. We said, Summer is dead, and lo, in the very midst of the snows of winter the green things break through the earth, and birds begin to sing in the quiet air. “And my people shall never be ashamed.” Twice are these words spoken, in Joe 2:26 and in Joe 2:27 ; and the words are spoken every day to every honest soul “my people shall never be ashamed.” That is a word which the Apostle Paul himself used: I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; I am not ashamed to call the Saviour Lord. “If any man be ashamed of me and of my name, of him will I be ashamed when I come in my glory.”
My people may be despised, misunderstood, reviled, put to all sorts of tests; but even this process shall end in their strengthening and in their purification. We cannot yet know how the awards will go personally and nationally, but we do know the great principles upon which divine issues will be determined; the sheep shall be set on the right hand and the goats on the left; good and faithful servants shall go up into many rulerships and into secure sanctuaries; unprofitable servants shall go into outer darkness. Lift up your heads, rejoice in the Lord; for his hand has been heavy upon you, and that pressure hath brought you to prayer; out of your prayer shall come God’s great answer, and ye who have seen sevenfold night should rejoice with unspeakable joy in the dawn of eternal day. This is the miracle of the Cross; this is the triumph of God the Son. All this is the Gospel historically before Bethlehem, but not essentially. Essentially the Gospel is in Genesis essentially the Gospel is in first verse, first chapter of Genesis; essentially the Bible owes its existence to the Gospel. If there had been no Cross before the foundation of the world, and no Cross in the after eternity of heaven, there could have been no Bible. Christ is Alpha and Omega; First, Last, Midst; Ancient of Days; Child of yesterday.
Prayer
Almighty God, thine eye is upon all men. There is nothing hidden from thy vision. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Our downsitting and our uprising, our going out and our coming in, are not these all known in heaven? The very hairs of our head are all numbered. What we have; what we have not; what use we make of our opportunity; how we carry ourselves in life; what is our innermost motive and thought and purpose are not all these known to him who is our Father and our Judge? If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; if we confess our sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Hear us when, with bent heads and humble hearts and contrite spirits, each for himself says, God be merciful unto me a sinner. May thy Holy Spirit dwell in each of us; may we know the mystery of the name and of the work of Christ; may we enter into the sorrow of his passion, that we may afterward enter into the triumph of his resurrection; may we really be in Christ, and show that Christ is really in us; may we stand at his point of view, may we drink in his spirit, may we look upon the times as he looked upon his own day; may nothing escape us that is for the good and the welfare and the progress of ourselves and of society. Fill us with the spirit of Christ’s own charity; make us pure, true, gentle, chivalrous; may we be known for our good-doing, for our heroism in darkness, for our nobleness in the midst of degeneracy; may we be faithful servants, honest stewards, doing our day’s work not as hirelings, but as men who love the labour. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
1
III
THE BOOK OF JOEL
Joe 1:1-3:21
Helps commended: (1) Hengstenberg, (2) Pusey.
Many men of different periods of the history of Israel bore the name Joel. All that we know of Joel, the prophet, is gleaned from the book of his prophecies and that is little indeed. He was the son of Pethuel, a man otherwise unknown to us. From a study of the prophecies of Joel we learn that he was almost certainly an inhabitant of Judah and Jerusalem. He was well acquainted with the services of Jehovah’s Temple. His name means “Jehovah is God” and thus indicates something of the religious convictions of his parents. There is a legend that he was born at Beth-horon, ten miles northwest from Jerusalem, and that he was buried there. We know not the grounds on which this tradition rests and therefore cannot determine these things with any degree of certainty.
Nowhere in the Scriptures are we told just the time when Joel lived and prophesied. The date of his prophecy becomes, therefore, purely a question of literary and historical criticism. Like Obadiah, we find an earlier and a later date assigned to it. The earlier date is 830 B.C., or the reign of Joash; the later date assigned is after the exile. The author prefers the earlier date as being far more consistent with the internal evidence.
The occasion of this prophecy is determined according to the position taken with reference to the interpretation of the “locusts.” Those who believe that the locusts referred to by Joel were real, not symbolical locusts, find the occasion of the book to be the entire desolation of the land of Judah by a plague of locusts, while those who hold to the symbolic meaning of the word “locusts” make the occasion of the book the great sins of Judah in turning away from Jehovah. As the author holds to the symbolical theory of the locusts he sees the occasion of this prophecy to be the decline of Judah which is so evident in the latter part of the reign of Joash (see history of his reign) and which calls forth this great summons of the people by the prophet to repentance or to the judgments that would follow.
The canonicity of this book has never been called in question. It is classical and almost matchless in style. Joel is the prince of prophets as to description. His description of the army of locusts, the battle of Jehoshaphat, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the suffering of brute creation is unequaled in literature. It is impossible to read his prophecies and not be impressed with his culture and literary skill. The Hebrew scholars tell us that his book is a fine specimen of pure classic Hebrew. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum) and the sublimity of Isaiah.
This prophecy was given to Judah. There is no mention of the Northern Kingdom. The name “Israel” (Joe 2:27 ; Joe 3:2 ; Joe 3:16 ) refers to the whole people, while the author mentions Zion, Judah, and Jerusalem many times.
The analysis of this book consists of the title and three main divisions, as follows:
The title (Joe 1:1 )
I. The coming of the locusts (Joe 1:2-2:27Joe 1:2-2:27Joe 1:2-2:27 )
1. An unusual desolation (Joe 1:2-4 )
2. A call to mourning (Joe 1:5-14 )
3. Forebodings of the “day of Jehovah” (Joe 1:15-20 )
4. The alarm sounded in view of the approaching day (Joe 2:1-3 )
5. A description of the army and their destructive work (Joe 2:4-11 )
6. A promise of forgiveness and blessings upon the condition of repentance (Joe 2:12-17 )
7. Repentance vouchsafed and the blessings assured (Joe 2:18-27 )
II. The coming of the Holy Spirit (Joe 2:28-32 )
1. The spirit poured upon all flesh and the results (Joe 2:28-29 )
2. The perspective of the final judgment day (Joe 2:30-31 )
3. A hope for God’s remnant (Joe 2:32 )
III. The coming of judgments (Joe 3:1-21 )
1. A summons to the battle of judgment and the reason (Joe 3:18-21 )
2. The result of the judgment here and the hope of Israel (Joe 3:14-17 )
3. Judah’s final victory over all and her final cleansing (Joe 3:1-21 )
In the title to this book we have one of the three common formulas of introduction to the prophets:
1. “The word of Jehovah that came to Joel.” This formula is found in Jer 1:2 ; Eze 1:3 ; Hos 1:1 ; and Zec 1:1 .
2. “The vision of [author’s name],” is found in Isa 1:1 ; and Oba 1:1 .
3. “The burden of [author’s name],” is found in Nah 1:1 ; and Mal 1:1 .
Lamentations and Daniel have no formal introduction, the former being an elegy in poetic form and the latter being regarded by the Jews as history rather than prophecy. These formulas are significant of the authority by which the prophet spoke and the point of view from which the prophecy is considered, whether “the word of Jehovah,” “the vision of [the prophet]” or “the burden [or oracle of Jehovah.]”
In the interpretation of the coming of the locusts it must be kept in mind that Joel is an apocalypse and therefore these locusts must be considered apocalyptical. What the author sees is a swarm of locusts and he describes them as such. So the coming of these locusts is not to be understood literally, but allegorically and, therefore, symbolically. The four invasions here are invasions by locusts under four different names, and represent the curses of the four national powers, viz: Syro-Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian, and Roman. This corresponds to the apocalypse of Daniel in which is set forth the relation of Israel to these same powers. Joel I sets forth the chastisements sent upon the Jews and the reasons therefore. The book is a book of judgments showing the divine order, viz: “Judgment begins at the house of God.” These judgments are in a series of four, one after another, as indicated by the locusts. They begin with the Babylonian captivity and culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem and the taking away of the Jewish nation by the Romans.
The arguments showing that the literal view of the plague of locusts is inconsistent are as follows:
1. They are described as “the northern” scourge and locusts never came to Palestine that way.
2. The priests are directed to pray, “Give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them” (Joe 2:17 ).
3. The scourge is to be destroyed “because he hath done great things,” or literally, “hath magnified to do” (Joe 2:20 ), an expression unsuitable to irrational creatures.
4. The figurative expressions used in connection with the locusts, viz: The fire and the flame and beasts being desired to rejoice in the tree. These expressions are unquestionably figurative; therefore, the whole may be so regarded.
5. The imagery goes beyond the plague of locusts, in that (1) the people are terrified, (2) the air is darkened and (3) they enter the city (Joe 2:6 ; Joe 2:9-10 ).
6. The effects are greater than would be produced by mere locusts, in that (1) the meal offering is destroyed, (2) the fruits of more than one year are destroyed and (3) the plague is described as worse than any that was remembered (Joe 1:2 ; Joe 1:9 ; Joe 2:2 ).
7. Locusts could not have been driven at once into the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.
8. The day of the Lord is identified with the scourge, and is far beyond the plague of locusts (Joe 2:1 ; Joe 2:11 ).
9. The locust is used elsewhere in the Bible symbolically, to represent a curse (Rev 9:3-11 ).
According to this position the prophet announces a complete desolation of the land, as if locusts had laid it waste. Upon the occasion of this approaching curse he calls for mourning and penitence. Then he gives the foreboding of the “day of Jehovah” and orders the sounding of an alarm and follows that with a masterful description of an invading army and its destructive work. In Joe 2:12-17 the prophet holds out the hope of forgiveness and blessings if they will really repent; at Joe 2:18 he introduces the prediction which stretches across the messianic age to the introduction of the millennium. In Joe 2:23 , we have the promise of “the teacher of righteousness” (marginal reading) as in 2Ki 17:27 ; Job 36:22 ; Pro 5:13 ; Isa 9:15 ; Isa 30:20 ; Hab 2:18 . So the order here seems to be (1) Christ comes, “the teacher of righteousness,” (2) come Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, (3) comes the destruction of Jerusalem which is the climax of the “day of the Lord” on the Jewish people.
In Joe 2:28-32 we have the first distinct prediction of the advent of the Holy Spirit, fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, following which is the far distant judgment day, adumbrated by the destruction of Jerusalem from which destruction escapes a remnant who are specially called of Jehovah (see Isa 1:9 ; and Rom 11:5 ).
In Joe 3:1-21 we have a forecast of the judgments on the anti-Christian nations. First, there is a summons to the battle of judgments in which God pours out his wrath upon these nations because of their treatment of his people, Israel. This accords with Isa 66:5-6 ; Dan 11:36-45 ; Zec 14:1-15 ; and Rev 19:11-21 , in which is described the great battle of Jehoshaphat at which the Jews are to be converted, a result of the interposition of God, as described here in Joe 3:14-17 . This ushers in the millennium in which Judah (or the prince of Judah) will win the victory over the world in bringing in the Messiah’s kingdom and disseminating the knowledge of him to the ends of the earth.
There appears in this book for the first time the expression, “The day of the Lord,” which refers to the time of God’s judgments and has partial fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, then another in God’s judgments on the ungodly nations above described, and then finds its final and complete fulfilment at the last great judgment.
There appears also, for the first time in this book, the idea of the fountain. This idea expands as we follow it through the Bible to its fulfilment. Here it is briefly stated, showing its source and its objective; the valley of Shittim with no interpretation given. In Eze 47:1-12 we have the idea very much enlarged, showing this fountain developed into a great river which symbolizes the river of life presented in Rev 22:1-2 . Then in Zec 13:1 we have an additional idea presented, viz: that it is “for sin and uncleanness” from which we derive the beautiful hymn, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” The fulfilment of this idea is found in Christ’s teaching in John (4-7), where he refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and in life.
There are two other ideas that appear in this book for the first time which have already been explained, viz: The coming of the Holy Spirit and the battle of Jehoshaphat and the conversion of the Jews.
Some of the most important lessons of this book are as follows:
1. God’s retribution for disobedience. This is plain from the calls to repentance and the threatened judgments in the book.
2. God’s long forbearance toward a gainsaying and disobedient people, showing that his “mercy endureth forever.”
3. God’s blessings of the Holy Spirit. They are for all people in all ages. Though he selected and elected one nation as his own peculiar people, yet “whosoever calleth on the Lord shall be saved.”
4. God’s blessing of final victory for his cause and people. Evil may triumph and Jerusalem be trodden down for a time but the promises of God are sure and the Jew, though rejecting his Messiah and scattered to the ends of the earth, shall eventually accept this Messiah and become a mighty factor in the spread of his kingdom.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Joel?
2. What was the date of this prophecy?
3. What was the occasion of this prophecy?
4. What of the canonicity of this book?
5. What of the style and character of the book?
6. To whom was this prophecy given and how do you explain the use of the name “Israel” in Joe 2:27 ; Joe 3:2 ; Joe 3:16 ?
7. What were the essential points in the analysis of this book?
8. What formula of introduction found in the title to this book and what the three formulas found in the introductions to the prophets?
9. What are the interpretation of the coming of the locusts?
10. What were the arguments showing that the literal view of the plague of locusts is inconsistent?
11. According to this position, then how interpret Joe 1:2-2:27 ?
12. What promise in Joe 2:28-32 and where do we find the fulfilment?
13. What are the judgments of Joe 3:1-21 and when their fulfilment?
14. What ideas appear for the first time in Joel and what their application?
15. What are the most important lessons of this book?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
Ver. 1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion ] Idem aliis verbis repetit, saith Mercer here. The prophet repeats the same as in the former chapter, only in other words, more at large, and after another manner; pressing the people further to the practice of repentance by many sweet promises of the blessings of this and a better life. Our prophet may seem to be of the same mind with Tertullian, who said that he was nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae, born for no other end but to repent, and to call upon others so to do. Tot autem verbis et figuris utitur, saith Luther, he useth so many words and figures, because he had to do with a people that were harder than rocks, Jer 5:8 ; as also, because there is an absolute necessity of repentance. Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum, as our Saviour tells his disciples twice in a breath, Luk 13:2 ; Luk 13:5 . The prophet had urged them hereunto from the evils they felt or feared, Joe 1:1-20 . Pain and penitence are words of one derivation. God plagueth men that he may make them cry peccavi; I have sinned, not peril only, I am undone, as Cain; but peccavi, I have done very foolishly, as David. The first seventeen verses of this chapter are hortatory, the rest consolatory. The day of the Lord cometh, therefore repent. This is the sum of the exhortation. It cometh, and that instantly: give warning therefore. God loveth to foresignify, saith the heathen historian, and to admonish before he punish, F Y (Herod.). He dealt so with Cain, to whom he read the first lecture of repentance, Gen 4:9-15 , as he had done of faith to his father Adam, in the chapter before. He dealt so with the old world, with the Sodomites, Ninevites.
Sound an alarm in my holy mountain
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble
For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joe 2:1-17
1Blow a trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of the LORD is coming;
Surely it is near,
2A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
As the dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a great and mighty people;
There has never been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
To the years of many generations.
3A fire consumes before them
And behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them
But a desolate wilderness behind them,
And nothing at all escapes them.
4Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like war horses, so they run.
5With a noise as of chariots
They leap on the tops of the mountains,
Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble,
Like a mighty people arranged for battle.
6Before them the people are in anguish;
All faces turn pale.
7They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like soldiers;
And they each march in line,
Nor do they deviate from their paths.
8They do not crowd each other,
They march everyone in his path;
When they burst through the defenses,
They do not break ranks.
9They rush on the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter through the windows like a thief.
10Before them the earth quakes,
The heavens tremble,
The sun and the moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
11The LORD utters His voice before His army;
Surely His camp is very great,
For strong is he who carries out His word.
The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome,
And who can endure it?
12Yet even now, declares the LORD,
Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
13And rend your heart and not your garments.
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
14Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him,
Even a grain offering and a drink offering
For the LORD your God?
15Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
16Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
17Let the priests, the LORD’s ministers,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, Spare Your people, O LORD,
And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,
A byword among the nations.
Why should they among the peoples say,
‘Where is their God?’
2:1 Blow The prophet is announcing YHWH’s message that the day of the Lord is coming. This is done by the parallel IMPERATIVES.
1. blow, BDB 1075, KB 1785, Qal IMPERATIVE, meaning
a. blow a trumpet or
b. clap your hands
since the next word is trumpet (BDB 1051) option a. is meant. This trumpet blast (which probably comes from the Mt. Sinai experience, i.e., Exo 19:16; Exo 19:19; Exo 20:18) is the OT source for the NT understanding of a trumpet inaugurating the end-time events (cf. Mat 24:31; 1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16).
2. sound an alarm, BDB 929, KB 1206, Hiphil IMPERATIVE, which denotes a loud shout
a. for battle (i.e., Jos 6:10; Jos 6:20; Jdg 7:21; 1Sa 17:52; Isa 42:13)
b. for royalty (i.e., 1Sa 10:24; Zec 9:9)
c. shout of YHWH (i.e., 2:11)
This, too, becomes a pattern for NT teaching about eschatological events (i.e., 1Th 4:16).
Both a trumpet and a shout were probably (1) part of an annual coronation service in Jerusalem of YHWH as King (cf. Psa 47:5; Psa 98:6; Isa 18:3) or (2) a stylized warning (cf. Isa 58:1; Jer 4:5; Jer 6:1; Jer 51:27; Eze 33:3-6; Amo 2:2).
Many of the allusions that Joel uses for the invading locusts (i.e., army) became standard apocalyptic symbols of the end-time:
a. blow the trumpet
b. day of darkness (cf. Joe 2:30-31)
c. earthquakes/trembles
d. fire
e. thunder/YHWH’s voice
f. day of the Lord is awesome/dreadful
the trumpet This is the sophar (BDB 1051, cf. Joe 2:1; Joe 2:15). See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: HORNS USED BY ISRAEL
My holy mountain This could refer to the events on Mount Sinai at the inauguration of the covenant, but in context it seems to refer to Mount Moriah (cf. Genesis 22), on which Solomon’s temple was later built. Zion (BDB 851) is parallel to My holy mountain. Zion, although one of six hills in Jerusalem, became the general name for the whole city.
the day of the LORD This seems to refer to God’s coming in temporal judgment or blessing (cf. Joe 1:15). The phrase is used repeatedly in chapter 2 and may reflect Amo 5:18-20. However, it is also used as historical foreshadowing of the ultimate judgment of the end-time (cf. Mat 7:22; Mat 10:15; Mat 11:22; Mat 11:24; Mat 12:36; Act 17:31; 1Th 5:4; Heb 10:25; 2Pe 2:9; 2Pe 3:7; 1Jn 4:17; Jud 1:6).
