Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain. Joel 2:1 A ministry morally awakening J. S. Exell, M. A. In the first eleven verses of this chapter we have a continuation of the address of the prophet to the priests of Judah. It was the duty of the priests to blow the trumpet for the assembling of the congregation, for the removing of the camp, and when they went forth to war; here the trumpet is blown to announce danger, and the consequent need of attention to certain moral requirements. I. THAT THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THE CHURCH IS IN ESPECIAL NEED OF A MINISTRY MORALLY AWAKENING. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain." Zion was the meeting-place of the people of God, and may be taken as a type of the Church of God; here the trumpet was used only for sounds of alarm and fear. There was need that those who dwelt in the holy mountain should be aroused to a sense of the impending danger; we should have thought that they would have been sensitive to the judgment of God without such an awakening cry. 1. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it is not solicitous for the moral rectitude of the nation in which it is placed. It would appear as if Zion were ignorant of, or as if it were indifferent to, the apostasy all around it. 2. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it is not alive to the peril of souls it should endeavour to instruct. 3. The Church needs an awakening ministry when it reposes undue confidence in external organisations. II. THAT AT SUCH TIMES THE MINISTRY MORALLY AWAKENING MUST BE CHARGED WITH THE SOLEMN TRUTHS OF ADVANCING JUDGMENT. "For the day of the Lord cometh, and is nigh at hand." Thus the ministry of the trumpet announced a terrible day of approaching judgment. The congregations of the present day are averse to these trumpet ministries, they prefer more gentle strains of truth, and prefer to be lulled to slumber rather than to be awakened to stern activity. The Church has need of its sons of thunder as well as of its sons of consolation. It announced these judgments as (1) Certain, (2) Near, (3) Terrible. III. THAT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF SUCH TRUTHS SHOULD HAVE A SOLEMN EFFECT UPON THOSE TO WHOM THEY ARE ADDRESSED. "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble." 1. It should awaken solemn apprehension. The people would know that the sounding of the trumpet in Zion would foretoken evil to them, and would be deeply apprehensive of the nature and extent of the judgment to follow. 2. It should awaken deep repentance. The terrors of the Lord should persuade men to deep repentance, and should become a forcible argument for a renewed life. 3. It should awaken devout gratitude. While men mourn the advancing calamities they should indeed be devoutly grateful that their advent is so clearly made known, and that they do not come unexpected upon them.Lessons — 1. That the Church requires to be aroused to a sense of its duty. 2. That the pulpit must give utterance to solemn and awakening truths. 3. That an earnest Church may avert a national judgment. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) Warning trumpets Joseph Parker, D. D. The trumpet is lifted up this time in warning. Sometimes it is lifted up in festival. The trumpet will do one of two things, the performer must tell it what to do. So with every ministry, and every instrumentality of life and nature; it is the intelligent, responsive, directing man that must say what is to be done with the silver lute of spring, or the golden instrument of summer, or the cornucopia of autumn, or the great wind of winter that makes the earth cold and bleak. The trumpet will foretell a coming battle, or it will call to an infinite feast; the man behind it must use it according to the occasion. It is even so with the Bible. There is no trumpet like the Bible for warning, alarm, excitement, a great blare at midnight shaking the whole air with tones of alarm; nor is there any instrument like the Bible for sweetness, gentleness, tenderness, an instrument that talks music to the heart, and that assures human fear that the time of apprehension has passed away. Warning has always been given by the Almighty before His judgments have taken effect. Yet there has always been some measure of suddenness about Divine judgments. The reason is that we cannot sufficiently prepare for them. We may know they are coming, we may tell even to a day when the judgment thunder will lift up its voice; yet when it does sound its appeal it startles and shocks and paralyses the world. Yet, though the warning has always been given, it has always been despised. How few people heed the voice of warning! They call that voice sensational. Were the old preachers to return with their old hell they would have but scant welcome to-day. They were men of the iron mouth; they were no Chrysostoms, golden-throated and golden-lipped; they were men who, knowing the terrors of the law, withheld them not from the knowledge of the people, but thundered right mightily even beside the altar of the Cross. Now all this is in many instances ruled out as theologically behind the time, as from a literary point of view vulgar and odious, and as from a spiritual point of view detestable, and not likely to work in man mightily in the direction of persuasion. We become familiar with warning. No man really believes in the day of judgment. But the warnings given us by men are often partial, and are not unfrequently falsely directed There is not a preacher in the world who could not make a great reputation by thundering against heterodoxy. The world loves such vacant thunder; the Church is willing to subscribe liberally to any man who will denounce the heterodoxy of other people. What we do want is, not to thunder warningly against mistaken speculation, but thunders sevenfold in loudness, to be delivered against the current iniquities of the day. Warning is needed, but let it be of the right kind; warning is a needful element in every ministry, but deliver it at the right door. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) The trumpet of Zion J. White Niblock, D. D. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY BLOWING THE GOSPEL TRUMPET? Trumpets were and are used in martial music, and in festive song. Commissioned by the Lord, and in dependence on God the Spirit, the ministers of Jesus Christ come forth before their people, to offer them, in God's name, and on His own terms, pardon and peace, life and salvation, through Christ; or, if they reject these, to denounce to them, in His name, the sentence of death and destruction. This is "blowing the trumpet." Not content with this, ministers solemnly warn the self-righteous and the unrighteous, the professor and the hypocrite, and those who are "at ease in Zion," of their approaching danger. This is "sounding an alarm." But what reception have you given to this Gospel? II. TO WHOM, AND WHERE, IS THIS TRUMPET COMMANDED TO BE BLOWN, AND THIS ALARM TO BE SOUNDED? Had he been sent to Nineveh, or to the profane part of his own people, we should not feel surprised, but he was sent to the princes and nobles, priests and Levites, aged and honourable; even to his neighbours and personal friends. He was to show to "Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins." What was the duty of Joel is the duty of every minister of the Gospel now; and the difficulties are very nearly the same. A minister must be faithful to his oath, his conscience, his people, and his God. One reason for blowing the trumpet needs consideration. It is this. "The day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand." ( J. White Niblock, D. D. ) Warning ministries T. Mortimer, B. D. The two sentences mean the same thing. To blow the trumpet is to sound an alarm. And the scene is the mount of God's holiness — the holy mountain where this alarm is to be sounded. I. WHAT ARE THE ENEMIES AGAINST WHORL AN ALARM MUST BE SOUNDED? 1. Ignorance. 2. Superstition. 3. Self-righteousness. 4. Conformity to the world. 5. Hypocrisy. II. REASONS WHY THIS OPPORTUNITY IS TAKEN FOR SOUNDING AN ALARM. (The clergyman was pleading on behalf of Sunday and national schools.) The children of the poor need education. The children of this generation will be the fathers and mothers of the next. III. OFFER SOME ENCOURAGEMENT. If you are disposed to listen to the alarm sounded, and endeavour to mind your ways. The first encouraging sign will be that you will learn to know your own state. Second encouraging sign, that you confess your sins. The next sign, your fairly setting to work, from this very hour, to see what can possibly be done for the everlasting good of these children. A most pleasing sign would be this, a looking up to God to do that for these little ones, which you have it not in your power to do for them. ( T. Mortimer, B. D. ) Alarm in God's house Ebenezer Temple. I. A SACRED SCENE. The trumpet is to sound the alarm in Zion — in God's holy mountain — among His people who professed His name. He was to tell them of the awful judgments the Almighty would bring upon the land. II. OUR PLACES OF WORSHIP MAY BE DESIGNATED HOLY MOUNTAINS. 1. Because there a holy God is worshipped. We cannot feel too much veneration and respect for the house of God. The places where we draw near to God are sacred spots. Holiness becometh His house. 2. Because there holy gifts are imparted. We meet together to receive blessings from God. There He sits, waiting to bestow on us all needful grace, to dispense His favours and to display His power. Holiness is that which we require in order to our enjoyment of God. 3. Because there holy anticipations are realised. We leave for a time the world and its concerns, and endeavour to attend on God without distraction, and feel ourselves surrounded with the Deity. III. A SOLEMN CHARGE. Blowing of trumpets an ancient custom in Israel ( Numbers 10:3-10 ). There was a peculiar way of blowing the trumpet when it sounded an alarm. Ministers are to sound the trumpet of invitation, and the trumpet of encouragement. But there are periods when we are to sound an alarm, and show God's threatened judgments. Concerning four things you need warning. 1. Formality in the exercises of religion. A dead and dull spirit has crept into our churches. 2. Conformity to the world. Here is our special danger in the present day. As Christians, we are delivered from this present evil world. Ought we then to love it, to imbibe its spirit, and follow its maxims? How difficult the line of demarcation between the Church and the world! 