Remember the locust plague of Joel 1 was past, Joel 1:4, but the attack described in this chapter, Joel 2:1-11, was going to happen in the future. The day of the Lord is coming, it is close, it is at hand, Joel 2:1.
Joel describes the coming of the Lord as a recurrence of the locust plague; he tells us that the locust plague is actually an invading army, led by God as He comes in judgment against His people, Isaiah 2:12 / Amos 5:18.
The prophet ordered a trumpet to be blown in Zion, Joel 2:1, that is Jerusalem, specifically on the temple mount, to sound an alarm, Jeremiah 4:5-6 / Ezekiel 33:2-6.
The trumpet was blown for four reasons.
1. A warning.
2. To call people together.
3. To get the people to move as a body.
4. To proclaim rejoicing.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The trumpet was accustomed to sound in Zion, only for religious uses; to call together the congregations for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months and their solemn days with festival gladness. Now in Zion itself, the stronghold of the kingdom, the Holy City, the place which God chose to put His Name there, which He had promised to establish, the trumpet was to be used only for sounds of alarm and fear. Alarm could not penetrate there without having pervaded the whole land. With it, the whole human hope of Judah was gone.’
The trumpet is to be blown as a warning; the locusts are coming, and they will be a destructive force. Locusts never fought over food; they were disciplined, hence this is a very well-trained army. This army is going to be God’s army, and they were brutal and the fiercest of all.
The army is so great and powerful that the people of the land would tremble, Joel 2:1. Things were going to be bad. The locusts were so numerous that the sky turned dark, Joel 2:2.
Joel is telling them that the land is going to be totally destroyed by the locusts, just like a fire sweeps through a forest, nothing will be left, Joel 2:3. Nothing will escape the advancing judgment, Exodus 10:5 / Exodus 10:10-15.
Constable says the following, concerning Joel 2:4-5.
‘Joel compared this advancing army to warhorses and chariots, the war machines of his day. He heard the familiar sound of chariots in battle, which he likened to the crackling of fire as it rages up a mountainside, swiftly consuming everything in its path. The huge army that Joel saw appeared unstoppable. It is interesting that locusts look like tiny armoured horses, and they behave like them as well, Job 39:19-20 / Revelation 9:7.’
It’s not surprising that the people in and around Jerusalem were going to turn pale in fear, Joel 2:6 / Isaiah 26:17 / Jeremiah 4:31 / Micah 4:10. This horrific army would climb the city walls and enter into every house, Joel 2:7-9 / Exodus 10:5-6.
This army is so vast, not only does the earth tremble, but so do the heavens, Joel 2:10. The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine, which is judgment talk, Joel 3:16 / Judges 5:4 / Psalms 18:7 / Psalms 77:18 / Isaiah 13:10 / Isaiah 13:13 / Ezekiel 32:7 / Zechariah 14:6-7.
The people needed to know that this locust plague was sent from God, Joel 2:11, after all, He commands them. It’s the day of the Lord, which no one will be able to endure, Joel 2:11 / Amos 5:18. If the people didn’t repent, then this huge army would come later to destroy them.
God Himself speaks here and elaborates on the fact that if the people repent, they will receive mercy, Joel 2:12 / 2 Chronicles 7:14. Because every aspect concerning repentance is mentioned here, ‘fasting, weeping and mourning’, Joel 2:12, make no mistake about it, He is looking for true repentance, Psalm 51:17 / 2 Corinthians 7:10.
Notice how the people were to render their hearts, not their garments, Joel 2:13.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Merely external worship and hypocritical pretensions will only increase the evil, and cause God to meet you with heavier judgments.’
If they repent, then God would truly bless them, Joel 2:13-14 / Exodus 34:6-7 / Psalms 86:15 / Psalms 103:8. They would be able to once again offer grain and drink offerings, Joel 1:9 / Joel 1:13.
Blowing the trumpet here in Joel 2:15 was for the reason of bringing the people together; this was to be repentance on a national scale. Because all the elders, children and priests were to come together, Joel 2:16-17, this tells us the scale of their sin; everyone was involved, everyone was guilty. Everyone needed to repent and turn to God.
