Exposition on Joel -34- 2:15-17

And then Joel nearly repeats his admonition from the first chapter with the reiteration of the command to blow the trumpet. He calls Jerusalem once again, here with the possibility of God relenting, to assemble in religious sincerity, to set aside a time to fast. Everyone was to congregate, all the people: the elders, the children, even the infants. The bridegroom and his bride are even to interrupt the ceremonial honeymoon in order to gather and plead to God for His mercy on all Jerusalem. And then Joel finally calls on the priests. A direct correlation to the representation of blessing that’s mentioned in v. 14, the priests are given explicit instruction regarding their petition before the Lord. They are to pray against the promised curse for their disobedience. In Deut. 28:25, 36-37 God warns the people that if they break His covenant they will be a spectacle in the world. They were to be a peculiar representation of the Kingdom on Earth but they would become the poster child for shame if they continued to break God’s covenant. They were supposed to be an example of God’s heavenly community right here in creation but in their persistent breaking of God’s Law, they would be punished by being made an example of forsakenness. This is what the priests were called to pray against—God disowning His own heritage. And so the priests were to appeal to God’s reputation in the world as a reason for Him not to forsake them and destroy them. God doesn’t just look down the corridors of time and make a plan and lay out promises that happen to be in accord with the future choices of His creatures. God is far more intentional than that. He is trustworthy and we can consider Him our loving Father because of three main things: He knows the future; nothing surprises the plans of God. He is capable; God can do anything He wants. And He is good; all that He wants to do is good. So we know we can trust Him because of His character and His control over all things.

Exposition on Joel -33- 2:13b-14

God calls for the people’s return because He is gracious and merciful. We always forget how good the Good News is. If we are told to forgive, we ask how many times I must. If we are told to give people good things when they deserve bad, we call it injustice. If we are asked to be generous, we consider it unbalanced. God is not like us, He is gracious and He gave us an alien righteousness and gave Christ our sin. He is merciful; He withholds even His fatherly displeasure toward His children when we sin against Him repeatedly. His justice is navigated by His desire to show mercy. Somehow in His divine purposes He found it to be a deficient display of His glory to only show contempt toward His deserving creatures. He decided instead to display His glory more fully in the presentation of His longsuffering covenant faithfulness—and we become the beneficiaries of His purposes because He has decided to be slow in showing His anger and quick to show us His steadfast love. When we begin to take all this grace for granted; when we just go on day to day without having God’s wrath poured out on us, we begin to think we are getting what we deserve. The truth is, His hand holds back His anger because of what He did in Christ. As Peter puts it, He has not come yet in His glory (the DotL) because all those who will repent and receive the His mercy, according to His foreknowledge, have not yet done so. So He waits. And it is a holy and just waiting; His justice and His mercy are not pitted one against another; He is not internally conflicted as we are. So they are called to return to Him because, who knows, He may decide to relent of this disaster His has planned for the covenantal disobedience of His children. We must first recognize that He is justified in punishing them in such a way as He determines. They are His as individuals and as a community, so He can do whatever He wants. But how can God change His mind? He is the same yesterday, today and forever. What does it mean that He would decide to do something different than He previously imagined? Is that what He is saying? What doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and providence is to be extrapolated from this text? This is not a predictive statement Joel is making here. It is not as though God is saying to the people, “I have seen your future and you are going to be destroyed, but if you repent then I will change that future”. No, God has given them a choice, and from their perspective and ours, this is an “if/then” scenario; if they repent, then God will leave a blessing instead of a curse. The negative implication being, if they do not return, then God will destroy them. Of course God knows their future and He knows that they will return in the way that satisfies His desires because He has given them the capacity for it. So they will not be utterly destroyed but a remnant will survive His punishment and eventually be restored to the Land. This is in fact, anthropomorphic language. God stutters to speak to us so we understand; He humbles His speech the way a professor of physics would bow to speak of planets and stars to his 8 year old. Facts about His intentions are mediated through our language and how we would understand it—in terms of how men would deal with the situation. So this is not a theological presentation on Joel’s part, one to be used to wrongfully develop some “Molinistic”, “Middle Knowledge”, or “Open Theology” approach to God’s knowledge of future things and His providence over His creatures. God is here, from our perspective, giving the people a choice: “return and experience blessing.” Or, “continue in your apathy and I will curse you to the uttermost.”
Joel goes on to describe what it would look like if God’s changed His mind. Instead of the army leaving a desolate wilderness in its path, God said He would leave in His path a grain and drink offering. Couldn’t Joel have as easily said that He will leave behind the blessing of a fruitful vine and flourishing fig tree, or that He would make the pomegranate, palm and apple prove bountiful? He could have said that God may relent and remove the locust but he didn’t. Why didn’t Joel say, God may yet relent and destroy the invading army? Why is this significant? The removal of the grain and drink offering was a two-fold terror for them. The food products were removed because of the destruction of produce by the invading army and the fact that they would not be able to offer up the prescribed sacrifices meant in their minds that God’s just wrath would not be appeased and it would come down on them all the more strongly.