The concept of judgment has developed through progressive revelation. In the OT YHWH’s judgment fell on
1. sinful non-covenant people (the nations)
2. rebellious and sinful covenant people (Israel)
However, in the NT this changes somewhat. Judgment comes to unbelievers (Jew and Gentile). Believers will not experience the wrath of God (or Christ, cf. Rom 2:16), but they will experience the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 2Co 5:10; Rom 14:10; Rom 14:12; Eph 6:8). Scripture does not tell us about this judgment. Believers are cleansed from all sin (cf. Heb 9:14; 1Jn 1:7), so this must be an evaluation for rewards!
In the OT YHWH’s coming visitation to His people could be for
1. blessing (i.e., His presence, His abundance)
2. judgment
The NT has turned this day into a day of
1. resurrection and reunion for believers
2. eternal lostness for unbelievers
In the Sheep and Goat Judgment (Matthew 25) and the White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20) there is a marked distinction between the saved (believers) and lost (unbelievers). The sin of the believers has been dealt with by Christ’s death and resurrection! This is not to imply that believers will not give an accounting of the stewardship of the gospel in their lives, but that the OT judgment on covenant people has been removed in Christ (cf. Galatians 3; Romans 5-8). Human non-performance has been trumped by divine performance (cf. Rom 3:18-31; Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38)!
However, at this point in the theological discussion the issue of apostasy must be dealt with. See Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: DOES ANY BELIEVER EVER FALL AWAY (i.e. APOSTASY)?
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE NEED TO PERSEVERE
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble This VERB (BDB 919, KB 1182) is a Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense. This word can denote anger or fear. In this context, it is fear (e.g., Exo 15:14; Isa 32:11; Hab 3:7).
it is near Here is another OT theme (cf. Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1; Joe 3:14; cf. Deu 32:35; Isa 13:6; Isa 13:22; Eze 7:7-8; Oba 1:15), which becomes part of NT eschatological language (cf. Mat 24:33; Mar 13:28-29; Rev 1:1; Rev 1:3; Rev 2:16; Rev 3:11; Rev 22:7; Rev 22:10; Rev 22:12; Rev 22:20).
There is a purposeful ambiguity. OT prophecy challenged the people who heard/read the prophet to repent or else the predicted outcome would occur. It often took a current evert (here a locust plague) and used it as an end-time event! Prophecy was primarily meant to change the generation that heard the message, not predict future events (i.e., Jonah).
The nearness of YHWH’s personal presence was meant to rally the people to righteous living. Judgment was the last option. Nearness may denote certainty as much as time! A helpful book on how to interpret biblical prophecy and apocalyptic language is D. Brent Sandy, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks.
2:2 A day of darkness and gloom From chapter 1 we learn that Joel is using a locust plague as a metaphor for God’s judgment (cf. the darkness of Exo 10:21-23; Deu 28:29; Psa 105:28). Several texts specifically speak of YHWH as controlling darkness for His purposes (cf. Gen 1:2; Gen 1:4-5; Gen 1:18; Jer 13:16; Amo 4:13; Amo 5:8). This is an allusion to a swarm of locusts that covers the sun by day and the moon and stars by night!
As the dawn is spread over the mountains Many who have experienced the locust plagues of Palestine relate that the redness of the underside of the of the insect’s wings looks like the morning sun (cf. NIV).
a great and mighty people This is an allusion to YHWH’s army (cf. Joe 2:5; Joe 2:7-9; Joe 2:11; Joe 2:25). Locusts are metaphorical for an invading army (cf. Joe 2:5).
There has never been anything like it This is an allusion to Joe 1:2 a,b.
2:3 A fire consumes before them This refers to Joe 1:19-20.
The land is like a garden of Eden before them This emphasizes that the fertility of the land (metaphoricallyEden) will now be destroyed by these insects. The opposite use of this metaphor can be seen in Isa 51:3 and Eze 36:35. See Special Topic: Eden .
2:4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses The head of the locust resembles the head of a horse (cf. Job 39:20, or lion). The basic metaphor of Joe 2:4 is one of speed.
2:5 With the noise as of chariots As Joe 2:4 speaks of speed, Joe 2:5 describes the chewing sound of the locusts’ mandibles (cf. Rev 9:9), which sound like chariot wheels on the streets (as does the crackling of a fire in Joe 2:5, line 3.).
2:6
NASBall faces turn pale
NKJVall faces drained of color
NRSVall faces grow pale
TEBevery face turns pale
NJBevery face grows pale
This term (BDB 802, KB 909) occurs only twice in the OT (here and at Nah 2:10). The key term can mean several different things:
1. beauty
2. glory/radiance
3. redness
4. blackness (LXX, KJV)
5. boiling
When all is said and done in lexical research, context is the deciding factor. The first line of Joe 2:6 denotes pain or anguish (also Nah 2:10), so this term must in some way parallel this thought:
1. face grows red with emotion (fear or anticipation)
2. face grows pale (i.e., no color) with fear
2:7-9 Here the locusts are likened to an army. The advance of the locust horde is described in a series of IMPERFECT VERBS:
1. they run, Joe 2:7, BDB 930, KB 1207, Qal IMPERFECT
2. they climb, Joe 2:7, BDB 748, KB 828, Qal IMPERFECT
3. they march, Joe 2:7, BDB 229, KB 246, Qal IMPERFECT
4. they do not deviate, Joe 2:7. The Hebrew word is uncertain in this context and stem
a. BDB 716, take a pledge (Piel), cf. Deu 24:10
b. KB 778 II (Piel), lose the way (Arabic and Akkadian roots)
c. Septuagint, Peshitta, Vulgate, deviate
5. they do not crowd, Joe 2:8, BDB 191, KB 219, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Jdg 2:18
6. they march, Joe 2:8, BDB 229, KB 246, Qal IMPERFECT
7. they burst through, Joe 2:8, BDB 656, KB 709, Qal IMPERFECT
8. they do not break ranks, Joe 2:8, BDB 130, KB 147, Qal IMPERFECT
All of these actions describe insects as if they were a disciplined army moving forward (Joe 2:7-8) over/through every obstacle (Joe 2:9).
2:10 Before them the earth quakes With thousands insects covering the ground, the earth seemed to move.
The sun and the moon grow dark This may refer to the swarms of insects that cover the sky night and day (cf. Isa 13:10; Isa 13:13; Eze 32:7-8).
2:11 For strong is He who carries out His word This is the foundational truth that believers trust in the veracity of God’s promises and warnings (cf. Job 23:11; Psa 33:11; Isa 14:24; Isa 25:1; Isa 40:8; Isa 45:23; Isa 46:10-11; Isa 55:11; Mat 5:18; Mat 24:35; Mar 13:31; Luk 21:33; 1Pe 1:25). The hope of believers is in (1) the unchanging, merciful character of God; (2) the trustworthiness of His promises; (3) the finished work of the Messiah; and (4) the drawing/wooing of the Holy Spirit.
NASBvery awesome
NKJV, NJBvery terrible
NRSVterrible indeed
TEVterrible
This is a Niphal PARTICIPLE (BDB 431, KB 432), which is used in several senses in the OT:
1. to describe Israel’s wilderness wandering experience, Deu 1:19; Deu 8:15
2. to describe YHWH’s presence and help during this period, Deu 10:21; 2Sa 7:23; 1Ch 17:21; Psa 106:22; Isa 64:3
3. to describe YHWH’s redemptive acts in Israel’s liturgy, Psa 65:5; Psa 66:3; Psa 66:5; Psa 145:6
4. to describe YHWH’s eschatological intervention into history (i.e., the day of the LORD), Joe 2:11; Joe 2:31; Mal 4:5
5. to describe YHWH Himself, Exo 15:11; Deu 7:21; Deu 10:17; Neh 1:5; Neh 9:32; Psa 68:35; Psa 89:7; Dan 9:4 (describe His name, Deu 28:58; Psa 99:3; Psa 111:9)
who can endure it This VERB (BDB 465, KB 463, Hiphil IMPERFECT) basically means to seize, or lay hold of. Here it denotes the mental and physical fear that the coming of the Lord brings (cf. Joe 2:10)! In this context it refers to YHWH and His end-time army of invasion. See Eze 22:14.
2:12 Return to Me with all your heart This verse emphasizes the purpose of God in temporal judgment (cf. Deu 4:29-31). The term turn or repent (BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal IMPERATIVE [twice in this verse]) in Hebrew primarily refers to a change of action.
The specific actions mentioned are
1. fasting, BDB 847. Fasting was not a common religious observance in the OT, except for Leviticus 16, the annual fast day (i.e., Day of Atonement). Communal fasting was done at crisis events (cf. 1Sa 7:6; 2Ch 20:3; Ezr 8:21; Neh 9:1; Est 4:16; Jer 36:6; Jer 36:9; Jon 3:5).
2. weeping, BDB 113, as a symbol of repentance, cf. Isa 22:12; Jer 3:21; Jer 31:9
3. mourning, BDB 704, as a symbol of contrition, cf. Isa 22:12; Zec 12:11
These acts represent a whole-hearted trust in and love for God (i.e., Gen 15:6; Deu 4:29; Deu 6:5; Deu 10:12; Deu 11:13; Deu 13:3; Deu 30:6), but to this internal aspect is an accompanying outward life of faith and obedience (i.e., Deu 6:6-9; Deu 10:13; Deu 26:16; Deu 30:2; Deu 30:10) because of YHWH’s character (cf. Deu 6:10-15; Deu 10:12-22). He wants the world to know Him through His covenant people. Therefore, His people must repent (cf. Jer 3:22 to Jer 4:2, turn from and turn to) and turn from evil (i.e., Isa 1:16-20; Isa 55:6-8; Ezekiel 18; Amo 5:14-15). He can easily be found (i.e., Jer 24:7; Jer 29:13). God’s people (OT and NT) are meant to be a kingdom of priests to bring the world to YHWH (cf. Exo 19:5-6; 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10).
It is ironic that the God of judgment is also the only hope of restoration. He devastated the Promised Land in judgment (i.e. locusts, army), but will renew it in abundance if His people will repent and turn to Him. It must be remembered that physical creation is only the stage (i.e., opportunity) for God and mankind to interact! The physical is never the focus!! See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: REPENTANCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
2:13 rend your heart and not your garments The VERB (BDB 902, KB 1146, Qal IMPERATIVE) refers to an OT mourning rite of tearing one’s garment at the neck. God wants our whole heart, not simply ritual or legalistic action (cf. Gen 37:29; Gen 37:34; Gen 44:13; Jdg 11:35; 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 19:1). God always looks at the motive first! See Special Topic: Grieving Rites .
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART
He is gracious and compassionate This is a description of God which is based on Exo 34:6-7 and repeated in Psa 103:8 and Neh 9:17-21. Joe 2:13 encompasses five characteristics of the Creator, Redeemer, Covenant-making God:
1. gracious, BDB 337. This ADJECTIVE is used only of YHWH, cf. Exo 34:6; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 111:4; Psa 112:4; Psa 116:5; Psa 145:8; 2Ch 30:9; Neh 9:17; Neh 9:31; Jon 4:2
2. compassionate, BDB 933. This ADJECTIVE is often used of YHWH, cf. Exo 34:6; Deu 4:31; 2Ch 30:9; Neh 9:17; Neh 9:31; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 111:4; Psa 145:8; Jon 4:2
3. slow to anger, CONSTRUCT (BDB 74 and 60 I). Anger is not characteristic of YHWH, cf. Exo 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 145:8; Pro 14:20; Pro 15:18; Pro 16:32; Jon 4:2; Nah 1:3; Jas 1:19
4. abounding in lovingkindness, CONSTRUCT (BDB 912 I and 338). Like the others, this is first used in Exo 34:6, cf. Neh 9:17; Psa 86:5; Psa 103:8; Jon 4:2
5. relenting of evil, BDB 636, KB 688, Niphal PARTICIPLE and BDB 948. This means YHWH is willing to forgive and not bring the judgment He has foreseen, cf. Jer 42:10; Amo 7:3; Amo 7:6.
See Special Topics below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: CHARACTERISTICS OF ISRAEL’S GOD
SPECIAL TOPIC: LOVINGKINDNESS (HESED)
2:14 YHWH’s visitation is certain. It can bring blessing, judgment, or as here, possibly both. The judgments of God (except for the last one) are meant to bring repentance and recommitment to the covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 27-29; 2Sa 12:22).
Who knows whether See 2Ki 19:4 and Amo 5:15, which use perhaps. Humans do not always understand God or His acts (cf. Isa 55:8-11).
turn and relent These two VERBS (BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal IMPERFECT and BDB 636, KB 688, Niphal PERFECT) are often used of humans repeating and changing their actions. Does God repent?
God is often spoken of in the Bible as being sorry or repenting (cf. Gen 6:6-7; Exo 32:14; 1Sa 15:11; 2Sa 24:10; Jer 18:7-8; Jer 26:13; Jer 26:19; Jon 3:10). However, other passages assert that God never repents or changes His mind (cf. Num 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Jer 4:28; Psa 132:11). This is the tension that always occurs when we use human terms to describe God. God is not a man, but the only words we have to describe Him and His feelings are human terms. It must be asserted that God is not fickle! He is steadfast and longsuffering in His redemptive purpose for humanity, but mankind’s response in repentance of sin often determines God’s actions in a particular situation (cf. 2Sa 24:10; 2Sa 24:16; Psa 106:45; Jonah).
Theologically it is God who changes, not mankind. God chooses to work with sinful humanity. His goal is the samea righteous people who reflect His character. This will only be accomplished by a new heart, a new covenant (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:26-38). God chooses grace over judgment!
the LORD your God This is covenant language. YHWH has reestablished His rightful place among His people. For LORD (YHWH) your God (Elohim) see Special Topic: Names for Deity .
2:15-17 As the different groups of society were called on to gather for a holy convocation in Joe 1:13-14; Joe 1:19-20, so too, here in chapter 2, even the women (brides) and children (also infants) were to attend.
The commands of chapter 1 are repeated (there is an intentional parallel between chapters 1 and 2).
Joe 2:151.blow a trumpet, BDB 1075, KB 1788, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Joe 2:1
2.consecrate a fast, BDB 872, KB 1073, Piel IMPERATIVE, cf. Joe 1:14
3.proclaim a solemn assembly, BDB 894, KB 1128, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Joe 1:14
Joe 2:161.gather the people, BDB 62, KB 74, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Joe 1:14
2.sanctify the congregation, BDB 872, KB 1073, Piel IMPERATIVE, cf. Joe 1:14
3.assemble the elders, BDB 867, KB 1062, a synonym of #1
4.gather – different group, but same VERB as #1, cf. Joe 1:14
5.let the bridegroom come out, BDB 422, KB 425, Qal IMPERFECT, but used in a JUSSIVE sense
Joe 2:17 is similar to Joel 1 in its call to repentance and prayer:
Joe 2:171.weep, BDB 113, KB 129, Qal IMPERFECT, used in a JUSSIVE sense, similar to Joe 1:13
2.say, BDB 55, KB 65, Qal IMPERFECT, used in a JUSSIVE sense, similar to the prayer of Joe 1:19-20
3.spare Thy people, BDB 299, KB 298, Qal IMPERATIVE, a new element, cf. Neh 13:22
4.do not make thine inheritance a reproach, BDB 678, KB 733, Qal IMPERFECT, but used in a JUSSIVE sense, cf. Isa 37:20
2:15 Blow a trumpet in Zion This is the exact phrase used in Joe 2:1 in the sense of preparing for battle, but here it is used in a religious sense for assembling for a holy convocation (i.e., time of prayer and repentance). The same trumpet can be used as a
1. warning for battle (i.e., Jer 4:5; Jer 6:1)
2. call to religious event (i.e., Lev 23:24; Lev 25:9; Num 10:10; Psa 81:3)
How we respond to God determines which one characterizes our culture!
Consecrate a fast There is only one fast day in the Mosaic legislation, the Day of Atonement (cf. Joe 1:14). It is described in Leviticus 16. Later rabbinical Judaism developed special fast days either because of, or in memory of, crisis events.
Joe 2:17 In the ancient Near East national events (pro and con) reflected on the national deity. Judah’s historical situation reflected on the power of Judah’s God. However, God was willing for His own reputation to be impugned (cf. Exo 32:12; Num 14:13; Deu 9:28; Jos 7:9; Psa 79:10; Psa 115:2; Mic 7:10) so that His people might return to Him!
Theologically it must be emphasized again and again that YHWH chose Abraham (i.e., Israel) to be a light to the nations. Monotheism and humans made in God’s image for fellowship both dictate a universal love and redemptive purpose! God chose one man, one family, one nation to choose a world (cf. Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3; Exo 19:5-6; Isa 42:6; Isa 49:6; Isa 51:4; Isa 60:1; Isa 60:3; Act 13:47).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Zion. See App-68.
sound an alarm. Ref to Pentateuch (Num 10:5, Num 10:9). App-92, My. Note the Pronoun, and see notes on Joe 1:6, Joe 1:7.
holy mountain = mountain of My sanctuary. holy. See note on Exo 3:5.
the day of the LORD. See notes on Joe 1:15. This is the subject of the book. Compare Oba 1:15. Zep 1:14, Zep 1:15.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 2
Now he uses this as the springboard and he begins to speak now of a yet future day of devastation that is coming from armies that are to invade the land. And in the second chapter, as he describes this invading army, it is interesting to notice the description that he gives, because it is not much of a stretch of the imagination for us to see that he is describing modern warfare. The things that he described were things that were totally unknown and unheard of in his day, but yet they are things that are common in modern warfare.
Now, if you were Joel the prophet and God gave you a vision of a battle that would be taking place with modern warfare, but all you knew was a battle with the armies with swords and spears and all, how do you think you could describe a modern battle with helicopter, gun ships and with the transporting of troops though planes with paratroopers and so forth? If you had a vision of this kind of a battlefield and tanks and the cannons and so forth, the fire and all, how would you describe it? Probably much like Joel did here in chapter… I think he did a tremendously commendable job in describing something he had never dreamed of, and yet the Lord gave him an insight into the battle of the future day.
Now, the nation of Israel needed to be established again in order that the prophecies of the last days be fulfilled, because in the prophecies of the last days there is that presupposition in all of the prophecies that Israel does exist as a nation again. In fact, not only existing as a nation, but their worship is to be re-instituted. Now as the nation Israel is to be reborn, according to the prophecy, one of the first of the real obstacles that they are going to face will be their immediate surrounding nations, according to the prophecies Zechariah, when Israel becomes a nation once more. And they did and have faced the opposition from their surrounding neighbors.
But then a greater test is going to come, and this will be when Russia invades the Middle East. And in this invasion God will show His hand strong on behalf of the people and their eyes will be opened unto God like never before. And then there is to be one final conflict, as the antichrist comes into the land with his armies of the federated nations of Western Europe, and at this time the Jews will once more be driven from the land and find refuge in the wilderness, the rock city of Petra, for three and half years, until God’s wrath that He is going to pour out is completed.