We can imagine the nations surrounding Palestine thinking to themselves, ‘the God of Israel was no different from any of their gods,’ Joel 2:17, hence the reason God’s people needed to repent so that God could bring them some kind of relief to them and show the nations around that He isn’t like their gods.
Dyer says the following.
‘Beginning in Joel 2:18, Israel ceases to be the object of God’s judgment and becomes instead the object of His blessing. In a similar reversal, the hordes (locust and human) cease to be the instruments of God’s judgment on Israel and become instead the objects of God’s judgment. This reversal was originally foretold by God through Moses in Deuteronomy 30:1-9.’
Some commentators suggest that Judah had repented at this time.
Deere, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Evidently, the people responded to the prophet’s invitation. The solemn convocation was convened; the people repented, and the Lord forgave them. Consequently, he now promises to remove the locusts and restore the prosperity of the land. Now all will know that God Himself dwells with his people.’
The argument against this is seen in that verse, Joel 2:18. Notice, it does not say that the people responded in repentance. It does not say that God saw their repentance and decided to have compassion on His people. Rather, Joel 2:18 tells us that the Lord has a heart for His people. The Lord became jealous for His land and had compassion on His people.
Notice that Joel 2:18 begins with the word ‘then,’ and remember also, there are no chapter breaks in the original text. If we were to read Joel 2:27 and Joel 2:18 together, it makes more sense. If they repented of their sins, ‘then’ God would bless them.
God is going to restore all that the locusts had eaten, that is, the grain, wine, and oil, Joel 1:10. The people would then enjoy plenty of these products in the future, Deuteronomy 6:10-11 / Deuteronomy 8:7-10 / Deuteronomy 11:13-15.
Notice the army is from the north, Joel 2:20; both Assyria and Babylon attacked Israel from the north, Jeremiah 1:14-15 / Jeremiah 4:6 / Jeremiah 6:1 / Jeremiah 10:22 / Zephaniah 2:13.
First were the Assyrians, who uprooted the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., carrying them off into captivity, 2 Kings 17:1-41. Second was the collapse of the southern kingdom of Judah during the Babylonian captivity of 586 B. C. Nebuchadnezzar reduced Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple to rubble, 2 Kings 25:1-30. Judah was taken back to Babylon for the seventy-year captivity prophesied by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 25:11.
Here God speaks of immediate, temporal and future blessings. All their possessions, which were taken away, would be replaced, rain would come again, and produce would be grown; this is the restoration of the land and the people. They would have no doubts that God was behind these blessings, Joel 2:19-27.
Remember that the plague and the drought had gone on for some time, and so, God promises, if they continue to repent, they would be fine, but if they turned their backs on God again, they would need to watch out, trouble would come.
This ends the first part of Joel’s prophecy, and it’s clearly related to the people of his day. The rest of the book looks forward to a period described as ‘afterward’, Joel 2:28, ‘in those days and at that time’, Joel 3:1, and ‘in that day’, Joel 3:18.
Gifford, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Joel 2:28-32 contain prophecy of the beginning of the church, the Christian dispensation. Joel 3:1-16 seems to contain prophecy of the return of the Jews from captivity long before Jesus came to earth, long before the former prophecy was fulfilled. How do we explain Joel’s jumping forth to one scene and then going back to a much earlier one? In Joel 3:1-16, God is promising that the captivity would end, but in Joel 2:28-32, He is telling the people of an even greater blessing, a time of release from spiritual captivity to Satan. Thus, He starts with the greater blessing.’
God promises future blessings, He encourages them to repent and tells them He will personally be with them individually. Notice that Joel mentions sons, daughters, old men and young men; this is used to tell us that there’s no special class of people upon whom God’s Spirit will be poured out, like what happened with the Old Testament prophets and kings, 2 Kings 24:2 / Hebrews 1:1.
Notice also the miraculous aspect of God pouring out His Spirit. First of all, we find prophecy. A ‘prophet’ was one who ‘spoke forth’ for God. A ‘prophecy’ was the message ‘spoken forth’ by the servant of God who spoke as he was given words to speak by the Spirit of God, and ‘prophesy’ denotes the act of speaking for God. All of these words cover both delivering the message of God, that is, preaching and teaching God’s Word.