3. Deadness to the power of prayer. Prayer is necessary to our prosperity in the Divine life; the more we are in it the more we shall thrive. But is there not a deficiency in the manner and spirit of this exercise, both alone and in the social meeting? God has answered prayer in every age. 4. Inactivity in the cause of Christ. Prayer without exertion is presumption. There is a want of united effort. Union is strength, and there is more of this wanted. A united people is likely to be a prosperous, thriving people — a comfort to the minister, an honour to religion, and a blessing to the world. ( Ebenezer Temple. ) Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path. Joel 2:8 Order is heaven's first law Reference is to the orderly march of locusts. Note the order which reigns throughout the whole of God's world. After this fashion there should be order and arrangement in the Christian Church. Note the order of the movements of the heavenly bodies. The same law holds good with the whole animal creation. There is also order in the providence of God. An the events in our own little lives are marching straight on to a gracious consummation. We may rise higher; we may think of God Himself. We may say of all His attributes, "neither doth one thrust another, but each one walketh in his path." The same order is perceptible in the doctrines of the Word. Doctrines which look as if they contradicted each other, are nevertheless fully agreed. Apply the lesson to the Christian life. We should remember that our thoughts, graces, and actions, ought all to keep their proper position. We ought to endeavour, as God shall teach us by His Spirit, to keep our thoughts of God's Word in their due harmony. Doctrine is not all that is taught in the Word, there are duties and promises also. The same should hold good in the graces which we cultivate. The same proportions and balancings should be found in our Christian duties. God would have us attend to all duties. The difficulty is often felt as to how much is due to diligence in business, and how much to fervency in spirit. Each one must decide and draw the line for himself. There is a greater difficulty with regard to the arrangement of distinct duties, when they are likely to run counter to one another. What is true in the little commonwealth of the heart and home, ought also to be true of the Church at large. There are different orders of workers, and these must co-operate. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The army of the locusts I. They are very bold and daring. Some of the ancients have observed that the head of a locust is very like in shape to the head of a horse. 2. Very loud and noisy. "Like the noise of chariots," of many chariots, when driven furiously over rough ground. Historians tell us that the noise made by swarms of locusts in those countries that are infested with them has sometimes been heard six miles off. The noise is compared to that of a roaring fire. 3. They are very regular, and keep ranks in their march. "They shall march every one on his ways," straight forward, as if they had been trained up by the discipline of war to keep their post and observe their right-hand man. Their number and swiftness shall breed no confusion. See how God can make creatures to act by rule that have no reason to act by, when He designs to serve His own purposes by them. And see how necessary it is that those who are employed in any service for God should observe order and keep rank, should diligently go on in their own work, and not stand in one another's way. ( Matthew Henry . ) The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can abide it? Joel 2:11 The judgments which shall accompany the day of the Lord J. S. Exell. M. A. I. JUDGMENTS PRODUCTIVE OF GREAT SORROW. "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness." This imagery is probably taken from the flight of locusts. They come in clouds. They darken the sky when they fly. The judgment of the locusts was typical of the day of judgment. Light is always the emblem of joy. Darkness is the emblem of intense sorrow. The day of the Lord will be productive of great sorrow to the impenitent, as then all their plans will be at an end, their hopes will vanish, their ambitions will appear vain, and the great mystery of eternity before them for which they are unprepared will awaken the saddest reflections and anticipations within their souls. II. JUDGMENTS WIDELY SPREAD. "As the morning spread upon the mountains." Some have thought this to allude to the appearance which the inhabitants of Abyssinia too well knew, as preceding the coming of the locusts. A sombre yellow light is cast on the ground, from the reflection, it was thought, of their yellow wings. But that appearance itself seems to be peculiar to that country, or perhaps to certain flights of locusts. The image naturally describes the suddenness and universality of the darkness, when men looked for light. As the mountain-tops first catch the gladdening rays of the sun, ere yet it riseth on. the plains, and the light spreads from height to height, until the whole earth is arrayed in light,: so wide and universal shall the outspreading be, but it Shall be of darkness, not of light; the light itself shall be turned into darkness (Pusey). Thus the ills of the day of the Lord will be rapid in their motion as the spread of the first light of the day, and will fall upon all the myriads of the impenitent who have lived since the commencement of time. III. JUDGMENTS GREATLY DESTRUCTIVE. "A flame devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them." This is not to be understood of the heat of the sun, or of the great drought that went before and continued after the locusts, but of them themselves, which were like a consuming fire; wherever they came they devoured everything as fire does stubble. This is a picture of the judgments which will accompany the day of the Lord; they will consume as with a terrible flame all that a wicked life holds dear, and there shall be no escape from their terrible ravages. IV. JUDGMENTS EMINENTLY WARLIKE. "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks." And thus we have pictured the awful judgments of the day of the Lord, — they shall be swift as horsemen (ver. 4); they shall inspire terror (ver. 6); they shall overcome every obstruction to their effective operation (ver. 7); they shall be orderly and well disciplined (ver. 7); they shall be incapable of repulse (ver. 8); they shall stealthily achieve their ends (ver. 9); they shall derange the usual order of nature (ver. 10); they shall leave no doubt as to the fact that they are Divinely sent on their work of retribution. Well may the prophet ask, "Who shall be able to stand?" V. JUDGMENTS DIVINELY CONDUCTED. "And the Lord shall utter His voice before His army." And thus amidst the terrors of that awful day there will be heard the Divine voice, commanding the warlike energies which shall be so destructive, and that voice will strike despair into the wicked soul. Lessons — 1. That the day of the Lord is advancing. 2. That it will come full of terror. 3. That it should lead to repentance. ( J. S. Exell. M. A. ) Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. Joel 2:12-14 The characteristics and encouragements of true repentance J. S. Exell, M. A. I. THAT TRUE REPENTANCE CONSISTS IN THE IMMEDIATE TURNING OF THE SOUL TO GOD, IN A MOOD OF DEEP SORROW FOR SIN. This turning to God must be — 1. Immediate. The prophet tells the people of Judah that they must turn "also now" to the Lord. These little words are full of emphasis, and signify that even though the people had so long abused the Divine forbearance, and although the opportunity of mercy was passing away, yet if they would at once pay heed to the words of warning they should be saved. There was no time for delay. 2. Sincere. The prophet says to the people of Judah, turn unto the Lord "with all your heart." They were not to simulate a repentance they did not truly feel; it was not to be half-hearted. They were to turn to God in their thoughts, in their affections, in their wills, and in every faculty and capability of their souls, 3. Inward. The prophet says to the people of Judah, "Rend your heart, and not your garments." Sin is an inward thing, and so must be the repentance which puts it away. 4. Sorrowful. The people of Judah were to turn to the Lord "with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." A true turning of the soul to God is always accompanied by intense sorrow because the law of God has been broken, because the soul has been injured by sin, because time has been lost in which good might have been done, because it has enfeebled the moral manhood, and because it has moved the anger of God. II. THAT TRUE REPENTANCE IS ENCOURAGED BY OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE NATURE, AND BY A HOPE OF THE DIVINE BLESSING. "And turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him?" Here we have the greatest encouragements to repentance — 1. From our knowledge of the Divine character. The prophet here gives a very beautiful revelation of the nature and character of God to the inhabitants of Judah, which they would perhaps hardly regard as consistent with His previous threats of judgment. And we have throughout the Bible such a revelation of the Divine mercy as should be an encouragement to the penitent. It is natural for God to have mercy upon the repentant soul, even as it is natural for fire to burn. 2. From our hope of the Divine blessing. It seems as though the prophet wished to leave the Jews in some uncertainty as to whether God would "return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him, in order that he might not weaken any impression which his former denunciations had made. God often leaves behind Him a blessing in the repentant soul, even a joy unspeakable and full of glory.Lessons — 1. That men should turn to God with full purpose of heart. 2. That they should do so while it is called to-day. 3. That they should thus seek His mercy and expect His blessing. ( J. S. Exell, M. A. ) The first day of Lent W. Walsham How, D. D. From very ancient times Ash Wednesday has been kept by Christians with great strictness. Our Church too marks this day as a specially solemn day, by providing a special service for it, namely, the "Commination, or denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners" — a service well fitted to stir up our dull minds to the thought of our sins, and to rouse our slumbering con sciences to the feeling of our guilt. Now the great use of special days like this is to fill our hearts and minds with some special thought or feeling, to fix it firmly in our memory, to press and stamp it in so deeply that it will not easily be rubbed out by the wear and tear of the world: and on Ash Wednesday the thought that should fill our mind is the thought of our sinfulness; the feeling that should be uppermost in our hearts is the feeling of our deep guilt in the sight of God. This thought and feeling should rise with us in the morning, should go forth with us to our daily toil or business, should be with us wherever we are, and go with us wherever we go, if we would spend this day as it is meant to be spent, as a day of deep and earnest penitence. The very reason why most people's religion is so poor and weak is because their religious feelings are so shallow, their religious acts so hasty and formal. A day like this is meant to correct the fault. It is meant to deepen the feelings, to give occasion for a more real and searching penitence. It is meant to be a day of much strict self-examination, of much humble confession of sin, of much earnest prayer, of much godly sorrow, of much hearty resolve. To fast on this day, and deny ourselves outwardly, is a mere mockery and snare, tempting us to think well of ourselves, and to fancy we are doing great things, if we have not the inward spirit of fasting, which is the humbling of the soul in secret shame and sorrow before God. Let this be what we aim at, and then we shall be thankful for every aid, such as fasting is, to so good an end. Only we must remember the end is greater than the means. Let us not, then, despise a day and a service which may be so blest to us, and which have been so blest to thousands and thousands of Christian people. Nay, till we can say that our sense of sin cannot be made deeper, that our confessions cannot be more earnest, that our knowledge of self cannot be increased, that our repentance cannot be more sincere, — have we any right to despise these helps? ( W. Walsham How, D. D. ) National and personal fasting Harry Jones. It is not always that the voice of the Church hits the mood of the world. Just now there is no thoughtful man, whatever his personal condition, whose spirit is altogether untouched by sadness. We are all breathing an atmosphere of uneasiness, humiliation, and