It would seem that chapter 2 is describing the Russian invasion inasmuch the Lord refers to his removal far off from you the northern army. And in Eze 38:1-23 it is mentioned that this army will be coming from the north. Interesting, in the descriptions of Ezekiel, “as a cloud to cover the land,” and Joel also uses the pictures of the clouds and the darkness and so forth that will be created by this invading army.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm in my holy mountain: let all of the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD comes, it is near at hand ( Joe 2:1 );
Now the day of the Lord does encompass a period of time. The great judgment that God is going to bring upon the earth is known as the day of the Lord, the day of His fierce anger. The day that God establishes the new kingdom of righteousness through the reign of Jesus Christ is also known as the day of the Lord. The day that the Lord gathers the nations for judgment is known as the day of the Lord. So it encompasses the period of these last days. So the day of the Lord is near.
A day of darkness and of gloominess ( Joe 2:2 ),
So this is not the day of the triumphant reign of Christ. That will be following the day of darkness and gloom.
a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not ever been the like, neither shall there be any more after it, even to the years of many generations ( Joe 2:2 ).
A great army like as never been assembled in the history of man.
Russia today has some eighty thousand tanks ready for battle. Never in the history of man has so much armament been created; over eighty thousand tanks. And as he goes on to describe the invasion, surely tanks are involved.
A fire devours before them; behind them a flame burns: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, nothing shall escape them ( Joe 2:3 ).
Now when the Jews came back to the land one of the marvelous things that they did was take this land that had been like a barren wilderness and they began to develop the land of Israel from an agricultural standpoint. Beautiful farmlands, beautiful orchards, beautiful avocado groves; mile after mile stretching out of beautiful land like the Garden of Eden. And the hillsides which were too rocky to cultivate, they planted with trees and millions upon millions of trees have been planted in the land. So the barren hillsides are now beautiful forests. And with the planting of all of these trees they’ve been able to effect a change of the weather patterns, and they’ve been able to increase the rainfall.
The annual rainfall in the land has been increased dramatically because of the extra humidity that has been put in the air through all of the trees that have been planted, the forests that have been planted. And their whole project of taking this land that was barren wilderness, planting it and developing it, is really a marvel to everyone who visits. They have developed marvelous new innovations in agriculture as far as irrigation and all: the drip system of irrigation and the sprinkling systems and all. They really have just proved to be fantastic farmers. They’ve transformed the land and you’ll hear the statement quite often, “They have made the land like the Garden of Eden.” And it is true.
And here the prophecy said, “The land before them is as the Garden of Eden.” You could not have said that fifty years ago. For fifty years ago the land was still… the valley of Megiddo was still a swamp, the Hula Valley was all swamp, Beersheba was all barren desert and wilderness. The Sharon plains were just beginning, actually, at the turn of the century was when they started developing in the Sharon plains. They bought the swampland and then they began to create new ditches and all to drain the swampland and then planted eucalyptus trees because they drink so much water out of the ground. And then they began to plant the orange orchards and all, and now it’s a veritable Garden of Eden through their careful planning and wise development of the land.
But the fact that he refers to the land before them like the Garden the Eden, that took the present day. That didn’t happen until Israel became a nation and really began then to bring the Jordan water down to the wilderness areas for their irrigation and turning the land into a Garden of Eden.
But behind this invading army is like a desolate wilderness. War is such a horrible thing, the devastation that it brings. The Jews have taken a desolate wilderness and made it a Garden of Eden, but these invaders are coming to take the Garden of Eden and again turn it into a desolate wilderness.
nothing shall escape them ( Joe 2:3 ).
Now he describes the appearance of this invading army. And listen, this is, to me, quite interesting.
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountain shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people that are set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: and all faces will gather blackness. They will run like mighty men; they will climb the wall like men of war; they shall march every one in his way, and they shall not break rank: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they will not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; and shall run upon the wall, they shall climb upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them: the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining ( Joe 2:4-10 ):
So he describes this awesome invading army that is coming to desolate the land. But, in verse Joe 2:11 there is another army.
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can abide it? ( Joe 2:11 )
And so he speaks of the Lord’s army in contrast. Now, the Lord is going to stop the Russians. In Ezekiel chapter 38 God declares that when Russia and her allied nations invade Israel that God’s fury is going to arise in His face and He is going to turn them back. The Battle of Armageddon, which people are much more familiar with than this battle of Russia when it invades the Middle East, the Battle of Armageddon will pit the forces of the Western world against the forces of the Eastern world; primarily China and Russia pitted against the forces of the Western world in the Battle of Armageddon. But here, as this invading army has come, the Lord speaks of repelling it with His army, His mighty hosts. And, of course, the description of the destruction of the Russian army by the host of the Lord is given to you in Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39.
Now because of this great desolation, this great war that the people are going to face,
Therefore, [because of this,] saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart ( Joe 2:12 ),
Now, one sad commentary that must be made against the modern nation of Israel is that the people really haven’t turned to the Lord with all their hearts. The people are not really very religious. It is estimated that less than ten percent of the Jews that are in the land are really religious at all. And we have observed this while we were there. Now, they do observe religious observances; that is, the Sabbath day. But so many of the Jews that we have conversed with in Israel claim to be atheists. But though they claim to be atheists, they keep Sabbath and they keep kosher, as far as they will not eat dairy products with meat products, and they’re almost insulted when people do. A lot of times, when we were over there, people unknowingly ask for a glass of milk when we’ve had a dinner with meat. And they are polite, but they let you know you can’t have any milk when you’ve had meat. And they keep this kosher kind of law, yet they really don’t know why. Many of them that we’ve talked to who said they were atheists, we said, “Well, why don’t eat bacon? You know, why don’t you eat a ham sandwich? Well you know, or ham and cheese?” Oh, oh, oh man.
So they are as those that were described in the New Testament, they have a form of godliness and yet they deny the power of God. They deny God in their lives. But God is calling for them to turn unto Him with their whole heart, with all of your heart. Problem with many people is that they turn to God in a half-hearted way and this you might say is true in Israel. People have turned to God in a half-hearted way.
Turn to me [God said,] with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning ( Joe 2:12 ):
That speaks of a real desperation before God. It is sad that many times God has to bring us into desperate straights before we really seek Him. There have been only a few times in my life when I was really desperate before God, but I will testify to you, each time I was really desperate before God, God met me in a very dramatic way.
When my mother was in our home and was dying, this one who had made such a positive input for good in my life, this person who had more influence on my life than perhaps anyone else, one who I love so deeply, appreciated so much, and yet I knew I was losing her. And as she was suffering, in pain almost constantly, one morning as I went into the room I just became so desperate before God, as I saw her in this condition, that I kneeled there at the foot of her bed and just cried out to God with my whole being. And God met me in such a dramatic way as the Lord came and stood right beside me and began to talk to me about myself and about my mother. And even in that same time He laid His hand upon her and touched her. It was a marvelous experience that I have been brought to the place of desperation.
Our youngest daughter who has been such a joy to our lives, such a blessing to us. I don’t know, there’s something about that you know you’ve had your family and then you have another one years later. There’s something that’s something sort of special. You’re older, you’re more mature, you’re able to enjoy them more, you’re not so nervous, and they just are such a sunshine and a light. And she was to us. Such a pretty little child, so vibrant, so full of life. As I held her in my arms all night long, her body racked with fever; she was so sick, so listless, my heart was so desperate before God. I cried out unto God with my whole heart. She went into a convulsion; I really thought this was it. But I had said, “Lord, You know that this little daughter is just the joy of life. She means so much to us. We love her so deeply, but Lord, if You want her and if it’s Your purpose to take her, that’s Your business. Lord, we give her to You. Her life is Yours.”
She went in that convulsion and I thought, “Well, this is it.” We called the doctor, we bundled her up, we started to rush up to the doctor, and on the way the Lord healed her. By the time we got to the doctor she was perfectly well. Her little bubbly bright cheerful self again. The doctor looked at her and said, “There’s nothing wrong with her.” He said, “Has she had a tetanus shot lately?” And he gave her a tetanus shot. He said, “You know you should get them renewed every once in a while.” But it was that desperation of seeking God and God has never failed to come through when I really sought Him with all my heart, but it isn’t often that I get in such a desperate straight.
God says,
Rend your heart, not your garments ( Joe 2:13 ),
We read many times in the scriptures where problems came and the people would tear their clothes to show how upset they were or how deeply emotional they were touched and so they ripped their clothes. And it was an outward demonstration of a deep emotional feeling. But like all outward demonstrations, people begin to abuse them. You can go through the outward motions but not really feel it within. It becomes sort of thing of a hypocrisy, where I look like I am going through it but it’s just a display, just a show. And so it became a commonplace thing. “Oh, you can’t go with me tonight? Oh, oh, oh,” you know, you rip your clothes and you know… it didn’t really show that deep, deep, deep grief, sorrow that the act originally intended to manifest. So God says, “Hey, look, I want to see your hearts ripped, not your clothes. I want to see your heart really torn before God. Rend your hearts, tear your hearts, not your garments.” God doesn’t want any sham when you come to Him. God wants you to come to Him with your whole heart. He doesn’t want to play games with you. He wants you to be honest and sincere. He wants you to rend your heart, not your garments.
turn to the LORD your God ( Joe 2:13 ):
The second call to turn to God. And, of course, things are desperate; that’s the time to turn to God. Of course, anytime’s a good time to turn to God, but especially when things are desperate.
turn to God: for God is gracious and God is merciful ( Joe 2:13 ),
That’s why we turn to Him, that we might receive His mercy, that we might receive His grace.
he is of great kindness, he is slow to anger ( Joe 2:13 ),
And God doesn’t like to use judgment to get people’s attention.
it repents him of the evil ( Joe 2:13 ).
That is, of the judgment that it was, that was necessary to get you to wake up, to get you to turn around, to get your attention. God doesn’t like to use harsh means. He only does so because He loves you so much that He can’t let you just destroy yourself. So when you are headstrong, going your own path of destruction, God will sometimes use very severe means to stop you and to get your attention. Maybe the death or the illness of someone that is very dear and close to you. God is seeking… God doesn’t like to use those means, but unfortunately, many times we are so dull in our spiritual sensitiveness that God has to use stringent measures before we ever respond. It repents Him though. He doesn’t like using these kind of measures.
Turn to God, for who knows just what God will do in helping you, blessing you. Who knows the blessings that God has in store for your life. Who knows what glorious things God has in mind for you? Surely I never dreamed in my wildest dreams all of the glorious blessed things God had for my life. Oh, how thankful I am I turned my life over to God. Oh, what a blessing has been mine because I turned my life over to God. Far more than I ever dreamed or thought. Who knows what God has in mind for you? As Dwight Moody was challenged by the statement, “The world has yet to see what God will do through a man who will totally surrender his life to God.” Who knows what God wants to do in and through your life? You’ll never know until you totally surrender yourself to Him. Turn to God with your whole heart, for who knows just what blessing God may have in mind for you.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly of the people: Gather the people, and sanctify the congregation, assemble together the elders, and gather the children, and those that are nursing: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. And let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? ( Joe 2:15-17 )
And so it is a time of national revival. Call the people together before God. And this day will come in Israel as they are threatened by this insurmountable foe from a natural standpoint. They’ll be forced to cry out unto God. Of course, God calls upon the ministers to pray between the porch and the altar that God would spare His people from the devastation and the destruction of this enemy.
And as a result,
The LORD will be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yes, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and I will drive him into a land that is barren and desolate, and with his face toward the east sea, and the hinder part towards the utmost sea, and his smell shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things. Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things ( Joe 2:18-20 ).
When we were over in Israel in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War broke out, we did not at that point know just how deeply Russia may become involved. Any one of those skirmishes have the potential of escalating into a full-scale invasion by Russia of the Middle East; 1973 almost did. The Russians were poised to send troops into the Middle East to bring a peace, what they called a peace, but what was really entailed was an invasion of Israel. They were planning that in 1973 when President Nixon called for a worldwide alert of all of our armed forces and Russia turned back. When we were there in Israel, I felt just as safe as a child in it’s crib, because I knew that God was gonna protect the land; I didn’t know about the United States. I sort of felt sorry for you at home. There may be some stray nuclear weapons sent this direction, but God is going to protect the people of the land when Russia invades. People say, “Oh, aren’t you afraid to go over there with all the turmoil?” I feel safer there than I do walking the streets here. God’s watching over that land. God’s gonna take care of them.
[Be not afraid,] Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears her fruit, and the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month ( Joe 2:21-23 ).
Now the interesting thing is that one thing that has happened in Israel is the return of what they call the former and the latter rains. They begin to get their first rains some time in October, late October, November. And now they are beginning to get good heavy rains in the springtime, and it is causing the land to just produce so abundantly all of the rain that they are now getting. And God promised that He would restore again the former rain and the latter rain. Something that the land did not have for over two thousand years but now again is experiencing each year. Tell me that God’s Word isn’t true. Tell me that God doesn’t know what He’s talking about. The evidence is the nation of Israel; all of the evidence that anybody would ever need.
The floor shall be full of wheat, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, the caterpillar, the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you ( Joe 2:24-25 ).
God’s promise of the restoration of the years that were destroyed when they were away from God. You know, this is what the prophet was saying, “God is gracious. God is merciful.” It’s tragic what we do with our lives. I think one of the saddest things in the world is wasted potential. I see young people with such tremendous potential; good minds, good personalities, talented, and I see them just wasting their lives doing such foolish things, doing things that for years they will suffer the consequences. And I think of the wasted potential and I think that that’s one of the greatest tragedies of our day are the lives, the wasted potential of lives.
Today when we got home from church we looked out the window and in the schoolyard behind us we saw these young boys on their bicycles, little boys, ten… eleven years old. And my… they looked up and they saw my wife looking at them out the window and so they sort of ducked aside because they had just struck a match, and Kay said, “Those little kids are getting ready to smoke marijuana.” And sure enough, in a moment the old smell, you know, came in the window. And so I went down and I said to the kids, you know, “Hey, don’t appreciate that around here.” And I looked at these little kids and I thought, “Oh, how sad, how tragic.” And on a Sunday afternoon these little, tiny boys have nothing better to do than to get a joint and get loaded. What a waste of life. I’ve seen just too many people with altered personalities and diminished capacities as a result of smoking marijuana. To think that here they are starting so young in a pattern that can just diminish their entire future, the capacity for the future.
Don’t tell me it isn’t habit forming; I’ve met too many who can’t quit. Don’t tell me it doesn’t alter the personality; I’ve met too many altered personalities. I’ve observed too many people who they are not aware that their personality is altered, but it’s obvious to anyone standing apart and looking at them. They still think they’re cool. They still think that they’re handling things. They still think that everything is all right, but they have an altered personality; very observable to someone on the outside. And I think of wasted potential, wasted life. How tragic it is. But then the glorious gospel that we have: God restores to a person those wasted years. That’s so beautiful. Therein is the grace of God.
I look at so many of the young men who are in the ministry today who began that path of wasted lives. I think of Mike MacIntosh down there in San Diego. When Mike first came, he was so spaced out. He had so destroyed his brain with acid and speed that I wondered if Mike would ever be normal. He went around for over six months in a paranoid state. He thought that someone was holding a forty-five and pulling the trigger and he heard the sound of the explosion of the gun for six months. So spacey, I wondered, will Mike ever recover? And I saw a handsome young man and I thought “Oh, what a wasted life,” clever young man, personable young man, but destroyed himself. But then we saw the work of God and we saw God begin to restore those wasted years.
His wife had left him, figured that he was just down the path and no value, no good. And it was all over for Mike as far as she was concerned. And she was right. She took the little child and left him rather than trying to hang on any longer and couldn’t stand to see him destroy himself, but God restored his wife. Gave him… now he’s got five children I think. And God restored his sanity. God restored Mike in such a beautiful way. And now pastors that highly evangelical assembly of people there in San Diego reaching out to the world for Jesus Christ and that glorious work of God restoring to man the things that he destroyed by his own stupidity. So God says, “I will restore to you those years that have been devoured.” Therein is the grace of God.
And you shall eat plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel ( Joe 2:26-27 ),
Now the Lord tells us in Eze 38:1-23 when He destroys the invading Russian army that He will… His name will be sanctified before the nations of the earth and they will know that He is God; they will know that God will fight and does fight for His people Israel.
and that I am the LORD your God, and there is none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, [or in the last days] that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out of my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. And the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the awesome day of the LORD comes. 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 ( Joe 2:27-32 ).
Now this prophecy of Joel really pertains to these last days. It has often been misunderstood because Peter went on the day of Pentecost and the Spirit was poured out upon the gathered church and there was the accompanying signs of the pillars of fire, the speaking in other languages and a noise like a mighty rushing wind. That when the people assembled and they heard these people speaking these various dialects from the nations from which they came, they marveled and wondered greatly at what was going on, as they heard them glorifying God in their various dialects. And they asked the question, “What does this mean?” And others who were standing around sort of mocked and said, “Man, they’ve gotten a hold of some new wine someplace. They’re really drunk.” And so Peter stood up addressing himself to the gathering multitude he said, “Men and brethren hearken unto me, listen to me, for these men are not drunken as ye suppose. It’s only nine o’clock in the morning, it’s too early to be drunk.” But you remember what their question was, “What does this mean?” Peter said, “This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel,” and he quotes this prophecy.
Now, because Peter quoted it and declared that what they were seeing was what Joel had spoken about, people have assumed that it was the complete fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. Not so, in fact, Peter didn’t even say it was the fulfillment of the prophecy. You see, the fulfillment indicates a complete filling. It wasn’t. It was just the beginning of the outpouring of God’s Spirit. But the real prophecy of Joel does not pertain to the day of Pentecost, but the real prophecy of Joel pertains to the last days. It pertains to the nation of Israel when God restores to Israel His position of divine favor and blessing, and Israel will once be again the instrument of God to bring light into the world. “And it shall come to pass afterward,” after Israel is restored, “none of them are ashamed, that God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall se visions. And upon My servants and handmaids will I pour out of My Spirit. And I will show wonders.” And, of course, the Bible speaks of these wonders that will happen in the Great Tribulation: the wonders in the heaven, the sun darkened, the moon turn to blood. These are referred to by Jesus as a part of the period of the Great Tribulation. And these things will all happen before the great and awesome of the LORD comes. That is, the day of the glorious return of Jesus Christ in power and glory.
And it shall come to pass, that even in that day [during the Great Tribulation] whosoever will call on the name of the LORD [will be saved,] will be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant [God’s faithful remnant] whom the LORD will call ( Joe 2:32 ).
So this is yet to be fulfilled. It is a prophecy that is yet future and its real fulfillment is yet to take place. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Joe 2:1-11
THE EXECUTOR-GOD USING NATURAL AGENTS
TEXT: Joe 2:1-11
Joel states unequivocally and in graphic description that the locust plague came at the direct command of Jehovah God. God commanded it to stir up the people to repentance and dependence upon Him.
