Minor Prophets: Joel

Introduction
The book of Joel is second in the succession of the three earliest minor prophets. This book is of mid-size, compared to the twelve minor prophets. Joel uses the real image of an army of locusts sent from the Lord to destroy the produce capacities of Israel, probably Judah, to talk about the coming Day of the Lord. He outlines what will happen on that Day and leaves his listeners with an image of the Messiah as one who will teach repentance. The book centers on this idea of repentance and the ensuing Day of the Lord, judgment for those who refuse to repent.

About Joel the Prophet

Very little is known about Joel and the exact circumstances of this locust plague. We know that Joels name means Yahweh is God from the two short forms for God (elohim) and Yahweh (Yah or Yoh). He also tells us who his father is, although that does not help us place him within the bounds of recorded history. His fathers name is Pethuel, which may mean a youth belonging to God. There are no other indicators of Joels time or circumstance.

Joels Place in History

The only viable evidence we have to date the book of Joel comes from a couple of minor observances. First, it is likely that Amos would rely on Joel a bit within his own book, meaning that Joel would have to pre-date Amos. Second, the locust plague would suggest an earlier date rather than a late one. We will put Joel about 835 BC. Joash, the reigning king at this time, was just a boy about the age of seven. Before Joash came to power, Athaliah seized control after Jehoram was killed in a revolution in 841 BC. She was just like her mother, Queen Jezebel, destroying through murder all of the descendants of King David except for one, Joash, who was hidden in the temple from infancy for six years. The priest Jehoida who took care of him organized a coup and set him in power in 835 BC, acting as regent until the boy could rule on his own. This is said to be the time in which the locusts had come, more around Obadiahs time ten years ago. Within these ten years, those locusts had not just destroyed the crops and produce of Judah. They had taken away hope in Gods salvation and caused rampant wickedness.

Dates and Timelines

* I am using James Smiths Survey of the Minor Prophets as a guide. 850 800 750 700 650 600 550 500 450 400 300 BC Obad (Late)

900 BC Obad (Early) 835 Joel

Outline of Joel
I. The Locusts have destroyed Israel (1:1-2:17). A. Four types of locusts (1:1-12). B. The Lord sent the locusts because of sin (1:13-20). C. The locusts are a mere inkling of the Day of the Lord (2:1-11). D. Repent now and be rescued from the Day of the Lord (2:12-17). II. The Lord will restore and replenish Israel (2:18-3:21). A. Hope comes only through repentance (2:18-27). B. God will not just restore what was lost (2:28-32). C. Judgment comes to anyone who does not repent (3:1-16). D. God will proclaim Zion in the Day of the Lord (3:17-21).

Joels Prophetic Message

Chapter 1 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel, son of Phethuel: The word of the Lord is the prophecy, the message that the Lord has for this people at this specific time. The specifics of the time will be announced in just a couple of verses, but the people already know the circumstances. This tiny phrase not only points to a message from the Lord, but also points out that God has seen their circumstances. He is not unknowing of what has happened. We will find out that He has allowed it as an image of what will come if the people do not learn the discipline of repentance. The Lord speaks to every situation. There is nothing that happens outside of his purview. He knows all things. He has a message for His people no matter what the experience or situation. The fact that He sends prophets with messages tailored to their situations shows Gods great care for all of us. This word came to Joel, a man who was appointed by God no matter what his former occupation or condition in life, to preach and proclaim this message for this people at this time. He was the son of a man named Pethuel, whose name probably means a youth belonging to God. Little else is known of this man, but we will see his great love for Gods people as He warns of an even worse Day of the Lord in light of this locust plague. 1:2 Hear this, O elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Joel begins to give his message, probably proclaiming with a loud voice in the vicinity of Jerusalem, maybe even in the temple to all who would listen. First, he calls on the elders specifically. The elders are those in Israel who have the most experience, who know how to judge things. These are men who are very wise and well respected in the nation. They rule the land because they are full of wisdom and knowledge. The second command, to listen, is different than the word to hear used by Joel to call the elders to attention. Now, he focuses on a more general audience along with the elders. All the inhabitants of the earth was probably a reference to the immediate common people listening to his message. These would be all from the peasants to priests. This is a time in Israels history where their leadership may have either been extremely weak because their king was just seven years old, or very strong in spite of the young king because other leaders where stepping up as regents until he was ready to truly rule. We know that he was a good king, and if this message is given while he is still very young, then it may have set the tone for his whole kingship. The inhabitants of the land could be expanded to mean everyone on earth, but it was probably referring just to those who were citizens of Judah where this prophet prophesied. Joel now opens with a question concerning the cataclysmic event of the locusts, which we will soon 3

be privy to as readers. He asks those who are old and wise, who have seen many things in their lifetimes if they have ever seen a plague like the plague of locusts. He questions the rest of the nation if they or their fathers have ever seen such a thing. Joel will expand our understanding of the catastrophic nature of this plague. It has never happened in Israel before with this much damage. No one has ever seen something like this before. It is a new thing that no one can cope with. In times of crisis, people have trouble coping because they have nothing in their history to prepare them for the shock and the circumstances of a catastrophe. Joel is striking a cord with all the people because they have never seen something like this. His question would be answered with an emphatic No. The people are listening and this prophet has their attention, because they know that theyve never experienced a crisis like this, but the Lord has something to say. Perhaps it will be instruction and encouragement to them. 1:3 Recount this event to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to another generation. Joel lays out the importance of this Jewish tradition to retell or recount the events that parents have lived through to their children and the oral history that is so rich in Israelite culture. The passing on of history through storytelling embeds the lessons of history in the minds and hearts of the younger generations of a nation. This tradition has saved them from repeating historys mistakes. It has also been used to teach moral character development by parents to their children. The point of recounting this event is to emotionally and empathically relive the event so that it can be avoided if negative, or repeated if positive. These children in this manner are not just given an imperative command, but are also taught why the command exists using concrete and historical stories. There is a lesson of repentance about to be learned by this generation, so it should also be passed on to the next and continually throughout Israels history. Such passing on will surely someday avoid these types of events and bring on the Lords m ercies and great love if the people throughout their generations learn to live righteously in the Lords sight. 1:4 The remainder from the cutting locusts the swarming locusts have eaten. Then the remainder from the swarming locusts the hopping locusts have eaten. And the remainder from the hopping locusts the stripping locusts have eaten. Now the crisis, the catastrophic event is told by this prophet. There has been an invasion of locusts, an army of them which has come and eaten all of the crop. The verse is specific in its referring to these locust groups. Several groups have come in and destroyed to the next level, which shows the unusual and unnatural realm of this plague. It is not a thing that normally happens in nature. It is unusual, and at the very least meant as a sign.

The succession is complete in destroying the crops. Not one thing is left for the people. First, the crawling locusts, which are a pestilence but not necessarily destructive, have eaten the green shoots of the flowers which allow them to make the crop that is harvested. These greeneries collect sunlight and rain and feed them to the roots. This first group of locusts ate them, however they would grow back normally. But then the second group of locusts, which swarms in larger numbers and eats more than just the green parts of the crops have come to do some damage. This would be enough to ruin the plant for a season, but that is not all! A third group of locusts has further decimated the crops by eating everything that was green, leaving just the stems of the plants. Finally, if that were not enough of a message, a fourth group of locusts even eats the stems of the plants. There is no hope of saving this crop in this season. The whole of each plant in all of the land has been stripped bare. 1:5 Awake, O drunkards! Weep and wail all you who drink wine, because the new wine was cut off from your mouths. Seemingly strange comes this command to drunkards to awake. However, drunkenness is an altered state of consciousness, much like sleep. Wine slows down your reflexes and makes it appear as one who is sleepy. It is a depressant, so it keeps reality from being realized by those who are inebriated. Joel cries out to those who have fallen asleep or who have not known the reality of what has happened. The situation they find themselves in doesnt seem to affect them. Theyre still enjoying the wine in the storehouses, but they have not realized that there will be no more wine when that runs out because the crops have been utterly destroyed. They are coasting along in their comfort zones, not caring what has happened to the fields because they dont realize that this disaster even affects them. The terms for lament grow in intensity. Weep is just in the Qal, the regular stem in Hebrew, but wail is in the Hiphil, which is an intensified stem. He calls those who drink wine to mourning. It is most likely that most if not all of the population would have been to some extent wine drinkers. Wine was a main staple of drink in Joels day much like coffee or tea is in our day. But theres a reason for the mourning. These people must lament that there will be no new wine. When the old wine is dried up, there will be no more. Joel is teaching them to not be like our culture, to ignore the long-term effects of what happens around us. They do not see the correlation that the fields being stripped means no new wine. Many times in our culture, because we are so immediate gratification oriented, we dont ponder the long-term effects of policies, rules, and other operations. We need to become a wise people that realize the future happens because of our present. We have the power in the present to change the possibilities for the future. But once we go down a road, the futures that could have been are farther apart than they were at the base of the decision. 5

1:6 For a nation arose against my land, strong and innumerable. Its teeth are lions teeth, and its jaw is like a lions. While some take this verse literally to mean that a nation would rise up and attack Judah in her weakened state is probably inaccurate. As with many prophets, Joel is probably using imagery here to describe the locusts. He describes their number as a nation of locusts, too big to number. They pillaged as an army does, but they pillaged the land. The results of these locust was just as deadly an occasion as when an army does come through and pillage and ravage a land and people. The locusts took away the future of Judah. They stole the crops that are the food and engine of the nation. The locusts are described as strong and innumerable. These swarming hoards of insects probably seemed to be strong as they took from the nations crops. Anything that weakens a strong nation is strong in its own right. The hoards sheer number would have given it strength. It swept through the land unquestioned and took as it willed. These locusts are also described poetically by Joel as being like the lion in its teeth and jaw. The references to the teeth and jaw of these insects speak to their ability to humble the nation through eating their crops. The insects were relentless to the fields like a lion is relentless to its prey. They attacked without warning and their destructive force was impenatrbale. Like that great cat of the field, these insects took what they wished and left nothing for the people of the land. They utterly destroyed the peoples resources. 1:7 It placed my vine in horror and my fig tree was a splintered stump. It has surely stripped and thrown down the bark, making them white. Joel, as he continues the lament, describes the state of the harvest. It is a horrible sight. The vines which produced the grapes for wine and fruits have been laid waste. The passage literally says they are placed in horror. Not only are the vines destroyed, the fig tree has been eaten down to the stump, and even that is splintered. It would take many years for a fig harvest to become a reality in these conditions. With the vines completely gone and the fig trees in no hope of returning for many years, the plants have been exposed to the elements. When you strip the bark off of a tree and have the white of the tree exposed, it will kill the tree. So anything that seemed to be left without being ruined will soon be ruined. This destruction is complete in its scope. There is nothing left to get the people any hope of a future crop. Hope is a key ingredient to human life. Without hope, there is no purpose to keep on going in a cold and depraved world. We must be sure to place our hope in God rather than in anything else, for all other things will fail us at some point. We cannot place hope in governments, economies, people, or crops, for that matter. We must place our hope in Jesus. Otherwise, our hope can be taken away with a destructive circumstance. Other things fail, but 6