perplexity; our hearts are heavy, and there is much to weigh them down. How can we use the resource which the text proclaims? It is by no lip-uttered penitence that we can so turn unto God. It is by no mere confession of faults which we think others have committed, and petitions that they may be repaired. We may individually feel a sense of impotence in the presence of movements and measures which we cannot control. But, remember, that the whole is made up of parts; several items construct the whole. Every one who honestly tries to see himself and his wishes in the light of the Lord of righteousness, aids in the solution of national and social problems, whatever they may be, whether they concern order, home distress, or troubles beyond the seas. The individual is the unit of humanity. A sense of general vexation must never blot out that of personal responsibility. As each sweeps before his own door, the street is clean. As each honestly turns to the Lord, the attitude of the whole is corrected. Our business is to see to the items of our own conduct, leaving the total to accumulate by inevitable law. How may we individually use the tide of national anxiety in obeying the summons of the Lenten season? We have a common fault, a hectoring tone towards supposed inferiors. If there is anything which should cultivate Christian society and Christian households, it is goodwill and kindliness. Let not the summons of the text demand a mere epoch of religious procedure, when we kneel in the congregation or in the chamber. Let it touch our lives. A turning to the Lord is a turning from self, from its lower passions, aims, and habits. It comes out in audible, visible, material results. It is seen in many a thing; it is perceived in the tone of the voice, and in the look of the eye; it is seen in the fair conduct of commonplace business; it is seen in our correspondence; in the office and the shop; in the amenities of home, and in the rectitude of public life; in the details of our personal conversation, and in the nature of our familiar habits. Pause at one point — "with fasting." This arrow hits a national and personal blot. Some people fast too much, through poverty. Some people eat too much, through self-indulgence. There are many who need to fast, who need to use such abstinence that the flesh may, as it should, obey the mind, obey the spirit, not on the lowest, but on the highest grounds, that they may be, physically and intellectually, in body and soul, such as God intends them to be. Treat the summons of the Lenten season as a wholesome, reasonable, godly, human call to consider our ways, as in the presence of the Lord in whom we live, and move, and have our being. ( Harry Jones. ) Thoughts for Lent J. Burgon, M. A. Ash Wednesday is neither a saint's day, nor a festival. It is simply the first of the forty days of Lent. On this day we read the seven penitential Psalms, and the Commination Service, and thus the day assumes a severe penitential character of its own. The text reminds us that at this time we have an inward and an outward duty to fulfil. The inward duty is, the turning of the heart to God. The outward is, the mortification of our bodily appetites. 1. Fasting is a matter very little discoursed about, and very little practised. Fasting is not for the weak, the sickly, the very young, or the very poor. Fasting is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Fasting should be observed to God. Its essence is mortification, — not the mere act of abstaining from food. The fasting we should all aim at is rather the denying ourselves in respect of whatever we know to be a superfluity. A check imposed on the curiousness of appetite; a curb submitted to in respect of the quantity eaten, this is true fasting. 2. The inward conversion of the heart to God. This is the great duty of the Lenten season. To think over one's past life, and one's present state; to review one's sins, and to loathe and forsake them; to make reparation where it is possible, and to confess one's fault when one cannot repair it — this is the fast which the Lord approveth. ( J. Burgon, M. A. ) The right use of calamities George Hutcheson. Two exhortations, whereof the first is, that they should set about sincere repentance and humiliation, testified by holy private fasts and unfeigned sorrow, and so prove that they are really converted to God, and reconciled to Him through faith in the Mediator (ver. 12). And that they should study rather to be afflicted for sin, than by performance of external ceremonies to pretend to it only (ver. 13). Unto this exhortation two reasons are subjoined, the first whereof is taken from the properties of God, who is merciful and gracious; not easily provoked, rich in kindness, and who, upon sinners' repentance, is ready to recall His threatenings that they be not executed. Doctrine. 1. Were there never so many plagues on sinners, yet God is not bound to take notice of them so long as they repent not. Were there never so much terror and affliction of spirit upon men, under feared or felt judgments, yet all these serve to no purpose if they stir not up to repentance; and they must be mad who, being in such a condition, yet do not set about that duty. Therefore after all the representation of plagues, and of terror upon men, they are called to this as the only remedy and way to an issue, and as the duty which they cannot but mind who are seriously affected with such a condition. "Therefore, turn ye." 2. When God is threatening most sadly, and proceeding most severely, He would be still understood as inviting by these to repentance, and willing to accept of it. For the Lord who threatens, doth exhort, and He brings it in with a "therefore," or upon the back of the former discourse, to show that this is His scope in all of it. 3. Such as have been so long abusers of God's patience, as matters seem irremediable, and strokes are either imminent or incumbent, should not, for all that, look upon the exercise of repentance as too late and out of season, but ought to judge that it is good even then to set about it, and that it will do good, however matters go. Therefore, notwithstanding they were in this sad plight, yet the Lord exhorts them even now also to turn." 4. Such as do mind repentance, especially when God declareth Himself angry, would not linger or delay to set about it. So much also may be imported in that "now also" they should "turn." 5. Whatever doubts such as are humbled by judgments may have, that their repentance will not be accepted; yet they are bound to answer all these from God's naked word who giveth the invitation to such. 6. Repentance for particular sins, under sad judgments, will neither be right nor acceptable so long as men do not mind conversion to God, and a change of their state by regeneration; that so, the tree being good, the fruits may be answerable. Therefore doth He begin with, "Turn ye unto Me," where the exhortation doth not import any power in man, but only points out his duty, and showeth that exhortation is a mean which God blesseth to His elect, and not only deals thereby with them as rational creatures, but therewith imparts strength that they may obey. 7. In turning unto God men would beware of being faint or feigned, but would study to be sincere and single, since they cannot attain to perfection, for this, in a Gospel sense, is "to turn even to Me with all your heart." 8. As men would begin at conversion to God, so they would therewith study to be deeply affected for sin and bygone evils, and under the judgments procured thereby; and would evidence their affliction of spirit by sorrow and humiliation suitable (in some measure) to their condition. Therefore is it added, as an evidence and companion of the former, "turn ye with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning"; or with such sorrow as is usual in mourning for the dead, and expressed not only by wailing, but by smiting on the breast, and the like gestures. It is a change to be suspected where men please themselves with their present good condition, and do lightly pass over their former miscarriages. And albeit signs and expressions of sorrow be not always at command when men are most afflicted, yet repentance for gross and long continuance in iniquity, and under extra ordinary judgments, should not be passed over in an ordinary and common way. 9. God is not pleased, nor will a true penitent be pleased, with external performances and ceremonies, neglecting substance; for saith He, "Rend your hearts and not your garments." 10. Whatever the Lord be, or will say or do, to the impenitent, yet there is nothing in Him to be terrible to a convert and a penitent. Without the sight of this, conviction and contrition would but end in despair. Therefore, notwithstanding all the former threatenings, this is subjoined to the exhortation, by way of reason and encouragement, "Turn ye, for He

Benson Commentary Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; Joel 2:1 . Blow ye the trumpet in Zion — The prophet, having in the preceding chapter described the locusts and caterpillars as a mighty army sent by God, in pursuance of this metaphor now exhorts the people to prepare to meet them, in the same terms as if they were alarmed to oppose an enemy, which was always done by the sound of the trumpet. Danger is proclaimed in this way, Ezekiel 33:3 ; Ezekiel 33:5 ; Hosea 5:8 ; Amos 3:6 . Natural means were wont to be used, to prevent the devastations of locusts; pits and trenches were dug, bags were provided, and combustible matter was prepared and set on fire: see Shaw’s Travels, 4to. p. 187. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble — Let them be seized with as terrible an apprehension of this approaching judgment, as if they saw an enemy invading their country. Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. Joel 2:2 . A day of darkness and of gloominess — A day of great calamity and trouble, which is often expressed in the Scripture by darkness. Or, perhaps, the prophet’s words are to be taken here in the literal sense; for it is certain that, in the eastern countries, locusts will sometimes, on a sudden, cover the sky like a cloud, intercept the light of the sun, and diffuse a darkness on the tract of country over which they are flying. “Solem obumbrant,” They darken the sun, says Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 11:28. Thuanus, (lib. 34:7, p. 364, vol. 5.,) describing a calamity of this kind, says, Laborabat eo tempore, &c. “Syria was afflicted at that time with the want of every kind of forage and provisions, on account of such a multitude of locusts as was never seen before in the memory of man, which, like a thick cloud, darkening the light in mid-day, flying to and fro, devoured the fruits of the ground everywhere.” And Adanson, in his Voyage to Senegal, p. 127, says, “Suddenly there came over our heads a thick cloud, which darkened the air and deprived us of the rays of the sun. We soon found that it was owing to a cloud of locusts.” And in Chandler, on Joel 2:10 , Hermanus is quoted, as saying that “locusts obscure the sun for the space of a mile;” and Aloysius, “for the space of twelve miles.” For a further account of them, see note on Exodus 10:5 ; Exodus 10:13 . As the morning spread upon the mountains — This signifies, that the darkness occasioned by the locusts should be very diffusive or general; that they should spread themselves everywhere, as the rays of the morning do upon the mountains. A great people and strong — The locusts, being represented as a great army coming to destroy, are here termed a great and strong people: see note on chap. Joel 1:6 . There hath not been ever the like, &c. — The locusts which plagued Egypt are