Joe 2:1 BLOW YE THE TRUMPET IN ZION . . . SOUND AN ALARM . . . FOR THE DAY OF JEHOVAH . . . IS NIGH AT HAND; The trumpet to be blown here is the shophar which is probably a rams horn called the far sounding horn. Trumpets have always been associated literally and symbolically with warning (cf. Num 10:5 ff; Eze 33:1 ff). Hendriksen, in his book, More Than Conquerors (a commentary on the book of Revelation), interprets the Seven Trumpets of Revelation chapter 8 thusly:
These trumpets of judgment, chapters Eze 8:11, indicate series of happenings, that is, calamities that will occur again and again throughout this dispensation (the Christian dispensation). They do not symbolize single and separate events, but they refer to woes that may be seen any day of the year in any part of the globe. Hence, the trumpets are synchronous with the seals.
. . . these trumpets of judgment are clearly retributive in character. Terrible calamities befall the wicked in order to punish them for their opposition to the cause of Christ and for their persecution of the saints. Yet even by means of these judgments God is constantly calling the ungodly unto repentance. These woes do not symbolize Gods final and complete displeasure. On the contrary, they indicate His initial judgments. They are charged with serious warning, not with final doom . . . The very function of the trumpet is to warn (Eze 33:3).
Observe also that these trumpets of judgment affect the various parts of the universe: the land, the sea, etc.
Joel is making the same interpretation of the locust plague and drought which has come upon the land. These calamities are Gods trumpet warnings to call the sinful people to repentance. God uses natural agents in every age to turn impenitent people from their rebellious ways back to dependence upon Him. If they will not turn back to Him, He sends judgments of wrath upon them. These are principles of the Divine government of the universe which are constantly in force and which God executes through secondary causes day by day, year after year, millennium by millennium. The Old Testament prophets, covering nearly a thousand years of history, give us, in their inspired pronouncements and interpretations of natural calamities as judgments and warnings of God, a divinely revealed philosophy of history.
Zerr: Joe 2:1. The blowing of the trumpet is figurative and expressed in view of the calamity that was to come upon the country. (See Num 10:1-10 for the significance of trumpets.) In actual practice the people of Israel were to blow the trumpet in alarm when they were to go into battle against another nation. It does not have that meaning in this case because the passage is a prediction of the invasion of the Babylonian army. That event was to occur by the Lords decree, and the people of Israel were not to resist that attack. Instead, they were advised to submit peacefully to the king of Babylon and thereby lessen their suffering. (See Jer 38:17-18.) The thought in the passage here is that the alarm should be to summon the people to a sense of their undone condition, so that they will make what restitution they can for their own personal benefit.
At this point we take the liberty of quoting at length again from Dr. Hendriksens More Than Conquerors in regard to Gods judgments as the commentary speaks on Revelation 15-16.
In the history of the world a definite and ever-recurring order of events is clearly evident:
Through the preaching of the Word applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit churches are established. Again and again this happens. (With the O.T. prophets we think in terms of a faithful remnant being called out by the preaching of the Word-parenthesis ours). They are lightbearers-lampstands-in the midst of a world that lies in darkness . . .
Again and again Gods people are persecuted by the world. They are subjected to many trials and afflictions. (seals).
Again and again the judgments of God are visited upon the persecuting world. These judgments again and again fail to move men to repentance (trumpets).
. . . The question now arises: whenever in history the trumpets of judgment, the initial plagues, fail to result in penitence and conversion, what then? Does God permit such impenitence, such hardness of heart, to go unpunished until the final judgment of the last day? Must we conceive of Gods wrath as being completely pent up until the second coming . . .?
The answer in brief is this: whenever in history the wicked fail to repent in answer to the initial and partial manifestation of Gods anger in judgments, the final effusion of wrath follows. Final, though not complete until the judgment day. These plagues are the last. They leave no more opportunity for repentance. When the wicked, often warned by the trumpets of judgment, continue to harden their hearts, death finally plunnges them into the hands of an angry God . . .
Hence, throughout the history of the world Gods final wrath again and again reveals itself; now it strikes this one; then another. It is poured out upon the impenitent. Thus a very definite connecting-link is established between the vision of the trumpets, chapter 8-11, and that of the bowls, chapters 15, 16. Trumpets warn; bowls are poured out.
Throughout history, especially during this entire new dispensation, God is using every department of the universe to punish the wicked and impenitent persecutors of his people. Whoever refuses to be warned by the trumpets of judgment is destroyed by the bowls of wrath. For one individual a certain calamity may be a trumpet of judgment, while for someone else that same event may be a bowl of wrath. Thus, the disease which hurled King Herod Agrippa I into hell served as a warning to others . . .
So it was true in the days of Joel. The locust plague and the drought became a warning trumpet of Gods wrath upon rebellion and sin and called those who were humble and penitent enough to hear back to Gods word and His will. Those who heard and heeded became part of the faithful remnant. They would be the people through whom God would carry out His covenant promises and bring from them the Messiah. Some undoubtedly perished during the plague and drought. Those who died in sin and rebellion against God died under the judgment of God. In the wisdom of God they had had their last opportunity to repent. They rejected it. Gods wrath fell upon them. Perhaps some who believed in God and were following His ways died also, but death did not harm them (cf. Zep 2:3; Nah 1:7). Those who died in the Lord were blessed (Rev 14:13).
Joe 2:2 A DAY OF DARKNESS . . . A GREAT PEOPLE . . . STRONG . . . THERE HATH NOT BEEN EVER THE LIKE, The darkness here may be either literal or symbolic or both. When this great people (the locusts) came down upon them, myriads upon myriads, their coming would make the sky black. Darkness is also used to symbolize judgment or times of foreboding. The term people is a figurative way of describing the locusts (cf. Pro 30:25 ff). They will behave like an army and will go about their destruction with what seems to be a methodical intelligence beyond the native capacity of an insect. This would be one of the most unique disasters to happen to Judah so much so that it might be said, nothing like it has ever been or ever shall be!
Zerr: Joe 2:2. The gloomy picture that is painted is to be the result of the invasion of the foreign nation. A great people and a strong refers to the Babylonians who were to be brought against Jerusalem and the people of Israel.
Joe 2:3 . . . THE LAND IS AS THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE THEM, AND BEHIND THEM A DESOLATE WILDERNESS; Compared to what the land looked like after the locusts finished with it, it was like the garden of Eden before, The fire before and after them probably is a poetical description of the utter devastation that sweeps over the land, at their coming, overwhelming everything before it and leaving nothing behind it. In the National Geographic Magazine, 1915, from which we have quoted before, let us describe further the locust devastation. The first swarms of locusts in February, 1915, came in such thick clouds as to obscure the sun for the time being. In 1915 the sections where no eggs had been laid or where the eggs had been carefully removed by governmental orders did not suffer from the creepers, but later the full-grown locusts came and cleaned up every bit of vegetation. On a television documentary, December 1966, sponsored by the National Geographic, one was able to see motion picture film of locust plagues in the Near East. These films substantiated Joels graphic description in every respect! The prophet did not exaggerate!
Zerr: Joe 2:3. Garden of Eden before , . . behind a wilderness. This Is a picture of the sad changes that were destined to come into the land of Palestine after the inroads made by the Babylonian army. It was to be a complete overthrow of the great country of Israel, inflicted upon it as a punishment for the evil conduct of the inhabitants in taking up with the idolatrous ways of the heathen.
Joe 2:4 THE APPEARANCE OF THEM IS AS . . . HORSES; There is an old Arabian proverb which goes, The locust has the form of ten of the giants of the animal world, weak as he is-face of a mare, eyes of an elephant, neck of a bull, horns of a deer, chest of a lion, stomach of a scorpion, wings of an eagle, thighs of a camel, legs of an ostrich, and tail of a serpent. Theodoret, a bishop of Syria, said, . . . you will find the head of the locust exceedingly like that of a horse. In Joe 2:4, however, Joel is concerned with their behavior which is like that of cavalry horses.
Zerr: Joe 2:4. Appearance of horses is literal, for the army of Babylon used that noble animal in its triumphant march through the country.
Joe 2:5 LIKE THE NOISE OF CHARIOTS . . . LIKE THE NOISE OF A FLAME OF FIRE . . . John wrote in Rev 9:9 ff, the sound of their wings was as the sound of many horses rushing to battle . . . They are described by the National Geographic as a loud noise, produced by the flapping of myriads of locust wings . . . resembling the distant rumble of waves. One who has heard them says, their noise may be heard six miles off. Others have likened their sound to all sorts of deep, rumbling sounds of torrential rivers or water-falls. One ancient wrote, . . . there is a certain sharp sound, as they chew the corn, as when the wind strongly fanneth a flame. The noise of their foraging upon the vegetation crackles like a fire as it licks up the dry stubble of a wheat field.
Zerr: Joe 2:5. The horses were used to carry riders in battle array, and they were likewise used to draw the chariots of war which are mentioned in this verse.
Joe 2:6 . . . PEOPLES ARE IN ANGUISH . . . FACES ARE WAXED PALE . . .; One man who witnessed just such a plague wrote of the people, . . . the people become as dead, saying, we are lost, for the Ambadas (so they call them) are coming. . . . there were men, women, children, sitting among these locusts, as stupefied . . . they answered that they had no courage to resist a plague which God gave them for their sins. The verb translated anguish is the same verb used of women in birth travail (cf. Jer 30:5-7). Their anxiety causes the color to drain from their faces and they grow pale as the dead.
Zerr: Joe 2:6. Faces be pained will be on account of the dreadful appearance of the military forces of the Babylonian Empire. It was one of the most for-midable armies ever sent against the Israelites, and well might their faces be drawn in alarm at the approach of such a foe.
Joe 2:7 THEY RUN LIKE MIGHTY MEN; . . . CLIMB THE WALL . . . MARCH . . . AND BREAK NOT THEIR RANKS. National Geographic: Once started on their course, nothing could stop them; walls were scaled, they rolled on like a mighty, unconquerable flood. Their ranks remain unbroken by obstacles. Man can mount a wall a few at a time, but locusts pour over a wall in a literal flood.
Zerr: Joe 2:7. Not break their ranks denotes the orderly conduct of the soldiers of the king of Bablyon. Shall climb the wall refers to the ability of the soldiers to mount over the walls that were erected as a barrier against an attacking foe. These barricades were to be no effective hindrance to the success of the invading army.
Joe 2:8 NEITHER . . . THRUST ONE ANOTHER . . . MARCH EVERY ONE IN HIS PATH; . . . THEY BURST THROUGH THE WEAPONS . . . They travel like a well-disciplined, regimented army in close-order-drill without jostling one another. They move in one body, giving the appearance of being organized and directed by one leader. Nothing checks or retards their attack. Nothing makes any impression upon them. Men have tried to kill them with canon fire, water-filled trenches, fire-filled trenches, insecticides-sprayed from airplanes, with clubs-beating them to death by the millions-but still they come, impervious to any weapon. Like waves they roll over one another on and on, and let themselves be stopped by nothing. Bundles of straw are laid in rows and set on fire before them; they march in thick heaps into the fire, but this is often put out through the great mass of those advancing from behind who march right on over the corpses of their dead companions. The sight is utterly appalling! On the television program referred to before it was stated that man, with all his modern scientific means of dealing out death, has not yet found a way to stop the locust.
Zerr: Joe 2:8. Sometimes the soldiers of an army became confused and attacked each other, and at other times they would interfere with each others position in the battle formation; the Babylonians were not to do this. And even when they came in contact with a sword it would not injure them seriously, because the Lord will be using them as His agents to chastise the people of Israel.
Joe 2:9 THEY LEAP UPON THE CITY . . . RUN FOR THE WALL . . . CLIMB INTO THE HOUSES . . . ENTER IN AT THE WINDOWS. National Geographic: Disastrous as they were in the country, equally obnoxious they became about the homes, crawling up thick upon the walls and squeezing in through cracks of closed doors or windows, entering the very dwelling rooms. Women frantically swept the walls and roofs of their homes, but to no avail. They even fell into ones shirt collar from the walls above. A lady, after being away from home for half a day, returned with 110 of them concealed within the skirts. Whenever touched, or especially when finding themselves caught within ones clothes, they exuded from their mouths a dark fluid, an irritant to the skin and soiling the garments in a most disgusting manner. Imagine the feeling with a dozen or two such creatures over an inch long, with saw-like legs and rough bodies, making a race course of your back. Another man who experienced such a calamity in 1646 wrote, . . . when the door was opened, an infinite number came in, and the others went fluttering about; and it was a troublesome thing when a man went abroad, to be hit on the face by those creatures, on the nose, eyes, or cheeks, so that there was no opening ones mouth, but some would get in. Yet all this was nothing; for when we were to eat, they gave us no respite; and when we went to cut a piece of meat, we cut a locust with it, and when a man opened his mouth to put in a morsel, he was sure to chew one of them. The television report of December, 1966, showed that airplanes flying through clouds of locusts spraying insecticides were forced to the ground because the thickness of the locusts made visibility for flying impossible!
Zerr: Joe 2:9. The prevalence and success of the Babylonians is meant here.
Joe 2:10 THE EARTH QUAKETH BEFORE THEM; THE HEAVENS TREMBLE . . . National Geographic: When anything neared their thickened masses, it seemed as if the entire surface of the ground moved, producing a most curious effect upon ones vision and causing dizziness, which in some was so severe as to produce a sensation not unlike seasickness. The clouds of locusts caused the entire atmosphere to be in a state of commotion as if the very heavens trembled.
Zerr: Joe 2:10. This is a figurative description of the depression that will settle down upon Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judah when the army of Nebuchadnezzar takes up the siege. The king of Israel and his leading men will be debased, which is likened to the dimming of the sun and other heavenly bodies.
Joe 2:11 JEHOVAH UTTERETH HIS VOICE BEFORE HIS ARMY . . . HE IS STRONG THAT EXECUTETH HIS WORD; FOR THE DAY OF JEHOVAH IS GREAT AND VERY TERRIBLE; AND WHO CAN ABIDE IT? To this day the nations of the Near East speak of the locusts as Yaish Allah, Allahs army. God does use natural phenomena to execute His warnings and judgments. He uses natural elements of weather, laws of nature, wild beasts and insects, and heathen nations and leaders (Isaiah 10) to execute His vengeance upon the ungodly, even now! Hendriksen in More Than Conquerors again, on chapters 4-5 of Revelation concerning the Throne of God: These chapters do not merely give us a picture of heaven. They describe the entire universe from the aspect of heaven. The purpose of this vision is to show us, in beautiful symbolism, that all things are governed by the Throne-Occupant. All things; hence, also our trials and tribulations. That is the point. Hence, the description of the Throne precedes the symbolic prediction of the trials and tribulations which the church must experience here on earth . . . Behold, a Throne! The Throne is the very center of the universe. The universe of the Bible is . . . theocentric. Here, too, is the true philosophy of history. The newspapers and radio announcements give you the headlines and news-flashes. The magazines add the explanations. But these explanations are, after all in terms of secondary causes. The real mind, the real will which-while fully maintaining the responsibility and freedom of the individual instruments-controls this universe in the mind, the will of the Almighty God! Nothing is excluded from his dominion. And so God can use the king of Assyria as the rod of His anger and the staff of His fury (Isaiah 10) and He can stir up the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to release the captive Jews (2Ch 36:22 ff; Ezr 1:1 ff). And so the locusts are Gods mighty army. When He commands that they go forth to destroy, none can stop them. If man cannot stop an army of locusts when God sends them, who can be saved from any of Gods judgments? Joel will take up this question in the next section when he presents Gods Plan for Repentance.
Zerr: Joe 2:11. The army of Babylon is called the Lords because He will use it to carry out the purposes against the unfaithful people of Israel, He is strong that executeth his word. Since the king of Babylon will be executing the decree of the Lord, He will make that king strong enough to accomplish the task set before him. Without the Lords support the Babylonian army could never have succeeded as it did; for later, when it was Gods will that the same nation should be overthrown, it was accomplished by the Persians who were said to be “inferior to thee” (Dan 2:39).
Questions
1. What does trumpet signify symbolically in Hebrew literature?
2. In what way is the locust plague a warning? a judgment?
3. Do locusts appear and behave with such frightening appearance as Joel describes?
4. Are they impossible to stop? Can not modern methods of insect control stop them?
5. Does God Himself control these locusts or did this plague just happen and Joel attribute its happening to God?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Having thus dealt with the actual visitation and its terrible devastation, and having called the people into the place of humiliation, the prophet rose to a higher level, and interpreted the visitation as indicating a deeper and more terrible judgment threatening them. In doing this, he made use of the figure of the blowing of a trumpet.
The first blast sounded a note of alarm as it announced the approach of the Day of Jehovah. With the figure of the locusts still in mind, the prophet described the swift, irresistible, and all-consuming character of the armies which were about to come as the scourge of God, being careful to declare that this whole movement would be under the command of Jehovah. However, the prophet declared that God still waited in patience and mercy. If the people would return to Him, He would spare them.
The second blast of the trumpet called the people to assemble in repentance. The character of the assembly was to be that of a fast, and its constitution the actual gathering together of all the people, from the youngest to the oldest. Being assembled, they were to cry for mercy, the ultimate reason being that the nations should not say, “Where is their God?” To such an act Jehovah would respond in grace.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Summons to Penitence
Joe 1:1-20; Joe 2:1-11
We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be Gods mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory of Gods loving kindness ought to have kept His people faithful and loyal, but since grace and love had failed to affect them awful judgments were announced. A small insect, the locust, was to prostrate mans boasted power. The four kinds of locusts here described and which doubtless devastated the country, were also symbols of the four world-empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, which were to lay waste the Holy Land. Such judgments call for acts of repentance, such as fasting, humiliation, and intercession. There are days in national experience when it becomes us to gird ourselves and lament. The ministers and elders of the Church should lead the way. Where there has been infidelity to the great Lover of souls, when the visible Church or the individual member has turned from Christ to the wanton world, then joy withers away, Joe 1:12, spiritual worship ceases, Joe 1:9, and there can be neither peace nor safety until there has been repentance and return.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 2
The Promise Of The Outpouring Of The Spirit
As we turn to this second chapter we are ushered at once into the solemn and soul-stirring events of the coming day of the! Lord; a day which will only come when, the Church having been caught up to heaven, God takes up Israel again as a nation, fulfilling all that the prophets have spoken.
In so writing, I do not forget that it was the last part of this chapter which the apostle Peter quoted in explaining the wondrous manifestations of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as foretold in Scripture. But we shall see, when taking up the passage in question, that it applies primarily to a far wider outpouring yet to come. That of Pentecost was like it in nature, and a measure of its fulfilment; therefore Peter could say, This is that But the prophecy was by no means exhausted then, as a careful reading of the whole book of Joel will make plain.
