Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
The influence of a repentant soul upon the universe at large
I. There is a tendency in the influence of a repentant soul to bring back to the material universe the forfeited joy it was destined to possess. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.” The land is here said to have been in the mend of fear. It had abundant cause for terror. It had been stricken by the retributive hand of God. All its produce had been destroyed. It was desolate. It was yet threatened with more awful agencies of destruction. Sin has made the material universe to tremble. The mood of man is reflected in the material things by which he is surrounded; they reflect the terror of sin and the joy of repentance. Let man obey God, and Eden is a garden of the Lord. Let him disobey God, and earth becomes the abode of Satan. Let man be redeemed, and the earth begins to smile. Let man be glorified, and there is no more curse. When the race is saved, “the Lord will do great things” in nature. He will entirely change her moods. When the new earth dawns, she will know no fear.
II. There is a tendency in the influence of a repentant soul to render more fruitful the beneficent operations of nature. “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 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.”
1. There is peace. Man has in his soul the key to the quietude of the universe; when his soul is at peace with God, then the entire world is at rest.
2. There is growth. When man is at peace with God, then the earth is most potent in the exercise of its vitalities. The fruits of the earth are not far removed from the fruits of the Spirit.
3. There is super abundance. When man turns to God, the earth in superabundant blessing turns to man. When repentant in soul our cup runneth over. Nature is rich in treasure to the pure in heart. Repentance is a good friend to commerce.
III. There is a tendency in the influence of a repentant soul to cause a spirit of holy satisfaction to rest upon the world. “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.”
1. There is true enjoyment. Man shall eat in plenty. Nature shall not refuse to supply his want.
2. Here is real satisfaction. Not merely shall nature supply the need of man, but shall appropriately satisfy it.
3. Here is devout praise. The gifts of nature shall awaken men to holy thanksgiving. This is an ideal state of society. Thus will it be when all souls repose in the love of the eternal God.
IV. There is a tendency in the influence of a repentant soul to awaken men to a more thoughtful recognition of the presence of God in the midst of life. “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else.” When a nation is given over to a sinful method of life, it has no recognition of God in its midst. It forgets Him. But repentance opens the eye of the moral nature and renders it keen in vision, so that it sees God. To see God in the midst of life is the supreme joy of the pure soul, because all things around partake of the lustre of His presence. This gives a solemn view of life. Lessons--
1. That the joy of the universe is conditioned by the moral sentiments of man.
2. That a pure soul is often the most enriched by nature.
3. That God is in the midst of a repentant humanity. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
A year’s ministry
A prophecy of national adversity, a call to national repentance, and a promise of national blessing, are the three great topics of Joel’s prophetic ministry. The last is represented by the text. The adversity, the repentance, and the blessing indicate a Divine order. If there is reason to fear that days “of darkness and gloominess” are settling down upon our own land, let not the Israel of God despair; the “people” and the “elders” shall assemble before God; lift up the voice of penitential confession, and cry in faith; the vows of a covenanted land shall be remembered and renewed, and the light of God’s countenance shall scatter the darkness. “Fear not, O land. .. the Lord will do great things.” The great things of the Lord’s doing comprehend the mission of the Saviour in the fulness of the time; the subsequent mission of His Holy Spirit; the millennial glory; and the final triumph of truth and righteousness in the world. Looking far beyond the intervening clouds of calamity and penitential sorrow, we behold a glory; and by faith we can hear from the distant future, in the trumpet-tongued voice of some messenger of the Lord, that consoling prophecy of the world’s last resting-time of love. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.” (T. Easton.)
Antidotes against the operation of desponding fear
Unto his beloved country Joel is not only the messenger of its misery, but the herald of its prosperity.
I. The promise of doing great things as an antidote to fear. The fear implied is desponding and unreasonable fear.
1. The causes and occasions of such fear are,--the enterprises of the gates of hell, the tyranny of the man of sin, the wrath of the kings of the earth, the bulwarks of superstition, the efficacy of delusion, the battering-rams of infidelity, and the fierce contentions for: dominion of empire with empire, and kingdom with kingdom.
2. Exemplify the strength and sufficiency of the antidote to this fear, in the promise of doing great things. Apply to the above several occasions and causes of the fear.