God never fails. We must put our hope in Him alone. Then hope is not subject to the whims of this life or world. 1:8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the husband of her youth! The people must first be jolted into the reality in which they now live. After describing the fields and the catastrophe that has occurred so the people will properly understand their circumstances, Joel now calls them to a fitting and natural reaction to their dilemma. When my grandfather died, I did not cry through almost the whole funeral until it was time to take the casket to the graveside. Then I wept bitterly because the finality of his death had set in. The people here have not yet realized the finality of their hope being stolen by an army of locusts. As this realization sets in, now Joel is prophetically and pastorally teaching them how to react to this horrid demise. They must lament. Lamenting was done in sackcloth and ashes. A person would first put on this cloth which has no special or rich qualities in it, such as silk or a fine linen worn by the wealthy. The idea of mourning was visualized even in the clothing that was worn during lamenting. It is as if the wealth, the delicacies, and the prosperity are stripped away to the barest and most basic garment in the sackcloth. The ashes are a symbol of the death, the gravity of the situation. They represent the death of the fire, the final result which is practically worthless. There is no nutrition left in the ashes. They are simply waste. All of this illustrates the newfound place of the one who is lamenting. This cultural mourning image is thoroughly enhanced by Joels addition of the newly made widow as she remembers the time of her youth when her joy was the highest in her new marriage. Now that same husband who had given her a future, protection a life together, was gone. The idea here may be of a sudden loss of his life, so that there is bitter turmoil because he accidentally died before his time, leaving the widow without a warning. In such a case, one would imagine the lament would be even harder to endure. There are times and circumstances in our lives that call for lamenting and weeping, for mourning and feelings of emptiness. We as believers must never lose our hope in the Lord and the restoration of all things, but for a time after such a horrible circumstance, we get in the pain, we feel it, we live in it. This is what Joel was calling the people to do. Mourning is part of the process of restoration. We must not belittle or chide mourning, to make the time of mourning too short or too long. It is the beginning of the restoration of hope and faith. 1:9 Cut off are the food offering and drink offering from the house of the Lord. The priests, the Lords servants, mourn. It was the job of the priests to offer up the offerings prescribed in the Law of Moses as firstfruits of the land were given to the temple. But there would be no offering for the Lord

because there was no harvest. Because of this, even the priests are affected by the destruction of the locusts. Joel makes his case that not one person in all of Judah is left unaffected by this national disaster. From the field hands to the priests to the drunkards to the elders of Judah, all have been affected in some way by this catastrophe. The food and drink offerings that are usually offered would have been from the grain and fruits that were harvested. But the harvest will not come because the crop has been annihilated. For these reasons, everyone, including the priests who minister to the Lord in His temple are left to their mourning.

1:10 The fields have been devastated; the soil mourns. Thus the grain is destroyed. The new wine has dried up. The olive oil languishes. As a result of the locusts attack on their fields, Joel in his lamenting details the annihilation of Judahs produce. The fields which have provided the environment for the crops and the harvest are left in ruins. They will not yield a crop for at least a few years. Beyond this destructive termination of later harvest, Joel goes so far as to say that the soil mourns. This personification of the ground continues the poetic element to this prophet. The soil mourns for its ravishing as the people would mourn if an army came in and took them captive. The soil has not the nutrients needed to produce the environment for healthy and vibrant crops. It now serves little purpose other than to be walked upon. Because there are no more nutrients, there is no more grain. What was part of this harvest has been either eaten or destroyed beyond use. The new wine has dried up because there are no grapes with which to ferment and make new wine. There is no oil in the land, which may remind you of the story of the Shunamite woman who had no oil. She could not even make meals to stay alive when Elijah came to her. All of these life-ending and hope-killing results have been made possible by some of the tiniest creatures on this earth. This devastation may not be realized for months or even years by the people. But Joel is not just going to lament the tragedy. He has a message about this situation from the Lord! 1:11 Be ashamed, O farmers! Wail, O vinedressers for the wheat and the barley because the harvest from the field was destroyed. The command to be ashamed in Hebrew sounds like the verb for dry up in the last verse. After calling on everyone from the elders to the priests to the drunkards, Joel continues as he calls now on the farmers and vinedressers, those who tend to the grape vines, to weep and to be ashamed.

The farmers must be ashamed because they have nothing to offer from the fields. The locusts have taken away their livelihood, not just their jobs. The vinedressers also should wail and weep as the drunkards because they cannot make money without new wine to sell to those who drink the wine. The whole system of economics will fall as the product is no longer available. The wheat and barley may be part of a strong drink that was alcoholic. Otherwise, these two products were also the main staples to make bread and other foods that were common to every home in Judah. Any hope of restoration is gone, and all of this is happening as the king has in the line of David has finally been restored, but is only seven years old. This crisis will fall on his watch, but he can do nothing about any of it. 1:12 The vine has withered and the fig tree is languished. Pomegranate, palm, and apple tree, all the trees of the field have withered. Thus joy has dried up out of the children of humanity. We may get bored with the amount of description and repetition that Joel uses as he describes the situation. But take this repetition as a sign of just how deep and great the devastation and destruction have become. When a crisis happens, people get stuck in that time and that situation. They can be there for days or even weeks, depending on the devastation. Joels repetition of these events and their results might show how much it took for the full brunt of this catastrophe to sink in for him as prophet and for the people. They were thinking through and living out the pain of that one event. They were so shocked and surprised at its allencompassing attack on their normal everyday lives that they had to catch up in their minds to the destruction in their fields. The implications are being mulled over in this passage. Withered and languished as verbs have been used before and the word for withered or dried up very closely resembles the sounds of ashamed, a play on words that Joel will use just as in the last two verses here in this verse again. Ashamed may be the core idea of this whole passage from verse one to twelve. The nation is ashamed for the destruction that has come upon it. No one can fix it. No one is strong enough to bring a solution. The nation is laid bare because of a natural disaster that almost has an unnatural ring to it. Joel takes time to show that no plant of the field has been kept from destruction from grapes to figs, from pomegranates and other fruits, apples and palm trees. If these lists do not show the all-encompassing nature of the destruction, then he simply says it in black and white. Next, it says that all the trees of the field are withering or have withered. The perfect verb used throughout this section in Hebrew can be translated either as a present or a past tense verb. Its called the prophetic perfect. Either it is happening as the prophet speaks, or more likely, it may not have yet happened. In such a case as the future perfect verb, the prophet is guaranteeing that this word from the Lord will soon come true. However, I believe that this is Joels reaction to the devastation that has already occurred.

Finally in this section as we close out immediate reaction to the army of locusts war on the land of Judah, Joel sums up this whole section by giving the end result. The joy of all Judah, the children of humanity, has dried up along with the plants that have dried up. Dont forget that any time you see dried up or withered it closely resembles the word ashamed. He is calling the people to see that their children also do not have a future if a crop cannot be harvested. The shame rests on them and the next generation. This is a problem of magnanimous proportions. What a time to need a word from the Lord!

Repentance Must Be Our Response

1:13 Wrap yourselves in sackcloth and mourn, O priests! Wail, O servants of the altar! Come in, spend the night in sackcloth, servants of my God, because the food offering and drink offering have been kept from the house of your God. Now after laying out the situation and its affects upon different social stratums of Israel, Joel turns to the response of the people. It has taken some time to lay out and understand the great catastrophe that had befallen the nation. Now, Joel begins the call to action. The call to action for this locust attack is the same as if a nation had come in and humbled the people through war. The proper response is to humble themselves and repent for their sins. Just as the image of the widower wrapping herself or girding herself with sackcloth in her time of lament, so also the nation must now repent through first the godly sorrow of lamenting, crying out for forgiveness and wailing against the evils they had done which brought this unnatural judgment. First, Joel addresses the priests, because they are the spiritual leaders and this is a spiritual matter more than it is an agricultural or political or economic matter. He calls the priests, who are the experts in matters of spiritual discernment to step up and provide spiritual leadership. The priests were to lead the people through example. This is why they are the first to wrap themselves in sackcloth. They are the ones who show the proper, mature and godly way to deal with this situation. Joel calls them servants of the altar because that is their familiarity. They were the ones who must offer the sacrifices and lead the people in the presence of the Lord. He calls them to come into the temple and spend the whole night. This stresses that they were not going to pray a simple little prayer. This had to be done in earnest for a long period of time. He always keeps in front of these priests and servants of God the reason for such drastic and dramatic measures. Because of the affect of the locusts on the agriculture and economy of Israel, the affect goes also to the priests and the temple of the Lord, for the Lord receives a tithe of all of the prosperity of Israel. There is nothing to give to the Lord because He has punished them for their sins. Their sins have cut them off from being able to sacrifice to the Lord. We can take a couple spiritual principles from this verse. First, no matter what crisis happens in our world, we go to God first and we commune with Him, and the pastors are the ones who lead in this area. Through going first to God and responding to the crisis in the spiritual 10