The figure of the trumpet, twice used in the chapter (vers. 1 and 15), connects intimately with Numbers, ch. 10. There we find the two trumpets of silver were used for a double purpose- to blow an alarm, and to summon the whole congregation to the presence of the Lord. The first was to arouse; the second, to instruct. We find the same thing here. In vers. 1 to 14 the trumpet of alarm is blown, and the people are warned of the dreadful events about to take place in the day of the Lord, which is declared to be nigh at hand, events so grave that the visitation of the locusts under which they had been suffering was but a feeble picture of what is yet in store for the land and the people of Judah. Then, in ver. 15 to the end of the book, at the sounding of the trumpet to call a solemn assembly, instruction is given in detail regarding the results in blessing which will follow the judgments already depicted. In the first part, the day of the Lord is described as a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. As the darkest hour precedes the dawn, so, before the break of the millennial morn, the world in general, and Judah in particular, will pass through the darkest period of tribulation that has ever been known.
For Judah, the chief agency in this is a great people and a strong, who are likened to the devouring locusts. It is the Assyrian of the last days, the dread northern power, who will overrun the land of Palestine just prior to the glorious appearing of the Sun of Righteousness. Like a devouring fire, they will sweep over the land, ravaging without mercy what was as the garden of delight before them, but which will be left as a desolate wilderness (vers. 2, 3). Like mighty-horses running to battle, and as chariots on the tops of the mountains, they shall seem to leap as from mount to mount, and from peak to peak, in their irresistible onslaught, as the devouring flames lick up all that is left in their path. Fleeing before them in terror and anguish, all faces shall gather blackness in the mad effort to escape the avenging hordes (vers. 4 to 6). Their orderly progress, as a disciplined army, knowing only the behests of their commanders, is strikingly depicted in vers. 7 to 9. Nothing avails to turn them aside. They enter wherever their prey may hide, and overcome all obstacles as they press on in the fury of their power.
The language of ver. 10 is undoubtedly apocalyptic. So tremendous will be the upheavals and overturnings in that day of Jehovahs wrath, that it will be as the quaking of the earth and the trembling of the heavens. The sun will be darkened, and the moon likewise, while the stars will seem to be blotted out in the midnight sky. As in the convulsions of the sixth seal in Rev. 6, all that men have esteemed sure and stable will be overturned. It is the destruction, not of the material universe, but of the moral, spiritual and political economies.
An appeal to the conscience of Judah is based upon this. Jehovah calls upon them to turn to Him with all their hearts, bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. He wants reality instead of outward forms: so He says, Rend your heart, and not your garments; assuring them of His tender compassion, and His grace that cannot fail, if they thus turn to Him with purpose of heart. Even though the first droppings of the coming storm had already fallen, who could tell if He would not turn from His wrath, and leave a blessing behind Him? Though the hour was late, His loving-kindness might be yet toward them, in preserving them from further sorrow, and maintaining still His house and its services in their midst (vers. 12-14).
The second call is in verse 15. In place of the alarm-trumpet, the command is given to blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. God would gather the people before Him that He might instruct them as to His ways, and direct their feet in a plain path, if they have but a heart to do His will. All classes are summoned, and the priests, the ministers of the Lord, are directed to weep between the porch and the altar, crying to Him before whose house they stand to spare His people, and not give His heritage to reproach.
The position of the priests-between the porch of the temple and the brazen altar outside-is significant: it speaks of approach to God on the ground of that of which the altar speaks-the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in His name, and because of His finished work, has the failing saint title to draw near. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Thus the priests are directed to take their stand on the temple-side of the altar, as representing a people who, although in failure, are yet the redeemed of the Lord (vers. 16, 17).
Had there been a responsive heart to Gods call to contrition and self-judgment, the avenger would have been turned aside; Jehovah would have arisen in His might as their Deliverer, turning back the judgments, and bringing in blessing and gladness. In the last days, the remnant who are to be preserved for the kingdom will take the place here commanded. Then all that is promised upon their repentance will be gloriously fulfilled. The northern army will be destroyed, and his boasted power annihilated, when the Lord shall drive him into a land barren and desolate. Every enemy shall be overthrown, and the arm of Jehovah made bare (vers. 18-20).
It is manifestly in view of such an epoch of national repentance that the consolatory promises that follow (to the end of the chapter) are given. The land is called upon to rejoice because of the great things the Lord is to accomplish. Even the lower orders of creation shall share in the blessings of the earths rejuvenation. It will be the bringing-in of the liberty of the glory of the children of God for which the whole creation, groaning and travailing in pain, now waits (Rom 8:19-23). In the present liberty of grace creation does not share. But the liberty of the glory will be all-embracing. Then they shall not hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain; but the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together, and a little child shall lead the strongest and once-fiercest of beasts. From the vegetable kingdom as a whole the curse shall be lifted; the pastures of the wilderness shall spring into beauty and verdure; and the vine and the fig will yield abundantly-types of all food-producing plants (ver. 22).
In order that the fertility of the land of Canaan may be restored, and even marvelously surpass its ancient fecundity, the former and latter rains will be given in abundance. It is a well-known fact that already the God of Israel has given more than a hint of the literal fulfilment of this prophecy. For long centuries the latter rains had been withheld from Palestine, and the land that was once the garden of the East had become largely barren and desolate, scarcely able to sustain its scattered and meagre population. But, in our own times, the latter rains have returned in such measure that agriculture is once more in a flourishing condition, and vineyards, olive-yards and fig orchards abound. It is as though God were graciously giving to the world in general, and His ancient people in particular (even now returning to the home of their fathers in some measure), an evidence that His eye is ever on the land He chose for Himself, which He covenanted to Abrahams seed forever; where His only begotten Son dwelt in His humiliation-yea, where He was crucified, and which once contained His tomb, but which shall soon be touched by His glorious feet, when He descends to take His great power and reign. Throughout the Millennium of Christs reign (Rev 20:6) that country will again become the chief garden-spot of the whole world, blessed with the rain in its season, and so fertile that the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil (vers. 23, 24).
Then shall all the past ages of oppression and desolation be forgotten; for He has said, I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you (ver. 25). How striking the language, My great army which I sent! In the visitation referred to in chapter 1, they were in danger of beholding only the plague of locusts, and forgetting the One who sent it. He owns it as His army, which He had directed against the land for the discipline of His people. But in the coming day of the Lord, He will abundantly make up for all the loss of the past. Then they shall eat in plenty, knowing no want of any kind; while He who had been their Redeemer from of old will be the object of their praise and adoring gratitude. Dwelling in His love, they shall nevermore be put to shame, for He will dwell in their midst, receiving the homage of their hearts, never again to be displaced by the idols of the past (vers. 26, 27).
Then He says: And it shall come to pass afterward (that is, after the people of Judah have been restored to their land, and the nation as a whole brought into blessing) that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. 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 (vers. 28-32). I have quoted this interesting and important passage in full, in order that the least-instructed reader may have it all before him, noting carefully its connection. It is no isolated fragment interjected without connection with the balance of the book: on the contrary, the order is divinely perfect, and it occurs in its exact and proper place, in line with the events of the day of the Lord which the prophet has been unfolding. Manifestly all this can never be fulfilled till the people of Israel are restored to their land. Then God will cause His blessing to go far beyond them, pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh; thus bringing the spared nations into the glorious privileges of the millennial kingdom! Old and young shall be anointed with the Spirits unction, and shall be enlightened that they may dream dreams, see visions, and prophesy. Nor shall the males alone share in this, but the handmaidens likewise. But observe, the wonders of vers. 30 and 31 will all take place ere this day of the Lord is ushered in. Then salvation shall be extended to all the Gentiles who had never heard the gospel in this dispensation of grace: Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. But why? The answer is, For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance; that is, restored Israel will be a centre of blessing for the whole earth. This is not the same thing as the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God today. Mount Zion and Jerusalem are not now the depositaries of blessing for the Gentiles. The very contrary is true. But when the Church, the Body of Christ, has been caught away to be forever with the Lord (in accordance with 1Th 4:14-18), and God has once more taken up the Jews to make them a means of salvation to the heathen nations, Joels prophecy will be fulfilled to the letter.
I think it must be evident to every careful reader that this is the only unforced and natural explanation of the passage. But this at once raises the question as to the apostle Peters use of it on the day of Pentecost. Are we to entertain the wretched thought that he misapplied it? Or, on the other hand, can it be that readers generally have misapprehended his use of it? The latter alternative is, I am persuaded, the correct one.
Be it noted, Peter does not say that this is the fulfilment of the prophecy. He simply finds, the explanation of the remarkable events of that day of wonder in these words of Joel; and he declares, This is that! In other words, he did not identify the events. He did identify the power. That which had taken place on Pentecost was the very same thing that Joel said would take place when the day of the Lord had come. That the day spoken of had not come, Peter very well knew, and elsewhere has plainly declared it (2Pe 3:10). But the very same power of the Holy Spirit was operating in that day which shall operate when the kingdom is introduced by and by. There is here no contradiction therefore, and certainly no misapplication. Pentecost was a sample of what Joel foretold; and the apostle uses the passage illustratively, not as declaring its complete fulfilment at Pentecost. His own declaration in 2Pe 1:20 should keep any from supposing Peter meant to take the last verses of Joel 2 from their connection and apply them specifically to the ushering in of the Christian dispensation.
Taken in its full connection, it will be seen the passage in Joel primarily refers to the bringing in of the kingdom-not the Church. But the same power that will operate in the coming day was manifested at Pentecost when Peter preached his memorable sermon.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Joe 2:25
I. The coming of the locusts was a day of the Lord; a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, a day of bustle and heartrending calamity, of which fathers would tell their children, and children to the generations yet unborn. And as all things are double, one against another-as the types of the physical have their antitypes in the spiritual world-so is there not something of which the locusts are an emblem and which is yet more terrible than they-a mysterious something, at which in our healthy state we shudder, as though an evil spirit passed us by in the darkness? The fall of the first accursed locust, on the smiling plain, is not one-tenth part so awful as the first little cloud of evil that flung its shadow over the innocence of a still youthful life.
II. Thickly as the locust-swarms may be over our past years, utterly as they may have wasted a vain and misguided boyhood, or a passionate foolish youth, yet the very worst of us need not despair. For what cause is it that God gives us the gift of time, if it be not that we may repent therein? Once more sow the seed, and plant the vineyard in the furrows of the contaminated soil. Poor may be the aftermath, scant the gleaning of grapes upon life’s topmost branches, that may be left for thee; yet do thou thy best to redeem these from the locust-swarm. The Holy One who inhabiteth eternity reaches to us out of His eternity the fingers of a man’s hand, and touches into green life again the years that the locust hath eaten. Even the memory of guilt He will alleviate. Sometimes as we float down the river of life, memory flashes up from the hidden depths, and the dark wave is peopled with the innumerable faces of once-forgotten sins which menace us from the waters and prophesy of death. But God can enable us to gaze unshudderingly on these faces, and say with thankful emotion, “These sins are not mine; they were mine, but they are forgiven.”
F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man, p. 292.
References: Joe 2:25.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 305; J. Vaughan, Old Testament Outlines, p. 273.
Joe 2:26
There are three respects in which the promise of our text may be regarded as applying to those who answer to the description of the people of God. The believer has no cause to be ashamed: (1) When he searches into himself; (2) when he stands before the world; (3) when he stands before God.
I. It is proved by daily experience that, when his own heart is laid open to a man, he shrinks from the scene of foulness and deformity, and could not endure, for any consideration, that others should see him in the light in which he now sees himself. He cannot look into a single recess of his heart without finding fresh cause for confusion of face; inasmuch as the more he knows himself, the more he sees of his moral uncleanness, the more he ascertains that he is everything at which he should blush, and has nothing in which he should trust. The conscience of the believer may charge him with many offences, and bring him in guilty of much that is at variance with the law of God, but if he have respect unto all God’s commandments, conscience may produce the catalogue, and yet not put him to shame. Conscience can have nothing with which to rebuke him, and therefore he can have nothing to be ashamed of at the tribunal of conscience, if he have not sinned in contempt of its remonstrances, and if he have shown a heartfelt repentance for sins committed.
II. Nothing but a clear conscience will enable us to look the world calmly and fearlessly in the face. The people of God must carry religion with them into every business of life, and see that all scenes are pervaded by its influence. They must have respect unto all the commandments; to make exceptions is to make a breach by which shame comes in. And if it be their endeavour to keep all the commandments, we know not why Christians should not bear themselves with that lofty dignity which no calumny can disturb.
III. The people of God need not be ashamed when brought into the presence of God. They have respect unto all God’s commandments, and amongst these from the first have been reckoned the commandments which relate to faith. Here we have the groundwork of confidence before God, notwithstanding our own insufficiency. If there be respect to that commandment which enjoins that we take Christ as our surety, and depend on His merits, what cause remains for shame-even though it be the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity in whose presence we stand? “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1541.
No person can doubt that a great part of the unhappiness and of the sin which there is in the world consists in a sense of shame. And by shame I mean a consciousness of mortified distress. So powerful a feeling is it, and so saddening, that God has thought it not unworthy to be recorded even among the joys of paradise, that its inhabitants were “not ashamed.” Look at the different kinds of shame to which we are all subject.
I. Among the shames which we have all felt, we must place our retrospects. And here I mean in a twofold sense: the shame of beginnings which have had no endings, and the shame of beginnings which have ended in nothing but disappointment and wretchedness. Paul summed it all up long ago, about a man of the world: “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” And he drew the contrast with the Christian: “But this hope maketh not ashamed.” The child of God is not like the man who began to build a tower, and had never calculated how he could finish it; but long since he has laid his foundation in God’s own faithfulness, and he has been careful before he began to connect his work with God’s glory. So he goes on in a holy confidence, while the very confidence he holds commands the issue.
II. There is another sense of shame-I mean the feeling of present loneliness. To be alone in what is good, does, of itself, tend to make a man ashamed. The remedy for the feeling of shame in standing alone for Christ and truth is in the conviction of the sacred presences that are with us and about us. Let such an one, who is ashamed of the “shame” of standing alone, read the latter part of the twelfth of Hebrews, and see to what he is come, and in the midst of which he is placed every moment; and the sense of that spiritual companionship will take away all his “shame,” and he will feel how God gave His promise to all His own sorrowful ones: “My people shall never be ashamed.”
III. Is not sin in its very nature a shame, and does not a Christian feel, more than any other, the “shame,” the deep shame, of sin? You must remember that faith cuts off all painful retrospects; but if that man be living, as he ought to be living, in the assurance of God’s love, the shame is so swallowed up and lost in the feeling of forgiveness, and Christ’s glory is so his glory in it, that his eye may weep indeed, but it will still look up; the man may be in the dust, but his heart is in the heavens; he is humble, but he is not dejected; he is cast very low, but not ashamed.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 220.
Reference: Joe 2:26.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1098. Joe 2:28-32.-Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 571. Joe 2:32.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1931. Joe 3:1-8.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 449. Joe 3:9-17.-Ibid., p. 450. Joe 3:14.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 207. Joe 3:16.-W. H. Jackson, Christian Word Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 107. Joe 3:18-21.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 452. Joe 3:21.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 379. Joel.-S. Cox, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., pp. 9, 74, 137, 209, 265, 329; R, Smith, Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 215, 349, 400.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION OF ISRAEL
CHAPTER 2
1. The alarm sounded and the day at hand (Joe 2:1-2)
2. The invading army from the north (Joe 2:3-11)
3. The repentance of the people and cry for help (Joe 2:12-17)
4. Then. The great change (Joe 2:18)
5. Promises of restoration, and the early and latter rain (Joe 2:19-27)
6. The outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh (Joe 2:28-31)
7. Deliverance in Mount Zion and Jerusalem (Joe 2:32)
Joe 2:1-2. With this chapter we reach the heart of the prophecy of Joel. The description of the literal locust plague is now no longer continued. As we have shown the literal locusts in their different stages were symbolical of nations laying waste the land as the locusts had done. Dispensationally the first chapter stands for the entire times of the Gentiles, which began with Nebuchadnezzar Dan 2:36-49, and they continue till the time comes when the God of heaven sets up a kingdom that cannot be destroyed. The second chapter takes us at once to the end of the times of the Gentiles, when the day of the Lord is to be enacted. Before the Lord appears in that day, the greatest distress will be upon the land and the people; there will be a great time of trouble such as never was before Mat 24:21. The remnant of His people will cry to the Lord for intervention and for deliverance, and the Lord will answer their cry and deliver them. Then their land becomes once more like the garden of Eden, there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh and from Jerusalem the great kingdom-center blessings will extend to all the nations.
This whole chapter as well as the next one is therefore unfulfilled. Nothing of it has been fulfilled. Before it can be fulfilled a part of the people Israel must be restored to the land of promise and the ancient ceremonies and institutions be at least partially restored.
The chapter begins with the sounding of the alarm for the Day of Jehovah cometh, for it is near at hand. The last prophetic week of Daniel is now in process of fulfillment and near its end. (See annotations on Dan 9:1-27 A part of the people are back in the land, having returned there in unbelief, just as we see it today in the Zionistic movement. But in their midst will also be found a God-fearing remnant. The blowing of the trumpet shows that they have revived their ancient custom Num 10:1-22; Num 10:9. We also mention that trumpets are often connected with the appearing of the Lord and the restoration of Israel. In the second verse the day is described and may be compared with Zep 1:15-16 and Isa 60:2. Then there is an invading army announced which is fully described in the verses which follow. The words, As the dawn spread upon the mountains, are a description of the day and not of the army, as some have taken it. On the one hand the day of the Lord is a day of darkness and gloom, on the other hand it is like the dawn spread upon mountains. After the darkness, the morning light will break the morning without clouds 2Sa 23:4.
Joe 2:3-11. Many armies in past history have occupied the land of Israel and wasted it, but here is the coming great invasion from the north. This invasion is mentioned in the prophet Isaiah also. The Assyrian who came in Isaiahs day to take Jerusalem is the type of the final Assyrian who threatens the land and the people with destruction. He is also prefigured by Antiochus Epiphanes, who came into the land of Israel as the predicted little horn, rising from one of the divisions of the Graeco-Macedonian Empire Dan 8:1-27.
This army of Israels enemies finds the land like the garden of Eden; it has been restored through political Zionism, irrigated and cultivated. The Jews are at it now, determined to make Palestine the garden-spot of the world, their Eden, as it has been said. Then comes the rude awakening. They thought themselves safe; they dreamed that their plans they had made without trusting in the Lord and without true repentance, had fully succeeded. But now the greatest trouble of their long history of blood and tears is at hand. The land is once more stripped of its beauty.
Before them the land is as the garden of Eden,
And behind them a desolate wilderness,
Yea, and nothing can escape them.
The Lord uses these destructive hosts to humble His people, to show them that He is their help, when this great calamity is upon them. The symbolical language here is characteristic of other prophecies.
The earth trembleth before them;
The heavens shake,
The sun and the moon are darkened,
And the stars withdraw their shining
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * *
For the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible.
Compare this with the following passages: Isa 11:11; Hab 1:6; Hab 1:12; Zec 14:3-21.
