CRITICAL NOTES.]
Joel 2:18. Then] No longer threatenings, but promises. Jealous] of dishonour to them, love and pity for their welfare.
Joel 2:19-20.] Renewed fertility and removal of the cause of desolation; answer to prayer and bestowment of great things (Psalms 126:2-3); expressive of a universal truth.
HOMILETICS
RESTORATION OF LOST BLESSINGS.—Joel 2:18-20
These verses form a transition from one part of the prophecy to the other When God’s people returned to him in penitence, “then” he would be jealous for that land in which the temple stood, and for that people whom he still loved. He would hear their prayer, remove the curse, and restore the blessings, material and spiritual. There is no contingency, no uncertainty in the promises. The predictions are absolute, the condition of repentance on which they rest being complied with. Israel was thus encouraged by Divine, not human, security for the fulfilment of God’s word. Chastisement leads to repentance, and restoration of lost blessings the result.
I. This restoration depends upon the sincere repentance of men. “Then will the Lord be jealous.” God’s promises indicate conditions, and are adapted to certain states of mind.
1. Blessings are restored through penitence. They pre-suppose repentance, the efforts and the faithfulness of men. The removal of judgments and restoration of blessings were the result of the penitence and return of Israel. God waits to be gracious, and when sinners humble themselves and seek Divine favours they will be given. “For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.”
2. Blessings are restored in prayer. “The Lord will answer and say.” Infidels object to prayer for daily food and propitious weather. Why should we pray for rain or sunshine, say they, when both depend upon laws of meteorology? The laws of nature are not incapable of modification. Every time we throw a stone or build a house, when we graft a tree, or restore a limb, laws are suspended and varied. If we can direct the hidden forces of creation, and make them subservient to useful purposes, shall the God of nature be powerless! But prayer itself is one of the most natural and prevalent laws of nature. We have proof in Scripture and in our own experience that in the history of men and the events of providence God has changed his proceedings in answer to fervent prayer. “The earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.”
II. Restoration springs from Divine pity to men. The Lord will display his love, “and pity his people.” Before, God was set upon their destruction. He was at the head of a great army, giving the word and combining the strength of the enemy. Now he is full of tender compassion, which resents injury done to them as if done to himself. God spares a people whom he may justly destroy. Humble penitents are permitted and encouraged to plead an interest in him. Natural affection prompts parents to help their children in distress; so God gives his people room in his pity, and blessings in their trouble. Compassionate kindness to the suffering is a dictate of humanity and one of the first principles of religion (James 1:27; Matthew 9:13). “To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed” (Job 6:14). That pity which we should display towards our neighbour God will show to us. He is ready to turn away his anger and have mercy on us. “Ye have seen that the Lord is very pitiful”
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
III. Restoration is in rich variety. Calamities were not simply removed, but abundance of temporal and spiritual favours were bestowed.
1. Material blessings were restored. “I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith.” The material condition of a nation and the outward prosperity of a people depend upon God. He can send famine, pestilence, and war. He alone can take them away. All human efforts are perfectly impotent without Divine co-operation. The husbandman may plough and sow, but God “causes the sun to rise and set” Parliament may legislate and the nation employ its resources, but God alone can remove oppression and restore fertility in the land. It is good for a people to hearken to God in distress, to recognize their dependence upon him in the seasons and operations of nature, and call upon him as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me! He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”
2. National reproach was removed. “I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen.” Reproach is a sad thing for the people of God. But in due time he will take away all visible signs of judgment. His people shall not suffer in reputation and on account of apparent unfaithfulness to them. They shall be free from insult and tyranny, and shall enjoy the credit and comforts of their religion. The best of men may have the bitterest foes, and be subject to the most cruel taunts. But the brutality of the enemy will move the pity of God. He will not long endure to see his children ill-entreated. His love will rouse his anger, and then it will be worse for the scorner and reviler.
3. The mighty enemy was destroyed. “I will remove far off from you the northern army.” Whether “the Northerner” (Heb.) means the pest of locusts or the Assyrian army, God promises deliverance from them. As locusts were driven with the wind, to perish in the Arabian Desert, in the Dead Sea, and in the Mediterranean, to breed pestilence by the stench from their putrifying bodies, so the enemy shall be driven every way but the one from which he came. The destroyer shall do no further mischief. (a) The destruction is entire. They shall perish for lack of sustenance. Nothing shall remain but their ill savour. (b) The destruction is deserved. “Because he hath done great things,” magnified himself against God. Pride and violence against God’s people have ever been the features and forerunners of destruction. (c) The destruction is fearful. The countless hosts, full of life and activity, were scattered by the word of God on the waves of the sea, and thrown upon the shore a putrifying mass. Human malice and pride shall be destroyed. God takes away their breath and they become a carcase. Sennacherib’s army in the evening inspired terror, “and before the morning he is not” (Isaiah 17:14). “And when they rose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses” (Isaiah 37:36).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
God’s favours towards penitent sinners.
1. Zeal against them turned into pity for them.
2. Their prayers answered in abundant blessings. Material and spiritual good.
3. Their condition reversed. (a) Freedom for oppression. (b) Honour for reproach. (c) Feasting for fasting. (d) The removal of everything sad, and the bestowment of everything joyful.
The excellent condition of restored sinners.
1. Enemies subdued.
2. Abundance enjoyed.
3. Blessings perpetuated.
Divine favours.
1. Their source—God’s pity.
2. Their subjects—God’s people.
3. Their result—“Ye shall be satisfied.”
Joel 2:19. I will send you corn. God averts the failure of crops and the scarcity of food. These evils neither come nor cease by accident. God gives us our daily bread. He opens his hand and we are satisfied with food [Lange].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joel 2:20. The south and east winds drive the clouds of locusts with violence into the Mediterranean, and drown them in such quantities that when their dead are cast on to the shore, they infect the air to a great distance [Volney]. Wonderful image of the instantaneousness, ease, completeness, of the destruction of God’s enemies; a mass of active life exchanged, in a moment, into a mass of death [Pusey].