Joel 2:21-27
(21) Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. (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. (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. (24) And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. (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. (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. (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.
Please read Joel 2:21-27. We will review what we have learned up to this point. God's people are people. God's people are special people, not because of anything they have done, but because God has chosen to bless them. God is in covenant with His people that He has chosen to bless. His covenant arrangement with His people commands the obedience of the people. God blesses His people for their obedience. God is glorified in blessing His people. The obedience of the people reflects the character of God: Goodness, peace, love, and grace. When God's people are receiving blessings of obedience, there is prosperity, happiness, and peace.
However, God's special people are still people. Even God's special people are born with the sin-nature of Adam. People with a natural tendency toward sinning often act on that natural tendency and commit sin. And, while God was pleased to bless His chosen people with blessings for their obedience, we must acknowledge that the stipulations of God's covenant also included curses for disobedience. This is consistent with God's character. He is just. That is to say that He commands obedience, and just as obedience is blessed, disobedience will be punished. As a parent to children, God loves and cares for and blesses and disciplines His people. In the wisdom of the Proverbs we read that if a disobedient child is not spanked, then the parent is spoiling the child. The chastening hand of God upon His people is for their good, as the chastening hand of parent is for the good of the child.
A man by the name of W.B. Stevens wrote the curious hymn Farther Along. In the first verse, he laments, “Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder Why it should be thus all the day long, While there are others living about us, Never molested, though in the wrong.” The second verse ends with “Then do we wonder why others prosper, Living so wicked year after year.” Unable, or unwilling to answer these ponderings directly, he then wrote, “Farther along we'll know all about it. Farther along, we'll understand why.” It is a hymn that many people love, and it is an answer that gives many people hope and encouragement to keep on keeping on. I never met W.B. Stevens, and I am not picking on his theology. However, it seems to me that Joel teaches us clearly the answers to Mr. Stevens' ponderings about the prosperity of the wicked, and the temptations, trials, and losses of the faithful children of God.
We should not wonder about the prosperity of the wicked. God’s Word gives us a clear picture about it. We should understand if people around us seem to be getting away with every evil, it is because they are not under the chastening hand of Almighty God. Now, please understand, I am not suggesting that the evil deeds of wicked people will go unpunished. Joel did not address every person in the world. Joel's message from God was a message to the people of God. The message that Joel brought was a message that explained what was happening to God's people. Having assessed the situation and explained that it was God who had sent the locusts, Joel then called the people to repentance.
The land, the animals, and the people of Israel had been devastated by wave after wave of locusts. It was one of God's promised covenant curses for Israel's disobedience. The destruction brought by this invading army of locusts was nearly complete. No edible green thing remained in their wake. The grass of the field was gone, as though the pastures had been burned. The leaves of every tree and every vine had been devoured. Even the bark of the trees had been stripped, leaving the branches white. The grain was gone, as were the grapes and the olives, all of the fruit of the trees, and all the produce of the fields. The animals were bewildered at the loss of greenery. The people were in despair as the food supply had vanished. The farmers were ashamed because there was nothing to harvest. The drunkards and the drinkers of wine were forced into sobriety because the wine was gone. The priests were mourning, because they could not fulfill their ordained duties. They would not be able to offer the prescribed drink offerings and the grain offerings in the House of the Lord. It was an eye-opening, sobering event in the land of Israel.
The chosen people of God were under the chastening hand of God. It was their disobedience that brought God's chastening upon them. Just as God had been faithful to His covenant promises of blessing, He was also faithful to His covenant promises of cursing. The chosen people of God are His representatives in the earth. Just as children are representatives of their parents, so are God's people representative of Him.
Just as parents have rules and expectations of their children to follow those rules, so also does God have rules and expectations for His people to follow those rules. God is jealous for His own glory. He will not share His glory with another. His people had not obeyed God from the heart. They had begun to stray, and to go after idols. God used locusts to bring His people back to Himself. The priests were to consecrate a nation-wide fast. The people were to mourn in sackcloth. All were to gather together into the Temple in Jerusalem and cry aloud in prayer to Jehovah. They were to repent with broken and contrite hearts, praying to God in sorrow, lamenting their sin, and praying for forgiveness. The priests were to intercede on behalf of the people, praying for God to spare them for His own glory.
Verse 18 of chapter two of the book of Joel is the turning point in this book. Based on the verb tenses, it appears that Israel did indeed repent. We do not know how much time passed from the beginning of this book, that is to say from chapter one verse one to chapter two verse 17. Nor do we know if there was any passage of time between verses 17 and 18 of chapter two. Some translations indicate that there was acceptable repentance of the people, and God lifted His chastening hand from them, recognized the condition of their hearts, and returned to blessing them. Yes, God blessed them for their good, but we should also understand that His blessing of Israel was for His glory. After all, Israel were God's people.
