Introduction
The book of the prophet Joel gives vivid descriptions of armies come to destroy the land of Israel. Though these armies are different in nature from each other, they have the same devastating effects on the land. Joel gives intermingled pictures of armies invading Israel.
Three Different Armies
Joel gives us pictures of an army of locusts, great locusts, and young locusts swarming across the land. These different stages of the same species devour all that is green upon the land. They destroy fields of grain, vineyards of grapes, groves of fig, pomegranate, and apple trees.
Joel calls on the priests and Levites, who serve the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, to wail and mourn. All the offerings of wheat and barley, all the drink offerings and smears of olive oil, are cut off. None are available to make offerings before Yahweh.
Also cut off are the tithes of harvests for the Levites and priests to eat and all the harvests to feed the people themselves. Store houses of grain are broken down. Cattle, herds, and flocks have no pastures to feed them.
The words of Joel 2 describe military formations invading the land, overwhelming the cities. Are these locusts or men coming in rank and file? These words remind one of the Assyrians destroying the northern kingdom of Israel or the Babylonians invading the land of Judah.
Joel 2:11 says that Yahweh orders out His own army, a mighty host… of seraphim? All over the world, armies from conquering empires move at the inspiration of sons of God/ angelic hosts/ spiritual beings (Deuteronomy 32:8-9) delegated to rule over the various nations. Could the army of men invading Israel be empowered by a host of spiritual beings out to destroy Yahweh’s people?
Repentance and Sweeping Away of Enemy Armies
“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.This is a call to true repentance, to turning away from one’s self- serving, own moral standards of behavior. Jonah knew that anyone who fasted and turned to Yahweh would be spared His sentence of destruction.
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
A call for nationwide fasting and assembly of the people. Yahweh pays attention to people assembled in His name. (Matthew 16:18).
“I will drive the northern horde far from you,
pushing it into a parched and barren land;
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
And its stench will go up;
its smell will rise.”Surely he has done great things!
Yahweh promised the dispersing of the invading armies. Yahweh will drive out the spiritual forces arrayed against His people.
Restoration and Rejoicing from Yahweh
Fortunately for God’s people, Yahweh promises to restore the fields and vineyards of His land. Joel 2:21 and following describe the return of new growth to the land. Autumn rains will come, presumably to water the new growth. (Rain is a picture of Yahweh’s Spirit being poured out on His people.) Joel promises that threshing floors will be full of grain, grape and olive vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
Verses 26 and 27 say the people’s bellies will again be filled with food. Their mouths will be filled with praise to their God. Shame will be as absent as in the Garden in Eden (Genesis 2:25). The people will know that Yahweh is their spiritual being who rules over them. They will have no more flaws for which to be ashamed.
Outpouring of Yahweh’s Spirit
Then, to the end of Chapter 2, Joel penned the promise that Peter quoted to explain the coming of Holy Spirit to God’s people during the celebration of Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). This was fifty days after the celebration of
- the sacrifice of the Passover lamb (the crucifixion of God’s Messiah)
- the seder meal that commemorated Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt (Lord’s Supper)
- and the destruction of those enemies in the water of the Sea of Reeds (immersion in water).
Joel promised that Yahweh would pour out His Spirit on not just priests, prophets, and kings. Ruach would come on all people: male and female, young and old, masters and servants, from every ethnos. All these people would speak Yahweh’s words, dream His dreams, see visions of His plans for the whole world.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
Spiritual beings in the heavens would be diminished or destroyed. Yahweh’s people would take their places to rule over the geographical areas of the Earth, over the various nations/ ethnos of the world.
Return of Dispersed People
In Chapter 3, Joel promises the return to the land of all the treasures and all the people taken into other nations of the world. Yahweh – through His people? – will judge the other nations and humble – if not destroy – them. Yahweh’s army, the hosts of Israel, will make war against the other nations and against their spiritual rulers.
The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
From 3:17 on, Joel describes a future for God’s people that is like the provision, protection, and lack of shame of the Garden of Eden.