realm of life, the pastors teach their people how to properly react to the events unfolding not just in crisis, but in every situation of life. Second, our sin not only separates us from God and takes away from our ability to have resources, it also interferes with our worship of God. We have nothing to offer when we are in bondage to sin. Sin will take all that we would be able to offer. We must keep ourselves pure not just because God commands it but because it is the only way to maintain intimacy with God. 1:14 Consecrate a fast! Summon a solemn assembly! Gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord. He continues with commands to the priests, telling these spiritual guides what they should already know to do. Consecrating a fast was to call a fast for all the people, a solemn occasion of spiritual humility before the Lord. A fast from food and water would not be hard, for there was no food or water because of the famine the destruction of the crops caused. This was not why the fasted. It was to spend the time they normally would spend eating praying before the Lord. Fasting is going without something we normally have so that we can focus in on God as our provision! Consecration also suggests that the people would maintain the rules of consecration or sacred preparation in which they would abstain from ceremonial uncleanness of all kinds. This was a call to abstinence from alcohol and sexual relations, a preparation for the presence of the Lord to come in their midst. We have seen solemn assemblies elsewhere in Scripture. Their purpose was to assemble the entire nation for a religious cause, usually for repentance or learning the Scriptures. Several sacred assemblies of this sort are called throughout the times of Moses and Joshua. One of the most poignant of these assemblies was the reading of the Law by Ezra after the exile in which the people wept for they had not kept the Law of the Lord and were ignorant of its statutes. Here, the assembly is called for national humility and repentance to begin. No one was exempt from a sacred or solemn assembly. Everyone from the elders to the priests to the people were there. There would have been thousands in attendance. Their reason for coming and the agenda of this meeting is set by Joel. They will cry out to the Lord in their destitute state and ask for forgiveness, repenting of sin and drawing near to the Lord their Provider. 1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and destruction from the Almighty will come! Joel as prophet now fulfills the function of his office as he likens the destruction and the damage, the distress and the judgment of this locust army to the same destruction and disaster of the Day of the Lord, except this coming Day will be much worse than imagined and certainly deeper in destruction than this catastrophe.

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The interjection is hard to translate. It is an emotional response in the heat of the moment. Joel cries out sorrow and voices his lament in the words Alas for the day! He goes on to explain that the day of the Lord approaches. It is at hand. It is coming and the people must prepare for it by repenting. God will be the Destroyer on that Day. It will not be blamed on unnatural attacks of locust armies. God will be the One causing the destruction because of the sins of the world. That day is not to be looked forward to by anyone who is not repentant before the Lord! 1:16 Before our very eyes is not the food cut off from the house of our God, the joy and the gladness? Joel reminds them of the reason for all of these drastic measures. They watched as the famine began. They saw not just the aftermath of the destructive locusts. They watched them destroy the fields and could do nothing about it. They were held captive unable to stop the destruction. And now the Lord receives nothing. The food sacrifice has been cut off as the wine from the lips of the drunkards and there is nothing to offer. Joel likens the Day of the Lord to the same type of situation we have here in this disastrous famine, except it will be much worse. The people will watch the destruction come and will be helpless to stop it. This is why he says that it happens before the eyes of the people. They see and do nothing because they lack the ability to do anything. In that Day of destruction also, God will cut off the food from the temple and there will be no joy or gladness. The judgment of God will render its victims helpless, joyless, and sorrowful, without any gladness. But this raining down of Gods wrathful judgment will be caused by the sins of the people. No longer will a fake and disingenuous offering be able to even be given in the courts of the Lord. He will not need to accept their false platitudes, because there will be nothing to offer at all. 1:17 The seeds shrivel under the shovels, storehouses are deserted, the granaries are ruined because the grain has dried up. This verse is hard to translate from the original Hebrew because it has some words that only appear once here in this text and nowhere else in all of Scripture. That makes it hard for us to know what the history or use of the word is. However, we can get an idea from the context. As Joel continues to lament in explaining how this dire situations only resolve comes through a sacred assembly of repentance, he once again graphically lays out the hopeless situation. The people have tried everything, perhaps even replanting. The reason this suggestion comes is because the prophet says that the seeds shrivel under shovels. They would not know this unless they tried to replant. The seeds that should give life are themselves dying. We do not know if the word for shovels means shovels, but that fits the context, as the granaries and storehouses are also tools of the trade of agriculture. 12

Not only are the seeds worthless to bring hope, also the storehouses are empty, devoid of any food or people. They cannot put their trust in their stocked up goods. They must rely on the Lord and they are making the last-ditch effort to come humbly before Him in fasting and sacred assembly with humble and repentant hearts. The granaries are ruined and theres no use for them. Theres no grain to store or produce or perfect for house use. The grain has dried up. Nothing is left. They are at the end of themselves. This is the place where now as they call out to God, He can move in His awesome power and respond to their need for Him. Perhaps their sin was putting stock in their storehouses and their harvests, relying on their own resources instead of looking to God for every provision and showing gratitude for His goodness. Let us never have to learn this hard lesson in such a harsh manner! 1:18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. He continues to show the results of a failed harvest. Everything has been taken agriculturally and nothing spared. This is not just a problem for the farmers. The animals also suffer because they feed off of the grass and the grain. The cattle groan without the food because they cannot continue to live without food. They are bewildered because no matter where they go to find food, there is nothing to eat. Every pasture has been destroyed and decimated. The sheep also suffer under this cruel treatment. Every animal of the field cannot find the food it so desperately needs. The animals will not adversely be affected by the famine. This will mean that not only the grain and crops will not be a source of food for the people, but also the animals will not reproduce. They will all die, and no one will be able to eat after that, for both granaries and butcheries will be empty. They didnt have refrigerator to store the meat of dead animals. 1:19 To You O Lord I call because fire has devoured wilderness pastures and the blaze has scorched all the trees of the field. Now the prophet humbly calls out to the Lord in the presence of the drawn assembly. He uses the vocative of address to show that he is no longer speaking to the priests. He addresses God as the Lord, the covenantal tetragrammaton which shows Gods covenant relationship with Israel. Covenant is based on conditions for both parties, Israel and God. Joel then gives his reasons for crying out to the Lord and calling on Him to bring actions based on their repentance. The fires have scorched the land. One would imagine that fires were natural, but the text does not specify. The word he uses for the fires action is an interesting and intensive choice. He says that it eats up or devours the wilderness pastures. These were the places the sheep and cattle would be grazing.

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Wilderness means different things to us than it did to Joel and the people of Israel. We think of barren wastelands when we hear the word wilderness. But to them, the wilderness pastures were places that were not farmed. They were left to grow wildly. These were places perfect for sending animals that grazed out to pasture. These are the areas that Joel mentions before the Lord. Even the trees have been burned down by the wildfires. Nothing is left at all to boost the hope or morale of the people. Desperate times call for desperate measures. 1:20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You because the streambeds of water have dried up, and the fire devours the wilderness pastures. Not only is there no food for the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. There also is a great lack of water. As surely as the fires have eaten up all of the grass of the fields and taken away the animals food, so also have the waterbeds, the source of flowing water, dried up and left them with nothing to drink. Because there is nothing to eat they are perplexed and they wander in vain searching for grass. They will not find any. Beyond this, the animals all pant for the Lord because He is the source of their life, the source for water to drink. They pant in the heat of the desert sun and have no recourse. This is also part of their great suffering in the midst of this devastation. The water situation would also have affected the people, but more important is that the animals can drink and stay healthy. Everyone needs water, but it is not there. It is not that the streams are lower than usual. It is that the beds of the streams where there is always water are now also dry. The situation continues to be dire! Once again the prophet points to the wilderness pastures which the fires have demolished. Hope has very graphically taken a vacation from the people of Israel. So this sacred assembly is their final option, but it should have been their first option. I am not saying that the people did not go first to the Lord, but they are now being called to Him in the sacred assembly. They are fasting not out of necessity but out of desperation for His moving in their lives. Might we make it our first priority in the storms of life to go to God first!

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Chapter 2: Seeing the Day of the Lord 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion and raise the war-cry on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the earth quake because the Day of the Lord is coming! Indeed it is near! As a response to the prophets cries for Gods help, he now prophesies with the words of God responding to the situation. God is using this crisis to show the greatness of the Day of the Lord. He proclaims to those who will listen a command to blow the shofar, the trumpet, in Zion. The blowing of trumpets could have several implications, and we may not be completely sure here which it would be. Trumpets were used to sound the battle-cry in ancient battles. They were also used in times of praise and rejoicing. It is unclear, and perhaps may draw on both of these traditions, if the people on Gods holy hill, which is Mount Zion, who are the ones receiving this command are to praise Him for the righteous judgment bringing destruction on earth or if they are to sound the battle cry as those who are part of that judgment, to proclaim what their God is about to do in His wrath. Zion is an interesting word that merits further study. At times it is compared to Gods holy people in the physical city of Jerusalem or even refers to Gods dwelling in the Temple. Other times it refers to the people of God themselves. Here, because of the next line calling it Gods Holy Mountain, Zion is being used as a reference to the Temple mount where His presence reigns supreme. He is calling the people of God to war against the nations of the world as part of the Day of the Lord and His judgment. He is calling them out from their home in Zion to fight for Him. This is how blowing the trumpet and sounding the war cry would have their primary meaning in calling to arms, but in that act, they are praising and glorifying God. Next, the prophet, caught up in a vision of the Day of the Lord, calls for the people of the earth to quake with fear, because God is going to judge and avenge His people against the wickedness. The vision is so vivid that Joel speaks in the prophetic perfect as if it is happening right now for him. He is speaking about a future day that will come soon, but as far as this prophet is concerned, that Day is as good as recorded history. His confidence in Gods predictive word is clear. 2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like the dawn spreads upon the mountains a people, great and powerful, like them there has never been from before nor after nor will there ever be again through all the years of generations. The awesome fearfulness of that Day of the Lord is continually described by Joel as he calls it a day of thick darkness and blackest gloom. He describes clouds and darkness of the absolute darkest kind. This day will be a day of dark destruction and wrath. It will be a day that has never been or will ever be, a unique day in human history.

