Reflections on Joel 2

 Joel 02  (Contemporary English Version)

1. Sound the trumpet on Zion, the LORD's sacred hill. Warn everyone to tremble! The judgment day of the LORD is coming soon.
   
2. It will be dark and gloomy with storm clouds overhead. Troops will cover the mountains like thunderclouds. No army this powerful has ever been gathered before or will ever be again.
   
3. Fiery flames surround them; no one escapes. Before they invaded, the land was like Eden; now only a desert remains.
   
4. They look like horses and charge like cavalry.
   
5. They roar over mountains like noisy chariots, or a mighty army ready for battle. They are a forest fire that feasts on straw.
   
6. The very sight of them is frightening.
   
7. They climb over walls like warriors; they march in columns and never turn aside.
   
8. They charge straight ahead, without pushing each other; even arrows and spears cannot make them retreat.
   
9. They swarm over city walls and enter our homes; they crawl in through windows, just like thieves.
   
10. They make the earth tremble and the heavens shake; the sun and moon turn dark, and stars stop shining.
    
11. The LORD God leads this army of countless troops, and they obey his commands. The day of his judgment is so terrible that no one can stand it.
    
12. The LORD said: It isn't too late. You can still return to me with all your heart. Start crying and mourning! Go without eating.
    
13. Don't rip your clothes to show your sorrow. Instead, turn back to me with broken hearts. I am merciful, kind, and caring. I don't easily lose my temper, and I don't like to punish.
    
14. I am the LORD your God. Perhaps I will change my mind and treat you with mercy. Then you will be blessed with enough grain and wine for offering sacrifices to me.
    
15. Sound the trumpet on Zion! Call the people together. Show your sorrow by going without food.
    
16. Make sure that everyone is fit to worship me. Bring adults, children, babies, and even bring newlyweds from their festivities.
    
17. Tell my servants, the priests, to cry inside the temple and to offer this prayer near the altar: "Save your people, LORD God! Don't let foreign nations make jokes about us. Don't let them laugh and ask, 'Where is your God?' "
    
18. The LORD was deeply concerned about his land and had pity on his people.
    
19. In answer to their prayers he said, "I will give you enough grain, wine, and olive oil to satisfy your needs. No longer will I let you be insulted by the nations.
    
20. An army attacked from the north, but I will chase it into a scorching desert. There it will rot and stink from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean." The LORD works wonders
    
21. and does great things. So tell the soil to celebrate
    
22. and wild animals to stop being afraid. Grasslands are green again; fruit trees and fig trees are loaded with fruit. Grapevines are covered with grapes.
    
23. People of Zion, celebrate in honor of the LORD your God! He is generous and has sent the autumn and spring rains in the proper seasons.
    
24. Grain will cover your threshing places; jars will overflow with wine and olive oil.
    
25. I, the LORD your God, will make up for the losses caused by those swarms and swarms of locusts I sent to attack you.
    
26. My people, you will eat until you are satisfied. Then you will praise me for the wonderful things I have done. Never again will you be put to shame.
    
27. Israel, you will know that I stand at your side. I am the LORD your God-- there are no other gods. Never again will you be put to shame.
    
28. Later, I will give my Spirit to everyone. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.
    
29. In those days I will even give my Spirit to my servants, both men and women.
    
30. I will work wonders in the sky above and on the earth below. There will be blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
    
31. The sun will turn dark, and the moon will be as red as blood before that great and terrible day when I appear.
    
32. Then the LORD will save everyone who faithfully worships him. He has promised there will be survivors on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and among them will be his chosen ones.

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The alarm was being sounded. The Day of the Lord was coming. Though the Day is described using mixed metaphors, it is clear that this will be a day of terror to be avoided. While chapter one told of an invasion of locusts, chapter two speaks in terms of a vast army unlike any before this time or since. The vastness of this army, the way it moves and the description of its devastation, however, take on a likeness to the locusts. So which is it? Those details may be more important to theologians and historians than it is to the understanding of scripture.

The point is that the Day of the Lord is coming, it will be devastating. Everyone should repent now and avoid this Day. For if you "Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God," He is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster." (2:13) Not only will the Lord relent from sending disaster if the people repent, but He may even "leave a blessing behind Him." (2:14)

One must choose, as they read these passages, whether to accept God's judgment as the prominent theme or whether it is God's mercy. If it is God's judgment that is chosen, I believe the point has been missed. This, however, is the choice frequently made. This may be because the description of coming judgment is often given more room in the narrative than is the description of mercy? Maybe the devastation of judgment grabs one's attention more readily than the blessings of mercy? But we must not fail to notice that God's judgment is always for one purpose, and one purpose alone. That is repentance and restoration and the exercise of God's mercy.

Following the devastation described in verses 1-14, the people are called to repentance in verses 15-27. Everyone from the oldest to the youngest are called to gather. Even newlyweds who were exempted from normal obligations during their first year of marriage were not exempted from joining this gathering. In the gathering the people were to be sanctified as the priests called out to the Lord to "Have pity on Your people, LORD, and do not make Your inheritance a disgrace, an object of scorn among the nations." (2:17)
The outcome of this humbling of themselves before the Lord would be twofold. First, the Lord would restore what the locusts had destroyed, and then He would divert the coming Day of the Lord and with it the coming army from the north. God's purpose in diverting full destruction of Israel would be threefold. The first is driven by His love and mercy toward them and the second by the desire not to communicate to the world that He is incapable of protecting His people. A third purpose is His jealousy for what is His - the land and the wildlife.

Verses 28-32 point beyond the prophet Joel's time period. The restoration of the people in his time would be a foreshadowing of a fuller outpouring of God's Spirit on His people. In fact, in this later period God's Spirit would be poured out on "all humanity." (2:28) No one would be excluded. In this time everyone, not just Jews, can call on "the name of Yahweh" and they "will be saved." (2:32)

This later prophesy has been fulfilled in part during and since the time of Christ. There will no doubt be a greater fulfillment in the end time.