Joe 2:12-17. Here is the Lord calling to His people to return unto Him with true repentance (compare with Hos 5:15; Hos 6:11. And during that great tribulation there will be a truly penitent portion of the people who turn to Him in the manner described in this chapter. It is this remnant which will be saved in that day, while the impenitent part will be cut off in judgment. Eze 20:38 and Zec 13:8-9 speak of this. What Moses spoke long ago now takes place Deu 30:1-20). The many prophetic prayers recorded in the Psalms, as pointed out in the annotations of that book, will then be offered up by this godly waiting remnant Psa 44:13-26; Psa 115:2-18; Psa 79:9-13, etc.). This mourning and prayer for deliverance precedes the visible manifestation of the Lord in the day of His coming. When at last deliverance has come there will be another lamentation. This is found in Zec 12:9-14 and in Rev 1:7.
Joe 2:18. Then Jehovah will be jealous for His land and will have pity on His people. Here is the great change. Up to this point we have seen nothing but calamity and judgments. Literal locusts had devoured the land–the types of nations which would prey upon the land. They came, and Jerusalem was trodden down by the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles terminated in Jacobs trouble, out of which they are to be saved Jer 30:7. We saw their great repentance. Here is the answer from above. When their power is completely gone Deu 32:36, then will the Lord be jealous for His land and pity His people. Often this little word then is found in the prophetic Word marking the great change, from Israels past judgments and rejection to deliverance and glory. The following passages should be carefully examined and compared with the 18th verse here:Isa 14:25; Isa 24:23; Isa 32:16; Isa 35:5-10; Isa 58:8; Isa 58:14; Isa 60:5; Isa 66:12; Eze 28:25-26, etc.
The Lords personal manifestation is not mentioned here. The deliverance does not come apart from the second coming of our Lord. The entire prophetic Word bears witness to this. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem Zec 14:3-21. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in glory Psa 102:16. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; He shall cry, yea, roar, He shall prevail against His enemies Isa 42:13.
Joe 2:19-27. Here is His gracious answer. He will bless their land and make it fruitful once more, as it used to be, the land flowing with milk and honey. It is foolish to spiritualize the terms corn, new wine and oil. Yet it has been done. one of the older commentators of this book says on this verse about corn, wine and oil, that it has been fulfilled in the church. The corn he applies to the body of Christ, the wine to the blood of Christ, and the oil to the Spirit. Earthly blessings, such as belong to His earthly people are exclusively in view. Then they shall be no longer a reproach among the nations. Inasmuch as they are still a reproach we know that this promise is still future in its fulfillment. The one from the north will be overthrown and pass away forever. That all this cannot mean the Babylonian captivity and the small remnant which returned to the land may be learned from the statement no longer a reproach.
Because the Lord does all this they are commanded to rejoice, the children of Zion, which does not mean a spiritual Zion, but Gods only true Zion. The early and the latter rain is restored to the land. Of late this term, too, has been strangely misapplied. It has been claimed that the early and latter rain mean spiritual blessing. The early rain, it is said, means the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and the latter rain, these deluded people tell us, is another Pentecost, a greater manifestation of the Spirit. This latter rain, they teach, consists, according to their conception, in a restoration of Pentecostal gifts and is especially evidenced in making strange sounds, which, it is claimed, is the original gift of tongues. This unscriptural teaching has led to all kinds of fanaticism and worse things than that.
Nowhere in the Bible is there warrant for us to believe that the early and latter rain has a spiritual significance. To say that the early rain and the latter rain typify blessings and manifestations of the spirit of God, peculiar to the opening of this present age and to its close is extremely fanciful and cannot be verified by the Scriptures. It is strange that even men who seem to possess considerable light have endorsed this kind of exposition, which has worked such harm among so many Christian people. There is absolutely no prediction anywhere in the New Testament that the present age is to close with a latter rain experience, a time when the Holy Spirit is poured out and that in greater measure. This age, according to divine revelation, ends in apostasy and complete departure from God and His truth 2Th 2:3-17. After the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, the body of Christ, there is nowhere to be found a promise in the Church Epistles that another outpouring is to take place, by which a part of the Church is to get into possession again of the different sign gifts. The enemy of souls has made good use of these distorted teachings to bring in his most subtle delusions.
The rain has altogether a literal meaning. Read carefully the following passages for a confirmation:Lev 26:44; Deu 11:14-32; 1Ki 8:33-66 and Jer 3:3.
Then all the harm done by the locusts, the army the Lord used in judging His people, will be restored. And My people shall never be ashamed (Joe 2:27). This again is sufficient proof that all this remains unfulfilled.
Joe 2:28-32. This interesting passage invites our closest attention. The almost general interpretation of this prophecy has been that it found its fulfillment on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured forth. Most expositors confine the fulfillment to that event while others claim that Pentecost was only the beginning of the fulfillment and that the event which occurred once continues to occur throughout this Christian age. We quote from one of the best commentaries. But however certain it may be that the fulfillment took place at the first Christian feast of Pentecost, we must not stop at this one Pentecostal miracle. The address of the Apostle Peter by no means requires this limitation, but rather contains distinct indications that Peter himself saw nothing more therein than the commencement of the fulfillment, but a commencement indeed, which embraced the ultimate fulfillment, as the germ enfolds the tree; for if not only the children of the apostles contemporaries but also those that were afar off–i.e., not foreign Jews, but the far off heathen, were to participate in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which commenced on Pentecost must continue as long as the Lord shall receive into His kingdom those that are still standing afar, i.e., until the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered the kingdom of God.
There is, however, no Scriptural foundation for the statement that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit commenced on Pentecost must continue throughout this present age. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. He was poured out once, and nowhere in the New Testament is there a continued or repeated outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised. The difficulty with interpreting this great prophecy of Joel of having been fulfilled on Pentecost and being fulfilled throughout this age is that which follows in the next two verses. Wonders in heaven and on earth, fire, pillars of smoke, a darkened sun and a blood-red moon are mentioned, and that in connection with the day of Jehovah, which, as we have seen is the great theme of Joels vision. These words have been generally applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, which followed the day of Pentecost. The spiritualizing method has been fully brought into play to overcome the difficulties the 30th and 31st verses raise. The terrible day of Jehovah, it is claimed, is the destruction of Jerusalem. Thus we read in the commentary of Patrick and Lowth: This (Joe 2:30) and the following verse principally point out the destruction of the city and the temple of Jerusalem by the Romans, a judgment justly inflicted upon the Jewish nation for their resisting the Holy Spirit and contempt of the means of grace. We quote another leading commentator on Joe 2:30, Dr. Clarke. He states: This refers to the fearful sights, dreadful portents and destructive commotions by which the Jewish polity was finally overthrown and the Christian religion finally established in the Roman empire. See how our Lord applies this prophecy in Mat 24:29 and the parallel texts. And in Joe 2:31 (the sun shall be turned into darkness) Clarke says it means the Jewish polity, civil and ecclesiastical, shall be entirely destroyed. Others give these words the same spiritualized meaning. These learned doctors tell us that Joe 2:30-31 relate to the destruction of the nation, and the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the Jews! This is a fair example of the havoc which a Bible interpretation makes, which ignores the great dispensational facts revealed in the Word of God. But inasmuch as the 32nd verse, the last verse in this second chapter of Joel, reveals that there shall be deliverance in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem after these signs and wonders, and the continuation of the prophecy in the third chapter shows the judgment of the enemies of the people Israel, Gods ancient people, such interpretations appear at once as fundamentally wrong.
It is strange that all these expositors use the word fulfillment in connection with this prophecy, saying, that Peter said that the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of what is written by Joel. But the Holy Spirit did not use the word fulfillment at all. He purposely avoided such a statement. In so many passages in the New Testament we find the phrase that it might be fulfilled, but in making use of the prophecy in Acts, chapter 2, this phrase is not used and instead of it we read that Peter said, But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel Act 2:16. There is a great difference between this word and an out and out declaration of the fulfillment of that passage. Peters words call the attention to the fact that something like that which took place on the day of Pentecost had been predicted by Joel, but his words do not claim that Joels prophecy was there and then fulfilled. Nor does he hint at a continued fulfillment or coming fulfillment during this present age. The chief purpose of the quotation of that prophecy on the day of Pentecost was to point out to the Jews, many of whom were scoffing, that the miraculous thing which had happened so suddenly in their midst was fully confirmed by what Joel had foretold would be the effect of the outpouring of the Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit had taken place, but not in the full sense as given in the prophecy of Joel. He came for a special purpose, which was the formation of the Church and for this purpose He is still on earth.
Without following the events on Pentecost and their meaning it is evident from the entire prophecy, which precedes this prediction of the outpouring of the Spirit, that these words have never been fulfilled. We might briefly ask, What is necessary according to the contents of this second chapter in Joel, before this prophecy can be accomplished? We just mention what we have already learned before in our exposition. The people Israel must be partly restored to their land, that great invasion from the north, bringing such trouble to the land must have taken place, then there must also have come the intervention of the Lord and He must be jealous for His land and pity His people, then at that time this great outpouring of the Spirit of God will take place. It stands in the closest connection with the restoration of Israel. The promises which are Israels Rom 9:4 may be grouped into two classes, those which pertain to the land, earthly blessings and supremacy over the nations, and spiritual blessings, such as knowing the Lord, walking in His ways, being a kingdom of priests and prophets. The earthly blessings are accomplished by the power of Jehovah when He is manifested as their deliverer and the spiritual blessings will be conferred upon them by the outpouring of the Spirit.
The word afterwards with which this prophecy is introduced refers to the same period of time as the phrase in the latter days, that is, the days when the Lord will redeem His earthly people and be merciful to His land.
Therefore when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost it was not in fulfillment of Joels prophecy. This prophecy has never been fulfilled nor will it be fulfilled during this present age, in which the Church is being formed, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. After this is accomplished the Lord will begin His relationship with His earthly people, when He appears in His day then they will experience the fulfillment of this great prediction.
There are numerous passages in the Old Testament which shed interesting light upon this future outpouring of the Spirit (see Isa 32:15; Isa 44:3-28; Isa 59:19-21; Eze 36:27-38; Eze 37:14; Eze 39:29).
Joe 2:32. The great coming outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh will result in salvation. It is blessedly true now that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, but it will be also true in that day. The word our Lord spoke, salvation is of the Jews will find its largest fulfillment. The nations will then be joined to the Lord in the kingdom Zec 2:11.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Blow: Joe 2:15, Num 10:3, Num 10:8, Jer 4:5, Hos 8:1
trumpet: or, cornet, 1Ch 15:28, Hos 5:8
and sound: Num 10:5-7, Num 10:9, Eze 33:3, Eze 33:6, Amo 3:6, Zep 1:16
in my: Joe 3:17, Psa 87:1, Dan 9:16, Dan 9:20, Zep 3:11, Zec 8:3
let: Ezr 9:3, Ezr 9:4, Psa 119:120, Isa 66:2, Isa 66:5, Jer 5:22, Jer 16:7, Jer 16:10, Dan 6:26, Phi 2:12
for the: Joe 1:15, Isa 2:12, Eze 7:5-7, Eze 7:10, Eze 7:12, Eze 12:23, Amo 8:2, Oba 1:15, Mal 4:1, 1Th 5:2, Jam 5:8, 1Pe 4:7
Reciprocal: Exo 10:15 – For they Num 10:7 – sound 1Ch 15:24 – the priests Isa 13:4 – the Lord Jer 46:10 – the day Eze 13:5 – the day Eze 30:3 – the day is Eze 34:12 – in the cloudy Joe 3:14 – for Amo 5:18 – the day of the Lord is Zep 1:7 – for the day Zep 1:14 – great Act 2:20 – great 2Pe 3:10 – the day
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A Bird’s-Eye View of Joel
Joe 2:1-11
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The Book of Joel anticipates the day of Jehovah. The 1st chapter has a definite historical setting, but it also looks forward in anticipation of the coming day of wrath that shall be upon the earth prior to the time of Christ’s Kingdom Reign.
As we see the literal ravages of the locust, with famine and pestilence, as set forth in chapter 1, we behold but the forecasting of the ravages of the great army of the North, that shall fall upon Judah and Jerusalem in the latter days.
2. The Book of Joel is the Word of the Lord. This is definitely stated in Joe 1:1. Joel, along with the other Prophets, emphasizes the fact that what he said was not his own message, but God’s. The New Testament tells us that holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. There is no other possible way by which the statements made in the Book of Joel could be accounted for. Men cannot foretell events as Joel and the Prophets foretold them.
3. The Book of Joel tells of a most unusual and devastating judgment upon the Children of Israel. It is such a striking judgment that the Book opens with a call to the old men and to the inhabitants of the land to tell it out to their children. Their children, in turn, are to tell it to their children. The message covers the ravages of the locust as they were to eat everything, sweeping the land clean of every vestige of green. History tells us of the terrific ravages of this terrible pest.
Even our own country during the year has not been free from the curse of the locust.
4. The Book of Joel presents God’s call to repentance.
(1) The drunkards are urged to weep and to howl because of God’s judgment upon them. They are told to lament like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, laments the death of the husband of her youth.
(2) The vinedressers and the husbandmen are told to howl because their harvests have perished. The wheat and barley is cut off and the vine is dried up; the fig tree languisheth, while all the trees of the field are withered.
We think at this moment of the depression which has been upon us, the devastating storms, the droughts.
(3) The priests are told to hide. God says: “Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God.” They are told to sanctify a fast; to call a solemn assembly, to gather the elders and the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord, where they may cry unto God.
Here is a lesson for us all. It is as applicable to our day as it was to the day of the Prophet Joel. The preachers should lead the way in confession.
5. The far-flung meaning of it all. Joe 1:15 cries out, “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” The language is so graphic. It describes the seed as rotting under clods of dry ground. The barns are empty; there is nothing to harvest. The beasts groan, the herds are perplexed, fire has devoured the pastures, while the rivers are dried up. Such are the far-flung judgments of God upon His people, for their sin.
I. GOD’S CALL TO BLOW THE TRUMPET (Joe 2:1-2)
1. We have a localized alarm. The trumpet is to be blown in Zion. The alarm is to be sounded in the Holy Mountain. The city of Jerusalem and the chosen land has been, during the centuries, the very hub of conflict and battle. History will repeat itself. Jerusalem shall yet again see the carnage of battle. God’s chosen people have suffered much, but it is not until the day of Jacob’s trouble, when the tribulation is sore upon the land, that it will know its greatest sorrow.
2. We have an alarm with a time setting. The devastation of chapter 2 is to be in the day when the Lord comes. It is also to be in a day when Zion is in the land. The very fact that at this moment the people of God, the Jews, are turning their faces Zionward, and are hastening toward Jerusalem, is a certain indication that they are only going back, that they may enter into their sorrow.
3. We have a day of unspeakable darkness. It is called, “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.” Writings similar to those by Joel are not at all popular. The world is saying, “Speak unto us smooth things.” The Bible, however, tells the plain and un-varnished facts. The world, and the Jew as well, are hastening into the throes of tribulation. These throes will center around Jerusalem, and around the ten-kingdom empire.
Thank God, that the saints are looking for their upgoing. When the Lord begins to judge the world, He will take His own to be with Himself.
Let those who read these words seek to know the Lord that they may escape the great tribulation, and stand before the Son of Man.
II. GOD’S DESCRIPTION OF THE ARMY (Joe 2:3-11)
1. The battle described will be the greatest of all history. In Zec 14:1-21 we read: “The day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.” Joel tells us something of the devastations which this army from the North will cause. Read what he says in Joe 2:3.
The expression “the Garden of Eden” shows a little of the wonderful conditions in and around Jerusalem before their judgment falls. The fertility of the land has been restored. Money has been lavishly spent until Jerusalem is at this moment a wonderful garden.
All of these things are even now beginning to come to pass. However, all its wealth, with its glory shall be swept away. Palestine will become a desolate wilderness when the people of the North finish their wreckage.
2. The description of the army. The Prophet thus describes them, “The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.”
During the World War we read letters from London telling us how the people of that great city at night, were kept in total darkness, because of the danger of airships and their bombs. When airships were heard buzzing above them, the people rushed to the cellars or basements of their homes. What will it be when Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled! Read also Joe 2:7.
III. THE SECOND TRUMPET CALL (Joe 2:15-17)
1. The plea to repent. The first trumpet was to sound the alarm of the gathering hosts to war. The second trumpet is a call to a solemn assembly. It is a national call, but a call inclusive of every individual. “Assemble the elders, gather the children”; “let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar.”
How appropriate is all of this to the present day status of Israel. The Children of Judah and Jerusalem, in fact Jewry, the world over, are being swept along to certain judgment, all unmindful of the fate that awaits them.
2. Jewry includes two classes:
(1) There are the orthodox who are altogether blinded. They profess to believe in the Prophets, they read them in their synagogues, and yet, they know not their message.
It is the same story as of old. In the days of our Lord, the Jews met in their synagogues, read their sacred Scriptures every Sabbath Day, and yet, “Because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the Prophets * *, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him.”
(2) There are the liberal Jews. These, perhaps, include the greater part of Judah. They have utterly repudiated the God of their fathers, the words of their Prophets, and they are wholly given over to infidelity. Their faith is gone, and with it; their hope is gone. The last expression in Joe 2:17,” Where is their God?”
A time of tears and of tribulation awaiteth all these people. A tribulation with a drawn sword abides them. Many of Israel, even the rebellious will be slain, while a wonderful preserved group will repent; and, through Jacob’s greatest trouble, they will be made ready to receive the Lord when He comes.
IV. THE PROMISED DAY OF REFRESHING (Joe 2:19-27)
God will not utterly forget His people, neither will He altogether cast them off. He will be zealous for His land, and show pity toward His chosen race. The Lord’s promise of “refreshing” may be clustered around three things.
1. Physical blessings will abound. Joe 2:19 says: “Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith.” During the tribulation there will be great devastation followed by famine. Afterward, when the Lord comes, He will rebuke the devourer.
2. Fear and trembling will be removed. God will remove far off the northern army, that came down to spoil His people. Then will He say: “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will dp great things.”
Again God says, “Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field.” Their starvation will pass, as the tree bears her fruit, and the herbage covers the ground.
3. The early and latter rains will be restored. In Joe 2:23 the Lord says to the Children of Zion, “Rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.”
The result of that rain is described by the Prophet Joel, when he says: “The floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.” God will restore unto His people the years that the locusts have eaten, and the wreckage which the armies of the Gentiles have caused. Then shall they eat in plenty and be satisfied.
Praise God for Israel’s coming deliverance! It is as certain as the Word of God is sure.
V. THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT (Joe 2:28-32)
We now have before us the definite assurance of the coming of the Spirit to Israel (Joe 2:28).
1. Why this prophecy of the coming of the Spirit was not fulfilled at Pentecost.
(1) First of all, it was to come after the Lord had sent the early and the latter rain, and given plenty to His people.