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Next, the prophet describes the people of God assembling on the Mountain of the Lord to wage war for Him, a vast and frightening army for the Lord. This army is as vast as the horizon on a mountain and they come out of the mountain like the dawn stretches across the horizon. This people is the people of God, an army dedicated to His will in the Day of the Lord. It foreshadows the great battle of Armageddon when the people of God gather for war against the nations. The word great here speaks of the number of the people on the mountain. There will be many people in this army. And powerful speaks to their force and ability in battle. The intimidation of this big and powerful army is immense for the people facing them in battle. This army that is being raised is unlike any other army that has ever been raised. It has one purpose on the Day of the Lord. It is a unique army that will be used for that one purpose and that is it. The Day of the Lord will be the most unique culmination of human history. 2:3 Before them a fire devours and after them scorches a flame. The earth before them is like the Garden of Eden, but after them it is desolate wilderness. And nothing escapes from them. The prophet begins to describe the environment and situation of this fighting force for the Lord. I believe this is the army of saints during the Battle of Armageddon. They are a true fighting force, one that takes what is before them and under the guidance and judgment of the Lord destroys much like Joshuas armies destroyed and put under the ban the cities and peoples of Canaan. This army will advance under King Jesus and destroy the earth, assisting in the carrying out of Gods will and wrath against sinful humanity. As the army moves about, a fire goes before them and burns up all their enemies. After them is a flame that scorches. It seems like an entire ring of fire sets at the boundaries of this army. They are surrounded by fire that destroys as they move about the ground. It is almost like a shield of fire all around them. The beauty of the earth and its creation is destroyed on this Day of the Lord The Garden of Eden is seen as the most peaceful and beautiful place on earth. So even the beauty of creation will be destroyed in Gods vengeance because it too has been tainted by sin. What He made good is no longer good, and it will also suffer His wrath as His army does His bidding. Nothing is free from the wrath of God. 2:4 Like the appearance of horses is their appearance and like warhorses thus they run. Joel continues to describe the people of God in their plundering and war. They look like horses who roam the land in battle. He goes further to show what kind of horses they are. They are like battle horses, horses designed to help their riders in times of war, experience beasts of the battle ground. They are ready for action and know what theyre doing. This is not just a newly picked army, but an experienced and battle-ready army. That experience will come in

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handy as they face their adversaries. Because of their experience, they will not be defeated or dwindle in numbers as the battle begins. 2:5 Like the rumbling of chariots upon mountain tops they leap, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring stubble, like a powerful army arranged for battle. The word like continues to give us images of this fighting force. They are like the rumbling chariots on a battlefield that shake the whole earth as they move. This army can leap mountaintops and rumbles through territories as it marches closer to its goal. It is an army that is like the crackling of a flame. All of these images are of destruction and consumption. The army carries out Gods judgment. It is the business end of His will on the Day of the Lord. The image of the crackling flame is on a small level compared to the rumbling of chariots and the mountaintops. But all of these talk about consuming and destroying, all part of the Day of the Lord and Gods judgment on humanity and creation for sin. The next comparison is to a powerful army arranged for battle, people that are gathered in rows ready for war, their weapons at the ready and their discipline on clear display. We dont war like this anymore in our day, but back then, you would show up with your troops and fight hand-to-hand combat. This is a premier fighting force, the very best for Gods army. It contains all the saints. 2:6 Before them peoples writhe; all faces grow pale. When the people see this premier army coming from the mountain of God, they have no choice but to be weary and very afraid. There is no chance of them gaining victory over this army. Its like farmers with pitchforks fighting against a nuclear force. They wouldnt even see it coming. The word here that first describes the peoples or the nations of the earth is the word writhe, or dance, or tremble. It is used of women in labor and is the idea of pain and anguish. It can also be positive, but not in the context of this verse. The next expression is that their faces grow white or pale. The word for pale is either blackness or in some cases has been translated color being drained from their faces. The other word is the word for accumulate or assemble, to gather. So the words grow pale are the best way to put it into English. These people have writhed in anguish and fear because they know there is no shot in the dark for them. They dont have a hope or prayer of winning against Gods army. So the blood drains from their faces as their realize their defeat before one weapon is wielded. 2:7 Like heroes they run, like men of war they climb walls, men each on their way walk, yet they do not abandon their paths. This army is a group of heroes, a group of manly men that fight on the side of righteousness. These warriors taint the whole of the context of this verse. It is a verse about

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military prowess and conquest. Their running as heroes and soldiers has been translated by some as marching. The next image is the man of war, the person skilled at the art and strategy of war. They were professional soldiers. Their life was dedicated to knowing war. The idea of the climbing walls is to scale the wall, much like our military scales walls as part of their training. This wall climbing would be to climb the fortified walls of a city. It is the hardest thing in war to take a higher position from an opponent. You have to have guts to fight against those odds. The next idea is of men who walk with purpose on a mission. They have a directive and a goal. They will not do anything outside of that goal. They will stay on the road or path that leads to military victory. They are focused and ready for the task. Nothing will take them by surprise as they do their job with high quality results. 2:8 They do not crowd one another. A man walks in his track and through the weapons they burst without breaking away. The discipline of this mighty and skilled army is the stuff of legends. Even in the midst of the battle, they do not give away their ability or falter. They carry through their fighting with perfection and ease of focus. No man breaks rank as the enemy attacks. They do not scatter. They do not fear or run. They press on and complete their duty in an almost kamikaze fashion. They keep rank and file, not becoming lose or lazy in their approach or marching. The lines hold whether in war or not. Nothing will deter their advancement. 2:9 They attack the city. They run on the walls. They climb up into the houses. They enter through the windows. Verse nine shows us an image of the army in action not on defense as in verse eight, but now on offense. They are attacking the city wall. Now many of the homes would be built right into the walls. The walls were sometimes very thick. One of the walls we know from one city that has been excavated was large enough for a chariot to drive around on the top of it. They attack the city by climbing the walls. Laying siege to the city would require overtaking whatever army showed up at the wall. The wall itself was the best defense. So the army has the bravery to scale the walls, to climb them while being barraged on every side by arrows, rocks, and whatever else would find its way down the wall. The houses would have windows without glass on the sides of the wall, so if a soldier could get some ways up the wall, he could take a house and then get into the city. 2:10 The earth shakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars withdraw their gleam. This armys legendary proportions are now enhanced by apocalyptic and cosmic imagery on top of the earthly imagery. Now it is the whole earth as a planet that quakes and shakes at 18

their arrival. Not only do the people turn pale, but the earth fears their arrival. Such cosmic imagery coupled with personification present the case of a truly legendary nature and character. Even the heavens are not averse to this great force. They tremble and quake at the sight of the army of mighty warriors. Then truly celestial images immerge, which are part of the apocalyptic tradition. The sun, moon and stars are silenced and darkened at their appearing. In Revelation, we see this enacted before the Day of the Lord as the judgment of God when the sun and moon and stars are ripped out of heaven and no longer give their light. This could be referring to that event. 2:11 And the Lord utters His voice before His army because His camp is exceedingly great, for mighty is He who does His word. For great is the day of the Lord and very awesome. So who can endure it? To complete the imagery of Gods fury and might brought in His army, the prophet gives one last image of God as the victorious Lord and King who has the better army. For the reason of the mere fright that His army draws from His enemies, the Lord is to be feared and reverenced as awesome and mighty. The uttering of Gods voice is something that throughout Scripture displays His raw power. The word for voice also carries the meaning of sound. This is a roaring sound that settles matters and actually causes things to happen. It is by Gods voice that the whole of creation came into existence. It is Gods voice that breaks the Cedars of Lebanon in Psalms. It is Gods voice that carries the strength and power for creation to respond. And it is that voice that follows His army. It only verifies their power and might as they conquer. His authority rests with His camp, His army. This camp is the encampment that is there, the fortification of the army as it travels and when it rests. The words exceedingly great here are quite the superlative that elevates the level of greatness of this army. The prophet is most likely referring to the armys qualities, not quantity here as he mentions the fear or reverence of the Lord. God is the one who does His word and He is mighty. His attribute of being mighty is played out in the size and strength and prestige of His army that He commands. It is said that only great men can lead great armies, and that an army takes on the nature of its commanding officer. The same can be said for the Lord here. With such a massive and awesome vision of the Day of the Lord for the prophet, he is left to offer up the same type of question that other prophets ask about the Lord. A common question throughout Scripture is, Who is like our God? But here, concerning the Day fo t he Lord, the prophet asks rhetorically, Who can endure it? This will be a day of the show of force and God will be victorious. Anyone not on the Lords side or in His army is surely doomed. They will not escape His wrath. It will be total annihilation. 2:12 But even now, declares the Lord, Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with wailing 19

The prophet recourses from his vision of the Day of the Lord by saying, But even now. He is returning from a vision of the future to its affects on the present. After showing the Day of the Lord with vivid poetry and apocalyptic imagery vast in its cosmic references, Joel now returns to the matter at hand, which he has already advised the people of Israel to do in their current situation with the locusts. They must return to the Lord and repent. He puts this command in the very words of the Lord. Here, the phrase declares the Lord puts the full authoritative weight behind what the prophet says next as he commands the people to repent. Following the command are four methods or ways that the people must return. They are not exclusive but inclusive. Each one of these must be done. They must first return to the Lord in their hearts. This is both the seat of the will and reason, much like the mind is for us today, and the seat of their emotions. It is a holistic approach to worship in which both the mind and the emotions become unified in declarations of love for God. He commands them to fast because fasting lines us up with Gods purposes and heart. Weeping is a natural byproduct of experiencing a loss, but it also occurs when deep sorrow for sin becomes the paramount expression of repentance. When was the last time that we were so heart-broken and depressed over the sins that separate us from God and one another? Many times in our Christian communities, we merely confess the sins so we dont feel like God will not take us in the rapture, but we should feel sorrow over what we have done against God, others and ourselves. Wailing here is a step up in intensity from weeping. It is the next level of sorrow and God is calling them to experience the depths of their sorrow in repentance. Repent means to turn away. So God calls them to re-turn to Him. 2:13 then rip to pieces your hearts and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God because He is gracious and compassionate, slow to become angry and abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting over disaster. This statement that finishes the declaration of the Lord has to do with the mourning process of wailing and putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes. It became an image to rip ones garments to visually show the breaking of their heart in their remorse or sorrow. Here, God sees it the other way, because He can see into their hearts. God says that they do the outward image but the inside does not match the image. While they put on the show for others to see, God is not fooled. He waits for genuine remorse and returning to Him. He does not want to see some image. He wants to see us change our hearts, to actually be sorrowful over our sins. The declaration of the Lord ends and the prophet adds on his own plea to the people to heed the voice of the Lord and obey. He repeats the Lords command as a plea and gives them reasons for repentance. He calls the Lord gracious and compassionate. Grace is not getting what you deserve. Compassion most often has the picture of a mother caring for her child. If these qualities are not enough, the Lord is also characterized as slow to anger. 20

