Joel 2:18-20
“(18) Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, And pity His people. (19) The LORD will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. (20) But I will remove far from you the northern army, And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, With his face toward the eastern sea And his back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, And his foul odor will rise, Because he has done monstrous things.”
This is the turning point in the Book of Joel. Previously, we read of the Prophet’s calling Israel to repentance.
Joel 2:15-17
“(15) Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; (16) Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. (17) Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar;”
The people were to repent from the heart. It was not to be a show. It was not to be simply a ritual. This was to be a sober event. This was to be a solemn event. It was to be a sacred event. It was to exclude no one. God Himself was calling His people to turn to Him. Other than the drunkards, there is no specified sin for which the people are to repent. However, they were people. They were created beings. They were the natural descendants of Adam. They were natural-born sinners. While we are not told specifically, we may assume everyone had sins for which they needed to repent. Because of what we read in verse 12, where the LORD commands the people to turn to Him, we may safely assume that Israel had turned away from Him. When people turn away from God, all manner of sins follow. Everyone was guilty of something, and the nation was guilty of turning away from God. They had been blessed by God. He is a good God. He delights in giving good things to His people. He is not greedy. God gives in abundance, more than we are able to ask or think. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He expects His people to love Him. He expects His people to give to Him the glory due His name. He expects to have priority in the lives of His people. Moses commanded Israel to give priority to God. Deuteronomy 6:5 – “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
God had been faithful to His covenant with Abram. He had made a nation from Abraham and Sarah. He had delivered them from famine. He had delivered them from captivity. He had delivered them into the Promised Land. He had promised them blessings for their obedience, and He had kept those promises. God had also promised curses for Israel’s disobedience. We find those promised curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-16, 37-42.
"(15) But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: (16) Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country... (37) And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you. (38) You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. (39) You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. (40) You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. (41) You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. (42) Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.”
God had kept His promise of curses for Israel’s disobedience. He had sent locusts into the land, and wave after wave of locusts had devoured every green thing and left a desolate wasteland. The people were devastated and desperate, helpless and hopeless. It was a drastic thing. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Israel was disobedient, and God had sent locusts. And when Israel had no one else to whom they could turn, God called them to cry out to Him, to pray to Him, to turn their hearts to Him. Israel’s repentance had to be genuine.
In Psalm 51, David wrote clearly so that we might know what true repentance is and why nothing else is acceptable to God: Psalms 51:6, 10, 17.
“(6) Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom... (10) Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me... (17)The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart — These, O God, You will not despise.”
Concerning repentance, Bible commentator John Blanchard writes:
[1] True repentance involves a change of mind. The person who truly repents has a totally different view of sin from the one they previously held. They no longer see sin as trivial or as merely a personal matter and entirely their own business. Instead, the person who truly repents realizes that all sin is an offense against God.
[2] True repentance involves a change of heart. It means being heart broken as we realize that sin is not only the cause of everything degrading and shameful in the human experience, but that it was sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and brought His earthly life to such a horrific end.
[3] True repentance involves a change of life. God does not merely call us to repent of sin, but also from sin. God has nowhere undertaken to forgive a sin that a man is not prepared to forsake. Repentance involves not only an inner change of heart and mind, but an outer change of life.
Joel called Israel to repent with great urgency. Verse 12 began with NOW! Certain urgency is implied. Israel was not to delay. Repentance must always be an urgent matter. Delayed obedience is disobedience. The person who puts off repentance even for a day has one more day to repent of and one day less in which to do so.
From our text, it does appear that Israel did indeed repent. It seems they truly turned to God with all their heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. The devastation brought on by the locusts was no longer a concern for Israel. God was jealous or zealous for His land and took pity on His people. What does it mean that He was zealous for the land?
Should we take this to mean the national boundaries of Israel? It was the land God had given to them. They were a people called by His name. The nation was reflective of God. Should we understand that God was zealous for the very soil of the land? It was the land that brought blessings of prosperity to the people. The land brought forth wine and oil and grain. All of that was of great importance to daily lives of the people of Israel. But most importantly, we should understand that God took pity of the people of the land. Israel could once again enjoy the blessings of obedience.
Joel 2:19
“(19) The LORD will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.”
Because of the true, authentic, genuine repentance of Israel, they turned back to God. He had chastised them, punishing them for their disobedience. God would rather not have to do that, just as a parent would rather not have to punish disobedient children. God would rather that Israel have been obedient in the first place, so that He did not have to make good on His covenant promise of curses for their disobedience.