(2) Secondly, in connection with the Spirit’s coming, the Lord said: “I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” None of this was fulfilled at the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
When Christ told them that He would send the Spirit not many days hence, they immediately said: “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?” Following Pentecost, Peter said, in a call to national Israel, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.”
2. Why this prophecy must be fulfilled. The answer is simple. There shall not fail one thing which God hath written. The Spirit did come. That much was fulfilled. Everything else spoken in Joel awaits fulfillment and will yet be fulfilled to the letter. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood at the time of the Lord’s Second Coming. At His Second Coming, also, the Lord will restore the early and the latter rains. This is the time when Joel’s prophecy will have its completed fulfillment.
VI. THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS (Joe 3:1-2; Joe 3:12-16)
1. The time of the judgment. It is in those days which mark the coming of the Spirit, the Return of the Lord, and the restoration of the early and the latter rain; it is in the time when God has brought again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, that He will bring all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and plead with them there.
We must remember that this battle will be formed by certain cataclysmic judgments which will accompany Christ’s Return. It is when He Comes that the Mount of Olives is to be split in twain. It is when He Comes that living waters will flow from Jerusalem. After this, He will judge the nations.
2. The basis of the judgment of the nations According to Mat 25:1-46, the Lord will judge the nations accordingly as they have treated His people the Jews, whether good or evil. This is a valuable study. Whatever else we do, let us never spiritualize Mat 25:31-46. It is easy to say that the words, “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat,” etc., refer to the philanthropy of the rich Gentiles, toward the poor and downtrodden of our day. You must remember, however, that this message of Christ covers the period following and not preceding His Return; it has to do with an address which He makes to the gathered nations, whom He has separated as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
3. The judgment described. In Joe 3:12 we read: “Let the heathen (Gentiles) be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.” At that time the harvest of the earth will be ripe, even as it is written in Rev 14:14. At that time the wine press of God’s holy wrath will be full. The wickedness of the nations has been great. As God speaks of their judgment, He says: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” Indeed the decisions of Jehovah in that day will be near, “for the sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake.”
VII. THE LORD DWELLING IN ZION (Joe 3:17-18)
1. The Lord shall dwell in Zion. Men may cavil with each other and disagree; and they may call all of these things a matter of interpretation. In spite of their arguments, the Lord, the God of Israel, will dwell in Zion, His holy mountain, and in Jerusalem, His holy city. It is the voice of all the Prophets that Christ will reign in Jerusalem.
2. Israel shall know the Lord. When Christ comes again and delivers His people, then Israel shall say, “Lo, this is our God.” How we rejoice that blinded eyes are to be opened, and deaf ears are to be unstopped.
3. Then, shall Jerusalem be holy. During the centuries, in which the Children of Israel have been scattered among the nations, they have profaned the Name of their Lord among the Gentiles, both by their tongue and by their uncleanness. In that day it shall be said: “Jerusalem is holy.” God will take away their stony heart, and give them a heart of flesh.
4. In that day the mountains will drop with new wine. Jerusalem will indeed be kept as a Garden of Eden. Fertility and fruitfulness will be restored to Zion, and the land of Palestine will rejoice and be glad.
5. Judah and Jerusalem will go on forever. He who restores Israel will restore them never to be torn down again. Their peace will be both unmarred and unbroken, and the nations of earth, shall send up their representatives from year to year to worship the Lord in Zion.
AN ILLUSTRATION
There is nought which will bring rebellious Israel back to God, than the coming of the Spirit as described in Joe 2:1-32.
When the Spirit reveals Christ to Israel, she will call upon His Name and be saved.
“They tell us of a certain German artist who, redeemed from a life of awful sin, painted a picture of the Christ. His heart was so touched with what he realized his dying Saviour had done for him that all his masterful genius went into the effort to paint a face in which the incomparable love of Jesus for the lost would express itself. The picture was hung in the village church and underneath it were inscribed the words:
‘All this I did for thee;
What hast thou done for Me?’
Many people came and looked upon the picture. One forenoon a young nobleman sauntered down the aisle for a curious glance or two; the face that had been wrought by the Spirit of God through the heart and head and hand of the converted artist, lit with love and radiant with compassion, caught and held his attention. He stood for a long time and then sat for hours gazing upon his crucified Lord. There was the Blood flowing from His riven side, the thorn-pierced brow, the lacerated hands and feet. The full meaning of the picture dawned on him and a new conception of the sufferings of Jesus was born within him. He never took his eyes from the wonderful face. But, at last twilight came; and you know the rest of the story. It found young Count Zinzendorf prone on his face and in an agony of sorrow, confessing his sins and yielding his life to the Son of God. And in two hundred years of perfect romance of Moravian missionary enterprise, the influence of this mighty man of God has been circling the globe.”-W. E. B.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Joe 2:1. The blowing of the trumpet is figurative and expressed in view of the calamity that was to come upon the country. (See Num 10:1-10 for the significance of trumpets.) In actual practice the people of Israel were to blow the trumpet in alarm when they were to go into battle against another nation. It does not have that meaning in this case because the passage is a prediction of the invasion of the Babylonian army. That event was to occur by the Lords decree, and the people of Israel were not to resist that attack. Instead, they were advised to submit peacefully to the king of Babylon and thereby lessen their suffering. (See Jer 38:17, IS.) The thought in the passage here is that the alarm should be to summon the people to a sense of their undone condition, so that they will make what restitution they can for their own personal benefit.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joe 2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion The prophet, having in the preceding chapter described the locusts and caterpillars as a mighty army sent by God, in pursuance of this metaphor now exhorts the people to prepare to meet them, in the same terms as if they were alarmed to oppose an enemy, which was always done by the sound of the trumpet. Danger is proclaimed in this way, Eze 33:3; Eze 33:5; Hos 5:8; Amo 3:6. Natural means were wont to be used, to prevent the devastations of locusts; pits and trenches were dug, bags were provided, and combustible matter was prepared and set on fire: see Shaws Travels, 4to. p. 187. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble Let them be seized with as terrible an apprehension of this approaching judgment, as if they saw an enemy invading their country.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joe 2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, to convoke a solemn assembly for fasting and humiliation. Num 10:2-3.
Joe 2:2. A day of darkness, nigrum esse. The army of locusts obscured the light while flying through the air. More than twenty travellers are agreed on this subject. An army of locusts sometimes is a mile, and sometimes ten miles broad in the air. In a moral view, darkness implies the greatest of national disasters.
Joe 2:3. A fire devoureth before them. The inhabitants in their feeble way make fires to stop their progress, and fires behind them to annoy them by the smoke, and force them to depart. Ditches also are dug that they may fall into them and perish. The fields of corn, wherever these insects alight, are devoured in a few hours: they eat the blade and the ear, leaving only the stalk. The pastures, after the devastation, have the appearance of being burnt. The foliage of the tree is wholly destroyed, and the tree itself is so very much weakened that it cannot bear fruit till the second year after the spoliage. Sir Hans Sloanes Nat. Hist, of Jamaica: vol. 1:29.
Joe 2:5. Like the noise of chariots shall they leap. The French Encyclopdia, on the article locust, affirms that they can leap two hundred times the length of their own bodies. But there are various kinds of locusts. Those described in Exodus 10., are large; but those which visited Languedoc in 1686, the year after the persecution of the protestants commenced, were about an inch long, and of a greyish colour.
Joe 2:11. His camp is very great. I have followed the majority of critics in applying the above to the plague of the locusts; but I ought to apprize the reader, that though some translators understand it of the Assyrian, or of the Babylonian invasion, yet the locusts are here described because of the mode of their destruction: Joe 2:20-21; Joe 2:25. God promises to restore the product of the years which the various insects had eaten.
Joe 2:23. The latter rain in the first month. It should read, the latter rain as aforetime. The first month was exactly the time of the barley harvest. The English version has copied the error from Piscator. See Deu 11:14.
Joe 2:28. Afterwards, or in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. The prophets mostly poured comfort into the wounds of their hearers. There is no period of jewish history to which this prophecy can be applied, but to the day of Pentecost, and to the Spirit given to gentiles, as well as to the jews. Act 10:44.
Joe 2:30. I will shew wonders in the heavens. These signs were foretold by our Saviour, and are mentioned by Josephus. A fiery meteor was long seen over Jerusalem before its fall.
Joe 2:32. There shall be deliverance. The followers of Christ, having been forewarned of their danger, were delivered by flight, at the time Jerusalem was destroyed. Mat 24:15-20.
REFLECTIONS.
In this and the former chapter we have a fine specimen of Hebrew poetry, employed on a most serious occasion. Nothing can exceed it in sublimity and beauty. It traces the calamity and aims at the salvation of the country, by exciting all classes of men to recollection and repentance. Hence the subject is resumed, and probably as Joel delivered it by the divine Spirit at different times. The first was a charge to the fathers to instruct posterity in the judgments of the Lord; the second was an exhortation to the rulers to convoke a solemn assembly, and humble themselves before Him who chastises offending man by weight and measure.
Fasting and prayer are highly expedient, while God is denying food to man and beast. When all classes of men, properly impressed with the visitations of heaven, do humble themselves, notwithstanding many defects in their devotion, it is a fruit of an inward change; it gives evidence of their not being that hardened and obstinate people against whom the vengeance was denounced, but tender, contrite and suppliant. Hence a whole nation became claimants for a reverse of the sentence.
The gracious characters of God are highly encouraging to repentance. He is gracious and merciful; he pardons iniquity, and receives the penitent into favour and confidence. In dealing with his frail creatures, he prefers the glory of grace to the glory of justice. His slowness to anger, and the partial manner in which he punishes sin, fully demonstrate his readiness to pardon, and to seek our reformation by the exterior strokes of wrath. Hence Joel exhorts them to repent without delay, that the Lord might drive away the noxious insects before they had devoured the whole, and while there was yet a meat-offering and a drink-offering in corners of the land.
When the righteous pray for crumbs, the Lord will give them harvests. He will be jealous for the honour and happiness of the land. He will send corn, and wine, and oil; yea he will restore all arrears of waste made by the locusts. He will rejoice both man and beast with an overflowing portion of covenant mercies.
The Lord makes the temporal prosperity of Israel a uniform type of the spiritual and eternal prosperity of his people. When he sends the former and the latter rain to make the floor overflow with wheat, and the vat with wine, he promises to pour out his Spirit on all flesh, both jew and gentile; to multiply visions and dreams of divine things to the aged and the young.
He promises to raise up a new order of ministers in the church, not of the priests and levites, but of servants and handmaidens. He promises to fill the church with grace and gifts to prophesy and preach; yea, and that it should be an age of devotion, in which whosoever called on the name of the Lord should be saved. This began to be accomplished on the day of pentecost, and shall continue to the glory of the latter day. God has made no covenant with any order of priests to be his ministers exclusively; it is ignorance and pride which prompt men to claim this honour. The christian ministry is a ministry of the Spirit; and he who would silence those who pray and preach in the Spirit, must show his authority before he can command our assent. Besides, the christian ministry in the primitive days did most extensively employ women to help and instruct their own sex. Many of them were ordained deaconesses, and carried the sacred elements from the communion table to their sick sisters; the ministers of that age not having access to women, as was the custom, and which still prevails in many places of the east.
A time of great mercy is also a time of severe judgments, when the season is misimproved. Blood, fire and smoke, with the darkening of the jewish sunshine of national prosperity, are denounced against that infidel age. This passage is expressly applied by our Saviour, and by St. Peter, to the destruction of Jerusalem. Mat 24:29-30. Act 2:19-20. The omens and prodigies, with the particulars of the siege, as related by Josephus, are a full comment on the passage. And while the jews were punished with a most bloody carnage, there was deliverance for the christian remnant whom the Lord had called by his grace. What a luminous prophecy, and what a striking confirmation of the truth of christianity! Let us wait for the residue of the Spirit.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joe 2:1-11. Let the Alarm be Sounded, for the Locusts are Precursors of the Day of Yahweh.Speaking in Yahwehs name the prophet bids the priests sound the alarm from Mt. Zion, that all the community may realise that the dreaded Day of Yahweh is approaching. All the mountains, which dawn covers with light, are covered with blackness by the unprecedented hordes of locusts (Exo 10:1-20*). The land they have traversed is left bare as though fire had scorched it, a dreary waste; and so fast do they eat into the fertile country before them that it seems as though they were a flame licking up what comes in its way. Like horses in appearance (Rev 9:7)the resemblance about the head and mouth has often been remarkedthey are like them too in the speed of their onrush. The rustling of their wings as they fly over the mountainsunavailing barriersis like the rattling of chariot-wheels or the crackling of flames in the stubble. As the dreaded army draws nearer men are fear-stricken. Like warriors charging they storm the walls of the towns, keeping ordered ranks. With perfect discipline they advance, opening as they come to obstacles, and closing up when they have passed them. Through the open or latticed windows they penetrate. The locust plague is accompaniedhere the poetic passes into the preternaturalby earthquake, darkness of eclipse, and storm, whereby the Day of Yahweh should be inaugurated. The locusts are Yahwehs host, mighty to do His bidding, before whom He thunders, because they usher in the dreaded Day that none may endure.
Joe 2:2. as the dawn: a new sentence begins hereLike dawn, spread upon the mountains is a great people. [The shimmering of the suns rays on their wings resembles the dawn.A. S. P.]
Joe 2:3. none: render nothing.
Joe 2:5. [The first metaphor describes the noise made as they fly, the second the noise they make while they feedA. S. P.]on the tops of the mountains: to be taken with what follows and not with chariots.
Joe 2:6. the peoples: read, hearts.are waxed pale: rather grow crimson, a rarer result of fear.
Joe 2:7. break not their ranks: Heb. is dubious [??] read bend not their paths.
Joe 2:8. weapons: literally missiles, but probably here covers all obstacles to the onward march of the invaders.
Joe 2:11. camp: render host.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2:1 Blow ye {a} the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
(a) He shows the great judgments of God which are at hand, unless they repent.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
III. A NEAR FUTURE DAY OF THE LORD: A HUMAN INVASION 2:1-27
Joel had spoken briefly of a coming day of the Lord in Joe 1:15, but now he said more about it.
The term "the day of the Lord" seems to have arisen from the popular concept, in the ancient Near East, that a really great warrior king could consummate an entire military campaign in one single day. [Note: See Douglas Stuart, "The Sovereign’s Day of Conquest," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 220/21 (December 1975, February 1976):159-64.] Thus, as the Israelites used the term in relation to Yahweh, it reflected His greatness and pointed to His swift and effective dispatch of His enemies on a given occasion. Sometimes the term refers to such a judgment in the near past or future, and sometimes it refers to one in the distant future (eschaton). [Note: See Chisholm, "Joel," pp. 1412-13; or Patterson, p. 256, for good, brief discussions of the term and its uses.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. The invading army 2:1-11
The Lord revealed that an army of human beings rather than locusts would soon assail Jerusalem. He described this army at length to stress the danger that His people faced and to motivate them to repent.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The nearness of the army 2:1-2
The prophet ordered a trumpet (Heb. shophar, ram’s horn) to be blown in Zion (Jerusalem), specifically on the temple mount, to sound an alarm (cf. Jer 4:5-6; Eze 33:2-6). Sometimes "Zion" refers to Jerusalem in the eschaton, but other times it is simply a poetic synonym for Jerusalem. Joel used it in the latter sense here. This shophar was the ancient equivalent of an air raid siren. The day of the Lord was coming, and all the inhabitants of the city should tremble. That day would be a time of foreboding evil, symbolized by a very overcast sky. It is interesting that a plague of darkness followed a locust plague in Egypt (Exodus 10). Darkness and clouds are common figures for judgment and destruction in the Old Testament (e.g., Jer 13:16; Eze 30:3; Eze 30:18; Eze 32:7-8; Eze 34:12; Amo 5:18-20; Zep 1:15). They are often associated with Yahweh in His role of mighty, victorious warrior (cf. Deu 4:11; Deu 5:22-23; Psa 18:9; Psa 18:11; Psa 97:2). Joel could see a gigantic army spread over the horizon like the dawn. (Was the attack coming from the East, the direction of the dawn?). He said there never had been anything like this day nor would there be after it, even the plagues in Egypt. This may be hyperbole, or this day may refer to the Great Tribulation, when the Jews will experience their worst ever attack. Joel said this attack was near, either in the near future in his day or relatively near from his perspective as a prophet (cf. 2Pe 3:8).
Many scholars take this passage as predicting an invasion of Jerusalem by some ancient enemy of Israel such as Assyria or Babylonia in the relatively near future. [Note: E.g., Wolff, p. 42; Chisholm, "Joel," pp. 1411-12.] Patterson argued for the army being that of Assyria. [Note: Patterson, pp. 245-46.] In favor of such a view is the reference to the invasion being near (Joe 2:1). Against it is the statement of its uniqueness in all of history (Joe 2:2). Other interpreters view Joe 2:1-11 as a further description of the locust plague that Joel described in chapter 1. [Note: E.g., Allen, pp. 29, 64-76; and Driver, p. 28.] This seems unlikely since the locust plague of chapter 1 was past, but the attack in Joe 2:1-11 was future. I think it probably refers to an attack by some enemy in Joel’s day in view of what follows.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE LOCUSTS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD
Joe 1:2-20; Joe 2:1-17
JOEL, as we have seen, found the motive of his prophecy in a recent plague of locusts, the appearance of which and the havoc they worked are described by him in full detail. Writing not only as a poet but as a seer, who reads in the locusts signs of the great Day of the Lord, Joel has necessarily put into his picture several features which carry the imagination beyond the limits of experience. And yet, if we ourselves had lived through such a plague, we should be able to recognize how little license the poet has taken, and that the seer, so far from unduly mixing with his facts the colors of Apocalypse, must have experienced in the terrible plague itself enough to provoke all the religious and monitory use which he makes of it.
The present writer has seen but one swarm of locusts, in which, though it was small and soon swept away by the wind, he felt not only many of the features that Joel describes, but even some degree of that singular helplessness before a calamity of portent far beyond itself, something of that supernatural edge and accent, which, by the confession of so many observers, characterize the locust-plague and the earthquake above all other physical disasters. One summer afternoon, upon the plain of Hauran, a long bank of mist grew rapidly from the western horizon. The day was dull, and as the mist rose athwart the sunbeams, struggling through clouds, it gleamed cold and white, like the front of a distant snow storm. When it came near, it seemed to be more than a mile broad, and was dense enough to turn the atmosphere raw and dirty, with a chill as of a summer sea-fog, only that this was not due to any fall in the temperature. Nor was there the silence of a mist. We were enveloped by a noise, less like the whirring of wings than the rattle of hail or the crackling of bush on fire. Myriads upon myriads of locusts were about us, covering the ground, and shutting out the view in all directions. Though they drifted before the wind, there was no confusion in their ranks. They sailed in unbroken lines, sometimes straight, sometimes wavy; and when they passed pushing through our caravan, they left almost no stragglers, except from the last battalion, and only the few dead which we had caught in our hands. After several minutes they were again but a lustre on the air, and so melted away into some heavy clouds in the east.
