Joel (Part 1)

Richard Belcher addresses the biblical book of Joel and focuses on providing an overview of its themes and messages. Belcher delves into the historical context, literary style, and theological insights, guiding listeners through Joel’s prophecies and their implications for both ancient and contemporary audiences.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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This audio lecture is brought to you by RTS on iTunesu at the virtual campus of Reformed theological Seminary. To listen to other lectures and to access additional resources, please visit us at itunes rts.edu. For additional information on how to take distance education courses for credit towards a fully accredited Master of Arts in religion degree, please visit our website at virtual rts.edu. All right, well, we’ll get started on Joel. All right. Joel is more challenging and difficult when it comes to the historical situation, as we will see.

And this is part of the reason why I didn’t have you do a prophetic profile. I hope you didn’t turn in a prophetic profile on Joel or Obadiah. Every once in a while, it happens, partly my fault because the syllabus has an asterisk by them. But we’ve tried to make clear you don’t need to turn in a profile for Obadiah or Joel. And part of the reason is there’s debate about when they prophesied. Very little is known about Joel.

And your introduction points out that Joel was probably well known to his own contemporaries so that he didn’t need to be identified. But that lack of information makes it hard to place his prophecy. And so we need to spend a few minutes talking about when Joel might have prophesied. And when we talk about the prophecy of Joel, we have to take into account three major factors to try to determine the historical situation. Let me just put these factors up on the board. They’re in your notes. First factor is the temple. It is in operation.

That’s reflected in Joel 1:9. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off.

⁹ The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the Lord; The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord. (Joel 1:9, NKJV)

So something has happened in chapter one that has cut off the grain offering and the drink offering, which means that the temple is standing because people were bringing grain offerings and drink offerings.

Joel 2:17 also gives evidence of the temple in existence. It says,

¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep… (Joel 2:17, ESV)

The vestibule and the altar. That would be a reflection that the temple is standing at this particular time. So we have to look for a period of time when the temple is in operation, so that omits what? 587, 2516, 587 the temple is destroyed. 516 the temple is rebuilt and dedicated. So Joel must either be before 587, some pre-exilic context, or after 516, 515 when the temple is rebuilt and dedicated. So not between 587 and 516.

So we try to find a place when the temple is in operation; another factor that people point out is a king is not mentioned. No mention of a king. Now, you have to weigh how important that fact is. But the leaders who are mentioned are elders and priests. So, is this significant? Should we look for a situation where there’s no king and where elders and priests are the main leaders of the nation? And then, the third factor are the enemies that are mentioned and the enemies that are not mentioned.

The enemies that are not mentioned are Assyria and Babylon. They’re not mentioned. The enemies that are mentioned are the Phoenicians, the Philistines, the Egyptians, and the Edomites. So again, how significant is it that Babylon and Assyria is not mentioned and that these other enemies are mentioned? So we take these three factors and we try to come up with a date for the book of Joel. Yes, sir. Phoenicians, Philistines, Egyptians, and Edomites. Phoenicians, Philistines, Egyptians, and Edomites. There may be a few others, but those are the major. The major ones.

Now, I’m going to lay out for you the major views on the dating of Joel, and I may even throw in a few extras that aren’t in your notes just to show you how many options have been argued for the book of Joel. The first view that is listed in your notes is that Joel comes from a post-exilic situation, which would be after 516. After 515, in the context of the rebuilding of that temple. Hubbard, I believe Hubbard has the commentary in the Tyndale Old Testament commentary series.

Alan, who is in the Nicot series, and Dillard. Dillard has done the commentary on Joel. In that three-volume commentary on the minor prophets edited by McComiskey, there is a three-volume work on the minor prophets edited by McComiskey. And I think Dillard has done the Joel volume in that. And they would argue that Joel comes from a period after 515, after 516, or at least in that period.

And if we take our factors and we apply them to this, the temple in the Book of Joel would certainly fit this situation, as the temple has been rebuilt. So there is a temple in operation. There is no king in Judah after the exile. There is a governor, Zerubbabel, but no king arises. So this would fit a post exilic situation of no king. And by 516, 515, Assyria is no longer a major power. Babylon is really no longer a major power. Babylon falls to Persia in 538, about there. 539.

And so these other enemies that are mentioned would be enemies that would be in existence in 516 or after 516 in this post exilic period. So one major view is that the Book of Joel comes from the period after the rebuilding of the temple. Now, other evidence in the book is brought forward to try to support a post exilic view.

