Joel 2

If there had been newspapers in Joel’s day, the headlines might have read LOCUSTS INVADE THE LAND! NATION FACES SEVERE ECONOMIC CRISIS NO END TO DROUGHT IN SIGHT

A wise preacher or teacher will get the people’s The immediate day of the Lord attention by referring to something they’re all concerned about. In this case, the people of Judah were talking about the economic crisis, so the Lord led Joel to use that event as a the background for his messages. The people didn’t realize it, but they were watching the day of the Lord unfold before their very eyes, and the prophet Joel explained it to them.

The name “Joel” means “the Lord is God.” Like all true prophets, Joel was commissioned to call the people back to the worship of the true God; and he did this by declaring “the word of the Lord” (1:1; see Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3; and the first verses of Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). It was the task of the priests to teach the people the law, and it was the responsibility of the prophets to call the people back to the Lord whenever they strayed from His law. The prophets also interpreted historical events in the light of the Word of God to help the people understand God’s will for their lives. They were “forth-tellers” as well as “foretellers.”

Joel wanted the people of Judah to understand what God was saying to them through the plague and the drought. In our own times, the nations of the world are experiencing severe droughts and famines, frightening epidemics, unexpected earthquakes, devastating floods, and other “natural disasters,” all of which have greatly affected national and global economies; yet very few people have asked, “What is God saying to us?” Joel wrote his book so the people would know what God was saying through these critical events.

As you can see from the suggested outline of Joel’s book, the prophet announced “the day of the Lord” and applied it to three events: the plague of locusts, the

our blessings for granted, until God permits a natural calamity to occur and remind us of our total dependence on Him. When water is rationed and food is scarce, and when prices for necessities escalate, then we discover the poverty of our artificial civilization and our throwaway society. Suddenly, necessities become luxuries, and luxuries become burdens.

God didn’t have to send great battalions to Judah to bring the people to their knees. All He needed was a swarm of little insects, and they did the job. Sometimes He uses bacteria or viruses so tiny that you need a special microscope to see them. He is the “Lord of hosts,” the Lord of the armies of heaven and earth. He is “the Almighty” (v. 15) and none can stay His powerful hand.

Now that he had their attention, Joel told the people to stop looking around at the locusts and to start looking ahead to the fulfillment of what the locust plague symbolized: the invasion of a fierce army from the north (v. 20). Unless Joel had some other attack in mind, about which we know nothing, he was probably referring to the Assyrian invasion, during the reign of King Hezekiah, which took place in 701 BC (Isa. 36—37). God allowed the Assyrians to ravage the land, but He miraculously delivered Jerusalem from being taken captive. The prophet gave the people three timely instructions.

“Blow the trumphet!” (vv. 1–11). This was real war, so Joel commanded the watchmen to blow their trumpets and warn the people. The Jews used trumpets to call assemblies, announce special events, mark religious festivals, and warn the people that war had been declared (Num. 10; Jer. 4:5; 6:1; Hos. 5:8). In this case, they blew the trumpet to announce war and to call a fast (Joel 2:15). Their weapons against the invading enemy would be repentance and prayer; the Lord would fight for them.

Twice in this passage, Joel tells us that invasion is “the day of the Lord” (vv. 1, 11), meaning a very special period that God had planned and would direct. “The Lord thunders at the head of his army” (v. 11 niv). It was God who brought the locusts of the land and God would allow the Assyrians to invade the land (Isa. 7:17–25; 8:7). He would permit them to ravage Judah just as the locusts had done, only the Assyrians would also abuse and kill people. “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation … to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (Isa. 10:5–6 nkjv).

In his vivid account of the invading army, Joel sees them coming in great hordes, “like dawn spreading across the mountains” (Joel 2: niv). Once again, he uses the locusts to describe the soldiers. Just as the locusts had destroyed everything edible before them, so the army would use a “scorched earth policy” and devastate the towns and the land (Isa. 36:10; 37:11–13, 18). The locusts looked like miniature horses, but the Assyrians would ride real horses and conquer the land.