Exposition on Joel -32- 2:12-13a

After all that; after the proclamation that the people were entirely wrapped up in their own interests and entertained by the things God had given them; after a call for the people to lament and mourn the loss of the very things, other than God, to which they had unduly clung. After an explicit description of the invader God was going to send to punish their covenantal disobedience, even after all that…”yet even now” the prophet says. Beyond all possible and conceivable hope, “yet even now”, after all their sin, Joel holds out God’s gracious mercy to a stiff-necked people. And isn’t that just like God. On the cross, “yet even now” He cries out, “forgive them for they know not what they do”. There are so many examples of God’s merciful patience in Scripture and countless times we can recall in our own lives where we know God’s patience must have been tested. Is not His patience tested by the church today? He has called us to love one another, to strive for unity in truth, to uphold the truth of His Word, to proclaim Him in every nation, to all peoples without prejudice, to be generous with our time and money, to forgive others their debts against us, yet like the visible representation of the Kingdom of God back then, we fail miserably, “yet even now” His merciful hand is held out to us. He is patient beyond belief, not to a fault as we might say of someone, but perfectly patient. It does in fact run out when He desires to use the circumstance to display the brushstroke of His wrath because His patience never outweighs His holiness. Joel is here, perhaps more than anywhere earlier, speaking the direct words of God. God is calling the people to return to Him in their entire person. And as prescribed earlier in Joel and a myriad of other places, their return will manifest in their willingness to fast and weep and mourn. These are three parts of the same thing. It’s a three part harmony which God is calling the people to sing in the key of repentance. Rend not your clothes He commands, who cares if their tear their cloths in some empty ritual. God says, “Tear your hearts”.

Exposition on Joel -31- 2:11

Finally in verse 11 we hear God claim this army as His own. God nurtured a nation in such a way as to raise up out of it an army with which He could punish His very own people, Judah. The instrument that God decides to employ for His purposes cannot be thwarted—God’s creatures cannot frustrate His plans. Whoever God decides to use will be empowered with the power that God Himself used to create the universe so they can accomplish the thing He has them determined to do—and they do it because they want to; the Babylonians weren’t forced against their will to invade Judah knowing someday that, even though they were being used by God as an means of judgment, they would be judged themselves for that very act. What they meant for evil, God meant for the good of His plan and story. And here we close the section with yet another reference to the DotL. The destruction distributed on Judah prefigured that final Day of Judgment.

Exposition on Joel -30- 2:6-10

This invader in verse 6 is sent to cause the people to fear and to inspire anguish in their hearts, and that is precisely what they do. It’s the feeling you get when you look at Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The two figures in the background appear to be approaching the figure in the foreground as it is overcome with anxiety. The world seems to be falling apart like in a nightmare where you are intimately affected by what’s going on but you have no power to prevail over the circumstances. Verses 7-9 describe the army like a warrior scaling the walls of the city, they are determined and cannot be stopped. They are skilled and they are organized to cause the most damage possible. Their presence is frustrating like a thief; they come in without invitation. V. 9 is the climax of the description of this invasion. As with any military occupation, it is finally considered complete when the invaders come into individual homes and take what and who they will. The army in Verse 10 brought destruction, loud and thunderous like an earthquake and the devastation is remarkable. So depressing was this event for the Jews being overrun, it was as though the Sun and Moon had fallen from the sky. We must recall here that this event foreshadows the final DotL. And on that Day, in the re-creation of the Heaven’s and the Earth, the actual light of stars, including our own, seems likely to be snuffed out in some way because by the light of Christ Himself will the New Jerusalem be lit for believers in eternity. The interpretation of this phrase that claims a swarm of locust is blocking the light of the Sun and Moon just doesn’t do the calamity justice. The purpose of these images of the Sun and Moon here and in verses 30 and 31, and in 3:15 is to depict the very reversal of natural order, like we see described in Rev. 6. We expect light from those sources, but even their light is like darkness during such a tragedy as this.

