Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
A plague of insects has stripped the land bare, and Joel has called the priests and the people to fast at the house of God. At verse 15 his tone changes: the ruined fields drop out of sight, and something far larger fills the view.
Prophets often begin with what is in front of them and then move to the end of the age. One writer marks this verse as the hinge in Joel:
Keep one principle in mind when reading prophecy. The prophet takes up circumstances close at hand, which the faith of God's people was concerned with at the time. He then goes on to further and final events, in which God will display His government and bring it to a close. The move from one to the other is not always easy to spot. Still, once you grasp the principle, you can usually see where it passes over. A notable instance is in Joel. There a plague of caterpillars and other destructive insects pictures the northern army at the end of the age... Yet the language changes in chapter 1:15.
The word "day" is chosen on purpose. It rules out judgment done quietly, out of sight. (The writers below use "Jehovah," the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
Here the phrase "the day of Jehovah" appears for the first time, and it carries great weight. It is vital to get a clear view of that day. The prominent truth involved in it is that it implies the open judgment of the world by God. The choice of the expression "day" involves this. It is not a question of secret judgments or providential dealings. That might happen during the night, and unseen.
Joel names the source of the destruction: the Almighty. Scholars still dispute what that title means:
Scholars do not agree about where the word shaddai comes from or what it means. Some give it as "all bountiful," others "all sufficient," "all mighty," and so on. This is not surprising. Any name of God must be above mere human learning or definition. Yet it was the ground of faith to those who had the revelation. The name first appears in Genesis 17:1, where God said to Abraham, "I am God Almighty." This links it with the patriarchs: it is the name they knew God by.
One writer traces this same day through later empires, and past them:
In the Old Testament, a sweeping judgment on a people and country, as of old on Babylon or on Egypt, is itself called the "day of the Lord" on them. Joel 1 and 2 may illustrate the same thing, introducing the day of the Lord in a similar way and with similar features. It is a day that comes as a destruction from the Almighty. It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness, great and very terrible. Who can endure it? It may fall on people in some measure through Medes or Persians, through Greeks or Romans. But it looks onward to its completeness at last, when the Lord rises up to shake not the earth only but also heaven.
Joel says the day is near. Older translations read "at hand." Centuries have passed since, and one writer treats that gap not as a mistake but as mercy:
Here it is destruction, open judgment, as in the day when God will judge the world in righteousness. The army of insects was only a forerunner. Yet even then, instead of joy and gladness in the house of God, God was judging. The prophet said the day "is at hand." But God's long-suffering delayed its full execution, and delays it still.
Commentators separate two events that readers often merge:
So, in short, the day of the Lord is the public and governmental side of His coming. But the coming of the Lord takes in events of another kind. They are distinct from that day, and they come earlier. ...The Old Testament proclaims the day of Jehovah. The New Testament endorses this truth, holding it and making it clearer. But the New Testament adds a second truth, distinct from it. Christ will come to receive us to Himself, and present us in the Father's house. After that, He will bring in the day of Jehovah.
- The signal. The stripped fields were a forerunner, not the main event — a present judgment pointing past itself to a far greater one.
- The turn. Joel moves from the ruin at his feet to the close of the age. Commentators mark this verse as the point where his language changes.
- The word "day." It means open, public judgment of the world, not God's quiet work behind the scenes.
- The Name. "The Almighty" is the title God gave Abraham. Scholars still debate its exact sense, yet it was the ground of faith to those who had it.
- The wait. Joel said "near," and it is still near — God's long-suffering, not His forgetfulness. Before that public day arrives, Christ comes to receive His own into the Father's house.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
A famine has stripped the land, and everyone can see it. The food is gone, and with it the offerings that kept worship going in God's house — and Joel asks what that loss means.
The insects were not the whole story. One writer reads the ruined land as judgment already at work, and as the sign of a greater day still to come:
What we have here is destruction, open judgment — like the day when God will judge the world in righteousness. The army of insects was only a forerunner. But right then, instead of joy and gladness in the house of God, God was judging. The prophet said the day of the Lord was at hand. But God's patience has held back its full coming, and holds it back still.