This characteristic must be taken in tandem with the next, that the Lord is abounding in lovingkindness or steadfast love. This is the word hesed in Hebrew, the covenantal love that God has for His people. Even when they sin against Him, the Lord demonstrates these characteristics because of His covenant instead of fulfilling the stipulations of the covenant through judgment and punishment. The Lord chooses instead grace and mercy and to love. But he does not enjoy the evil or disaster that befalls His people. Although He holds all power, He seeks their good! 2:14 Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave after Himself a blessing, a grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God! In our own theology, we generally make connections that the prophets refuse to make or to force upon God. If you notice here, the Lords continued gracious attitude toward the people if they will repent is not guaranteed. It is formed in a question for a reason. Jonah reports the king of Nineveh using the same type of language. We love to say things like, God will always do this if you do that. But here, after extolling Gods loving and gracious virtues, he still does not guarantee that God will not bring judgment instead of mercy. This questioning brings a very good point to the table. Our sin truly and dramatically separates us from God. Sure, He has in the past been gracious. And He is indeed long-suffering or slow to anger. But how long will He wait on us to stop sinning and truly turn for good away from the evil we think and intend and do in our hearts? The prophet bars nothing from God. He knows that God would be in the right if He still did not accept their last recourse, that is, to repent and turn. Beyond this, Joel suggests that just maybe God would restore the land! Not only may it be possible for Him to repeat His grace and compassion when the people repent, but He may also bless them for turning to Him. This is truly hope if there ever was hope for these people. They have been ashamed and left hopeless. Every natural means of restoring hope or the land was not at their disposal. It would take a miracle from God to once again be able to offer the grain offering and the drink offering to the Lord! But this is the hope the prophet holds out. In the midst of calling the people to repentance, he gives them hope where there formerly was none. 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion! Consecrate a fast! Summon a solemn assembly! This begins to summarize Joels analysis and diagnosis of this situation concerning the destruction of Israels crops and future. He repeats his former advice throughout the last couple of sections in a way to reiterate his main points of action. Blow the trumpet in Zion comes from the beginning of chapter 2 where the Day of the Lord is envisioned. Consecrate a fast and Summon a solemn assembly are from his instructions to the priests. He is repeatin g his former advice so the people will have a way to repent as a nation. If they gather together in a seldom solemn assembly and fast, then God will see their hearts if they are genuine and they will be able to repent. 21

2:16 Gather the people! Consecrate the congregation! Assemble the elders, the children and nursing infants! Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride her bridal chamber. Joel calls the people together. In this community of faith, everyone is involved in the repentance, in the turning from sin, from the people in general down to infants! There is no excuse to skip out on this sacred assembly. Once married, a bridegroom and bride would spend up to six months alone together, getting to know one another because the marriages were usually arranged. But here, Joel calls them away even from this sacred act to do another sacred act, to gather with the rest of the community and fast and repent as part of this fellowship. The call to repentance is greater than the special interests of the individuals in this community. From the elderly to the young, the people gathered together in one group to cry out to the Lord. No one was exempt. Everyone participated. They made sin a national issue that must be dealt with by every member of the nation. 2:17 Between the colonnade and the altar, weep, O priests, ministers of the Lord! Say, Take pity, Lord, on your people and do not make your inheritance a disgrace, a proverb among the nations. Why should they say among the nations, There is no God? The prophet once again addresses the priests and calls all of them from the porch of the temple to the altar to cry out to the Lord in the place of the people. This is what the priests did for a living. They stood between a holy God and an unholy nation and made the sacrifices. Now, in prayer, they are crying out for the sake of the people before the Lord. No matter where they are in the temple, this is their job, to cry out. This could also be taken that every one of the priests were crying out, so they would fill the temple, if there were that many priests. They ask the Lord, much like Moses did in the desert when He wanted to start over with another nation through Moses, to spare them or take pity on them because they are His inheritance, His chosen people. They appeal to His reputation among the nations. They throw themselves upon His mercy and ask that He not simply abandon them as His people. Then they suggest that if God allowed them to suffer this disgrace and be ashamed by the locusts, the nations will say that God doesnt exist because He is not taking care of His nation. 2:18 Then the Lord was jealous for his land and had compassion on His people. The transition to how Joel helped the people to react to the national disaster is now seen in how the Lord responds to the peoples repentance. We are not told of the specific sins of the people that demanded repentance for the whole nation. One could imagine that idolatry may have played a part, considering that they are in transition with royal leadership. 22

Before Joash, the young king who did right in the sight of the Lord, descendants of Ahab and Jezebel, who were Baal worshipers, ruled the throne. They made idolatry a primary staple of the land of Israel. It could be for this that the whole nation is called to repentance, but this is only historical conjecture. The case remains the same for Joel. When the people follow his lead and begin to repent, the Lord once again takes up the cause of His people and has compassion on them. Because they obey Him and return to Him through repentance, it reignites the flame of the steadfast love of the covenant. The stipulations are being heeded by His people again, and this draws Him close to them again. 2:19 And the Lord answered and said to His people, Behold, I am sending to you grain and new wine and olive oil and you will be satisfied. and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations. Presumably through the mouth of Joel we have the response of the Lord to the outcries of His people in Israel. He answers the people and does not leave them there alone. This is a big difference between God and any of the pagan idols, such as Baal. When His people cry out to Him, He hears and answers them. Baal doesnt exist, so when his prophets cut themselves on Mount Carmel, he couldnt do anything. But God hears and responds! This verse shows that their hope and faith have not been misplaced. God is going to send them all of the things they lack. He is going to send the grain that they cannot grow and the wine that they cannot make anymore. He is even sending them oil, a common household cooking ingredient. Without these things, they could not make any food. He is the great Provider who comforts His people with His blessings, just like Joel prophesied He might do earlier. The people will be satisfied. They will not suffer any want. The sufficiency of Gods provision stands as an example of His goodness. He will take care of their every need. When we respond to God in obedience and submission, He opens the floodgates of His storehouse and provides sufficiently for our every need. He is the source of all provision! Not only will He provide for His people, but He will restore their reputation among the nations through His provision, not to mention His own reputation as a God who cares for His people. 2:20 I will send the northerner far away from you and I will drive him to a land dry and desolate, his face into the eastern sea and his rearguard into the eastern sea, and his stench will be lifted up, the stench of decay will rise because he has done great things. Not only does God promise to restore the storehouses of the people and provide for their needs, but He also declares He will take care of their enemies. We get the picture here of the divine warrior upon the battlefield squelching out any opposition to His people. He fights their battles for them.

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We do not have enough historical background to know if they had recently been involved in any skirmishes. The northerner here for Judah could signal even its neighboring northern Israel. We cannot be sure if the northern kingdom has been harassing the southern kingdom of Judah. However, this is a promise from the Lord in no uncertain terms that He will utterly destroy Judahs enemies. This kind of security and comfort could come at no better time, for the young king Joash has not reigned for very long. Indeed, he is helped by men much older and wiser. As the young king is developing, the Lord will keep the enemies at bay. This is a much needed word of hope for the struggling nation of Judah. Although some of the words in this verse are hard to translate, one interesting thing might be mentioned. There are two different words for stench and the phrase stench will go up is repeated twice, showing the intensity of the Lords punishment upon Judahs enemies. The first word for stench has the idea of rotting fruit. Anyone who has been around rotting fruit knows this stench is not at all pleasant. However, the second word for stench has the idea of decaying bodies, which is a much worse smell. And this is the repayment of the Lord upon Judahs enemy to the north because of the great evil that nation has done. Greatness here is referred to in the evil sense, not the goodness sense. 2:21 Do not be afraid, O land! Rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things! The Lord speaks to all of His creation. He calls for the land to be fruitful again, to no longer fear. We understand that land cannot fear, for that is a human emotion. But here, the idea of fear for a human is what has happened to the land. When we are afraid, we freeze. We dont do anything because we are afraid. The land had stopped producing after the locusts came. Now the Lord commands the land to rejoice and be glad, to begin producing again. The reason for this new operation of the land and fruitfulness is a long standing truth. The Lord has done great things. The Lord is the only one with the power to restore the fields and the crops, and He is doing exactly that with a command, with the power of His spoken word. He who brought into existence this whole of creation can speak the life back into dead lands. And they teem once again with nutrients! Truly the Lord has done and will do great things! 2:22 Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for green are the wilderness pastures, for the tree bears fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Just as the Lord encourages with a word the land, so also He encourages the animals that were lost and wandering for food in the wilderness pastures. They could not find anything to eat because the lands were desolate. But because His people humbled themselves and repented, turned away from their sins, the animals will now have food to eat. What used to be desolate and dried up is now ripe with green grass good for grazing. The Lord has blessed all of the fields not just for the harvest but also for grazing. The animals will 24

not die, but will live and grow strong. All the trees are returning to life and are bringing forth fruit, as well as fig trees and the vines. They are not just barely producing, but are strong in their production. Its as if the locusts never came! 2:23 And children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God because He has given to you the early rains for justice and He has brought down for you rainwater, the early and later rains like before. Although there was no hope for the future, now the Lord speaks through the prophet to the future of Israel, the children. Once again Zion is mentioned. Here Zion is the people, the future of Israel. This is one of the ways it is used among the prophets. Joel tells them like the animals of the field to rejoice in the Lord. Throughout Joel, we have seen that there is always cause for rejoicing. We dont just rejoice for the fun of it. There is always a reason or more listed after the command to rejoice. It is no different here. The children are to rejoice because the rains have come to water the land! One might wonder about the timing of all of this. We know from a later verse that it has at least been years in this desolate situation. But before the first of two major rains, the Lord begins to restore in this year that Joel speaks this part of the prophecy. In the land of Israel, there were two rains the farmers counted on. First was the spring rain or the first rain. This watered the crops so that they would grow and produce crops. Then there was an autumn rain that gave them one more good harvest, and then the winter would come where the storehouses would be relied upon. I would suggest that Judah has not had a very good spring and the fears that the rains will not come are dissuaded by the prophet telling them that they will indeed come. Another option is that possibly a whole year of no crops has gone by as well. 2:24 The threshing floors will be full of grain and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. The Lord continues to speak of blessings beyond their imagination as He tells them that they will soon be very busy with a harvest once again. He promises that the threshing floors will be full of grain. The threshing floor was the place where the wheat was separated from the chaff and the extras of the field. It would be laid aside for use in baking. Not only will there be plenty of work to do in bringing in the harvest of grain, but also the fruit of the vine. The vats were the places where the grapes were stored and then crushed to make wine. They were bringing in a harvest promised by the Lord to be stored up. In other words, they would not just be getting by this winter. They would be satisfied by the Lords provision. They would have what they need. They would not struggle to make ends meet through the winter months.