Joel 3:2 says,

² I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, (Joel 3:2, ESV)

And so, this reference to exile, they scattered them among the nations, they argue, also sort of fits this post exilic situation of exile. Others respond to that by saying, exile is a part of Israel’s history as early as Assyria.

And so, this scattering is general enough that it could fit earlier periods, so it doesn’t have to fit the exilic period. But that’s the debate. You know, is this a reflection of a post-exilic situation, or is this a reflection of some earlier scattering that has taken place? Others argue, chapter 3:6, that the mention of Greeks would fit a later date, post-exilic. But then other people come back and say, well, but the Greeks are mentioned even in the Assyrian records. So you see, the debate goes back and forth.

But this is one major view on Joel, that Joel fits this period after the rebuilding of the Second Temple. Let me throw out another view. This view may not have made your notes, but it’s the view of Van Gemmeron. So since you’re reading Van Gemmeron, it might be good to comment on this. Van Gemmeron thinks Joel comes shortly after the completion of Jerusalem’s wall in 445. So it would be a post exilic situation, but it wouldn’t be near the 515 date, 516 date. It would be later, after the wall is completed by Nehemiah, around 445.

And he would bring forward the same arguments that we’ve already brought forward to put Joel into this post exilic situation. The other thing Van Gemmeron says is he thinks Joel sets forth the view that the community in Judah is a small community. He thinks, in reading the book, that the community is a small community, and that would reflect that post exilic situation exemplified in either Ezra or Nehemiah’s context. So van Gemmeron places the book about 445. Others argue for an early date, a pre exilic date. Again, this is in line with your chart.

Your chart argues for a very early date of Joel. But there are others who argue for an early date. Gleason Archer argues for an early date. E.J. young argues for an early date. Kylan Dalitsch argued for an early date. So the same ones that argued for an early date of Obadiah are the same ones who argue for an early date of Joel, and they place Joel again back in the 800s. Connected to the date is 841, where you have the purge of Jehu.

You remember, Jehu is the one that God raises up to put to death the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel. And in the process of putting to death the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel, he also kills the king of Judah, Ahaziah. And this is where it’s good if you have your chart, because sometimes the history is hard to keep in line and sometimes the names of the kings Joram Johoram. So it’s good to have your chart available at times when you talk about this period.

But when he put to death Ahaziah, king of Judah, guess who stepped into the power vacuum. I don’t know if you know the history, but Athaliah became queen in Judah. Athaliah was connected to Ahab and Jezebel, and she began murdering her own sons and grandsons. Now, why would she do that? Yes, to take, to get rid of all the heirs of the throne to secure her power shows you what kind of woman she was.

Well, one of those heirs to the throne was Joash, and he was hidden in the temple and reared by Jehoiada, the high priest. And within the context of the southern kingdom, the whole davidic line is in jeopardy. At an appropriate moment, an opportune moment, Jehoiada brings out Joash. Joash is proclaimed king at a very early age, about eight years old. And Athaliah is put to death. And Jehoiada is the dominant force in Joash’s early years. So this would be 841, right in that period. And many believe that the book of Joel comes from this period.

Is there a temple in existence? Yes, Solomon’s temple is in existence. Is there a king? You got the queen reigning for a little while, and then you’ve got sort of Joash being young and raised by Jehoiada. Maybe this fits the situation of there not being a king. And 841 is really before the nations. Well, the third factor, the enemies mentioned, this is before Assyria and Babylon became major powers. So you could see how maybe Joel fits this particular context.

One major problem with this view is the use of the term Israel in the Book of Joel. In the 841 context, Israel refers to who? The northern kingdom in the Book of Joel. And in the post-exilic situation, Israel is used again to refer to all of God’s people. And so in Joel 3:2, the term Israel is used. And if Israel there, which many argue Israel here is a reference to all of God’s people, if that’s the case, then it doesn’t fit very well in an 841 setting; it would fit a later setting.

So that’s the major problem with this early view. Now, I could go through some other views. These didn’t make your notes, and I’m not going to go through them. And I don’t expect you to be able to mention all of these views. But some people argue that Joel arose in the 860s to 850s during the reign of Jehoshaphat in connection with the ministry of Elijah. There are those who argue that. There are some who argue that Joel arose during Manasseh’s reign. You remember Manasseh’s reign, very apostate king.

And in essence, there was like, there was no king, you see? So there’s all kinds of arguments related to the context of Joel. The last situation I have in your notes was that some argue that Joel was composed during an invasion against the city of Jerusalem, either the Assyrian invasion of 701 or the Babylonian invasion of 587. Douglas Stewart argues this. And if you take one of those contexts as the situation, the temple has not yet been destroyed.