The failed crops did not stop at the dinner table. The land supplied the grain offering and the drink offering, so the altar felt it too:
The religious offerings felt the blight over the land — the grain offering and the drink offering. One was the witness of devotedness, the other of joy before God. Both were completely cut off from the house of Jehovah.
The loss ran from the field to the storehouse to the house of God:
The services of God's house are suspended. The grain offering and the drink offering are withheld, and the joy and gladness that belonged to the house is no more. The seed is rotten in the field, and the storehouses at home are empty. Herds and flocks share the misery of the times.
Of all the losses in the chapter, one weighed on the prophet more than the rest:
But in all this sorrow, what especially grieved the prophet was that the grain offering and the drink offering were cut off from the house of the Lord. The means to keep up these sacrifices were gone. Twice in chapter 1 this fact is lamented, and no wonder, for the grain and drink offerings spoke of Christ. And now they had ceased. As God looked down from heaven, there was no longer anything in Judah that pictured Christ to His eye.
That left the nation with nothing to fall back on:
But the state of the nation was hopeless. The grain and drink offerings ceased. The people had, so to speak, lost what presented Christ. What possible hope could there be apart from Him?
The stripped fields matched something that had already happened inside the people:
We must remember that all these things have a moral bearing. The desolation all around matched the damage sin had done inside them. The people had wandered badly from Jehovah, and their state was such that He could take no pleasure in them. The whole scene was one of ruin and departure from God.
Because the cause was moral, so was the cure. One writer traces the line from disobedience to the empty altar, and then forward to what would restore it:
In the days of the prophet Joel, a plague of locusts destroyed the harvest (Joel 1:9, 13). So the people could not offer the grain and drink offerings required by the law, and this was to the nation's shame. It was a direct result of the nation's disobedience (Deut. 28:33). Only by repenting and throwing themselves on the mercy of Jehovah could they hope for deliverance and for the return of the grain and drink offerings (Joel 2:14). There can be no joy for God in disobedience.
- Seen. The food ran out where everyone could watch it happen. That was open judgment, and a preview of a greater day still ahead.
- Stopped. In the end the famine reached the altar. The grain offering spoke of devotedness, the drink offering of joy before God — and both ceased.
- Silenced. With the offerings gone, the services of God's house stopped. The joy and gladness that belonged to it were gone too.
- Emptied. Those offerings pictured Christ. God looked down and saw nothing in Judah that presented Christ to His eye. With Him out of view, what hope was left?
- Mirrored, and mended. The ruin outside matched the damage sin had done inside. Only repentance and throwing themselves on God's mercy could bring back the offerings and the joy.
The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
In Joel's day the ruin did not stop at the fields — it reached inside the storehouse, where seed rotted in the ground and empty barns came down. Why did God let a whole nation's food supply fail, and what did He want His people to do about it?
One writer walks through the losses this chapter names, from the crops outside to the storehouses at home.
In Joel's day the vine and the fig tree, the grain, the wine and the oil, the palm, the pomegranate and the apple tree are all withered. The priests and ministers are called to weep, and a solemn fast is announced, so that the elders and all the people may gather. The services of God's house have stopped. The grain offering and the drink offering are held back, and the joy and gladness that belonged to the house is gone. The seed is rotten in the field, and the storehouses at home are empty. Herds and flocks share the misery of the times.
The shortage had a purpose. One writer explains what God was doing through it.
The Spirit of God uses a shortage like no other, caused by the invasion of countless armies of insects, to wake the people up to the day of Jehovah. That great and terrible day was still to come. In it His power would be shown in judgment. He had been patient for a long time, but at last He would step in to clear the glory of His name, and to free it from the reproach that the sin of His people had brought on it.
The ruined fields and broken barns had a meaning beyond farming. What showed in the land matched what sin had done inside the people.
We must remember that all these things carry a moral meaning. The ruin all around matched the ruin that sin had worked inside. The people had wandered far from Jehovah, and they were in such a state that He could take no pleasure in them. The whole scene was one of ruin and departure from God.
The lost harvest reached God's house too, and that is where the prophet's grief goes.