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2:25 I will restore to you the years which the swarming locusts have eaten, the hopping locusts, the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts, My great army which I sent to you. We know from this verse that this may have been a long-term drought and famine. The Lord in His promise of restoration says that He will restore the years the locusts stole. We do not know how many years specifically they have been without food and have been without a good source of water. They have had to make do with the resources they have had. Not only an idea of the timeframe is revealed to us in this verse, but also that the unnatural destruction of their crops was caused by God. He was the one who sent the army of locusts. They were indeed supernaturally organized to cause the destruction, the total annihilation of Judahs agricultural resources in order to bring the people to the weight of their sin and bring them to repent and turn back to the Lord. 2:26 Then you will surely eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has done astounding things for you, and no longer will My people be disgraced forever. There is an intensive here as the Lord promises the satisfaction of the people. They shall surely eat. In Hebrew, when they put a verb twice, it is meant to intensify the idea. So they will eat very well. They will be stuffed with food! Their prosperity will be immeasurable and their satisfaction will be longstanding. Because the Lord has been instrumental in giving them back their wealth and blessing, they will praise Him forever. Their reason for praise is not just in that the Lord has replenished their lands and restored their supply of food and wine, but that the Lord has always been doing astounding and wondrous things among them. And the Lord will also increase their reputation among the nations, promising that as long as they live within the stipulations of the covenant they will not be disgraced forever. Some scholars would put Joel as a post-exilic book because of this promise to not be disgraced forever, since the exile was a disgrace. However, I have shown that the covenant is in view here earlier in the chapter and the people understand that repentance is part of covenantal stipulation. I believe they would have understood this promise in light of the covenantal blessings and cursings. 2:27 And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God, and no longer will My people be disgraced forever. The Lord then declares a probable future based on the obedience of the people of Israel when He restores their land and their harvest. If they continue to live for Him and not for idols, they will continue to know that He is the source of all good things. He is promising here nothing short of His presence with the people of Israel. This language of being in the midst of the people 26

of Israel might remind readers of Gods being in their midst in the desert through the tabernacle and the camp of Israel camping around the tabernacle tent, or the temple in Israel sitting in the center of Jerusalem. We also see here that the Lord affirms that He is the God who exists, unlike any idol. He will be their God and they will be His people. This is a promise that God has promised that will be fulfilled in completion at the Day of the Lord. But as long as the people obeyed the stipulations of the covenant, God could and would promise them that they would know their God and that He would be with them. And at the very end of this chapter in the Hebrew Bible, we have a litany, a recurring of a phrase for effect and remembrance. Joel repeats the promise from the last verse that they will not be disgraced forever.

2:28 (H 3:1) And it will happen afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your young men will see visions This verse begins chapter 3 in the Hebrew text, however English Bibles combine this short chapter with chapter two. Above and beyond all of the wonderful things that God is already going to do for Judah, Joel adds this blessing from the Lord. Beyond providing for their nieeds, giving them back, what the locusts have stolen, and making both His people and His name great, God is then going to pour out His Spirit upon all the people. This may not seem like such a great promise to us after the full revelation of the New Testament, especially Peters sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, but up to the Day of Pentecost, Gods Spirit was never poured out on everyone. Only select individuals or groups throughout the Old Testament received Gods Spirit. Usually prophets and kings experienced this phenomenon. There was a group in Moses day that had this happen to them and Moses wished that all the people could experience it (Num 11:29). But this is a rare promise to the people in their context, and we must not let the full weight of such a promise be missed on us. Upon four specific groups the effects of the Spirit will be readily noticed. First is the next generation, the sons and daughters. It is important to notice that the daughters are specifically mentioned here. In this society, they would not have been mentioned, but here they are. These young people, that is, the next generation, will prophesy. Prophecy has as its hallmark challenging people to return to the ways of the Lord, to call out injustice and sin. Next, the elders, or the older men, will dream dreams. This does not necessarily have the connotation of them dreaming of the good old days. In fact, in the Bible, dreams are revelatory. They reveal the Lords will or desire for a person or even a nation. Joseph was able to interpret dreams to show a persons character or what God was going to do in their future. For our culture, dreams are more of a remembrance or reflection of the past, but in Hebrew culture, they were usually about the future. So the older generation will not be looking to the past under the power of the Spirit (which is usually their natural way) but to the future. 27

The third group the Spirit of the Lord will affect is the young men. Visions are interchanges between God or celestial beings and humans. They are special communiqus with different purposes and goals. For instance, one famous revelation is the revelation to John of Jesus Christ in which he sees images of Jesus as the Risen Victor. Visions occur commonly in the Old Testament before war. Peter has a vision that changes his views on clean and unclean food. God can use visions and revelations for different reasons, but they are often for revolutionary purposes, which would be why the young men would have them. They can take a revolution and see it become reality. 2:29 (H 3:2) and even upon your manservants and your maidservants in that day I will pour out My Spirit. The fourth group that will experience the power of the Spirit is a complete surprise, even more so than the daughters above. The final group is the manservants and maidservants! These are the lowest class of the society, if they could even be considered a class in this society. Notice again that the women are mentioned as experiencing the Spirit. This goes to prove that when God says all flesh He means to be inclusive. We are not given a specific function for this group, but the fact that they will be part of this outpouring would have blown the minds of the people in their day. 2:30 (H 3:3) Then I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire and columns of smoke The cosmic nature of these signs should be obvious. They are unnatural because they are signs of the Day of the Lord and they are caused by God. They are apocalyptic in nature. They reveal that the Day of the Lord is approaching. Such wonders do not have to make sense to us. We dont know what the imagery of blood or fire or columns of smoke should mean, except that these three things have always astounded humanity. 2:31 (H 3:4) The sun will be demolished into darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. One of these signs is the sun going missing, whether it is destroyed or simply darkened for a time. This seems to be accompanied simultaneously by the moon turning to blood, which is much less explainable to humans than the first sign. This sounds scary and frightening because it is supposed to be. The Day of the Lord is called the great and terrible, or awesome, day. It is supposed to strike fear into the wicked. But those who are righteous need not be afraid.

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2:32 (H 3:5) And it will be that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be those who escape just as the Lord said and among the survivors those the Lord calls. We must not take this promise as a second chance for unbelievers. This is the calling home of those who have believed and are saved. This is final salvation, the culmination of the salvation we are promised at the cross, for those who love and obey God, seeing His deliverance from this terrible day of wrath through His Son Jesus. Mount Zion and Jerusalem can be understood as geographical locations where the people of the Lord are located. In this sense, this prophecy can also refer to the people of God in total, Gentiles included as full revelation has granted the understanding to us. This passage does have the idea of those who are saved escaping the full wrath of God on the Day of the Lord. This last phrase parallels the phrase about those who escape being rescued in elegant Hebrew prose. God will save His people before He delivers the death knell blow to sin and wickedness in the great and glorious Day of the Lord. Chapter 3 3:1 (H 4:1) Therefore behold in that day and in that season, I will return the captives of Judah and Jerusalem This verse begins chapter 4 in the Hebrew text, however it is the beginning of Chapter three in English Bibles. There is a clear break here, which should be viewed more as a result of what God is doing by His Spirit among the young generation in Israel. This verse is one of the reasons that many scholars have opted for a post-exilic date, one after the Exile in 586 BC. However, this would not necessarily be accurate. We know that this whole prophecy has been initiated by the catastrophic event of the locusts eating the prosperity of the fields away. Now it seems that the prophet has then said that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit upon everyone, the difference being that the pouring out of Gods Spirit up until now has been a localized and individual phenomenon. Now that will be expanded in the last days. Up to this point in the prophets writings, there has been no mention of there being captives that have left Judah or Jerusalem. I personally see that the prophet is providing the future of what will happen to these people. He is not proclaiming their demise in the Exile. He has skipped that part and is showing them the culmination when God restores what was lost. This idea of bringing back can be taken as restore. In such a case, it goes right along with restoring the land physically for farming. He will also restore the land by putting back in the land the captives who have been removed as the locusts came as an army and removed the plants. The point is not the judgment that comes at the Exile but the restoration that comes with the last days. We must make note as we study the Day of the Lord and the last days of timing in the prophets. There is not a very specific timeline of Gods promises to restore in the prophets. It 29