If you take the 587 date, particularly, you could see why a king would not be mentioned, because the kings are our apostate. In not following Yahweh, Steward argues that the fact that the book doesn’t mention a king is an argument from silence. And he doesn’t think that’s a very significant argument. He says prophets are not mentioned and he just assumes prophets would probably be in existence as well. And the enemies that are mentioned, Phoenicia, Philistine, Egyptian, they are the enemies that came alongside Babylon and helped plunder the city.

Now the weakness of Stewart’s argument is, why is not Babylon mentioned, or why is not Assyria mentioned? And if no prophets are mentioned, that might fit a post-exilic situation, because there are just very few prophets in a post-exilic situation. So as you look at the evidence, you’re sort of moved toward that post-exilic view. However, the perspective of Joel seems to fit more of a pre-exilic perspective. For example, there is a sin leading to destruction, which fits the pre-exilic situation much better than the post-exilic situation. A sin leading to destruction.

A sin leading to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. You have mentioned in Joel 2, the northern army. Where have we run across a northern army before? Book of Jeremiah. And it’s the northern army that’s going to come down and destroy the city of Jerusalem.

And so there are some things about the book that really fit a pre-exilic mindset, but then there are other things about the book that just fit better into a post-exilic situation. Dillard comes down, although he basically argues for a post-exilic situation.

Dillard mentions the possibility, and I think this has a lot of merit to it, and this may explain some of the ambiguity in the Book of Joel. Dillard mentions the possibility that Joel is a liturgical text, like the psalms, a liturgical text like a psalm of lament, that arises out of a particular historical situation. However, because it is used over and over again in many different types of historical situations, many different types of situations where you need a public lament, in reality, the Book of Joel has been removed from its specific historical context.

Like the psalms, they arise from a specific historical context, but they are so general because of the poetry that they really aren’t tied to a particular historical setting. And Dillard argues this possibility about the Book of Joel, that it’s a liturgical text, it’s not specific about a particular type of sin, and so it can be reused in situations where a public lament is appropriate. And that may explain the hard time we have in nailing down the historical context. That may explain why there are four, five, six different possibilities for the date of this book.

You know, maybe it has become a liturgical text not tied to one particular historical situation. And I think that has a lot. The more you sort of look at the evidence for the historical situation of Joel and the more you see the difficulty in nailing it down. Maybe this has some merit to it. It’s a liturgical text that was reused in situations where a lament was appropriate. Now we’re going to see that it is rooted in a particular incident. But as with all laments, those laments can be used in a broader context.

Well, as we bring this part to a close, maybe we’ll quote from Calvin, who says, as there is no certainty to the historical context, it’s better to leave the time in which he taught undecided. So Calvin doesn’t argue one over the other. As we shall see, this is of no great importance, for the import of his doctrine is evident though his time be obscure and uncertain. So Calvin basically says that doesn’t really ultimately matter, that we nail down the historical situation and the date.

The message of Joel is clear regardless of that historical setting, and there’s something to be said for that. And I just wonder if maybe the liturgical angle of the book is a way to help explain some of the ambiguity related to the date. So we talked in Joel about the particular historical context, and we’ve seen some of the difficulty related to the historical context, and we ended up our time earlier with Calvin’s quote. Now, another major issue is the locust plague of chapter one. There is described in chapter one a locust plague.

And is that locust plague to be taken literally or metaphorically? Let me run through a couple of ways this locust plague is taken. Stuart, again, we’ve mentioned him several times. It’s an excellent commentary in the word biblical commentary series, but there are several issues that I don’t quite follow him on, but it is a good commentary. He argues that the locust plague in chapter one is not describing a literal locust plague, but it’s describing an invading army. So it’s a metaphorical description of an invading army, a literal army that is invading.

So then in chapter two, this invading army is identified as the army of the Lord. So you have in chapter one, a literal army described, and then you have in chapter two, that army called the army of the Lord. Historical army, the Lord’s army. And he argues partly on the basis of chapter one, verses four through six, verse four. Chapter one, verse four.

⁴ What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. (Joel 1:4, ESV)

Verse six.

⁶ For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. (Joel 1:6, ESV)

It has laid waste my vine. So he says that what is being described here is not locusts per se, but a historical army. He argues this on the basis of the fact that locusts are a part of the Old Testament imagery of judgment, and that human armies in the Old Testament are sometimes compared to locusts, and that the ultimate threat in Joel is this army.