But in all this sorrow, what gave the prophet special grief was this: the grain offering and the drink offering were cut off from the house of the Lord. There was nothing left to keep up these sacrifices with. Chapter 1 laments this twice, and no wonder, for the grain and drink offerings spoke of Christ. Now they had stopped. As God looked down from heaven, there was no longer anything in Judah that pictured Christ to His eye.
A reader today may feel that ruined crops have little to do with him. One writer says why, and warns where that feeling leads.
Admittedly, to a Christian all this may seem a little outside his line, and for the plain reason that our blessings lie quite apart from nature. We should remember that the Jew enjoyed natural blessings from God, while the Christian's blessings are supernatural. A Christian may of course have outward mercies along with his privileges in Christ, but these are never the substance of what he inherits. God may give them or withhold them without any mark of approval. So there was a fitness and force in these visitations which is lost for the Christian. That is why he is tempted to explain away prophecies like these whenever he applies them to himself, as he is inclined to do.
The ruin touched everyone, but not everyone felt it. The chapter names one man who did.
Yes, there was Joel. No doubt there were others, godly men who feared Jehovah, just as in Elijah's day there were 7,000 who did not bow the knee to Baal. But Joel comes before us here as the one who mourned over the state of things, and carried the burden of his people's trouble upon his spirit. And who can fail to recognize the voice of Christ in the way he speaks?
- Cause. God used the rotting seed and the falling barns to wake a people who had wandered far from Him.
- Mirror. The empty land matched the empty heart. What sin had already done inside the people now showed in their fields.
- Cost. When the grain dried up, the offerings stopped. The loss reached God's house, where nothing was left to picture Christ before Him.
- Warning. The shortage pointed past itself to the day of Jehovah — the great and terrible day when God would act to clear the glory of His name.
- Response. The ruin hit everyone, but Joel is the man shown mourning over it and carrying his people's burden — and in his grief commentators hear the voice of Christ.
How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.
A locust plague and drought have stripped Judah bare, and the cry Joel hears here is not human but animal. Commentators ask why God struck the fields and flocks of His own people, and what the groaning of cattle was meant to say to the people who could speak.
The chapter lists the loss step by step: trees, harvest, the offerings at the temple. One writer follows that list down to the herds and flocks:
In Joel's day, the vine and the fig, the corn and the wine and the oil, palm-tree, pomegranate, and apple-tree, all are withered... The services of God's house stop. No one brings the grain offering or the drink offering, and the joy and gladness that belonged to the house is gone. The seed is rotten in the field, and the barns at home are empty. Herds and flocks share the misery of the times. The prophet himself begins to cry to God under this heavy sorrow. He leads the way in the humbling and confession that suit such a moment in the people's history.
The suffering of the cattle was a sentence, not an accident. God had warned Israel of it long before it fell:
The great locust plague and the drought were a punishment of Jehovah. Moses and Solomon had already prophesied such forms of judgement (Deut. 28:38-39 and 1 Kings 8:37). But the people of Israel would not recognise the hand of Jehovah in it. This is why, in chapter 1, the prophet calls the old men and the priests to lamentation and to repentance.
Israel's blessings from God were natural ones. So the blow to the pasture carried a force for them that it would not carry for a Christian:
To a Christian all this may seem outside his line, and for the obvious reason that our blessings are completely apart from nature. Remember that the Jew enjoyed natural blessings from God, while the Christian's blessings are supernatural. He may of course have outward mercies along with his privileges in Christ. But these are never the substance of what he inherits. God may give them or withhold them, without any mark of approval at all... So these judgments had a fitness and force which is lost for the Christian.
The same picture returns later, in the days of the prophet Elijah. One writer imagines him walking through the land under drought:
restores the quote's own link to this verse Elijah loved the people, so he could only grieve at such conditions in the land God had chosen. Just before Israel entered it, He had called it "a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year" (Deut. 11:11-12). But sin always yields bitter consequences. Let us beware in case we fall in some way under the disciplinary hand of God.
A few verses earlier, in verse 15, the prophet cries out that a great day is coming. One writer explains what he saw:
The 15th verse is an exclamation of the prophet as that day appears before his vision. In the middle of the strange description of the calamity present in Joel's day, he sees a greater judgment approaching. It is the same day he sees which the other prophets mention; each time Joel uses this expression it means the coming day of the Lord, still approaching.