Remember the daughters of Philip, Acts 21:9, we should understand that they were enabled to speak on God’s behalf. They had been granted the gift of prophecy, and we shouldn’t be surprised at this, because, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter reminded his hearers that Joel had spoken of the coming of a time, Joel 2:28 / Acts 2:17.
We know that people had visions in the New Testament, but dreams are not so common, except for Joseph, a Jew, Matthew 2:19-23, and Pilate’s wife, a Gentile, Matthew 27:19. More importantly, there’s nothing in the New Testament which indicates that Christians today would have dreams and visions, Hebrews 1:1-2.
Prophets, kings and priests would usually have God’s Spirit, Numbers 11:16-30, but God says He would do this for everybody, Joel 2:29. Yes, this is for the Jews, but it’s also a future prophecy, concerning every generation. This promise is for everyone who would accept God on His terms.
The day of the Lord had been postponed in 840 B.C. until later, when two things would happen.
1. God’s Spirit would be poured out, Joel 2:28-29.
2. The day of the Lord would happen, Joel 2:31.
Joel continues about the prophecy of what God would do in the last days. The wonders describe the end of the Jewish nation, Joel 2:30-31. When God speaks of ‘the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood’ is figurative language which God uses to describe the judgement and end of an earthly nation, Isaiah 13:9-10 / Isaiah 34:4 / Malachi 4:1 / Malachi 4:5-6.
When the Jews heard this language, they wouldn’t be thinking of the end of the world, as some believe today, they would be thinking, ‘which nation is God judging now!’
The sun usually referred to the king of the nation, and the moon and stars referred to the governors, generals and captains who received their power from the king. Joel here is speaking about the nation of Israel. Israel as a nation would come to an end. And when was this going to happen?
When the outpouring of the Spirit happens in the last days, Acts 2:17 / Galatians 3:26-29. Notice that Joel says that this will be ‘the great and dreadful day of the Lord’, Joel 2:31.
Although this would be a great and wonderful day for believers, it would certainly be a really sad day for those who refuse to believe. For them, this day would be the day of judgment for all those who wouldn’t accept the results of the outpouring of the Spirit.
In light of Peter’s use of this passage, Acts 2:17-21, in terms of deliverance, the main meaning of it is applicable to salvation from sin, with the related indication that just a few, a ‘remnant’, will actually participate in this salvation.
In the wider meaning of the prophecy, ‘mount Zion and Jerusalem’, Joel 2:32, stand for the church or kingdom of Jesus Christ, which began there, Acts 2:41 / Acts 2:47. In the spiritual sense, it’s still true that ‘The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem,’ Isaiah 2:3.
There is so much going on in the ‘religious world’ concerning the ‘last days’, people are looking for signs and wonders to prove we’re in the last days, they say ‘there are wars, and there are terrors, which all point to the end of the world.’
The Bible actually teaches us very clearly concerning ‘the last days’. Jesus has spoken to us in these last days, Hebrews 1:1-2. The Hebrew writer uses the word ‘but’ and he uses that word to emphasise the contrast between how God spoke and revealed His Word to mankind in the past and how He revealed His complete and final revelation in Jesus, Hebrews 1:2, which is obviously a Messianic reference.
We’ve been living in the last days ever since the arrival of Jesus. The last days are the days of the Messiah, not the end of the world. Several centuries before the birth of Christ, the prophet Joel, Joel 2:28-29, foretold that the Spirit of God would be ‘poured out’ in the ‘last days’.
When Peter preached the first Gospel message to the Jews in Acts 2:17, he quotes from Joel 2 and notice how he describes the days in which they were living at that point in time. He describes them at ‘that point in time’ as living in ‘the last days’, Acts 2:17.
Countless sermons have been preached, thousands of books have been sold, which all try to tell us that certain things are happening in the world today, and they tell us these are all ‘signs’ that Jesus is about to return. And so, they go out on the streets preaching, and they have these posters which say, ‘The end is near, we’re in the last days.’