Exposition on Joel -29- 2:1-5

In this first phrase we see represented the common custom of the trumpet sound before an event. And we are aware of the voice that John heard sounded like a trumpet, and the trumpet of the angel sounded before pouring out God’s wrath. Just as in 1:2, the people are here called to attention. This time they were called to war. And the battle was to take place at Jerusalem; as the term, Holy Mt. Zion would have undoubtedly referred. At this point I think we can begin to develop a cumulative understanding of the term, The DotL. We can take 1:15, 2:1, and 2:11 and start this process. Combining the data we get from those 3 verses I think this can be said: all the inhabitants of the land should tremble because the great DotL is coming. That Day is near at hand and it is an awesome thing like the Almighty from whom mighty ruin comes. In verse 2, the army camped round about Jerusalem is described as a black gloom and darkness. It may have looked like an approaching swarm of locusts. Joel reiterates here what he had said about this invader back in 1:2, it was a tragedy the likes of which, they had never seen before and never would again. Joel’s intention was to impress upon them the sheer magnitude of the event. In typical prophetic fashion, fire in verse 3 kindles thoughts of God’s wrath; it is characteristic God’s wrath. The army signified destruction of massive proportion, and what image more quickly and completely, as though it has a mind of its own, destroys the surroundings and instills abject fear than the force of fire? It is difficult to control and unrelenting as it causes pain beyond belief. This image of Eden and fire are not unacquainted. In the progress of Scripture we see other places compared to Eden. Before the invader came in the land was something to be desired but afterward the army left it a scorched wilderness. It’s like Joel is using the images of Heaven and Hell to describe the complete difference in the before and after landscapes. As we look at verses 4-5 we see that great and powerful people spread upon the mountains was like a company of horses pulled chariots behind them. They generated a great deal of noise and barreled down off the mountains surrounding Jerusalem with such dexterity and speed that Joel described them as leaping; they leapt from hilltop to hilltop until they ascended the hill to the city and entered as quickly as they began. Israel never employed the use of horses in battle as frequently and effectively as other nations did. Thus this image of an army of men mounted on horseback should have easily stricken them with fear.

Exposition on Joel -28- Verses 19-20

     And finally in the last two verses of the first oracle of Joel, likely because the people themselves would not heed the call, Joel himself began to pray. Here he modeled the character of a prayer of repentance. First he called on the name of the Lord. It was only the might of the Almighty that could have delivered the people from their sorrows. Then he acknowledged several effect God’s judgment had made. Joel modeled sensitivity to God’s work before the people—he acknowledged that God had done this and only God could undo it. In verses 19 and 20 Joel also introduced another means for the destruction inflicted on the land and the people. He spoke of fire and burning. One could conclude that Joel referenced the destruction of an army of men here. Another conclusion is that the description of fire is a way of emphasizing the “Supernatural” component of this calamity. Perhaps God sent down fire to consume what little bit of the fields was left after being ravaged by an army of locust or men or both. More likely it was the type of devastation caused by wildfires. They are particularly difficult to manage in drought conditions and they are almost expected. That sort of destruction was still attributable exclusively to natural means. Of course, we can’t ignore the next mention of these fires in 2:3a. Whether it’s a metaphor or an actual fire set by the pillaging foreign army, Joel used the image to insight fear in the hearts of his audience. Remember that a big part of Joel’s intention over the last 20 verses was to hammer into the heads of the Judeans that this is God’s calamity, it was God’s judgment that they were facing. If the people could convince themselves that this was just another devastating year of droughts, wildfires and locust swarms then their consciences might escape the purpose of this catastrophe. So I believe that the emphasis on the shriveling seed and dried grain in v. 17 and on the consuming fire here in verses 19 and 20 is a way Joel used to point out the reason behind the reasons for their suffering. He once again called the people’s attention to the uniqueness of this event, even going so far as to relate it to the tragedy of that final Day, the DotL back in v. 15. But we get to look forward to the restoration. In just 18 more verses we will see God turning the sword into plowshare and the fire in water as it were. So we rejoice not in the calamity but through it because of the promises of God, though we sometimes misinterpret them, are being fulfilled in Christ.