described after the same manner, Exodus 10:14 . The expression in both places seems to be proverbial, and intended to set forth the extraordinary greatness of the judgment; but is not to be understood too strictly, according to the grammatical sense of the words. Thus we read of Hezekiah, that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, 2 Kings 18:5 ; and yet the same character is given of Josiah, 2 Kings 23:25 . Joel 2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Joel 2:3 . A fire devoureth before them, &c. — They consume like a general conflagration. “They destroy the ground,” says Sir Hans Sloane, ( Natural History of Jamaica, 1: 29,) “not only for the time, but burn trees for two years after.” “Wheresoever they feed, says Ludolphus, ( History of Ethiopia, lib. 1. c. 13,) “their leavings seem, as it were, parched with fire.” Pliny bears the same testimony, 11:29, Multa contactu adurentes, “Burning things up by the touch.” The land is as the garden of Eden before them, &c. — The land of Judea, so famous for its fertility and pleasantness, shall be turned into a desolate wilderness by the ravages they will make. The garden of Eden is a proverbial expression for a place of pleasure and fruitfulness, in which sense we commonly use the word paradise. And nothing shall escape them — Namely, which the ground produces. “After devouring the herbage,” says Adanson, as above, “with the fruits and the leaves of the trees, they attacked even the buds and very bark. They did not so much as spare the reeds with which the huts were thatched.” Thus also Ludolphus: “Sometimes they enter the very bark of trees, and then the spring itself cannot repair the damage.” “Omnia morsu erodentes, et fores quoque tectorum,” says Pliny, 11:20. “Consuming all things, even the doors of the houses.” In the Philosophical Transactions, No. 112, A.D. 1686, we have an account of the locusts in Languedoc, being about an inch in length, of a gray colour. “The earth,” it is observed, “in some places, was covered four inches thick with them, in the morning, before the heat of the sun was considerable; but as soon as it began to grow hot they took wing, and fell upon the corn, eating up both leaf and ear; and that with such expedition, by reason of their number, that in three hours they would devour a whole field, after which they again took wing, and their swarms were so thick, that they covered the sun like a cloud, and were whole hours in passing. After having eaten up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows, and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness; after this these insects died, and stunk very much.” Joel 2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Joel 2:4-6 . The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses — Bochart and many other writers mention the resemblance which the head of a locust bears to that of a horse; whence the Italians call them cavalette. Like the noise of chariots on the mountains shall they leap — Or, as the clause may be better rendered, They shall leap on the tops of mountains with the noise of chariots. The locusts being represented as an army attacking the country, and chariots being anciently a part of warlike preparations, the text says that these locusts shall resemble them in their swiftness, noise, and terror. Pliny mentions ( Natural History, lib. 40. cap. 29) locusts “making a noise with their wings, as if they were winged fowls.” Like the noise of a flame of fire, &c. — Like the crackling of the fire burning up stubble. Cyril says of them, that while they are breaking their food with their teeth, the noise is like that of flame driven about by the wind. See Bochart on the place. The Baron de Tott, quoted by Harmer, speaking of the clouds of locusts coming from Tartary toward Constantinople, observes, “To the noise of their flight succeeds that of their devouring activity; it resembles the rattling of hailstones, but its consequences are infinitely more destructive. Fire itself eats not so fast, nor is there a vestige of vegetation to be found, when they again take their flight, and go elsewhere to produce like disasters.” As a strong people set in battle array — Their noise is like that of the shouts of an army going to be engaged. These expressions are undoubtedly hyperbolical; but yet the noise which such a vast multitude of locusts would make must needs be very great. Before their face the people shall be much pained — At seeing their vast multitudes, and the havoc they make of the fruits of the earth, the inhabitants of the land shall be in great pain and anguish, and shall be seized with such a dread and fear as shall make their visage look black and ghastly, like that of persons who are dying. Joel 2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Joel 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. Joel 2:7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Joel 2:7-8 . They shall run like mighty men — They shall proceed everywhere like stout and mighty men, who are afraid of nothing. The description here given agrees perfectly to locusts, as Bochart has shown. “First, They shall run. Now their manner of fighting is thus described: They strike, or wound, not as they stand, but as they run. Secondly, They run as mighty men. What are more innumerable or strong than locusts, says St. Jerome, which no human pains can resist? Thirdly, They shall march every one in his way, and not break their ranks: and in the next verse, Neither shall one thrust or press his comrade. St. Jerome, in his notes on this place, observes, ‘This we lately saw in our part of the country; for when swarms of locusts came and filled the lower region of the air, they flew in such order, by the divine appointment, and kept their places as exactly, as when several tiles, or party-coloured stones, are skilfully placed in a pavement, so as not to be a hair’s breadth out of their several ranks.’“ The same is observed by other writers cited by Bochart: and what is further remarkable, before the body of them come to any place, they send scouts and messengers, as it were, to view the ground, and measure it out for their use; as the same last-mentioned writer remarks from Sigibertus, concerning the locusts which destroyed France in the year 874. When they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded — By reason of their lightness and nimbleness, and the hardness and smoothness of the outward coat of their skin. It “refers,” says Newcome, “to the scales with which locusts are covered as with a coat of mail.” “Most animals retreat at the sight of a man, but it is the reverse with locusts, for they will studiously attack. Where they collect in numbers, the inhabitants retire into their dwellings as fast as possible, lest by appearing abroad they might provoke their anger. They show no fear, and, from their slender shape, frequently elude the blow aimed at them.” Joel 2:8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. Joel 2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. Joel 2:9-10 . They shall run to and fro in the city — No place shall be inaccessible to them, nor free from them. “Every place,” says St. Jerome, “lies open to them; for they infest not only the fields, and the fruits of the earth, but creep into cities, houses, and the most secret recesses.” The earth shall quake before them — The inhabitants of the land of Judea shall be seized with a horrible dread at their approach. The heavens shall look dark and dismal, because they shall come in such swarms as to intercept the rays of the sun, and the light of the moon and stars. By the expression, The heavens shall tremble, is either meant, that the whole state of the kingdom of Judah, of the very highest in rank and dignity, as well as the meanest, should be struck with a panic at this unusual judgment; or else that the locusts should so fill the sky, that, at a great height, it would appear as if the heavens themselves trembled. Joel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: Joel 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Joel 2:11 . And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army — God, who can make the meanest parts of the creation the instruments of his vengeance, is here sublimely introduced, like a leader or general, commanding and animating this his army by his voice. For his camp is very great — That is, his army is very great and terrible, making whatsoever havoc he orders them, and wheresoever. For the day of the Lord is great, &c. — The time of God’s particular judgments, as well as that of his general one, is commonly expressed by the day of the Lord, the former being an earnest and imperfect representation of the latter. Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: Joel 2:12-14 . Therefore, also now, &c. — Or, Nevertheless, also now, saith the Lord, &c. — Here a method is pointed out, whereby they might still have hopes of avoiding the calamity denounced against them, namely, by turning to God sincerely, and publicly testifying their inward repentance and grief for their sins, by outward expressions of sorrow and humiliation. And rend your heart — Rending of the garments was customary in times of great sorrow and affliction, not only among the Jews and Israelites, but among almost all the ancient nations. The prophet here does not absolutely forbid their using this outward sign of sorrow, but exhorts them to attend more to inward contrition and humiliation, without which the outward signs of them were of no signification before God. The Hebrew writers often signify the preference that is due to one thing above another in terms which express the rejecting of that which is less worthy. Thus we read, Hosea 6:6 , I will have mercy and not sacrifice; that is, I require mercy rather than sacrifice. In the same sense we are to understand the text before us. God prefers a broken and a contrite heart far before all outward expressions of humiliation and grief. For he is gracious and merciful, &c. — These words allude to God’s own declaration of himself, Exodus 34:6 , on which they might with good reason ground hopes of forgiveness on their repenting unfeignedly of their sins, and bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance. And repenteth him of the evil — That is, of the evil which he had threatened to inflict in case those, against whom his threatenings were denounced, did not turn to him in true repentance. God is in Scripture said to repent when the humiliation of sinners and the reformation of their conduct make it unfit that he should inflict the punishment threatened by him. Who knoweth if he will return, and repent — God’s own nature, and the former instances we have found of his merciful disposition, encourage us to hope, that our sincere repentance may avail to avert his wrath, and engage him to restore his blessings upon us and our land. The prophet expresses himself between hope and fear of what might be the event, lest he should fill them with too much security on one hand, or drive them on the other, by a despair of pardon, to have no thoughts of repentance or amendment, but to go on still in their sins. Even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God — At least sufficient provision to supply the necessary parts of God’s public worship, which since the dearth had been necessarily omitted. Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Joel 2:15-16 . Blow the trumpet in Zion — This was a signal for assembling the people at the solemn times of public worship. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly — Or, appoint ye a fast, proclaim a solemn day: so Archbishop Newcome. Sanctify the congregation — Let the people prepare themselves for this solemn time of humiliation, not only by washing themselves and their clothes, and cleansing themselves from all legal impurities, as is required Exodus 19:10-15 , but by true contrition of heart, godly sorrow for, and forsaking all known sin, as also by abstaining from all sensual pleasures, however innocent and allowable at other times. Absolute self-denial is but a reasonable preparation for keeping a day of solemn humiliation before God, on account of national sins or calamities. This kind of abstinence was recommended among the heathen as a necessary preparation for solemn worship. Assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts — Let both young and old join in this duty, for all ages joining in it will add much to the solemnity of it, and is very proper to work in men’s minds that sincere contrition, which may avert those judgments which threaten the whole nation, and in which their posterity may suffer. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet — Even on the day of their marriage, or during the marriage-feast. Let newly-married persons disregard the concerns and enjoyments peculiar to their situation, and afflict themselves with the rest of the people. Joel 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Joel 2:17 . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar — The priests, being in a peculiar sense the Lord’s servants, are here required to take the lead in this sacred work of penitence, and to stand weeping and praying between the porch and the altar; that is, in the open court, just before the porch of the temple built by Solomon, (see 1 Kings 6:3 ,) and the altar of burnt-offerings. This was called the priests’ court, and was the place where the greatest part of those, whose course it was, gave their attendance. Hereupon this is mentioned as the most proper place for the priests to stand in, while they addressed their prayers and intercessions to God in behalf of the people; because here they could best be seen and heard by all the assembly, and here they had before offered the sacrifices proper for such an occasion. And let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord — It was usual to prescribe certain forms of prayer or praise to the priests, in their public ministrations: see Hosea 14:2 ; 1 Chronicles 16:36 . Such was this here mentioned, wherein they beseech God to deliver his people, not for any merit of theirs, but for his own glory, lest the heathen round about them should take occasion to blaspheme his name, as if he were not able to protect his worshippers. That the heathen should rule over them — This translation of the Hebrew verb ???? , favours their interpretation, who understand by the army, at the beginning of the chapter, an invading human enemy. But if expounded of a plague of locusts, still this translation, as Archbishop Newcome justly observes, may be supported, because, when the people were distressed by the locusts, they would be an easier prey to their enemies. But, to make a proverb of them, or to use a by-word against them, as the margin reads, is the more natural translation: for to have their country destroyed by locusts would naturally make them the subject of their enemies’ scorn and derision, as if they were forsaken by the God whom they worshipped; and the Hebrew verb above mentioned is indifferently taken in either sense. Joel 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Joel 2:18-20 . Then will the Lord be jealous for his land — If you do what I propose to you, if you sincerely humble yourselves before God, confess your sins, and truly repent of them, turning to God in newness of life, then will the Lord be concerned for the honour and welfare of that land which he has chosen to settle his worshippers in. Yea, the Lord will say, Behold, I will send you corn, &c. — I will restore your former plenty, and the nations about you shall have no more occasion to reproach your desolate condition. But I will remove far off from you the northern army — Or, enemy, nation, or people; that is, the locusts, which might enter Judea by the north, as Circassia and Mingrelia abound with them. Because Joel represents this army as coming from the north, some have been ready to imagine, that he was speaking not of real locusts, but of the Chaldeans, or some other desolating army of men that should come from that quarter. “But the Baron de Tott assures us, in a late publication of his, that he found locusts coming in great numbers from Tartary toward Constantinople, which lies to the south of that country. ‘I saw,’ says he, ‘no appearance of culture on my route, because the Noguais (the Tartars) avoid the cultivation of frequented places. Their harvest by the sides of roads would serve only as pasture to travellers’ horses. But if this precaution preserves them from such kind of depredation, nothing can protect their fields from a much more fatal scourge. Clouds of locusts frequently alight on their plains; and, giving the preference to their fields of millet, ravage them in an instant. Their approach darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude, it hides the light of the sun. When the husbandmen happen to be sufficiently numerous, they sometimes divert the storm by their agitation and cries; but when they fail, the locusts alight on their fields, and there form a bed of six or seven inches thick. This plague, no doubt, would be more extensive in countries better cultivated; and Greece and Asia Minor would be more frequently exposed, did not the Black sea swallow up most of those swarms which attempt to pass that barrier. I have often seen the shores of the Pontus Euxinus, toward the Bosphorus of Thrace, covered with their dried remains, in such multitudes, that one could not walk along the strand without sinking half-leg deep into a bed of these skinny skeletons. Curious to know the true cause of their destruction, I sought the moment of observation, and was a witness of their ruin by a storm, which overtook them so near the shore, that their bodies were cast upon the land while yet entire. This produced an infection so great, that it was several days before they could be approached.’ — Memoirs, part 2. p. 58-60. They frequently then, according to this writer, in that part of the world, pass, or attempt to pass, from north to south. In Judea they have been supposed to go from the southeastward in a contrary direction. And if this is the common route they take there, it must have struck the Jews very much, when they found the prophet predicting the going of the locusts to the southward; and still more so when they found it exactly accomplished, as it was a demonstration of the perfect foreknowledge of Jehovah, perhaps of his guiding and directing those vast bodies of insects. The locusts, it is said, have no king, yet go they forth by bands, Proverbs 30:27 . But if they have no king of their own species, they are undoubtedly under the direction of the God that made them: he is their king.” — Harmer, vol. 4. obs. 146. Some of the locusts, which here are the subject of Joel’s prophecy, were to be driven by the wind into the desert, or, as it is here styled, a land barren and desolate; some into the Dead sea, called here the east sea, lying eastward of Jerusalem; some into the Mediterranean, or western sea, called here the utmost sea. By his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, is described the extent of the body, or army of locusts; the face meaning the foremost of them, and the hinder part the hindmost of them. And his stink shall come up — “That a strong and pestilential smell,” says Newcome, “arises from putrefied heaps of locusts, whether driven upon land or cast up from the sea in which they have perished, appears from the testimony of many writers. Among various other authorities to the same effect, St. Jerome is quoted by Bochart as saying, that in his time those troops of locusts which covered Judea were cast by the wind in mare primum et novissimum; and that, when the waters threw them up, their smell caused a pestilence. Thevenot says of them, They live not above six months; and when dead, the stench of them so corrupts and infects the air, that it often occasions dreadful pestilences. — City Remem. 1: 123. There came such a stench from those which appeared at Novogorod in 1646, as not only offended the nose, but the brain: it was not to be endured: men were forced to wash their noses with vinegar, and hold handkerchiefs dipped in it continually to their nostrils, Ibid. 125. In Ethiopia, when they die and rot, they raise a pestilence. — Mead, 1:36.” Because he hath done great things — That is, committed great devastation. Or rather, although he hath done great things: though this army of insects, by God’s appointment, has made such destruction in the land, yet it shall come to this shameful end. Joel 2:19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: Joel 2:20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army , and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things. Joel 2:21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Joel 2:21-22 . Fear not, O land, &c. — “In the former part of this prophecy the land is elegantly represented as mourning, the beasts groaning, and the herds of cattle as greatly distressed; the rivers of water dried up, and the pastures of the wilderness as all consumed. In the same elegant strain he calls upon the land to rejoice, and the beasts of the field to be glad; because the rain should descend, the trees yield their increase, the earth its plenty, and every thing minister to the joy and comfort of the inhabitants: so that though the threatening ran, that the land (which looked, before the locusts invaded it, like the garden of Eden) should appear behind them like a desolate wilderness; the blessing intimated upon their repentance is, that the desolate wilderness should be again turned into a garden of Eden, and abound with every thing for usefulness and pleasure.” For the Lord will do great things — God will magnify himself, and show his power as much in acts of mercy as he did before in the strokes of his justice. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field — As the cattle and the wild beasts had their share in the dearth, (chap. Joel 1:18 ; Joel 1:20 ,) so now even they shall receive comfort, in the return of plenty. The fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength — That is, bear fruit according to their kind, in great abundance. Joel 2:22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month . Joel 2:23 . He hath given you the former rain moderately — The season of the former rain was about the middle of October. The Hebrew word ????? , rendered moderately, literally signifies, according to righteousness: and is equivalent with according to judgment. Archbishop Newcome renders it, in just proportion: and he will cause to come the latter rain in the first month — Which was Nisan, partly answering to our March. The regular season for this rain was three months before harvest, Amos 4:7 ; that is, before wheat-harvest, which was later than the barley-harvest in Judea. Of the former and latter rain, see note on Hosea 6:3 . Joel 2:24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25-27 . And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten — I will compensate you, or make you amends, for what the locusts have eaten in the foregoing years, by an extraordinary plenty of the fruits of the earth. This verse proves, beyond a doubt, that they mistake who interpret this prophecy of a hostile invasion of Judea; for it seems to be a general rule in the prophecies, that when any thing of a common nature is expressed by metaphors, that which is the literal sense of these metaphors is generally signified in the conclusion, that there may be no mistake about it. Of this many instances have been given; and perhaps no instances of the use of metaphors in the prophetic writings, about things of a common nature, can be brought, but that in the end the metaphor is explained, and what is meant by it expressly declared. But here, instead of any indication in the conclusion of a metaphor’s being used, or what is meant by that metaphor, the locust is literally spoken of as being the cause of that calamity, and, indeed, in such very express terms, that the passage cannot, without great violence, be interpreted of a hostile invasion. “We have here,” says Archbishop Newcome, “a key to the grand and beautiful description which runs through these two chapters. And if we consider Joel 2:7 , and the propriety of the adjuncts, as applicable to locusts, and often to locusts only, there can remain no doubt but that the prophet is to be understood in a literal sense, as foretelling a plague of locusts. Every reader of taste must be struck with the poetical and sublime manner in which the allegory is conducted. There is not a more splendid piece of poetry extant.” And my people shall never be ashamed — Provided they continue to serve me. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel — God’s giving tokens of his especial blessing and protection to his people, is expressed by his dwelling among them, or in the midst of them, Joel 3:17 ; Leviticus 26:11-12 ; Ezekiel 37:26 . This is a favour he never promises, but upon condition of their sincere and steady obedience: as appears in the fore-cited places. And that I am the Lord your God, and none else — You will then be convinced that I am always ready to protect you, and you need not apply yourselves to any other gods in your wants or troubles. And my people shall never be ashamed — Shall not be any more disappointed of the trust they place in me, nor be reproached by the heathen, as if I had forsaken them. Joel 2:26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. Joel 2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Joel 2:28-29 . And it shall come to pass afterward — Some versions begin the third chapter with this verse; and indeed the subject which is begun here is of so different a nature from what goes before, that it seems evident a new chapter ought to be begun here. The Jewish Rabbi Kimchi says here, that the expression afterward signifies the same as in the latter days, Isaiah 2:2 , and that whenever the words occur, they denote the times of the Messiah; and therefore he refers this prophecy to his days, and makes it descriptive of the event which is foretold Isaiah 11:9 , The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. This is unquestionably the true meaning of it, and thus it is explained by St. Peter, Acts 2:17 . “And though the things here prophesied of were not to happen till several ages afterward, yet was the prophecy highly proper to encourage the minds

Expositor's Bible Commentary Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; THE LOCUSTS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD Joel 1:2-20 ; Joel 2:1-17 JOEL, as we have seen, found the motive of his prophecy in a recent plague of locusts, the appearance of which and the havoc they worked are described by him in full detail. Writing not only as a poet but as a seer, who reads in the locusts signs of the great Day of the Lord, Joel has necessarily put into his picture several features which carry the imagination beyond the limits of experience. And yet, if we ourselves had lived through such a plague, we should be able to recognize how little license the poet has taken, and that the seer, so far from unduly mixing with his facts the colors of Apocalypse, must have experienced in the terrible plague itself enough to provoke all the religious and monitory use which he makes of it. The present writer has seen but one swarm of locusts, in which, though it was small and soon swept away by the wind, he felt not only many of the features that Joel describes, but even some degree of that singular helplessness before a calamity of portent far beyond itself, something of that supernatural edge and accent, which, by the confession of so many observers, characterize the locust-plague and the earthquake above all other physical disasters. One summer afternoon, upon the plain of Hauran, a long bank of mist grew rapidly from the western horizon. The day was dull, and as the mist rose athwart the sunbeams, struggling through clouds, it gleamed cold and white, like the front of a distant snow storm. When it came near, it seemed to be more than a mile broad, and was dense enough to turn the atmosphere raw and dirty, with a chill as of a summer sea-fog, only that this was not due to any fall in the temperature. Nor was there the silence of a mist. We were enveloped by a noise, less like the whirring of wings than the rattle of hail or the crackling of bush on fire. Myriads upon myriads of locusts were about us, covering the ground, and shutting out the view in all directions. Though they drifted before the wind, there was no confusion in their ranks. They sailed in unbroken lines, sometimes straight, sometimes wavy; and when they passed pushing through our caravan, they left almost no stragglers, except from the last battalion, and only the few dead which we had caught in our hands. After several minutes they were again but a lustre on the air, and so melted away into some heavy clouds in the east. Modern travelers furnish us with terrible impressions of the innumerable multitudes of a locust plague, the succession of their swarms through days and weeks, and the utter desolation they leave behind them. Mr. Doughty writes: "There hopped before our feet a minute brood of second locusts, of a leaden color, with budding wings like the spring leaves, and born of those gay swarms which a few weeks before had passed over and despoiled the desert. After forty days these also would fly as a pestilence, yet more hungry than the former, and fill the atmosphere." And later: "The clouds of the second locust brood which the Aarab call ‘Am’dan , ‘pillars,’ flew over us for some days, invaded the booths and for blind hunger even bit our shins." It was "a storm of rustling wings." "This year was remembered for the locust swarms and great summer heat." A traveler in South Africa says: "For the space of ten miles on each side of the Sea-Cow river and eighty or ninety miles in length, an area of sixteen or eighteen hundred square miles, the whole surface might literally be said to be covered with them." In his recently published book on South Africa, Mr. Bryce writes:- "It is a strange sight, beautiful if you can forget the destruction it brings with it. The whole air, to twelve or even eighteen feet above the ground, is filled with the insects, reddish brown in body, with bright gauzy wings. When the sun’s rays catch them it is like the sea sparkling with light. When you see them against a cloud they are like the dense flakes of a driving snow-storm. You feel as if you had never before realized immensity in number. Vast crowds of men gathered at a festival, countless tree-tops rising along the slope of a forest ridge, the chimneys of London houses from the top of St. Paul’s-all are as nothing to the myriads of insects that blot out the sun above and cover the ground beneath and fill the air whichever way one looks. The breeze carries them swiftly past, but they come on in fresh clouds, a host of which there is no end, each of them a harmless creature which you can catch and crush in your hand, but appalling in their power of collective devastation." And take three testimonies from Syria: "The quantity of these insects is a thing incredible to any one who has not seen it himself; the ground is covered by them for several leagues." "The whole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a living deluge. We dug trenches and kindled fires, and beat and burnt to death heaps upon heaps, but the effort was utterly useless. They rolled up the mountain-side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind covering up and passing over the masses already killed. For some days they continued to pass. The noise made by them in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower falling upon a distant forest." "The roads were covered with them, all marching and in regular lines, like armies of soldiers, with their leaders in front; and all the opposition of man to resist their progress was in vain." Having consumed the plantations in the country, they entered the towns and villages. "When they approached our garden all the farm servants were employed to keep them off, but to no avail; though our men broke their ranks for a moment, no sooner had they passed the men than they closed again, and marched forward through hedges and ditches as before. Our garden finished, they continued their march toward the town, devastating one garden after another. They have also penetrated into most of our rooms: whatever one is doing one hears their noise from without, like the noise of armed hosts, or the running of many waters. When in an erect position their appearance at a little distance is like that of a well-armed horseman." Locusts are notoriously adapted for a plague, "since to strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth, admirably calculated to eat up all the herbs in the land." They are the incarnation of hunger. No voracity is like theirs, the voracity of little creatures, whose million separate appetites nothing is too minute to escape. They devour first grass and leaves, fruit and foliage, everything that is green and juicy. Then they attack the young branches of trees, and then the hard bark of the trunks. "After eating up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows, and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness." "The bark of figs, pomegranates, and oranges, bitter, hard, and corrosive, escaped not their voracity." "They are particularly injurious to the palm-trees; these they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches." "For eighty or ninety miles they devoured every green herb and every blade of grass." "The gardens outside Jaffa are now completely stripped, even the bark of the young trees having been devoured, and look like a birch-tree forest in winter." "The bushes were eaten quite bare, though the animals could not have been long on the spot. They sat by hundreds on a bush gnawing the rind and the woody fibres." "Bamboo groves have been stripped of their leaves and left standing like saplings after a rapid bush fire, and grass has been devoured so that the bare ground appeared as if burned." "The country did not seem to be burnt, but to be much covered with snow through the whiteness of the trees and the dryness of the herbs." The fields finished, they invade towns and houses, in search of stores. Victual of all kinds, hay, straw, and even linen and woolen clothes and leather bottles, they consume or tear in pieces. They flood through the open, unglazed windows and lattices: nothing can keep them out. These extracts prove to us what little need Joel had of hyperbole in order to read his locusts as signs of the Day of Jehovah; especially if we keep in mind that locusts are worst in very hot summers, and often accompany an absolute drought along with its consequence of prairie and forest fires. Some have thought that, in introducing the effects of fire, Joel only means to paint the burnt look of a land after locusts have ravaged it. But locusts do not drink up the streams, nor cause the seed to shrivel in the earth. { Joel 1:20 ; Joel 1:17 } By these the prophet must mean drought, and by "the flame that has burned all the trees