Now, he also downplays what is said in the text about how widespread of destruction this is, which is in verse two. “Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?” But his basic view is that chapter one is describing an historical army, and then that army is described in chapter two as the Lord’s army. Others argue differently.

Others argue that chapter one is describing a literal locust invasion, a locust plague that has hit Judah, and that that locust plague is used then as a basis to describe the coming judgment of God. So you have in this particular analysis, a locust plague in chapter one, and you have a historical army described in chapter two. And the reason for taking chapter one as describing literal locusts is because chapter one describes the way locusts behave. They ravage fields and trees and fruits, fruit trees and vines and fig trees.

Locusts don’t kill, plunder, or take prisoners of war. And what’s described in chapter one is a description of the way locusts behave. Other places of scripture use a locust plague as a symbol of coming destruction. And so the locust plague here would be the basis for a picture of coming destruction on the day of the Lord. This particular view would say that both the locust plague and the historical army are identified as the Lord’s army. So both the locust plague is the Lord’s army and the historical army is the Lord’s army.

In other words, both of them, the locust plague and the historical army, are instruments of God. If you look at 225, and by the way, this is another reason many would argue that what is being described as a literal locust plague, because when Joel comes to talk about restoration, he talks about restoration in terms of the damage caused by a locust plague. And restoration will include things being restored that have been destroyed in a locust attack.

And that restoration is described in chapter two, verses 18 through 27, where God says he’ll restore the wine and the oil and the fig trees. And in 2:25, you have this verse,

²⁵ I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25, ESV)

So when he talks about restoration, he does talk about restoration from those things which a locust plague would destroy.

And he calls that these locusts, my great army. In chapter two, verse eleven, he describes as his army.

In verse 2:11,

¹¹ The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; (Joel 2:11, ESV)

And in chapter two, he is describing, it seems, a historical army, as you see in verse seven. Like warriors, they charge. Like soldiers, they scale the wall, they march each on his way. They do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another. And they sort of leap on the city wall, the earthquakes before them. This does seem to be the description of an historical army. So the other way to approach the locust plague.

Chapter one is to say it’s really describing a locust plague. And then that is used as a description of a coming historical army. And both of these relate to the facet of God’s judgment, where a tragedy like the locust plague could be used to talk about God’s judgment. And it’s used here to reinforce this historical army, which is also connected with God’s judgment. Dillard adds something else to this. He puts this in the post exilic context, the post exilic situation. And remember, we said the book of Joel emphasizes northern army.

And you see that in Joel 2:20. This is where the book of Joel mentions the northern threat. He says, in Joel 2:20,

²⁰ “I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land…” (Joel 2:20, ESV)

Southerners like that verse, probably. But this is in a different context. In removing the northern army, the threat from the north, that fits a pre-exilic setting, as we’ve seen, where Jeremiah talks about the northern army that will come. Well, Dillard. Because Dillard places this in a post-exilic situation.

After 516, Dillard says the northern army is no longer a threat. And so he says in this different context, what is being described as an eschatological army, and that now, the concepts here are dealing with more than just something on an historical level, but it’s dealing with things which go beyond that eschatological issues in relationship to God’s judgment. And certainly whether the book comes from a pre exilic or post exilic situation, that connection is appropriate to make. Let’s say the Book of Joel came from a pre exilic situation with the northern army.

Well, when you take that message and you begin to preach that message to God’s people in the post exilic situation, then that’s appropriate connection to make. Of course, it might even be appropriate in the pre exilic context as well. So the locust plague and the historical army are elements of God’s judgment and are pictures of what will take place on the day of the Lord, the day of God’s judgment.

And it’s the destruction that comes from the locust plague and the historical army that leads to the lament and the mourning and the repentance and the sackcloth and the ashes as a part of the mourning process that caused God’s people to go to the Lord and plead for his mercy. Now, it’s also interesting this did not make your notes. Locust imagery is picked up in Revelation 9, the book of Revelation, as a part of the judgment of God.

And some of the concepts in the Book of Joel reappear in Revelation 9: the darkening of the sun, the invading locust army compared to stampeding horses, and the sound of chariots rushing to battle. See, those ideas are picked up in the book of Revelation from the Book of Joel. So again, there’s some ambiguity here, but I think the best analysis is to see chapter one being a locust plague, describing destruction; chapter two being a historical army. And these are pictures of the judgment of God. Yes, sir. Locusts play, or is that commonplace? Fairly well.