is Peter who declares on the Day of Pentecost the inauguration of the last days. that wording is specifically missing from the original Joel prophecy that he quotes. The prophets are not concerned with the timing of events. They are more concerned for the actual events. Joels message is a message of hope to a destroyed people. So he does not tell them about the Exile. He tells them about returning from Exile because that is the fruition of hope. 3:2 and I will gather all the nations and I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat and I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel, which they scattered among the nations and divided up My land. We return once again in a little more detail to what exactly will happen on that great Day of the Lord in the last times when God will culminate all of human history. God will gather the nations by His power and might, and He will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The word Jehoshaphat means The Lord judges. This is the place of Gods judgment, named for what God will do there to the nations. Many believe that this judgment will be death for the nations. It is suggested by most that the location of this valley is in or near the Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem. The verb for bring them down can have also the meaning of make them fall, suggesting that the nations will be cut down in the valley, and it has the imagery of this valley becoming a grave of sorts. The nations will be judged by God because of what they have done to His people and to His inheritance, the literal land of Israel. They will be judged justly for their crimes of scattering Gods people among the nations and for dividing the land up as spoils. It was never theirs to begin with and God will judge them for that. He will judge them for taking away and scattering His people. Once again, this is a prophecy about what God will soon do by the prophet Joel. It is predictive prophecy not just about the captivity and scattering, but also about the restoration of Israel and the judgment of the nations. Earlier we saw the imagery of the Day of the Lord, the army of the saints taking the nations in war. This may come from Mount Zion into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. 3:3 And for My people they cast lots and gave a boy as a prostitute and a girl to be sold for wine and getting drunk. God continues to state His case against the nations gathered in that valley of His judgment because of their actions. Not only did they take advantage of His using them to punish Israel by dividing up the land and scattering His people, they have also committed atrocities in human trafficking, specifically children. The nations cast lots to decide what to do with Gods people when they scattered Israel. The casting of lots was essentially asking the gods of chance what they wanted to do with the people of God. It can also be gathered from this passage that they also were gambling and using His people as collateral.

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Even more upset God becomes for what they did with the innocence of the children of Israel. The boy would be sold as a prostitute in the temples of idols, to be sexually abused as worship to idols. They would be taken advantage of and endangered in this way. The innocence of these boys would be demolished, and that along with the acts of idolatry and prostitution angered the Lord greatly. Not only this with the boys, but the girls would be sold as common slaves to do slave labor. They would be the collateral to get the wine that the nations wanted so that they could get drunk. They were willing to sell and traffic little girls to get their joy or wine. This also angered the Lord, for He indeed has a heart for children. This was beyond excusable and a level of depravity beyond simply scattering His people. This was fully depraved in that it taught the children against the innocence they were born with. It stole away their innocence systematically. 3:4 And even Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia, what are you to Me? Are you making restitution to Me? And even My recompense for you will return swiftly upon your heads, Part of Gods judgment is not simply punishment. It can also be retributive. God in His judgment treats the nations as they have treated His people, usually more severely even then they have treated His people. The principle here is that if they so enjoyed treating His people that way, He will show them the other side, put them in the peoples shoes so to speak, and return upon them at the very least the same sufferings His people endured. Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia are mentioned here, which points to the longstanding warring between these nations and Israel and Judah. This also suggests that these nations have done something either in the past or presently that God is judging them for. It is also an indicator that this is not referring to the Exile, for Babylon and Assyria were involved in that war. This is probably for another battle or war for which the prophets oracle against these nations is brought. The way the Lord speaks to these nations, it seems that they have thought they were returning a favor to Him for the way He treated them when they took the nation of Judah in battle, but the Lord is returning upon them the judgment they made on His people in that battle. The judgment of the Lord is swift and certain. He returns upon them the evils that they have committed against His people. 3:5 when you grasped My gold and My silver and My best treasures and went into your temples with them. He continues even further in His accusations that the nations had plundered and stolen His gold and His silver. Because God refers to it specifically as His, it is probably the best treasures found in the temple. They would take the spoils of war and put them in their own temples or palaces. The word for temple can also be palace. Either way, they took Gods stuff. If

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they put it in their temples, it was a way of saying their gods were greater than God and that they had His stuff. God would not stand for such idolatrous practices. 3:6 Both the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you have sold to the sons of the Greeks so that you remove them from their borders. God continues in His righteous indignation to point out His reasons for retributive action and punitive wrath against the nations. It is true that in His wrath He used these nations against Israel, but they exceeded the bounds of His use and arrogantly did things He had not sanctioned. As He continues to highlight their excesses, the next is that of selling the people of Judah and Jerusalem into slavery to another nation, to the Greeks, who were quite a ways away from Judah. The people of Judah would now be sold as slaves, which was expressly against Gods saving grace in the Exodus. They were to be a free nation. But that is not the point that makes God upset. The part God is angry about is removing them from their borders. Up to the time of the exile and deportation, there was no concept of such a practice. When a nation or city lost a battle, they were controlled by the victors. But they stayed in their land. Now, the Jews were being deported from their land. God has issues with both of these practices. 3:7 Behold! I will stir them up from the place where you sold them to at that time, and I will return your reward upon your heads. The Lord uses the command behold! to grab their attention and declare His resolve. He will take action against the nations. He will stir up or rouse His people from the places they were sent, though scattered all around the known world. He will raise them up for His own purposes. Once they have returned to Him and are His people, He will use them against the nations in the same fashion that He used the nations against Israel. He will raise them up to return retribution upon their heads by doing the ironically same thing they did to the Jews. He will sell them to far off lands and nations as well. 3:8 Then I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah and they will sell to the Sabeans, to a distant nation, thus declares the Lord. After God stirs up His people and they begin to return to Judah and Jerusalem, He will use them against the nations and the spoil of their victory will be sold to a far off nation. This far off nation is mentioned by Joel as the Sabeans. This, to the best of our information and knowledge, is a nation in the Arabic regions of Sheba. Isaiah mentions the Sabeans as a tall people, possibly a reference to the same people group here, and Jobs wealth is taken by the Sabeans. This could be a reference to one group or up to three different groups of people. We do not know for sure. But what we do know is that the Lords promise is true and steadfast. He will use retributive punishment in dealing with the nations that pridefully took his 32

command to the limits and beyond of moral law. These nations have abused Gods use of them and done above and beyond what He had commanded. They have inserted themselves into Israels judgment rather than follow what the Lord willed only. For this they will be sold into Judahs hands as Judah was sold into their hands and they will endure being supplanted and placed in a country far away from their home and unfamiliar to them. This is the promise of the Lord sealed by the common prophetic formula, Thus says the Lord. 3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war! Stir up the strong men! Let all the men of war draw near and rise up! The Lord from heaven tells Joel to now proclaim the preparation for war until the time of His vengeance in the day of the Lord. There is a bit of the oracles to the nations flavor in here as Joel would probably have traveled throughout the land and possibly to other nations, to proclaim this message. Even if he didnt leave his own country, it would have spread to other nations. But because of Jonah and some other prophets, we know its quite possible they traveled in circuits. The call is for the nations to prepare for war. Their enjoyment of evil will lead to one thing: war with God on the Day of the Lord. Sure enough, most of the prophecies point to the Day of the Lord as having a giant battle between God and the nations later described as the Battle of Armageddon. The word for consecrate, the verb, is a derivative of the word for holy or separate. This command means to prepare for war by producing things designed for that purpose and end. Thats what the word holy means, to be separated out for a different purpose. The word for stir up here is the same word as used before, to rouse or to muster, to prepare for. The strong men are those who are heroes and warriors, men that are more suited to the battlefield and know the skill and art of war. The men of war are to be prepared, to draw near and to rise up. The last days are full of violence and war. It is the season of war that these men will involve themselves in until that day of war. 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears! The weakling will say, I am a hero! Joel and some other prophets, especially the poetic prophet Isaiah, have used this line. It is almost like a universal call to war. Isaiah uses it in the reverse sense of people turning their swords into plowshares as a marking of the time of peace. Plowshares were straight pieces of metal, like a shaft, that at the end were curved to dig down and then up into the ground. They would be tied to the back of a horse or donkey and put on the shoulders of the farmer and would dig the ditch to put seeds in. All you had to do was bend that bottom part straight and you could use it as a sword. The pruning hooks or scisors virtually had the same idea. They would have to prune tall branches, so they were quite long. They would also make for excellent spears if you took out the pivoting screw that tied the two pieces together. This is a time when even those who were weak 33

would take the field of battle. They would declare themselves to be men of war, heroes and strong warriors. They would all gather for war and it would become the main occupation of humanity. We still live in this era today. Our own country is still fighting war on two fronts that we know of, and still cleaning up previous wars with our army stretched thin. This is indeed a time of war in these last days. It will continue despite our best political efforts. This does not mean that we should not try these avenues, but that we should not put our trust in politics or economics or anything other than Jesus. 3:11 Assemble and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down, O Lord, Your warriors! The prophet calls for the nations to assemble and gather for the biggest battle ever fought in all of human history. He refers to all the surrounding nations. These are the ones that are close to Israel. But we will see in this battle of Armageddon all the nations of the earth taking their stand against the Messiah, Gods Anointed One. The next command is a plea for God to bring His own warriors to the mix. We will see this happen in that battle of all time. God will send Jesus with the saints and angels down to Armageddon to battle the nations of the earth. It is described quite poignantly in Psalm 2. The Lords warriors start with Jesus, and extend to the saints and martyrs, and then the angels will also do His will in war. 3:12 Let the nations stir up and ascend to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge the surrounding nations. This verse seems to be the Lord speaking because of the first person verb in I will sit. It also starts with a jussive, a second person call for the nations to stir themselves up and arise, to ascend on the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Now many scholars have attempted to understand where the Valley of Jehoshaphat is located without much success. It is chiefly mentioned here in this verse and soon after this will be referred to again, except in a more eschatological light as the valley of decision where the Lord decides to war against the nations as their punishment for wickedness. Judgment is mentioned here by the Lord Himself as His action against them. He is calling for the nations to come to the valley and enter into their judgment, where He will sit as judge over them. This valley has been suggested as having two main possible locations physically and also as an eschatological reference only, a mere image of a final and deepening judgment. One possible physical location is the Kidron Valley where many believe the battle of Armageddon will happen, which would also agree with the idea that this is a purely eschatological reference. The other possibility for most to mention is another valley to the south of Jerusalem, the Hinnon Valley. No matter where this place is, probably near Jerusalem because that city is expressly 34