of the field," { Joel 1:19 } the forest fire, finding an easy prey in the trees which have been reduced to firewood by the locusts’ teeth. Even in the great passage in which he passes from history to Apocalypse, from the gloom and terror of the locusts to the lurid dawn of Jehovah’s Day, Joel keeps within the actual facts of experience:- "Day of darkness and murk, Day of cloud and heavy mist, Like dawn scattered on the mountains, A people many and powerful." No one who has seen a cloud of locusts can question the realism even of this picture: the heavy gloom of the immeasurable mass of them, shot by gleams of light where a few of the sun’s imprisoned beams have broken through or across the storm of lustrous wings. This is like dawn beaten down upon the hilltops, and crushed by rolling masses of cloud, in conspiracy to prolong the night. No: the only point at which Joel leaves absolute fact for the wilder combinations of Apocalypse is at the very close of his description, Joel 2:10-11 , and just before his call to repentance. Here we find, mixed with the locusts, earthquake and thunderstorm; and Joel has borrowed these from the classic pictures of the Day of the Lord, using some of the very phrases of the latter:- "Earth trembles before them, Heaven quakes, Sun and moon become black, The stars withdraw their shining, And Jehovah utters His voice before His army." Joel, then, describes, and does not unduly enhance, the terrors of an actual plague. At first his whole strength is so bent to make his people feel these, that, though about to call to repentance, he does not detail the national sins which require it. In his opening verses he summons the drunkards ( Joel 1:5 ), but that is merely to lend vividness to his picture of facts, because men of such habits will be the first to feel a plague of this kind. Nor does Joel yet ask his hearers what the calamity portends. At first he only demands that they shall feet it, in its uniqueness and its own sheer force. Hence the peculiar style of the passage. Letter for letter, this is one of the heaviest passages in prophecy. The proportion in Hebrew of liquids to the other letters is not large; but here it is smaller than ever. The explosives and dentals are very numerous. There are several key-words, with hard consonants and long vowels, used again and again: Shuddadh, ‘a-bhlah, ‘umlal, hobbish . The longer lines into which Hebrew parallelism tends to run are replaced by a rapid series of short, heavy phrases, falling like blows. Critics have called it rhetoric. But it is rhetoric of a very high order and perfectly suited to the prophet’s purpose. Look at Joel 1:10 : shuddadh sadheh, ‘abhlah ‘adhamah, shuddadh daghan, hobhish tirosh, ‘umlal yishar . Joel loads his clauses with the most leaden letters he can find, and drops them in quick succession, repeating the same heavy word again and again, as if he would stun the careless people into some sense of the bare, brutal weight of the calamity which has befallen them. Now Joel does this because he believes that, if his people feel the plague in its proper violence, they must be convinced that it comes from Jehovah. The keynote of this part of the prophecy is found in Joel 1:15 : " Keshodh mishshaddhai, " "like violence from the All-violent doth it come." "If you feel this as it is, you will feel Jehovah Himself in it. By these very blows, He and His Day are near. We had been forgetting how near." Joel mentions no crime, nor enforces any virtue: how could he have done so in so strong a sense that "the Judge was at the door"? To make men feel that they had forgotten they were in reach of that Almighty Hand, which could strike so suddenly and so hard-Joel had time only to make men feel that, and to call them to repentance. In this we probably see some reflection of the age: an age when men’s thoughts were thrusting the Deity further and further from their life; when they put His Law and Temple between Him and themselves: and when their religion, devoid of the sense of His Presence, had become a set of formal observances, the rending of garments and not of hearts. But He, whom His own ordinances had hidden from His people, has burst forth through nature and in sheer force of calamity. He has revealed Himself, El-Shaddhai, God All-violent, as He was known to their fathers, who had no elaborate law or ritual to put between their fearful hearts and His terrible strength, but cowered before Him, helpless on the stripped soil, and naked beneath His thunder. By just these means did Elijah and Amos bring God home to the hearts of ancient Israel. In Joel we see the revival of the old nature-religion, and the revenge that it was bound to take upon the elaborate systems which had displaced it, but which by their formalism and their artificial completeness had made men forget that near presence and direct action of the Almighty which it is nature’s own office to enforce upon the heart. The thing is true, and permanently valid. Only the great natural processes can break up the systems of dogma and ritual in which we make ourselves comfortable and formal, and drive us out into God’s open air of reality. In the crash of nature’s forces even our particular sins are forgotten, and we feel, as in the immediate presence of God, our whole, deep need of repentance. So far from blaming the absence of special ethics in Joel’s sermon, we accept it as natural and proper to the occasion. Such, then, appears to be the explanation of the first part of the prophecy, and its development towards the call to repentance, which follows it. If we are correct, the assertion is false that no plan was meant by the prophet. For not only is there a plan, but the plan is most suitable to the requirements of Israel, after their adoption of the whole Law in 445, and forms one of the most necessary and interesting developments of all religion: the revival, in an artificial period, of those primitive forces of religion which nature alone supplies, and which are needed to correct formalism and the forgetfulness of the near presence of the Almighty. We see in this, too, the reason of Joel’s archaic style, both of conception and expression: that likeness of his to early prophets which has led so many to place him between Elijah and Amos. They are wrong. Joel’s simplicity is that not of early prophecy, but of the austere forces of this revived and applied to the artificiality of a later age. One other proof of Joel’s conviction of the religious meaning of the plague might also have been pled by the earlier prophets, but certainly not in the terms in which Joel expresses it. Amos and Hoses had both described the destruction of the country’s fertility in their day as God’s displeasure on His people and (as Hosea puts it) His divorce of His Bride from Himself. But by them the physical calamities were not threatened alone: banishment from the land and from enjoyment of its fruits was to follow upon drought, locusts, and famine. In threatening no captivity Joel differs entirely from the early prophets. It is a mark of his late date. And he also describes the divorce between Jehovah and Israel, through the interruption of the ritual by the plague, in terms and with an accent which could hardly have been employed in Israel before the Exile. After the rebuilding of the Temple and restoration of the daily sacrifices morning and evening, the regular performance of the latter was regarded by the Jews with a most superstitious sense of its indispensableness to the national life. Before the Exile, Jeremiah, for instance, attaches no importance to it, in circumstances in which it would have been not unnatural for him, priest as he was, to do so. { Jeremiah 14:1-22 } But after the Exile, the greater scrupulousness of the religious life, and its absorption in ritual, laid extraordinary emphasis upon the daily offering, which increased to a most painful degree of anxiety as the centuries went on. The New Testament speaks of "the Twelve Tribes constantly serving God day and night"; { Acts 26:7 } and Josephus, while declaring that in no siege of Jerusalem before the last did the interruption ever take place in spite of the stress of famine and war combined, records the awful impression made alike on Jew and heathen by the giving up of the daily sacrifice on the 17th of July, A.D. 70, during the investment of the city by Titus. This disaster, which Judaism so painfully feared at every crisis in its history, actually happened, Joel tells us, during the famine caused by the locusts. "Cut off are the meal and the drink offerings from the house of Jehovah. { Joel 1:9 ; Joel 1:13 } Is not food cut off from our eves, joy and gladness from the house of our God? { Joel 2:14 } Perhaps He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, meal and drink offering for Jehovah our God." { Joel 1:16 } The break "of the continual symbol of gracious intercourse between Jehovah and His people, and the main office of religion," means divorce between Jehovah and Israel. "Wail like a bride girt in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! Wail, O ministers of the altar, O ministers of God!" { Joel 1:8 ; Joel 1:13 } This then was another reason for reading in the plague of locusts more than a physical meaning. This was another proof, only too intelligible to scrupulous Jews, that the great and terrible Day of the Lord was at hand. Thus Joel reaches the climax of his argument. Jehovah is near, His Day is about to break. From this it is impossible to escape on the narrow path of disaster by which the prophet has led up to it. But beneath that path the prophet passes the ground of a broad truth, and on that truth, while judgment remains still as real, there is room for the people to turn from it. If experience has shown that God is in the present, near and inevitable, faith remembers that He is there not willingly for judgment, but with all His ancient feeling for Israel and His zeal to save her. If the people choose to turn, Jehovah, as their God and as one who works for their sake, will save them. Of this God assures them by His own word. For the first time in the prophecy He speaks for Himself. Hitherto the prophet has been describing the plague and summoning to penitence. "But now oracle of Jehovah of Hosts." { Joel 2:12 } The great covenant name, "Jehovah your God," is solemnly repeated as if symbolic of the historic origin and age-long endurance of Jehovah’s relation to Israel; and the very words of blessing are repeated which were given when Israel was called at Sinai and the covenant ratified:- "For He is gracious and merciful, Long-suffering and plenteous in leal love. And relents Him of the evil" He has threatened upon you. Once more the nation is summoned to try Him by prayer: the solemn prayer of all Israel, pleading that He should not give His people to reproach. "The Word of Jehovah which came to Jo’el the son of Pethfl’el. Hear this, ye old men, And give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has the like been in your days, Or in the days of your fathers? Tell it to your children, And your children to their children, And their children to the generation that follows. That which the Shearer left the Swarmer hath eaten, And that which the Swarmer left the Lapper hath eaten, And that which the Lapper left the Devourer hath eaten." These are four different names for locusts, which it is best to translate by their literal meaning. Some think that they represent one swarm of locusts in four stages of development, but this cannot be, because the same swarm never returns upon its path, to complete the work of destruction which it had begun in an earlier stage of its growth. Nor can the first-named be the adult brood from whose eggs the others spring, as Doughty