As we read Joel 2:21-27, we should note that there are two speakers in this passage. Joel is speaking to Israel in verses 21 – 24. He refers to God in the 3rd person, and he address Israel in the 2nd person. That is to say Joel calls God “He” and Joel address Israel as “you.” In the event we forget to mention it again, please note that God is speaking in verses 25-27, as if this were coming directly from God and not being spoken by Joel. Clearly, Joel does not have the power, authority, or ability to do those things that God says He alone will do.
In verses 21 and 22, Joel is calling Israel to celebration and rejoicing. He even speaks to the animals, and calls every living thing to take notice of what God is doing. What is Jehovah doing? He has done marvelous things! What are marvelous things? Quite simply, marvelous things are things that cause the observer to marvel. Marvelous things invoke feelings of awe. Marvelous things are things that we cannot do. Marvelous things may even be miraculous things. Look at the marvelous things God is doing: open pastures are springing up (that means there is grass growing where the locusts had left nothing but dusty dry ground), the tree bears its fruit (where previously the trees were stripped and stood only as brittle dry wood), the fig tree and the vine yield their strength (again, what had been destroyed was now vibrant and growing and showing the promise of good things to come).
Here is evidence that the mission of the locusts was accomplished. The land was devastated, and the people of God who were once proud and arrogant, the people who had turned from God, had been chastised. This chastening by God’s hand in the form of locusts had brought about despair, helplessness, and hopelessness among the people. And they had finally repented. They had turned from their idolatrous ways, and turned back to God.
The restoration of the land was a marvelous thing that Jehovah did as a sign of acceptance of Israel’s repentance. They could now hope in what the Lord would provide. More than that, they could rejoice in the goodness of God. They were to show this by seeing and acknowledging what God had done. Joel commands them to be glad and rejoice in Jehovah your God.
In the latter portion of verse 23 and all of 24, we see a promise of salvation and restoration. The annual cycle of rain will be restored to its regularity. The former rain, or autumn rains, which fell from late October through December, was a sign of covenant harmony. And latter rain, or spring time rain, will come in the first month. Because of God’s blessing of rain, the land will produce an abundant harvest. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. This is a miraculous reversal of Joel 1:10 – The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails.
Almighty God has intervened on the behalf of the people to whom He has pledged Himself. It is His covenant, they are His people, and He is faithful to His promises. Joel has spoken these things to Israel. It is his commentary about what God is doing and will do for Israel. It is a summary of the blessings to come. In verses 25 through 27, Jehovah Himself is speaking to Israel. Again, we must understand that these words are coming through Joel. Israel is not hearing the thundering voice of God. We see the promises of restoration and salvation repeated verse 25 and 26. We also now see definitively that the locusts were not some “random act of nature,” as if there were any such thing. God Himself tells Israel how the locusts came from Him, and how even though the locusts accomplished what He had sent them to do, the devastation brought about by wave after destructive wave of locusts, pales in comparison to the abundance blessing that He would restore to His people. In verse 25, God promises Israel, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.” God sent the locusts. They did what God had sent them to do. They did what locusts do. They devoured every green thing all over the land. God used the locusts to bring Israel to repentance. Then, God destroyed the locusts. We should also remember that this invasion by locusts was a prelude to a great army that would later come and conquer Israel. God used Assyria and Babylon to devastate His own wayward people Israel, and take them into captivity, exiled in the far away pagan land of Babylon. Just as God was faithful to His promises and restored the land after the devastation of the locusts, so also did He return a faithful remnant of His people to the promise land after the Babylonian exile. Assyria and later Babylon brought great conquering armies. They were used by God to chasten Israel. These pagan nations did what pagans do. Just because God allowed them to conquer Israel, He did not hold these empires blameless. They were still responsible for their actions. Assyria fell to Babylon, and Babylon fell to the Persians. The Persian empire brought about the destruction of Babylon. It was God’s judgment on Babylon for doing what they did.
Verse 26 says speaks of the grace of salvation. God tells Israel, “You shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, And praise the Name of Jehovah your God, who has dealt wondrously with you;” Notice the promise of abundance: you will have plenty to eat, and you will be satisfied, and notice where we are in this narrative. This is near the end of chapter two. It was only just at the beginning of chapter one that the people were in a bad way. They had nothing to eat, the farmers were ashamed because there would be no harvest, and even the cows were wondering what they would eat. Even though God had brought in this shocking calamity of locusts, He is now promising plenty where once there was none. This is a marvelous thing!