The prophet makes it clear that the Lord will be in charge of this invasion; this is His army fulfilling His word (Joel 2:11). God can use even heathen nations to accomplish His purposes on this earth (Isa. 10:5–7; Jer. 25:9). The awesome cosmic disturbances described in Joel 2: are Joel’s way of announcing that the Lord is in charge, for these signs accompany “the day of the Lord” (3:15; see Zeph. 1:14).

“Rend your hearts!” (vv. 12–17). Once again, Joel called for a solemn assembly where God’s people would repent of their sins and seek the Lord’s help. The nation didn’t know when this invasion would occur, so the important thing was for them to turn to the Lord now. But they must be sincere. It’s easy to participate in a religious ceremony, tear your garments, and lament, but quite something else to humbly confess your sins and bring to God a repentant heart (Matt. 15:8–9). “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 51: nkjv).

The one thing that encourages us to repent and return to the Lord is the character of God. Knowing that He is indeed “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2: niv) ought to motivate us to seek His face. This description of the attributes of God goes back to Moses’ meeting with the Lord on Mount Sinai, when he interceded for the sinful nation of Israel (Ex. 34:6–7). You find echoes of it in Numbers 14: (another scene of Moses’ intercession); Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15, 103:8, and 145:8; and Jonah 4:2. Such a gracious God would “turn and have pity” (Joel 2: niv). Note that Joel’s concern was that the people would once again have offerings to bring to the Lord, not just food on their tables.

But all the people must assemble and then turn to the Lord (vv. 15–17). This includes elders and children, nursing babies and priests, and even the newlyweds who were not supposed to be disturbed during their first year of marriage, not even because of war (Deut. 24:5). The prophet even gave them a prayer to use (Joel 2:17) that presents two reasons why God should deliver them: (1) Israel’s covenant privileges as God’s heritage and (2) the glory of God’s name before the other nations. Moses used these same arguments when he pled for the people (Ex. 32:11–13; 33:12–23).

The Jews are indeed God’s special treasure and heritage (Ex. 15:17; 19:5–6; Ps. 94:5; Jer. 2:7; 12:7–9). To Israel, He gave His laws, His covenants, the temple and priesthood, a special land, and the promise that they would bless the whole world (Gen. 12:1–3; Rom. 9:1–5). From Israel came the written Word of God and the gift of the Savior (John 4:22).

Israel was called to bear witness to the other nations that their God was the only true God. How could God be glorified if His people were destroyed and the pagans could gleefully ask, “Where is their God?” (See Ps. 79:10; 115:2; also Mic. 7:10.) The nation had to choose between revival (getting right with God) or reproach (robbing God of glory).

“Believe His promises!” (vv. 18–27). Joel now looks beyond the invasion to the time when God would heal His land and restore His blessings to His people. Just as He blew the locusts into the depths of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea (eastern and western seas), so He could drive the invading army out of the land. In one night, God killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, and Sennacherib went home a defeated king (Isa. 37:36–38). The corpses must have created quite a stench before they were buried.

Some Bible scholars believe that Psalm 126 grew out of this event, for it describes a sudden and surprising deliverance that startled the nation. (Judah’s return from Babylonian captivity was neither sudden or surprising.) “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” (v.3) is echoed in Joel 2:21: “Be glad and rejoice; for the Lord will do great things.” Both Joel 2:23–27 and Psalm 126:5–6 describe the restoration of the ravaged earth and the return of the harvests. This fulfilled what Isaiah promised to King Hezekiah (Isa. 37:30).

Without the former rain (March-April) and the latter rain (October-November), the land could not bear its crops; and one way God disciplined His people was to shut off the rain (Deut. 11:13–17). But the Lord promised to give such bumper crops that the harvest would more than compensate for all the people lost during the locust plague and the drought. “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2: niv) is a word of promise to all who return to the Lord with sincere and broken hearts.

“You cannot have back your time,” said Charles Spurgeon, “but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. … It is a pity that they should have been locust-eaten by your folly and negligence; but if they have been so, be not hopeless concerning them.”

And why will God do this for His deserving people? So that they will praise His name and never again be shamed before the heathen. “Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed” (v. 27 niv).

As never before, our lands today need healing. They are polluted by the shedding of innocent blood and the exploiting of both resources and people. We can claim God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7: because we are “His people.”