I don’t know of specific historical evidence, but there is general evidence that these things did happen in the ancient era. In fact, I’ll give you an example in a few minutes of a locust plague earlier in history. And the description of it fits pretty much very similar to now, that comes from much later in history. But these kinds of things were, I’m not saying they’re common, but they happened. They happened sort of like hurricanes. You know, they happen. We just had a lot of them.

So they would have periods where you may have locust plagues that they had to deal with. All right, let’s come to the message of the book of Joel, and we’ll get into this a little bit more. I think I have, as the theme of the book, the day of the Lord brings devastation to the wicked, but deliverance to those who turn to God. And that’s a part of what this destruction that’s described is driving toward, that God’s people would turn to him, that people would turn to God. And so Joel 1:21.

The day of the Lord is a day of devastation. And I would argue chapter one describes a locust plague in its results, a picture of great devastation, a picture of calamity. The locust plague becomes the basis, if you will, of how Joel is going to describe the day of the Lord and locusts. Many of you are probably more familiar with locusts than I am, but they are from the same family of insects as grasshoppers. They’re migratory. In a plague, they swarm vegetation and eat everything in sight that is green.

It is said that in 15 minutes in a plague, they can eat all the leaves off of a full-grown tree. 15 minutes. And they come in waves. In fact, I have a description of a locust plague. This comes from Alan’s commentary on the book of Joel from the 16th century. Let me just read a short paragraph. It says they began to arrive there one day about the hour of nine, and did not cease until night. Next day, at the hour of six, they began to depart.

Six in the morning, and at midday there was not one there. So from nine one morning till midday the next, not a leaf remained upon a tree. At that moment, others began to arrive, and they remained like the others till the next day at the same hour. And these did not leave any corn with a husk nor a green blade. In this way, they did for five days, one right after the other. And, of course, when the thing is over with, there’s nothing edible in sight unless you’ve hidden it, kept it from the locusts.

And so, chapter one is a call to a communal lament because of the devastation that has been produced by a locust plague. And the severity of the plague comes out in verses two through three of chapter one. Verse four describes the totality of the damage, using four different words for locusts. We read this verse earlier.

⁴ What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. (Joel 1:4, ESV)

Now, some argue that this is a description of the different stages a locust would go through, so that each of these turns, cutting, swarming, hopping, and destroying, describes a different stage of the locust. I think Hubbard’s commentary in the Tyndale commentary series is an excellent refutation of that view. I don’t think these are referring to the developmental stages of a locust. I think it’s better to understand these as successive waves that might come through an area and leave behind destruction. As they come through an area, they are like a nation.

Verse six says, whose teeth are like lion’s teeth.

⁶ For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. (Joel 1:6, ESV)

And so they come in and they completely destroy an area. Every area of life is affected. Life cannot go on as usual. And so in verses two through four, a general call goes out, but then specific groups are mentioned, beginning in verse five. Verse five says,

⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail… (Joel 1:5, ESV)

Now, why would the drunkards weep and wail? Exactly. All the stuff that you’d make wine with is gone.

And, you know, maybe there’s some shock therapy here, because most of the time, drunkards don’t care a whole lot about what’s going on around them. And now Joe calls them to wake up and to weep and to wail because it’s cut off. The wine is cut off. So the drunkards are called upon to mourn.

In verses eight through ten, another group is called upon to mourn. This group is left unspecified, but most agree that verses eight through ten describe the city of Jerusalem.

The feminine singular pronouns that are used here would likely point to the city of Jerusalem. A tragedy has befallen the city. The betrothed virgin has lost her husband. The worship of the city of Jerusalem has been cut off, which is what is described in verses eight and nine. No more offerings to bring. No more worship of God because the locust plague has brought such devastation.

Verses eleven through twelve, the farmers are to mourn. You can understand why the farmers would mourn. No merrymaking, no joy at the harvest because it’s all gone.

Harvest was a great time of joy, celebration. That’s gone. There will be no celebration at harvest because there will be no harvest because all of the plants and agriculture has been destroyed. And then the priests are to mourn, verses 13 and 14. And the priests are to lead the people in public prayer. Lead the people in public humility. This is a communal lament where God’s people come together and lament the situation and call upon God. The lament itself is given in chapter one, verses 15 through 20.

And it uses terminology related to the day of the Lord in relationship to the destruction that has come to the city of Judah. So this devastation is a picture of the judgment of God that will occur on the day of the Lord. Now, you can relate this. Any tragedy like a locust plague or what we saw happen in the city of New Orleans, the chaos. The chaos of a locust plague, the chaos of waters that just flood the city.