The people will praise Jehovah because He has reversed their losses, restoring to them more than they need, demonstrating His love for them by dealing with them wondrously. God Himself makes this personal in the last phrase of verse 26 as He says, “My people shall never be put to shame.” What is meant here? This could also be translated, “My people shall not be disgraced.” Disgraced means to be without grace or without favor. To be put to shame is to be disgraced or disfavored. If God is saying that His people shall never be put to shame, can we not see the promise of God’s covenantal faithfulness and love? What great assurance this is for all who believe! If God’s people shall never be put to shame, can we not rephrase that to say that God’s people shall never be without God’s grace? Praise God for His faithfulness! Praise God that He is unchanging and unchangeable! God’s people shall never be without God’s grace because of Who He Is and What He Has Done! It is not dependent on us. God does not favor us because we repent and turn back to Him. God does indeed favor us when we repent and turn back to Him, but He does so because He is God!
When Israel comes to know and enjoy these promised blessings as made manifest in the restoration of their agriculture, they will know that God is present with them. Only God could reverse the damage done by His locusts. Only God could restore the years. Only God could truly promise such an abundance of blessings. It will cause His people to praise Him. It will be great assurance to them. They will know that God is with them. They will know Jehovah as the unique, singular, sovereign, supreme God, and they will know that He is their God. He concludes with a repeat of His previous promise that His people shall never be put to shame. God wastes no words. This repetition elevates the surety of this promise. We can believe it, because it was God Who said it. He is possessive of His people, and His salvation of His people is to His glory. They were wayward and disobedient. He chastened them. They repented and returned to Him. He saved them and restored them, and blessed them with an abundance of blessings, to praise of His glorious grace!
The ultimate fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy is to be found in Jesus Christ. God’s people may suffer chastening in this life as God uses evil men to bring us to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. But He does this to get His people to repent and return to Him. The promise to Israel in Joel’s day is applicable to Christians today. Those Christ purchased by His blood shall not be put to shame. That is to say that true Christians have received the grace of salvation. In the letter to the Church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul teaches us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is an indication of where we are positionally. Our place in heaven is secure. Conditionally, we are still in the flesh, and we still sin. One day, we will realize the promised blessing of eternal life, but for now we can accept it as true because God has gifted us with the faith to accept it. And we can rejoice knowing that Christ’s own possession will never be put to shame.
We will never be without His grace, not because of anything we have done, but because of Who He Is. God delights in blessing His people. God is glorified in blessing His people. He is able to bless us beyond measure, beyond what we are able to ask or think. He has blessed His people with the forgiveness of sin. He has done so through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, on the cross at Calvary. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, bore the wrath of God for the sins of His people. To those who believe in Him, He is the redeeming Savior. Those who believe in Him have received the blessing of the grace of God. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are His people, called by His name, Christians. He expects obedience from His people. When His people disobey, He brings chastening upon them, to bring them back to Himself. All the wicked world around us may seem to be getting away with every evil ever devised in the heart of man, but the wicked world around us is not under the love, mercy, and grace of our Almighty God. Those who do not know God nor acknowledge Him as God make a practice of sin. However, God has made Himself known to His creation, and He has expectations of all.
In the sermon on Mars' Hill in Acts 17:30-31, the Apostle Paul preached, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."
When we consider what that means, “all men everywhere” we are confronted with the reality that Jesus Christ alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and there is no other way to eternal life, and no other way to the Father in heaven. The phrase “all men everywhere” is all inclusive. No one is excused. Everyone, regardless of color, creed, national origin, political party, or theological belief, wherever they are, they are commanded to repent. Some people will not believe that.
Not believing is not an option. Not believing does not mean what is true for you may or may not be true for me. Not believing is a rejection of the Word of God and a rejection of the God of the Word. It does not change the truth that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent.
God is glorified in the obedience of His people. He is glorified in the blessings He gives to His people. He is glorified in chastening His people. God is glorified in the repentance of His people. In Luke 15:10, Jesus said, "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." We must obey God, understanding that He chastens those whom He loves. He blesses His people. He has blessed His people with eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus. Christians have forgiveness of sin because of the perfect obedience of Jesus. There is a judgment day coming, and on that day those who are born-again by the Spirit of God, believers in the Son of God, will rejoice forever in the salvation of the Lord.
Those who do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord will meet Him as Judge. Those who do not Jesus as Savior and Lord will spend forever paying the price for their own sin. We ought not wonder why "there are others living about us, Never molested, though in the wrong, nor should we wonder why others prosper, Living so wicked year after year." We don't have to wait until we're Farther Along to understand to know all about it or understand why. God has given us clear answers in His Word.
Our Heavenly Father commands our obedience. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He expects us to obey Him. When we disobey Him, we can expect His chastening hand upon us, to bring us to repentance. When we repent of our sins with broken and contrite hearts, we can expect that He will accept our repentance on the merits of Jesus. Turn from your sin, and turn to the sufficient grace of God. Rejoice in His blessing, and praise Him for Who He Is and for What He Has done to save His people