In the text it says that God will answer. What will He answer? He will answer to the repentance of Israel. He will recognize that they have indeed repented in heart and mind, not in an outward ritual show that gives the appearance of repentance. Because Israel repented, God did not leave His people wanting. He restored to them the elements necessary for their prescribed manner of worship. Grain and wine would be in adequate supply such that the priests could perform their assigned duties, and worshipers could offer grain offerings and drink offerings. This verse also speaks of Israel’s reputation in the world. Verse 17 instructs the priests to pray aloud, lamenting Israel’s reproach, and echoing the mocking of outsiders who question Israel’s favored place as the people of God. Verse 19 answers this prayer fully. God promised them adequate blessings to their satisfaction, and restoration of their respect among the nations.
Joel 2:20
“(20) But I will remove far from you the northern army, And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, With his face toward the eastern sea And his back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, And his foul odor will rise, Because he has done monstrous things.”
You may see “army” in italics in your translation. It is implied. The most literal interpretation is “northerner.” The locusts were not the army of any invading nation. However, invading nations typically invaded Israel from the north. Locusts may have been blown in by prevailing winds from the east or southwest. “Northerner” may have been a derogatory term that Israel assigned to any aggressor. As this is poetic, prophetic literature, it may also be foretelling of the Assyrians, and later the Babylonians who would invade and conquer Israel from the north. Here we are dealing with the present calamity of locusts. God had sent the locusts. He had commanded them as an army. The locusts had invaded and brought devastating destruction. They had done what locusts do. They had served their purpose. Now that Israel had repented, God would do away with the locusts. He had sent them, and they had done as He commanded, and Israel was awakened from their collective national sinful stupor.
God promised to put an end to the destructive force of the locusts. It would be a decisive defeat, and the destroyers would be destroyed. The death of the locusts would be an unpleasant reminder of what happens to those who do monstrous things against God’s people. This may also be a foretelling of the destruction of Israel’s enemies, much like we see in the book of Nahum where the prophet foretells of Nineveh’s utter defeat and complete destruction. Greater still, it has spiritual implications. The grand fulfillment of this prophecy is ultimately found in Jesus Christ. When the Son of God took on flesh and stepped into history, He came with a specific mission. When He cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” His work on earth was done. He had absorbed the Father’s wrath against our sin.
Romans 8:1
“(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
God’s promise to bring about complete and final end of the locusts in Joel’s prophecy extends further than the present calamity of locusts. It extends to the true Israel of God. The true church in the earth will see God’s enemies destroyed on the great day of the LORD. When Christ returns, death itself will be destroyed, cast into the lake of fire along with sin and Satan, and the destruction will be final and complete. Death is the enemy of life. It is an enemy that many people fear. It is an enemy that Christians should never fear. Yes, Jesus died on the cross at Calvary. Yes, Jesus was buried. But it was not final. The grave could not hold the Lord of Life. Jesus rose again on the third day, and death was defeated. Satan’s greatest victory was upended. Death was no longer a weapon. For those who are true believers in Christ, you know that you possess the hope of salvation that is eternal life in His presence. Death is merely a doorway from the natural to the supernatural. This earthen vessel is imperfect, flawed, and broken. We must be fitted for perfection, so we must leave these jars of clay behind. When the last trumpet sounds, all of Christ’s ransomed people will be changed, we will put on perfection and immortality, we will meet Him in the air, and we will forever be with the LORD. His enemies will be utterly and completely defeated and destroyed, cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
As believers, our sin debt is forgiven. Jesus has paid that price for us. However, we are not yet perfect. We are still in the flesh, and we still wrestle with the flesh. Sin is ever present. We are born into it.
Salvation is a promised blessing for all who believe in Jesus and the sufficiency of His sacrifice. But we must recognize the sin in our own lives, and repent of it. Our repentance must be more than lip service. Our repentance must be more than a vocal apology carelessly tacked onto the end of our prayers. We may need to reacquaint ourselves with the concept of fasting. We may need to seriously review what it means to rend our hearts and not our garments and cry out to the LORD.
Repentance must not be delayed. When we have done wrong, we must return to the LORD. We must confess our sins before God and repent with changed minds, understanding that sin is more than a personal problem. It is an offense to our Holy, Holy, Holy God. We must repent with broken hearts, having a true sorrow for our sins, understanding that we are the reason Jesus was crucified. And we must repent with changed lives, living differently from the expectations and acceptance of the world around us. Never let it be said of believers, “Where is your God?” His Spirit, present in our hearts, should leave no doubt that we are different from the world around us, set apart by His sanctifying love, mercy, and grace.
Has the LORD spoken peace into your heart? Thank Him, praise Him, and live in accordance with His will. Is the LORD even now calling you to Him? Do not harden your heart. Do not wait. Call upon the Name of the LORD while it is today and receive the forgiveness of His Fatherly love.