The two things are kept distinct, even while one leads into the other:
In examining the prophecy, the reader may observe that it distinguishes between the famine that ushered in the day of Jehovah, and that day itself... The state of famine and desolation, interpreted by the Spirit of prophecy, calls on the people to present themselves before Jehovah, because the day of Jehovah was at hand.
The verse is not God's last word on the animals. One writer describes the day that undoes every line of this lament:
Land and water will know neither scorching heat nor destroying storm. Drought and mildew will no longer strike the fruits of the earth, nor will locust or caterpillar... Health, peace, and plenty will be everywhere. The harvest never fails. The herds are no more perplexed, the flocks are no more desolate, and the beasts groan and cry no more. Instead the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk.
- Groan downward. The blow ran from vine and harvest to the temple offerings, and then to the herds. Nothing living escaped.
- Groan sent. The locusts and drought were God's punishment, not a run of bad seasons. Moses and Solomon had foretold them.
- Groan unread. The people would not recognise His hand in it, so the prophet calls them to lament and repent.
- Groan enlarged. Behind the famine the prophet sees a greater judgment on the way: the coming day of the Lord.
- Groan ended. God will undo it all. The herds will no longer be perplexed, and the beasts will cry no more.
To thee, Jehovah, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.
The chapter has just listed the ruin: stripped vines, empty fields, silent offerings. Then one voice rises out of it and turns to God. Who is speaking? Why is he the only one? And what does the fire that burned up the open pastures have to do with the God he calls on?
The ruin had already reached the worship of God. One writer lists what was gone.
The services of God's house have stopped. No grain offering and no drink offering are brought, and the joy and gladness that belonged to the house is no more. The seed is rotten in the field, and the barns at home are empty.
Earlier in the chapter Joel calls the priests to mourn, to fast, and to gather the nation. One writer notes what never comes.
Then comes the definite call to the priests to lament and cry to Jehovah and to set apart a fast (verses 13-14). But there is no record of a response. At the close of this chapter the Prophet alone raises his voice to Jehovah. In the second chapter we learn about the time when the nation of Israel repents.
Another writer sees Joel doing more than praying alone. He goes first.
The prophet himself begins to cry to God under this deep sorrow. He leads the way, as it were, in the humbling and confessions that suit such a moment in the people's history.
The book says almost nothing about the man who wrote it. One writer treats this short sentence as a window into him.
Joel was, like all the other prophets, a man of prayer. The prophet says nothing else about himself. But this brief word is enough to give us a glimpse of his inner life and his trust in the Lord. He cried to Jehovah in the great distress.
The verse names fire and flame burning up pasture and trees. One writer ties the scorched land to the drought that came with the locusts. He traces both back to God, and notes that the people refused to see His hand in it.
The great locust plague and the drought were a punishment of Jehovah. Moses and Solomon had already prophesied such forms of judgement (Deut. 28:38-39 and 1 Kings 8:37). But the people of Israel would not recognise the hand of Jehovah in it. This is why, in chapter 1, the prophet calls the old men and the priests to lamentation and to repentance.
The burnt landscape is also read as a picture of something less visible.
We must remember that all these things have a moral bearing. The ruin all around them matched the ruin that sin had worked inside them. The people had wandered far from Jehovah, and their state was such that He could take no pleasure in them. The whole scene was one of ruin and departure from God.
Commentators differ here. Some hear only the prophet praying. One writer points back to the "my land" and "my vine" of verses 6 and 7, and asks who is really speaking.
Who is it that speaks in verses 6 and 7 of "my land," "my vine," and "my fig tree"? Who is it that in verse 19 cries out, in the middle of all the pressure, to Jehovah as the only One where help and refuge can be found?
His answer takes the cry as more than one man's private grief.
It is, I believe, the blessed Lord, speaking in the spirit of prophecy. He identifies Himself with His people in their sorrow. He Himself feels the pressure that is on them. And He gives voice to the feelings that the Spirit of God would produce in them through the trial.
This chapter's ruin is not the day of judgment the book goes on to announce. It comes first, to drive people to God before that day.