Exposition on Joel -27- Verse 18

     Like the young children of a home broken apart by the adulterous acts of their parents, the innocent beasts and sheep are both are affected by the nation’s adulterous nature. They neither brought this curse on themselves by their disobedience, nor do they benefit from God’s blessing by their obedience, but they too feel the devastation brought on the land by the invader inflicting God’s justice. Calvin is sharp to point out that the prophet likely intends to make an insulting comparison. Joel has made a great effort to call the calloused people of God to cry out for mercy, and though he persists, it was the beasts of the field and the sheep who cried out, and Joel uses them as an example. The people, in Joel’s view, are too dense to see their folly or they are too proud to admit it even if they are convinced. With groaning, wandering and desolation the animals, given to the people who were stewards over them, suffer the pain and death due to the sin of their masters. Like an unruly monarch or a negligent governing body, with every poor decision they ask the people they rule or serve to suffer the consequences of their actions. Most likely, the people would have cried out about the injustices of the ruling class before their leaders would have repented.

Exposition on Joel -26- Verses 16-17

In v. 16 Joel rubs it in. He had already pointed out in v. 12 that their food had disappeared; they were all going to starve and there wasn’t even any food left for their offerings. So not only were they going to starve to death but, in the meantime, God’s wrath would be perpetuated because they couldn’t make any offerings. Again he correlates the deprivation of food and joy. It seems quite obvious but their hardness required repetition. Joel continues the imagery of drought and desolation. Lest the people forget, the invasion of this army had left them with nothing and famine was left in the wake of its destruction. Naturally there was no need for buildings to store food when there was none to store, so the image of God’s people tearing down the empty granaries, perhaps to use their materials elsewhere, would be a depressing sight indeed—one that would hopefully drive the people to repeat. Some suggest that the shriveling seed and the withering grain indicate an all together “Supernatural” cause for the famished Land, one not mediated through the natural means mentioned earlier, the army and the swarm. Whatever means God used to judge His people—army of locust, army of men, or drought conditions, we can say with certainty that God brought this judgment down on the people. He was not to blame for their mourning, but He was to be given credit for it; they were His creatures and He has done with them as He pleased. One additional observation here: from the wording in the ESV one could see in the first part of v. 17 an ironic metaphor of sorts. God promised to bless Abraham through his Seed, which we know to be Christ, but who was illustrated by the nation Israel so in the small sense they too are Abraham’s seed. Is it possible that here the people would have been provoked to think of themselves, the people of God as the seed under the clod of the foreign invader? Maybe, but not necessarily, this verse in Joel’s oracle has been met with a great deal of difficulty. So difficult is the translation of this phrase that, more times than not, translation teams were forced to some sore of dynamic equivalence. In its translation, being so hard to understand at face value, speculative commentary understandably creeps in, just like we see of the insects in v. 4.

Exposition on Joel -25- Verses 14-15

     In v. 14 Joel called the same group to set-apart a fast. This is an interesting play on words as well. He asks them to sanctify a time when they will corporately engage in a sanctifying act. All the people are to participate: the young the old, the clergy and the laymen. They were to gather all the people by calling them to assemble with a manner of seriousness and to come together and fast. Communal fasts like this probably lasted for a day and involved all the people coming to the temple and around it. Just like wearing sackcloth, breaking the daily routine and gathering for the purpose of abstaining from food was intended to highlight the gravity of the occasion. It would not only involve the lack of food for a day but also likely cause some the lack of profit that would regularly be gained in their business endeavors. This seems a bit ironic to me that God has His prophet call the people to cry out for His mercy upon their hunger by having them abstain from eating. So in essence, stop eating so you can call out to God to relieve your hunger, or to prevent your future hunger, caused by the devastation of this invader.

In v 15 we are introduced to the concept of the DotL in Joel’s prophesy. He places the calamitous event to which he has been referring in the context of the idea that one day, on “That Day”, the Lord will return to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous. As we have seen in the introduction, the theme of the DotL has two components, one of destruction and one of deliverance. The Jews assumed, because of their covenantal relationship to God, that they defaulted in the deliverance category and the gentile nations would be judged and destroyed. In Joel’s day they hadn’t grasped the idea that the Jew/Gentile distinction as an illustration of those counted righteous and those who do not believe, thus in the end, we know that some national Jews will receive judgment for their unbelief and some believing Gentiles will be delivered on account of Christ’s righteousness. Joel uses that imagery to shock the Jews of his day into repentance. Amos had a similar lot. In 5:18-20 where he too points out their misunderstanding of that coming Day. Joel continues toward the end of the verse with yet another play on words. “…destruction comes from the Almighty”, which might also be rendered, “…a mighty ruin from the Almighty” (Stuart 234). As though another outcome was possible coming from the Almighty; certainly even God’s mercy is given with the might of Christ’s perfect life and Passion that was necessary to answer the cry for justice against all who sin. We see it described by Lewis as the mighty Aslan roars at the demand for justice made by the White Witch though he would go on make provisions for mercy on the stone table—So even mercy is not without its might. And that’s how Joel ends v. 15, “…a mighty ruin from the Almighty”