has described, for that would account only for two of the four names. Joel rather describes successive swarms of the insect, without reference to the stages of its growth, and he does so as a poet, using, in order to bring out the full force of its devastation, several of the Hebrew names that were given to the locust as epithets of various aspects of its destructive power. The names, it is true, cannot be said to rise in climax, but at least the most sinister is reserved to the last. "Rouse ye, drunkards, and weep, And wail, all ye bibbers of wine! The new wine is cut off from your month! For a nation is come up on My land, Powerful and numberless; His teeth are the teeth of the lion, And the fangs of the lioness his. My vine he has turned to waste, And My fig-tree to splinters; He hath peeled it and strawed it, Bleached are its branches!" "Wail as a bride girt in sackcloth for the spouse of her youth. Cut off are the meal and drink offerings from the house of Jehovah! In grief are the priests, the ministers of Jehovah. The fields are blasted, the ground is in grief, Blasted is the corn, abashed is the new wine, the oil pines away. Be ye abashed, O ploughmen! Wail, O vine-dressers, For the wheat and the barley; The harvest is lost from the field! The vine is abashed, and the fig-tree is drooping; Pomegranate, palm too and apple, All trees of the field are dried up: Yea, joy is abashed and away from the children of men." In this passage the same feeling is attributed to men and to the fruits of the land: "In grief are the priests, the ground is in grief." And it is repeatedly said that all alike are "abashed." By this heavy word we have sought to render the effect of the similarly sounding "hobhisha," that our English version renders "ashamed." It signifies to be frustrated, and so "disheartened," "put out" "soured" would be an equivalent, applicable to the vine and to joy and to men’s hearts. "Put on mourning, O priests, beat the breast; Wail, ye ministers of the altar; Come, lie down in sackcloth, O ministers of my God: For meal-offering and drink-offering are cut off from the house of your God." "Hallow a fast, summon an assembly, Gather all the inhabitants of the land to the house of your God; And cry to Jehovah! ‘Alas for the Day! At hands the Day of Jehovah. And as vehemence from the Vehement doth it come.’ Is not food cut off from before us, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? The grains shrivel under their hoes, The garners are desolate, the barns broken down, For the corn is withered-what shall we put in them? The herds of cattle huddle together, for they have no pasture; Yea, the flocks of sheep are forlorn. To Thee, Jehovah, do I cry": "For fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes, And the flame hath scorched all the trees of the field. The wild beasts pant up to Thee: For the watercourses are dry, And fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes." Here, with the close of chapter 1, Joel’s discourse takes, pause, and in chapter 2 he begins a second with another call to repentance in face of the same plague. But the plague has progressed. The locusts are described now in their invasion not of the country but of the towns, to which they pass after the country is stripped. For illustration of the latter see above. The "horn" which is to be blown, Joel 2:1 , is an "alarm horn," to warn the people of the approach of the Day of the Lord, and not the Shophar which called the people to a general assembly, as in Joel 2:15 . "Blow a horn in Zion, Sound the alarm in My holy mountain! Let all inhabitants of the land tremble, For the Day of Jehovah comes-it is near! Day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist. Like dawn scattered on the mountains, A people many and powerful; Its like has not been from of old, And shall not again be for years of generation upon generation. Before it the fire devours, And behind the flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden { Ezekiel 36:35 } is the land in front, And behind it a desolate desert; Yea, it lets nothing escape. Their visage is the visage of horses, And like horsemen they run. They rattle like chariots over the tops of the hills, Like the crackle of flames devouring stubble, Like a powerful people prepared for battle. Peoples are writhing before them, Every face gathers blackness." "Like warriors they run, Like fighting men they come up the wall; They march every man by himself, And they ravel not their paths. None jostles his comrade, They march every man on his track, And plunge through the missiles unbroken. They scour the city, run upon the walls, Climb into the houses, and enter the windows like a thief, Earth trembles before them, Heaven quakes, Sun and moon become black, The stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah utters His voice before His army: For very great is His host; Yea, powerful is He that performeth His word, Great is the Day of Jehovah, and very awful: Who may abide it?" "But now hear the oracle of Jehovah: Turn ye to Me with all your heart, And with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend ye your hearts and not your garments, And turn to Jehovah your God: For He is gracious and merciful, Long-suffering and plenteous in love, And relents of the evil. Who knows but He will turn and relent, And leave behind Him a blessing, Meal-offering and drink-offering to Jehovah your God?" "Blow a horn in Zion, Hallow a fast, summon the assembly! Gather the people, hallow the congregation, Assemble the old men, gather the children, and infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, And the bride from her bower. Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between porch and altar; Let them say, Spare, O Jehovah, Thy people, And give not Thine heritage to dishonor, for the heathen to mock. Why should it be said among the nations, Where is their God?" Joel 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. PROSPERITY AND THE SPIRIT Joel 2:18-32 "THEN did Jehovah become jealous for His land, and took pity upon His people"-with these words Joel opens the second half of his book. Our Authorized Version renders them in the future tense, as the continuation of the prophet’s discourse, which had threatened the Day of the Lord, urged the people to penitence, and now promises that their penitence shall be followed by the Lord’s mercy. But such a rendering forces the grammar; and the Revised English Version is right in taking the verbs, as the vast majority of critics do, in the past. Joel’s call to repentance has closed, and has been successful. The fast has been hallowed, the prayers are heard. Probably an interval has elapsed between Joel 2:17 and Joel 2:18 , but, in any case, the people having repented, nothing more is said of their need of doing so, and instead we have from God Himself a series of promises, Joel 2:19-27 , in answer to their cry for mercy. These promises relate to the physical calamity which has been suffered. God will destroy the locusts, still impending on the land, and restore the years which His great army has eaten. There follows in Joel 2:28-32 the promise of a great outpouring of the Spirit on all Israel, amid terrible manifestations in heaven and earth. Joel 2:19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: 1. THE RETURN OF PROSPERITY Joel 2:19-27 "And Jehovah answered and said to His people: Lo, I will send you corn and wine and oil, And your fill shall ye have of them; And I will not again make you a reproach among the heathen. And the Northern Foe: will I remove far from you; And I will push him into a land barren and waste, His van to the eastern sea and his rear to the western, Till the stench of him rises, Because he hath done greatly." Locusts disappear with the same suddenness as they arrive. A wind springs up and they are gone. { Nahum 3:17 Exodus 10:19 } Dead Sea and Mediterranean are at the extremes of the compass, but there is no reason to suppose that the prophet has abandoned the realism which has hitherto distinguished his treatment of the locusts. The plague covered the whole land, on whose high watershed the winds suddenly veer and change. The dispersion of the locusts upon the deserts and the opposite seas was therefore possible at one and the same time. Jerome vouches for an instance in his own day. The other detail is also true to life. Jerome says that the beaches of the two seas were strewn with putrefying locusts, and Augustine quotes heathen writers in evidence of large masses of locusts, driven from Africa upon the sea, and then cast up on the shore, which gave rise to a pestilence. "The south and east winds," says Volney of Syria, "drive the clouds of locusts with violence into the Mediterranean, and drown them in such quantities that when their dead are cast on the shore they infect the air to a great distance." The prophet continues, celebrating this destruction of the locusts as if it were already realized-"the Lord hath done greatly," Joel 2:21 . That among the blessings he mentions a full supply of rain proves that we were right in interpreting him to have spoken of drought as accompanying the locusts. "Fear not, O Land! Rejoice and he glad, For Jehovah hath done greatly. Fear not, O beasts of the field! For the pastures of the steppes are springing with new grass, The trees bear their fruit, Fig-tree and vine yield their substance. O sons of Zion, be glad, And rejoice in Jehovah your God: For He hath given you the early rain in normal measure, And poured on you winter rain and latter rain as before. And the threshing-floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats stream over with new wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years which the Swarmer has eaten, The Lapper, the Devourer and the Shearer, My great army whom I sent among you. And ye shall eat your food and be full, And praise the Name of Jehovah your God, Who hath dealt so wondrously with you; And My people shall be abashed nevermore. Ye shall know I am in the midst of Israel, That I am Jehovah your God and none else; And nevermore shall My people be abashed." Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 2. THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT Joel 2:28-32 Upon these promises of physical blessing there follows another of the pouring forth of the Spirit: the prophecy by which Joel became the Prophet of Pentecost, and through which his book is best known among Christians. When fertility has been restored to the land, the seasons again run their normal courses, and the people eat their food and be full-"It shall come to pass after these things, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh". The order of events makes us pause to question: does Joel mean to imply that physical prosperity must precede spiritual fullness? It would be unfair to assert that he does, without remembering what he understands by the physical blessings. To Joel these are the token that God has returned to His people. The drought and the famine produced by the locusts were signs of His anger and of His divorce of the land. The proofs that He has relented, and taken Israel back into a spiritual relation to Himself, can, therefore, from Joel’s point of view, only be given by the healing of the people’s wounds. In plenteous rains and full harvests God sets His seal to man’s penitence. Rain and harvest are not merely physical benefits, but religious sacraments: signs that God has returned to His people, and that His zeal is again stirred on their behalf. { Joel 1:18 } This has to be made clear before there can be talk of any higher blessing. God has to return to His people and to show His love for them before He pours forth His Spirit upon them. That is what Joel intends