As we examine the prophecy, we may notice that it separates two things. There is the famine that led into the day of Jehovah, and there is that day itself. We have only to compare Joel 1:15, and Joel 2:1, 11. The famine and desolation, explained by the Spirit of prophecy, call the people to present themselves before Jehovah, because the day of Jehovah was near.
- Ruin. The fire and the failed harvest were not bad luck. They were Jehovah's punishment, already foretold through Moses and Solomon.
- Blindness. The people would not see His hand in it. The ruin outside matched the damage sin had already done inside them.
- The cry. Joel called the priests to cry to Jehovah. The record shows no response, and the prophet ends the chapter crying alone.
- The pattern. Joel leads the way in the humbling and confession the moment called for. His one short cry shows a man of prayer who trusted the Lord.
- The voice behind it. One commentator hears the Lord Himself in this cry, entering His people's sorrow and giving words to what the trial was meant to produce. The famine came to bring them to God before His day arrived.
The beasts of the field also cry unto thee; for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Nineteen verses call priests and elders to wake up and mourn, and the chapter ends with one man doing it, joined by the animals. Why does a prophet's prayer close a chapter of ruin, and why do thirsty beasts belong in it?
Joel has just told the priests to cry out to God. What follows in the last two verses is his own voice, not theirs.
Then comes the definite call to the priests to lament and cry to Jehovah and to set apart a fast (verses 13-14). But there is no record of a response. At the close of this chapter the Prophet alone raises his voice to Jehovah. We shall learn in the second chapter of the time of the national repentance of Israel.
No one answered his call, so he answers it himself.
The prophet himself begins to cry to God under this heavy sorrow. He leads the way, as it were, in the humbling and the confessions that suit such a moment in the people's history.
The burnt pastures and empty streams were not bad weather.
The great locust plague and the drought were a punishment from Jehovah. Moses and Solomon had already foretold such forms of judgement (Deut. 28:38-39 and 1 Kings 8:37). But the people of Israel would not recognise the hand of Jehovah in it. This is why, in chapter 1, the prophet calls the old men and the priests to lamentation and to repentance.
The scorched landscape was a picture of something the eye could not see.
We must remember that all these things have a moral bearing. The desolation all around matched the ruin that sin had worked within. The people had wandered badly from Jehovah, and their state was such that He could take no pleasure in them. The whole scene was one of ruin and departure from God.
Joel puts panting cattle alongside his own prayer. They turn to God without a word from anyone, and they suffer for a sin that was never theirs.
God is not indifferent to the groaning of the lower creation, which came through the sin and fall of man. He has no intention of letting that groaning continue. If man has dishonoured God by his sin, and by the ruin that marks His fair creation, God has answered it. He has stepped in through His own Son to take away sin and all its dreadful effects in His creation. How loud that groan must be, as it reaches the ear of God through the sorrows and sufferings of man and beast.
The famine is real, and God uses it to point past itself.
Countless armies of insects invaded the land and caused a shortage like no other. The Spirit of God uses that moment to rouse the attention of the people about the day of Jehovah. That great and terrible day was still to come, and in it God would show His power in judgment.
The next chapter takes up the same beasts and the same pastures, and turns every word around.
"Fear not, you beasts of the field." They are called to renewal, instead of drooping for lack even of ordinary food. The millennial day of joy for the earth and all creation is before us here. So "the pastures of the wilderness are green, the tree bears its fruit." All is reversed.
This is why the animals belong in the story at all. They rise and fall with the man they depend on.
Man, by his sin, has not only brought ruin on himself, but has spoiled his home and dragged down all the creatures that depend on him... The whole of this lower creation either suffers or rejoices with its head.
- Cry — the chapter ends with one man praying. The priests heard the call and stayed silent. The prophet went first, and led the way in confession.
- Cause — the burnt pastures and dry streams were not bad luck. They were discipline, and the ruin outside matched the ruin sin had worked inside.
- Creation — the beasts cry because man's fall dragged creation down. God hears their groan, and He will not leave it unanswered.
- Coming — the famine woke the people to a far greater day, when God would show His power in judgment.
- Change — chapter 2 turns the same words around. The beasts are told not to fear. The pastures spring again, because creation suffers or rejoices with its head.