Exposition on Joel -24- Verses 14-20 - Overview

     Joel has just taken us through 13 verses where he has called God’s people to attention, remembrance, and for them to mark the uniqueness of this event. He has in vivid imagery, described the horrible effects of a city coming under siege by an army God has sent as a judgment for their covenantal disobedience. And so, now with no less force he commands the elders to call for the people to assemble and to fast and pray promoting the seriousness of their lamentation over their sins and the effects they have caused. And then he uses the imagery of the Day of Judgment as a way to give weight to the situation. Then he wraps up his description of the destruction of their surroundings by telling them that their gladness and joy is cut off just like their food supply. Finally he ends with a model of the type of repentant prayer they ought to offer up . How do you think we should mourn the loss our nation experienced in Katrina and in 911?

Exposition on Joel -23- Verse 14-20 - Introduction

In one of the past posts we talked a little bit about the relationship of God to visible Israel and His relationship to the visible church. And we briefly discussed this idea of pleading to God for His mercy regarding the sins of the visible church as a whole. Should we fast and pray about the scandals and self-righteousness that plagues the visible church today and adds offence to the gospel? Is there any connection between the church’s sins and the calamities we endure today such as the Tsunami in Asia, or closer to home, the 911 attacks and Katrina? The Puritans sometimes gathered for prayer and lamentation for the sins of their congregations after a poor crop year or a devastating winter storm. Imagine a day when a pastor or a group of pastors calls for the visible church to assemble to cry out to God for His mercy on their sins as individuals and the sins of the church at large. Imagine if we, as the baptized people of God, were called to cease from our work, our livelihood and abstain from food for a period of time set apart with the purpose of focusing all our time and efforts on praying for God to forgive our sins and show mercy to us and to our nations. If this event took place in our own age, we could imagine the possible news coverage. It might go something like this: Pastors from around the world came together today declaring for their parishioners a fast. As they and the members of their churches gathered at local church buildings, their entire communities felt the effects. Millions in the US alone took vacation days so they could attend. Many outsiders see this pious act as nothing more than a practice in self righteousness, but as you are likely to have heard, these leaders are claiming that they are calling and being called themselves, to repent (they say) of their personal sins and the sins of the Christian Church as a whole. Earlier today it was reported that a number of child psychologists were consulted on the matter. Without exception, they agreed that parents who asked their children (some as young as five) to participate in a communal fast were doing nothing more than physically and psychologically abusing them. The church leaders and parents have gone on record in their own defense saying that their Creator, Yahweh God has inspired this act through the use of His shepherds (most of the times called pastors or priests). They’ve gone on to say that the consecration of a period of 3 days to lament the loss of their material possessions and even some of their loved ones due to the 7 major terrorist attacks around the world in the last year, and the global impact they have had on economies, is what they have been called to do. As a “body” they claim to have begun the process of admitting their sins and are now displaying the seriousness of their plea to their God for mercy through their collective refusal to eat or take part in the commercial activities of the world. What can not be ignored as the rest of the world looks on is the tension this event has created within the organized church, and the outright refusal of some leaders and parishioners to participate in what they refer to as a terrorizing act on Christianity from the inside. Many high-profile Christian professors and pastors, along with likeminded laypeople calling themselves “progressives” have signed the declaration titled, “Christians Against the Christian Cancer”. Psychologists from Berkley and NYU have identified the behavior of these fasters as symptoms of a type of mental illness similar to masochism which produces such attention seeking behavior as “cutting” and bulimia in some teens and early adults. Sociologists have identified this event as being similar to Waco, TX and Jonestown—they hope the same end is avoidable and authorities from around the world have said that if this event was isolated to one specific location then military action on behalf of the minors involved would be imminent. Now, on a lighter note, the hit Latin boy-band Menudo has reunited with front man and former congressman, Ricky Martin to embark on a world tour commemorating the 35^th anniversary of the band’s debut—here’s Katie with the report. This is one way to apply this passage to our own lives. So does contextualizing Joel’s call like this help us to understand the passage better or help us to maybe sympathize with Joel’s audience?