It’s appropriate to use those situations to remind us of what happens when God is going to come in judgment. We don’t have prophets today that are telling us that the hurricane hit New Orleans for any particular reason, but these things generally should be an alarm to people, should help wake people up into what’s going on in their life. You know, get people to think about their lives. And it’s always good for God’s people to use these tragedy situations to remind us and to reflect on our life in relationship to God.

And so Joel here is using a locust plague that actually hit a portion of Judah and Jerusalem and using that as a picture of the judgment of God and calling God’s people to lament and to fast. And so in chapter two, you have this shift from the locust plague to a description of the judgment of God on the day of the Lord. And the urgency is seen in Joel 2:1.

In this call to alarm,

¹ Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, ² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. (Joel 2:1-2, ESV)

And it describes this army, whether it’s an historical army, probably in context, or an eschatological army, it’s a description here of the coming of the day of the Lord.

Darkness and gloom, clouds and thick darkness, just like we experience in the locust plague, a picture of the coming judgment of God. And in chapter two, particularly, the army is making its way toward the city. And you have that army described then in chapter two, particularly verses seven and eight. And verse eleven identifies this army as the army of Yahweh, who’s coming in judgment on the terrible day of the Lord. Certainly, in a pre-exilic situation, this historical army you could identify with the Babylonians locust plague, the destruction that a locust plague causes.

The chaos that a locust plague causes is going to be what happens in Judah when the Babylonian army comes through. Habakkuk 3 describes that chaos when everything is going to be torn upside down if it’s in a post exilic situation. Now, the Northern army is not a threat, but this is a picture of generally what happens when an army comes through an area. And maybe we can identify it now with the eschatological army. But again, it’s describing the chaos of the coming judgment of God.

In verse eleven,

¹¹ The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it? (Joel 2:11, ESV)

How do you stand in the day of the Lord? How do you stand in the day of God’s judgment? Joel answers that question.

You repent, you call upon God for mercy, a repentance which is not just an external show of ashes and rending your garments, but a repentance that goes to the heart, an inward transformation, as verses 12 and 13 mention. Return to me with all your heart. Verse twelve,

¹² “Yet even now,” declares the Lord , “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³ and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12-13, ESV)

Verse 14,

¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? (Joel 2:14, ESV)

Throw your hope upon God’s grace and mercy and repent, casting yourself on the mercy of God, and you will be able to stand or endure the day of God’s judgment. Of course, in our context, it’s being found in Christ, isn’t it? It’s being found in Christ. That’s how we are going to endure the coming day of God’s judgment.

Being in Christ, who has taken upon himself the judgment of God, so that we don’t have to endure that judgment, repentance, turning unto God, casting yourself upon his grace, that is the key. And this is what the community comes together to do in this lament in the book of Joel. And in this context, repentance brings restoration. And that restoration is described in verses 18 through 32 in chapter two. And that restoration begins with the situation that the community faced. And so that restoration begins with the removal of the crisis that they had suffered.

And so, that restoration is described as a return of material prosperity, because that is what the locusts took away. Joel 2:20 actually talks first about removing the northerner, the northern threat, far from you, taking away the threat. And then verses 21 through 24 talk about conditions that yield abundance, that God will bring restoration so that the crops will grow and there will be an abundance in line with covenant blessing, the blessings of the Mosaic covenant.

And in that great verse that we read already, that people do know from the book of Joel, “to restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,” God will restore that which has been taken away.

²⁵ I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25, ESV)

And so the restoration begins right where they are and with what they have been troubled with. But then it also includes very familiar passages from the Book of Joel. It also includes spiritual blessings, Joel 2:28-32, which includes the outpouring of the Spirit.

²⁸ “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. ²⁹ Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. ³⁰ “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹ The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ³² And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:28-32, ESV)

Then, chapter three goes on to talk about universal judgment. God will deliver his people, which is the focus of the verses we just read. But then, God will judge the nations, bring them to the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, and enter into judgment with them there.

And this is all a part of the day of the Lord, the judgment that will come, but the salvation that will come to God’s people. And we’ve used this particular passage early on, first or second week, to talk about prophetic perspective, that the prophet sees everything happening at once. And so as we read Joel 2:28-32, Joel describes all these events taking place at once. But then we see how they work themselves out in light of the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.

And we’ve talked about that, so we don’t need to go into that in great detail.

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