Look at what Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy, ‘There will be terrible times in the last days’, 2 Timothy 3:1. And then Paul lists a whole bunch of non-Christ like attitudes, but look at what he tells Timothy later, ‘Have nothing to do with such people,’ 2 Timothy 3:5.
This is present tense and has nothing to do with those people who were around at that time. That in itself tells us that Timothy was living in ‘the last days’. When Peter is talking about the Christ, he says, ‘He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake,’ 1 Peter 1:20.
Was Jesus around during the time of the Apostle Peter? Of course, He was. Peter understood he was living in the last times. Jesus uses a similar kind of language in Matthew 24:1-35.
Remember the disciples have come to Jesus privately to ask Him, What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ And so, Jesus is answering their questions.
He uses the words ‘those days’ throughout this text when He’s describing the destruction of Jerusalem, Matthew 24:19 / Matthew 24:22 / Matthew 24:29. But when we carry on reading from Matthew 24:36 through to Matthew 26:46, He uses the words ‘that day’ to describe what will happen at the end of the world, Matthew 24:36.
Do you see how His words are more specific? Now, if we were studying the topic of ‘the end of the world’, that’s one of the texts we would go to. But we’re not studying that, we’re studying the topic of ‘the last days’, which isn’t something still to come.
‘The last days’ were then, as the prophets looked forward to the time by speaking of ‘in those days and at that time,’ Joel 2:29 / Joel 3:1. If the world continues for another thousand years, we would still be in the last days.
We need to remember the place which the Holy Spirit occupies in God’s plan of salvation, and that we should also recognise that Acts 2 marks the commencement of the age of His ministry, the age in which we now live and understand the significance of His ministry in God’s plan of salvation.
The Scriptures reveal how the plan of redemption unfolded.
1. The decision to make Man’s salvation possible originated in the mind of God Himself, 1 John 4:9 / 1 John 4:16.
2. The plan of salvation was put into effect by the Word of God, who ‘appeared at the end of the age to put away sin,’ Hebrews 9:26 / Galatians 4:4-5 / John 1:1 / John 1:14.
3. When the redemptive work of Christ had been accomplished, the Holy Spirit came to make the Gospel effective, John 16:7-11.
But the Spirit’s ministry couldn’t commence until the Lord Jesus had returned to the Father. This is made clear in John 7:39, and in John 14:26, where the Lord speaks of ‘the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name’.
We see, then, that each member of the Godhead, that is, God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, or the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are all involved in our redemption.
And today, wherever and whenever the Gospel is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit will seek to produce conviction in the hearts of men and women, on the three important matters stated by the Lord Jesus Himself in the last passage mentioned, because the Gospel Age is the Age of the Spirit’s ministry.
The prophet Joel, therefore, was predicting the coming of a time when those individuals who received the forgiveness of their sins through faith in, and obedience to, the Christ, would also be granted God’s ‘dorea’, His ‘free’ or ‘extra’ gift of the Holy Spirit, as an ‘indwelling presence’, enabling them to become the people He intends them to become.
It’s to this coming of the Holy Spirit that Peter referred to on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:38. In explaining how he and his fellow apostles were able to speak in languages they had never learned, Peter said, ‘This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,’ Acts 2:17.
What did Joel and Peter mean by ‘poured out on all flesh’?
1. He did NOT mean that ‘all flesh’ would receive the ‘measure’ of the Spirit then being demonstrated by the apostles, Acts 2:1-4.
In John 3:34, we find the word ‘measure’, which is from the word ‘metron’, and it means ‘capacity’. The apostles ‘baptism in the Spirit’ was something uniquely promised to them by the Lord Jesus Himself, and it was given in order to equip them to undertake an equally unique responsibility as His ‘witnesses’, Acts 1:8.
Their baptism, their ‘overwhelming’ in the Spirit, would do the following.
a. Guide them into all truth, John 16:13.
b. Give them total recall of all the things Jesus had taught them, John 14:26.
c. Reveal to them new truths, John 14:13 / John 14:26.
d. ‘Clothe’ them with power, Luke 24:49.