Modern travelers furnish us with terrible impressions of the innumerable multitudes of a locust plague, the succession of their swarms through days and weeks, and the utter desolation they leave behind them. Mr. Doughty writes: “There hopped before our feet a minute brood of second locusts, of a leaden color, with budding wings like the spring leaves, and born of those gay swarms which a few weeks before had passed over and despoiled the desert. After forty days these also would fly as a pestilence, yet more hungry than the former, and fill the atmosphere.” And later: “The clouds of the second locust brood which the Aarab call Amdan, pillars, flew over us for some days, invaded the booths and for blind hunger even bit our shins.” It was “a storm of rustling wings.” “This year was remembered for the locust swarms and great summer heat.” A traveler in South Africa says: “For the space of ten miles on each side of the Sea-Cow river and eighty or ninety miles in length, an area of sixteen or eighteen hundred square miles, the whole surface might literally be said to be covered with them.” In his recently published book on South Africa, Mr. Bryce writes:-
“It is a strange sight, beautiful if you can forget the destruction it brings with it. The whole air, to twelve or even eighteen feet above the ground, is filled with the insects, reddish brown in body, with bright gauzy wings. When the suns rays catch them it is like the sea sparkling with light. When you see them against a cloud they are like the dense flakes of a driving snow-storm. You feel as if you had never before realized immensity in number. Vast crowds of men gathered at a festival, countless tree-tops rising along the slope of a forest ridge, the chimneys of London houses from the top of St. Pauls-all are as nothing to the myriads of insects that blot out the sun above and cover the ground beneath and fill the air whichever way one looks. The breeze carries them swiftly past, but they come on in fresh clouds, a host of which there is no end, each of them a harmless creature which you can catch and crush in your hand, but appalling in their power of collective devastation.”
And take three testimonies from Syria:
“The quantity of these insects is a thing incredible to any one who has not seen it himself; the ground is covered by them for several leagues.”
“The whole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a living deluge. We dug trenches and kindled fires, and beat and burnt to death heaps upon heaps, but the effort was utterly useless. They rolled up the mountain-side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind covering up and passing over the masses already killed. For some days they continued to pass. The noise made by them in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower falling upon a distant forest.”
“The roads were covered with them, all marching and in regular lines, like armies of soldiers, with their leaders in front; and all the opposition of man to resist their progress was in vain.” Having consumed the plantations in the country, they entered the towns and villages. “When they approached our garden all the farm servants were employed to keep them off, but to no avail; though our men broke their ranks for a moment, no sooner had they passed the men than they closed again, and marched forward through hedges and ditches as before. Our garden finished, they continued their march toward the town, devastating one garden after another. They have also penetrated into most of our rooms: whatever one is doing one hears their noise from without, like the noise of armed hosts, or the running of many waters. When in an erect position their appearance at a little distance is like that of a well-armed horseman.”
Locusts are notoriously adapted for a plague, “since to strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth, admirably calculated to eat up all the herbs in the land.” They are the incarnation of hunger. No voracity is like theirs, the voracity of little creatures, whose million separate appetites nothing is too minute to escape. They devour first grass and leaves, fruit and foliage, everything that is green and juicy.
Then they attack the young branches of trees, and then the hard bark of the trunks. “After eating up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows, and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness.” “The bark of figs, pomegranates, and oranges, bitter, hard, and corrosive, escaped not their voracity.” “They are particularly injurious to the palm-trees; these they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches.” “For eighty or ninety miles they devoured every green herb and every blade of grass.” “The gardens outside Jaffa are now completely stripped, even the bark of the young trees having been devoured, and look like a birch-tree forest in winter.” “The bushes were eaten quite bare, though the animals could not have been long on the spot. They sat by hundreds on a bush gnawing the rind and the woody fibres.” “Bamboo groves have been stripped of their leaves and left standing like saplings after a rapid bush fire, and grass has been devoured so that the bare ground appeared as if burned.” “The country did not seem to be burnt, but to be much covered with snow through the whiteness of the trees and the dryness of the herbs.” The fields finished, they invade towns and houses, in search of stores. Victual of all kinds, hay, straw, and even linen and woolen clothes and leather bottles, they consume or tear in pieces. They flood through the open, unglazed windows and lattices: nothing can keep them out.
These extracts prove to us what little need Joel had of hyperbole in order to read his locusts as signs of the Day of Jehovah; especially if we keep in mind that locusts are worst in very hot summers, and often accompany an absolute drought along with its consequence of prairie and forest fires. Some have thought that, in introducing the effects of fire, Joel only means to paint the burnt look of a land after locusts have ravaged it. But locusts do not drink up the streams, nor cause the seed to shrivel in the earth. {Joe 1:20; Joe 1:17} By these the prophet must mean drought, and by “the flame that has burned all the trees of the field,” {Joe 1:19} the forest fire, finding an easy prey in the trees which have been reduced to firewood by the locusts teeth.
Even in the great passage in which he passes from history to Apocalypse, from the gloom and terror of the locusts to the lurid dawn of Jehovahs Day, Joel keeps within the actual facts of experience:-
“Day of darkness and murk,
Day of cloud and heavy mist,
Like dawn scattered on the mountains,
A people many and powerful.”
No one who has seen a cloud of locusts can question the realism even of this picture: the heavy gloom of the immeasurable mass of them, shot by gleams of light where a few of the suns imprisoned beams have broken through or across the storm of lustrous wings. This is like dawn beaten down upon the hilltops, and crushed by rolling masses of cloud, in conspiracy to prolong the night. No: the only point at which Joel leaves absolute fact for the wilder combinations of Apocalypse is at the very close of his description, Joe 2:10-11, and just before his call to repentance. Here we find, mixed with the locusts, earthquake and thunderstorm; and Joel has borrowed these from the classic pictures of the Day of the Lord, using some of the very phrases of the latter:-
“Earth trembles before them,
Heaven quakes, Sun and moon become black,
The stars withdraw their shining,
And Jehovah utters His voice before His army.”
Joel, then, describes, and does not unduly enhance, the terrors of an actual plague. At first his whole strength is so bent to make his people feel these, that, though about to call to repentance, he does not detail the national sins which require it. In his opening verses he summons the drunkards (Joe 1:5), but that is merely to lend vividness to his picture of facts, because men of such habits will be the first to feel a plague of this kind. Nor does Joel yet ask his hearers what the calamity portends. At first he only demands that they shall feet it, in its uniqueness and its own sheer force.
Hence the peculiar style of the passage. Letter for letter, this is one of the heaviest passages in prophecy. The proportion in Hebrew of liquids to the other letters is not large; but here it is smaller than ever. The explosives and dentals are very numerous. There are several key-words, with hard consonants and long vowels, used again and again: Shuddadh, a-bhlah, umlal, hobbish. The longer lines into which Hebrew parallelism tends to run are replaced by a rapid series of short, heavy phrases, falling like blows. Critics have called it rhetoric. But it is rhetoric of a very high order and perfectly suited to the prophets purpose. Look at Joe 1:10 :shuddadh sadheh, abhlah adhamah, shuddadh daghan, hobhish tirosh, umlal yishar. Joel loads his clauses with the most leaden letters he can find, and drops them in quick succession, repeating the same heavy word again and again, as if he would stun the careless people into some sense of the bare, brutal weight of the calamity which has befallen them.
Now Joel does this because he believes that, if his people feel the plague in its proper violence, they must be convinced that it comes from Jehovah. The keynote of this part of the prophecy is found in Joe 1:15 : “Keshodh mishshaddhai,” “like violence from the All-violent doth it come.” “If you feel this as it is, you will feel Jehovah Himself in it. By these very blows, He and His Day are near. We had been forgetting how near.” Joel mentions no crime, nor enforces any virtue: how could he have done so in so strong a sense that “the Judge was at the door”? To make men feel that they had forgotten they were in reach of that Almighty Hand, which could strike so suddenly and so hard-Joel had time only to make men feel that, and to call them to repentance. In this we probably see some reflection of the age: an age when mens thoughts were thrusting the Deity further and further from their life; when they put His Law and Temple between Him and themselves: and when their religion, devoid of the sense of His Presence, had become a set of formal observances, the rending of garments and not of hearts. But He, whom His own ordinances had hidden from His people, has burst forth through nature and in sheer force of calamity. He has revealed Himself, El-Shaddhai, God All-violent, as He was known to their fathers, who had no elaborate law or ritual to put between their fearful hearts and His terrible strength, but cowered before Him, helpless on the stripped soil, and naked beneath His thunder. By just these means did Elijah and Amos bring God home to the hearts of ancient Israel. In Joel we see the revival of the old nature-religion, and the revenge that it was bound to take upon the elaborate systems which had displaced it, but which by their formalism and their artificial completeness had made men forget that near presence and direct action of the Almighty which it is natures own office to enforce upon the heart.
The thing is true, and permanently valid. Only the great natural processes can break up the systems of dogma and ritual in which we make ourselves comfortable and formal, and drive us out into Gods open air of reality. In the crash of natures forces even our particular sins are forgotten, and we feel, as in the immediate presence of God, our whole, deep need of repentance. So far from blaming the absence of special ethics in Joels sermon, we accept it as natural and proper to the occasion.
Such, then, appears to be the explanation of the first part of the prophecy, and its development towards the call to repentance, which follows it. If we are correct, the assertion is false that no plan was meant by the prophet. For not only is there a plan, but the plan is most suitable to the requirements of Israel, after their adoption of the whole Law in 445, and forms one of the most necessary and interesting developments of all religion: the revival, in an artificial period, of those primitive forces of religion which nature alone supplies, and which are needed to correct formalism and the forgetfulness of the near presence of the Almighty. We see in this, too, the reason of Joels archaic style, both of conception and expression: that likeness of his to early prophets which has led so many to place him between Elijah and Amos. They are wrong. Joels simplicity is that not of early prophecy, but of the austere forces of this revived and applied to the artificiality of a later age.
One other proof of Joels conviction of the religious meaning of the plague might also have been pled by the earlier prophets, but certainly not in the terms in which Joel expresses it. Amos and Hoses had both described the destruction of the countrys fertility in their day as Gods displeasure on His people and (as Hosea puts it) His divorce of His Bride from Himself. But by them the physical calamities were not threatened alone: banishment from the land and from enjoyment of its fruits was to follow upon drought, locusts, and famine. In threatening no captivity Joel differs entirely from the early prophets. It is a mark of his late date. And he also describes the divorce between Jehovah and Israel, through the interruption of the ritual by the plague, in terms and with an accent which could hardly have been employed in Israel before the Exile. After the rebuilding of the Temple and restoration of the daily sacrifices morning and evening, the regular performance of the latter was regarded by the Jews with a most superstitious sense of its indispensableness to the national life. Before the Exile, Jeremiah, for instance, attaches no importance to it, in circumstances in which it would have been not unnatural for him, priest as he was, to do so. {Jer 14:1-22} But after the Exile, the greater scrupulousness of the religious life, and its absorption in ritual, laid extraordinary emphasis upon the daily offering, which increased to a most painful degree of anxiety as the centuries went on. The New Testament speaks of “the Twelve Tribes constantly serving God day and night”; {Act 26:7} and Josephus, while declaring that in no siege of Jerusalem before the last did the interruption ever take place in spite of the stress of famine and war combined, records the awful impression made alike on Jew and heathen by the giving up of the daily sacrifice on the 17th of July, A.D. 70, during the investment of the city by Titus. This disaster, which Judaism so painfully feared at every crisis in its history, actually happened, Joel tells us, during the famine caused by the locusts. “Cut off are the meal and the drink offerings from the house of Jehovah. {Joe 1:9; Joe 1:13} Is not food cut off from our eves, joy and gladness from the house of our God? {Joe 2:14} Perhaps He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, meal and drink offering for Jehovah our God.” {Joe 1:16} The break “of the continual symbol of gracious intercourse between Jehovah and His people, and the main office of religion,” means divorce between Jehovah and Israel. “Wail like a bride girt in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! Wail, O ministers of the altar, O ministers of God!” {Joe 1:8; Joe 1:13} This then was another reason for reading in the plague of locusts more than a physical meaning. This was another proof, only too intelligible to scrupulous Jews, that the great and terrible Day of the Lord was at hand. Thus Joel reaches the climax of his argument. Jehovah is near, His Day is about to break. From this it is impossible to escape on the narrow path of disaster by which the prophet has led up to it. But beneath that path the prophet passes the ground of a broad truth, and on that truth, while judgment remains still as real, there is room for the people to turn from it. If experience has shown that God is in the present, near and inevitable, faith remembers that He is there not willingly for judgment, but with all His ancient feeling for Israel and His zeal to save her. If the people choose to turn, Jehovah, as their God and as one who works for their sake, will save them. Of this God assures them by His own word. For the first time in the prophecy He speaks for Himself. Hitherto the prophet has been describing the plague and summoning to penitence. “But now oracle of Jehovah of Hosts.” {Joe 2:12} The great covenant name, “Jehovah your God,” is solemnly repeated as if symbolic of the historic origin and age-long endurance of Jehovahs relation to Israel; and the very words of blessing are repeated which were given when Israel was called at Sinai and the covenant ratified:-
“For He is gracious and merciful,
Long-suffering and plenteous in leal love.
And relents Him of the evil”
He has threatened upon you. Once more the nation is summoned to try Him by prayer: the solemn prayer of all Israel, pleading that He should not give His people to reproach.
“The Word of Jehovah which came to Joel the son of Pethflel. Hear this, ye old men, And give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has the like been in your days, Or in the days of your fathers? Tell it to your children, And your children to their children, And their children to the generation that follows. That which the Shearer left the Swarmer hath eaten, And that which the Swarmer left the Lapper hath eaten, And that which the Lapper left the Devourer hath eaten.”
These are four different names for locusts, which it is best to translate by their literal meaning. Some think that they represent one swarm of locusts in four stages of development, but this cannot be, because the same swarm never returns upon its path, to complete the work of destruction which it had begun in an earlier stage of its growth. Nor can the first-named be the adult brood from whose eggs the others spring, as Doughty has described, for that would account only for two of the four names. Joel rather describes successive swarms of the insect, without reference to the stages of its growth, and he does so as a poet, using, in order to bring out the full force of its devastation, several of the Hebrew names that were given to the locust as epithets of various aspects of its destructive power.
The names, it is true, cannot be said to rise in climax, but at least the most sinister is reserved to the last.
“Rouse ye, drunkards, and weep, And wail, all ye bibbers of wine! The new wine is cut off from your month! For a nation is come up on My land, Powerful and numberless; His teeth are the teeth of the lion, And the fangs of the lioness his. My vine he has turned to waste, And My fig-tree to splinters; He hath peeled it and strawed it, Bleached are its branches!”
“Wail as a bride girt in sackcloth for the spouse of her youth. Cut off are the meal and drink offerings from the house of Jehovah! In grief are the priests, the ministers of Jehovah. The fields are blasted, the ground is in grief, Blasted is the corn, abashed is the new wine, the oil pines away. Be ye abashed, O ploughmen! Wail, O vine-dressers, For the wheat and the barley; The harvest is lost from the field! The vine is abashed, and the fig-tree is drooping; Pomegranate, palm too and apple, All trees of the field are dried up: Yea, joy is abashed and away from the children of men.”
In this passage the same feeling is attributed to men and to the fruits of the land: “In grief are the priests, the ground is in grief.” And it is repeatedly said that all alike are “abashed.” By this heavy word we have sought to render the effect of the similarly sounding “hobhisha,” that our English version renders “ashamed.” It signifies to be frustrated, and so “disheartened,” “put out” “soured” would be an equivalent, applicable to the vine and to joy and to mens hearts.
“Put on mourning, O priests, beat the breast; Wail, ye ministers of the altar; Come, lie down in sackcloth, O ministers of my God: For meal-offering and drink-offering are cut off from the house of your God.”
“Hallow a fast, summon an assembly, Gather all the inhabitants of the land to the house of your God; And cry to Jehovah! Alas for the Day! At hands the Day of Jehovah. And as vehemence from the Vehement doth it come. Is not food cut off from before us, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? The grains shrivel under their hoes, The garners are desolate, the barns broken down, For the corn is withered-what shall we put in them? The herds of cattle huddle together, for they have no pasture; Yea, the flocks of sheep are forlorn. To Thee, Jehovah, do I cry”:
“For fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes, And the flame hath scorched all the trees of the field. The wild beasts pant up to Thee: For the watercourses are dry, And fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes.”
Here, with the close of chapter 1, Joels discourse takes, pause, and in chapter 2 he begins a second with another call to repentance in face of the same plague. But the plague has progressed. The locusts are described now in their invasion not of the country but of the towns, to which they pass after the country is stripped. For illustration of the latter see above. The “horn” which is to be blown, Joe 2:1, is an “alarm horn,” to warn the people of the approach of the Day of the Lord, and not the Shophar which called the people to a general assembly, as in Joe 2:15.
“Blow a horn in Zion, Sound the alarm in My holy mountain! Let all inhabitants of the land tremble, For the Day of Jehovah comes-it is near! Day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist. Like dawn scattered on the mountains, A people many and powerful; Its like has not been from of old, And shall not again be for years of generation upon generation. Before it the fire devours, And behind the flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden {Eze 36:35} is the land in front, And behind it a desolate desert; Yea, it lets nothing escape. Their visage is the visage of horses, And like horsemen they run. They rattle like chariots over the tops of the hills, Like the crackle of flames devouring stubble, Like a powerful people prepared for battle. Peoples are writhing before them, Every face gathers blackness.”
“Like warriors they run, Like fighting men they come up the wall; They march every man by himself, And they ravel not their paths. None jostles his comrade, They march every man on his track, And plunge through the missiles unbroken. They scour the city, run upon the walls, Climb into the houses, and enter the windows like a thief, Earth trembles before them, Heaven quakes, Sun and moon become black, The stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah utters His voice before His army: For very great is His host; Yea, powerful is He that performeth His word, Great is the Day of Jehovah, and very awful: Who may abide it?”
“But now hear the oracle of Jehovah: Turn ye to Me with all your heart, And with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend ye your hearts and not your garments, And turn to Jehovah your God: For He is gracious and merciful, Long-suffering and plenteous in love, And relents of the evil. Who knows but He will turn and relent, And leave behind Him a blessing, Meal-offering and drink-offering to Jehovah your God?”
“Blow a horn in Zion, Hallow a fast, summon the assembly! Gather the people, hallow the congregation, Assemble the old men, gather the children, and infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, And the bride from her bower.
Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between porch and altar; Let them say, Spare, O Jehovah, Thy people, And give not Thine heritage to dishonor, for the heathen to mock.
Why should it be said among the nations, Where is their God?”