Joel’s message to Judah (and to us) is reaching its conclusion. He has described the immediate “day of the Lord,” the terrible plague of the locusts. This led to a description of the imminent “day of the Lord,” the impending invasion of the northern army. All that remains is for him to describe the ultimate “day of the Lord” when God will judge all the nations of the earth. “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen” (Obad. 15).

Joel describes a sequence of events relating to this “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31), what will happen before that day, during that day, and after that day.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, these five verses form chapter 3 of Joel’s prophecy; and chapter 4 in the Hebrew Scriptures is chapter 3 in the English Bible. The Jewish scholars who arranged the Old Testament Scriptures evidently thought that this paragraph was important enough to warrant a chapter by itself. However, now that we have a completed Bible, this important passage must be studied both in its Jewish context and in the context of the New Testament church.

The Jewish context. The “afterward” in 2: refers to the events described in 2:18–27 when the Lord heals

The ultimate day of the Lord (2:28— the nation after the Assyrian invasion. However, it 3:21) doesn’t necessarily mean immediately afterward, for many centuries passed before the Spirit was poured out. When Peter quoted this verse in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit led him to interpret “afterward” to mean “in the last days” (Acts 2:17).

“The last days” began with the ministry of Christ on earth (Heb. 1:2) and will conclude with “the day of the Lord,” that period of worldwide judgment that is also called “the tribulation” (Matt. 24:21, 29) and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7). Many students of prophecy think that this special time is detailed in Revelation 6—19, climaxing with the return of Christ to earth to deliver Israel and establish His kingdom (Isa. 2:2–5; Zech. 12—14; Rev. 19:11—20:6).

Joel promised that before the “day of the Lord” begins, there will be a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit accompanied by signs in the heavens and on the earth. During the Old Testament era, the Holy Spirit was given only to special people who had special jobs to do, like Moses and the prophets (Num. 11:17), the judges (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29), and great men like David (1 Sam. 16:13). But the promise God gave through Joel declared that the Spirit will come upon “all flesh,” which includes men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile. “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2: nkjv; see Acts 2:39).

The church context. In Acts 2, Peter did not say that Joel’s prophecy was being fulfilled. He said that the same Holy Spirit Joel wrote about (“this is that”) had now come and was empowering the believers to praise God in various languages understood by the Jews who were assembled in Jerusalem from many parts of the Roman Empire (Act 2:5–12). In his prophecy, Joel promised “wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. … The sun … turned into darkness, and the moon into blood” (Joel 2:30–31), but there is no record that any of these things occurred at Pentecost. The miracle that fascinated the crowd was the miracle of the tongues, not remarkable signs of nature.

Furthermore, Joel’s promise included a much wider audience than the one Peter addressed at Pentecost. Peter’s audience was made up of men (Acts 2:22, 29) who were either Jews or Gentile proselytes to Judaism (v. 11). The Gentiles didn’t enter into the blessing of the Spirit until Cornelius and his family and friends were converted (Acts 10—11). Peter used Joel’s prophecy to declare that the promised Spirit had come and this was why the believers, men and women (1:14), were praising God in such an ecstatic manner. Peter was answering the accusastion that the believers were drunk (2:13–16) and backing up his defense from the Scriptures.

When it comes to Israel, “the last days” (or “latter times”) will involve both tribulation and exaltation (Isa. 2:1–5; Mic. 4:1–5), a time of trouble followed by a time of triumph and glory. As far as the church is concerned, “the last days” involve “perilous times” of satanic opposition in the world and apostasy in the church (1 Tim. 4:1–5; 2 Tim. 3:1–8; 2 Peter 3:1–9; 1 John 2:18–23; Jude 18–19). Many Christians believe that during those trying “last days,” the Lord will send a great moving of His Spirit, and many sinners will turn to the Savior before the awful “day of the Lord” is ushered in.

Certainly the church today needs a new filling of the Spirit of God. Apart from the ministry of the Spirit, believers can’t witness with power (Acts 1:8), understand the Scriptures (John 16:13), glorify Christ (v. 14), pray in the will of God (Rom. 8:26–27), or develop Christian character (Gal. 5:22–23). We need to be praying for revival, a deeper working of the Spirit in His people, leading to confession of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and unity.