Such promises were never made to anyone else in all of biblical history, and regardless of what some denominations may claim, no one today receives the ‘baptism of the Spirit’.
2. Peter meant that ALL who accepted Jesus as the Christ and submitted to Him in obedience would also receive God’s gift of the Spirit, Acts 5:32.
This means that the Holy Spirit is God’s own gift, Acts 2:38. It doesn’t relate to a gift from the Holy Spirit, nor does it relate to the ‘gifts of the Spirit’, the ‘charismata’, or miraculous ‘grace gifts’, about which Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
That God’s gift of the Spirit is available to all is clear from the fact that Peter said the promise was made ‘to you and your children’, the Jews to whom he was then speaking ‘and to all who are afar off,’ Acts 2:38-39, the non-Jews, or Gentiles, Ephesians 2:17. In Acts 5:32, he further states that God gives this gift ‘to those who obey Him’.
3. This ‘free’ or ‘extra gift’ is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He ‘dwells in you’, 1 Corinthians 3:16, so that ‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have (received) from God’, 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Furthermore, ‘you are in the Spirit if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him,’ Romans 8:9.
ALL obedient believers receive the ‘Gift of the Spirit’, Acts 2:38, that is, the Holy Spirit is GOD’S own gift, Romans 8:11. This is ‘the Spirit who dwells in you,’ 1 Corinthians 3:16 / 1 Corinthians 6:19.
The miraculous gifts were gifts which the Holy Spirit Himself bestowed on certain individuals, and, according to 1 Corinthians 12:11, the Spirit’s gifts are given ‘as He chooses’, or ‘as He wills’, and were not given to everyone. This question, ‘Do all speak in tongues?’, is clearly implied by Paul in his rhetorical questions in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30.
The purpose of the miraculous gifts was to establish the truth and build up the church, Romans 1:11. He was writing about a ‘measure’ of the Spirit beyond the usual ‘gift of the Spirit’, which these Roman Christians had already received when they were baptised into Christ, Romans 6:1-8.
These spiritual gifts were bestowed on believers by the laying on of the hands of the apostles, Romans 1:11. Read also, Paul to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1:6, and notice, ‘by the laying on of my hands’.
Only the apostles had the power to lay hands, to impart spiritual gifts. In Acts 8, we read that Philip went to Samaria to preach the Gospel, Acts 8:4-8. There he displayed miraculous power, performing ‘signs and wonders’ which endorsed his preaching of the Gospel.
The Samaritans believed and were baptised, Acts 8:12. The apostles in Jerusalem heard of their conversion and ‘sent down Peter and John’, Acts 8:14, who laid hands on the converts. Peter himself stated that baptism into Christ brings ‘the gift of the Holy Spirit’, Acts 2:38.
Since the Samaritans had already been baptised into Christ, this imposition of the hands of the apostles was an additional blessing and was followed by a demonstration of gifts of the Spirit, which Simon must have witnessed, and which impressed him so powerfully that he offered to buy ‘this power’, Acts 8:18-19.
Acts 6:6 records that Philip, the evangelist, had already received the laying on of apostolic hands. Yet, although he performed acts of power in Samaria, he was not able to do what the apostles did. He couldn’t pass on the spiritual gifts to others. Had he been able to do so, the visit of the apostles, Peter and John, would have been unnecessary.
This surely means that the age of miraculous spiritual gifts was limited to the lifetime of the apostles and those on whom they laid their hands, and it ended with their deaths.
It’s a shame that many seek the ‘gifts’ but not the ‘Gift’. We must remember that the Holy Spirit is God’s Gift, Acts 2:38, but a gift is only a gift when it is accepted. And the Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus as the Holy Guest, but He will not enter uninvited!
God really wants to bless us, but we must be willing to repent when He commands us to, Luke 13:5 / Acts 2:38. Repentance simply means to reconsider our ways and then change the direction of our lives and start following God and His ways.
There’s always the temptation to read too much into any text and make it mean something it was never meant to mean. Joel 2 is one of those chapters where people make it mean something it was never meant to mean. All kinds of doctrines have come from this text, especially when it comes to God’s Spirit being poured out and the miraculous gifts.