mentioned here, we must remember that there will be a physical place in which the armies will be judged by God and dealt with. 3:13 Stretch out the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Go, tread, for the winepress is full. The wine vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. The images produced by Joel here are eschatological images that are based on the judgment of the Lord. They are also agricultural images as well. The first is the image of the harvest being ripe and bringing the sickle to cut down the ripened wheat. The idea expressed is that the nations are ripe for Gods judgment and will be harvested into judgment and death with a weapon of battle, a sharp tool like the sickle, and they will be cut down in Gods wrath. The second image conveys the same type of idea in a slightly different vein. The winepress is a place where the grapes would be crushed, another image of beating or destruction, to be squeezed into wine. The winepress was either a machine or a person that would literally squish the grapes underfoot and let the wine flow from the grapes, the fruit turning into a liquid as the blood will be crushed and squeezed out of Gods enemies in this valley of decision and judgment. The final idea is like the second, that of a vat where humans use their feet to squish the grapes into wine. The difference is that the vats have overflowed, meaning the time of Gods judgment is beyond near and has been brought because of the great sins of the nations. In other words, God did not just wait until the proper time of judgment, but even held back longer and the debt of sin is so much that it is overwhelmingly surprising that God has not already come in and poured out judgment. The final segment shows us the reason for such images of judgment and destruction in wrath. The nations, first surrounding Judah, but all the nations of the world have so embraced wickedness and moral depravity that Gods wrath is a direct result. Make no mistake! This is a judgment based on moral and ethical injustice by all the nations! People love to talk about social injustice under the guise of a whole nation making laws that stop injustice, but every nation will be guilty of injustice on that day. 3:14 Multitudes! Multitudes in the valley of decision! Indeed, near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision. In case we have gotten the idea that this will not be a big event or a huge deal, we now read the prophets horrific warning that there are multitudes, so many that it is impossible to count. These multitudes or great crowds, although multitudes has a much better connotation in English meaning insurmountable numbers, will be caught up in this judgment in that valley in the end. God will judge the whole world through conquest. He will take the nations with His Anointed and His army. The valley is here referred to as the valley of decision because God has 35

made the decision that they must be punished and brought to justice, that there will be a battle and the blood will flow as a direct result of the blood they have made flow throughout history with their wickedness. They will receive the fate they have given to others. This idea of multitudes and judgment through blood is not new to the Old Testament. One Psalm refers to the blood flowing for miles up to a horses bridle. This will be a huge battle in which the nations will pay dividends for their complicity and wickedness. Some find it hard to embrace a God who will punish in this manner, but we must remember that God will bring the due justice in the proper way. We chafe against the idea of God having all the power to do what He wants because we are not familiar with power being used in a pure and incorruptible way. But that is how our God will use His power, in a pure way that is complete and good. 3:15 Sun and moon grow dark and stars withdraw their gleam. If we were unclear on the timing of this vision, Joel once again uses the exact wording of 2:15. This vision is eschatological, pointing to the Day of the Lord, later on in the end times. It is only going to be fulfilled completely there in that time and in that Day. We see the same apocalyptic and cosmic language that is used elsewhere throughout the prophets to point to a later time. The lights that God created in the beginning of creation will not be lights anymore. The celestial stars and the moon will no longer guide us, and the darkness is a symbol of the great wickedness that will accompany that day. In a sense, creation is saying that wicked people love the darkness so much that they will enjoy not having those lights operating. This verse also reminds us that sin is not just a problem among human beings, but an insidious disorder and disease that permeates the whole of creation. 3:16 Then the Lord from Zion roars and from Jerusalem utters His voice, and the heavens and earth both quake. But the Lord is a refuge to His people and a fortress to the sons of Israel. As we have seen so many times in judgment and eschatological passages, once again we see here. Judgment throughout the Scriptures is always tempered by promises of the Lords strength and grace in fortitude toward His genuine people. Those whom the Lord loves and who have served Him in righteousness will not endure His wrath. His wrath is not against a person but against sin itself. The image presented in the beginning of this verse, and the final statement of this passage on judgment from 9-16, contains the idea of God as a roaring lion, the king not just of the forest, but of all that He has made, all of creation. He roars as a mighty God who has complete sovereignty over all things. The roar is not a cozy puffy little thing of beauty. It is a manly and wrathful proclamation of judgment.

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The Lord is in Zion, His place of dwelling. He is not staying home for this battle. He comes out to meet them and finally deal with wickedness that He has abstained from eliminating in His grace while those who could be saved will be introduced to His grace. But when He comes for judgment, God brings His A-game. Once again we see that Gods voice commands things to happen by the nature of its power and authority. The God who spoke things into being will roar and exact His judgment. We should not be surprised that the heavens and earth that obeyed Him in creation, directly responding to His voice, will have a different effect here. They both respond to His wrath with quaking as every human being not on His side will do as well. In that same verse is not just the gruffness of Gods voice and judgment, but the contrast of the grace and fortitude for the saints. He who will hold nothing back in His anger and wrath against wickedness will also hold nothing back in His protection of the righteous. For to them, He is described as their fortress, their protection, and their refuge, their place of safety. Those who are Gods people, here referred to as the sons of Israel in historical context, will be kept from the wrath of Gods judgment and vengeance. He has not come to judge people but to judge wickedness. 3:17 Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain, and Jerusalem will be holy and strangers will not pass through it again. Verses 17-21 form the closing section of the book as they point to the restoration of relationship between God and His people and the finality of those who had been stumbling blocks for Israel. In this final section, the Lord personally speaks to His people about the time following that great judgment. Because of the way in which God deals with wickedness, the roaring and the authority and finality of His judgment, the people of God will know Him as their God. Inherent in the understanding of this statement is that God is their God because He has all authority and ability and that He also protects them from His own wrath. He is their father or God who nurtures them while also dealing with their enemies. We see this as Gods relationship with Israel develops in the infant years of the nation as He gets them across the Red Sea and then destroys their enemies behind them. He is always protecting them as their God. God dwells as He always has in a special way in Jerusalem and His holy mountain Zion. This specifically and historically refers to the temple mount inside of Jerusalem. This is where God will dwell with His people for eternity, known to us in Revelation 21 as the New Jerusalem, the one place in Scripture where all of the references to Zion are combined. Zion is the city of Jerusalem, the combined people of God, and the temple, or place of His personal physical dwelling simultaneously. The image of strangers not passing through Zion is the idea that there will no longer be corruption or things that dont belong, such as the alien idea of sin or moral wickedness and ethical impurity. In that sense alone it is a statement about the purity of Zion. But it is not a 37

proclamation that people of other nations will not be welcome or dwell in Zion. We know that God will have representatives from every nation there. 3:18 Then it will happen in that day that the mountains will drip sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk and all the streambeds of Judah will flow with water, and a spring from the Lord will go out and water the valley of Shittim. Now we have not only the promise that Gods relationship will be reconciled with His people and evil will no longer be a factor, but also that it will be a time of shalom peace. This kind of peace is much more than the worlds view of peace. It is not the idea of no war, but goes beyond military and political ideologies to the idea of wholeness and well-being, of productivity and a reality of unhindered reaching of ones destiny. The mountains will bring the sweetest of wine because they are fully productive, as a direct result of creation being in Gods presence without the hindrance of the curse or sin for decay and death. The earth itself will respond favorably to Gods physical presence and His mood of happiness and peace. Milk and wine are symbols of never ending provision. God will provide anything that we could ever need because He is not just the God who protects, but the God who provides. There will never be a need for water, for all the streambeds will be full with water. No one will be in need of anything. Commodities will be a bygone of a past earth that was wracked with sin and decay. Resources will be infinite and readily available. And the Lord is the source of all of this. Without Him, there is no era of such peace. He is the very foundation for the earths productivity and kindness to humanity. 3:19 Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness. It will happen out of violence toward the people of Judah, since they shed innocent blood in their land. Those nations who stood against Israel or hardened them agasint God will not even be in the picture. The idea of desolation here means that Egypt (always representing the idea of slavery in the prophets) will be no more, not even there at all. It will be a desolation, a devastated place. There will be no slavery. Edom was always at war with Israel. They were constantly looking for ways to get rid of Israel, going the whole way back to the familial relationship of Jacob and Esau. But Edom and the idea of an oppressor will also be bygones of the past. These two nations play specific roles in Israels history of those who would stand in their way and stumbling blocks that would deny them this promised peace and destiny. God will smite them because of the sin of the nations, the wickedness that had run rampant. God will not allow such a thing in His new creation. Violence will be exacted upon these nations which have been so violent to Israel in the past. That violence is the cause for their violent downfall and destruction in this reality presented by Joel. They had shed innocent blood throughout history and now would see the same happen in their land. 38

3:20 But Judah forever will be inhabited and Jerusalem from generation to generation. Forevermore, after all of the removing of Israelites from the promised land in the covenant will no longer be left desolate. It will always have inhabitants in it. It will be a full and growing nation, speeding toward its destiny without hindrance. No more will there be others in the land that do not belong. Jerusalem has always had a special place in Gods heart, always been a holy city. And it will continue to be a place that is holy and special to Him in this era as it will always be full and inhabited. The idiom in Hebrew here, from generation to generation is the idea that this inhabiting will never end. Forever each successive generation will own and inhabit this city and this land. It is a promise of complete and total ownership forever afterward in this era. 3:21 And I will avenge their blood not yet avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion. To complete this whole book, we see not a warning, but a promise from the Lord as He reminds them that everything that happens here and now will be judged and retributively punished and repaid unto Him. He will personally be the blood avenger, the one who goes after others and exacts the same penalty they have brought in blood. He will kill the killer and take care of every enemy in the same way they got rid of Israel. This is specifically referring to those avenging that He has not taken care of already or that had gone without notice. The idea to finish out this book is that Gods judgment will be complete and His vengeance will be good and final. No one who looked to escape proper wrath will escape. He will complete the task in a righteous manner. The Lords dwelling means that the injustice the people now endure will no longer be the case in Gods rule over the whole earth.

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