3. Enforce the caveat entered against this fear with the promise. In order that the strength and sufficiency of the antidote may be felt in experience, read the record of the great things which the Lord hath done: believe the promises of the great things which He will do; assure yourselves that before the Church be swallowed up by the world, the great things which He hath done shall be done over again; and observe that the caveat against desponding fear is entered, and its antidote prescribed and recommended, under the authority of the Lord who is both the doer and the promiser.
II. The promise of doing great things, which is the ground of the admonition, is an excitation to express the joy for which the admonition is given. Mention some great things which the Lord will do. Protect the reformed faith, furnish a ministry to preach it, raise out of every generation professors to hold it, reconcile the remnant of the seed of Abraham, gather in the fulness of the Gentiles, fill the earth with His glory, crush the insurrection of the last days, rend the heavens and come down, raise and judge the dead, dissolve the frame of the world, present the whole Church faultless in the presence of His glory, and reign over it for ever. Consider the nature of the joy for which the admonition is given, and unto which the promise of doing these great things is an excitement. The Father of glory is the fountain of it; the Saviour of the world is the medium of it; the Spirit of holiness is the author of it; the Scriptures of truth are the means of it; the city of God is the cistern in which it collects; the congregations of the citizens are the openings at which it breaks forth; and their lives the plains over which it flows. Then let us provoke ourselves to rejoice in His goodness and truth and power. In our island the Lord hath done great things, is doing great things, and according to our hope will do great things.
III. Excitation to rejoice needs to be accompanied with instruction concerning the expression of our joy. We shall set before your faith some expressions of joy which correspond to the admonition, and by which it ought to be honoured in the city of God. Particularly, by observing the works of the Lord in the administrations of providence; adoring His glory breaking forth in these works; honouring His name appearing in them with the obedience of faith; trusting in His promises; praying for the performance of the promises which remain yet to be fulfilled; and waiting for the performance of these promises. Then take care to express your joy in each of these forms distinctly. (A. Shanks.)
The Divine response to the challenge of evil
I. Our attention is arrested first by the “great things” of sin and judgment. Some scholars give the text and context literal interpretations; they construe it to mean that in consequence of the sins of Israel God will send upon the land swarms of locusts which shall destroy every green thing. Others give the text an allegorical interpretation. They say that God threatens to let loose upon Israel a fierce invading army, which like a swarm of locusts will eat up the nation. Be this as it may, the chapter unmistakably sets forth the terrible, devouring power of sin, and the retributions which arise out of sin, and this is a warning that all generations ought to consider and respect. The swarming locusts remind us of the multitudinousness of evil. Evil envelops us, attacks us, torments us on every side. You may crush a locust, you may crush a score, you may crush a thousand, it makes no appreciable difference, myriads more crowd in hungrily, and give you the sense of hopelessness. So the evils that afflict the world are manifold, and it seems useless to resist them; practically they are infinite and overwhelming. What a picture this chapter gives of the fiery energy, the swiftness, the restlessness, the practical irresistibility of the locusts! “The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen so shall they run.” “Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble.” So there is an awful wrathfulness, facility, and effectiveness about evil passions, evil movements, and evil things. It takes a century to build up an oak, but the lightning flash blasts it in a moment. Again, these locusts remind us of the pervasiveness of evil. “They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.” You cannot exclude evil; it penetrates everywhere, it defiles everything. It mocks at personal vigilance. The black locusts swarm on all the roses of our pleasure, they devour the golden fruits of our industry, they strip the vine and fig-tree of our domestic felicity, they defile the pomegranates and palms of our sacred places. These locusts suggest another terrible aspect of evil, namely, that it expresses a certain law, order, and government. “They shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks.” The New Testament makes this clear, that the world of iniquity is a realm of government. Finally, the locusts symbolise the destructiveness of sin. “The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness.” We cannot to-day look upon this world without feeling how awful sin is, and how terrible its consequences are. How painful are the aspects of the world beyond Christendom, how painful,, the scenes on which we look! Sin has “magnified itself to do great things, and it has done them. It has boasted itself against nature, and filled the earth with disorder, cruelty, and anguish. It has boasted itself against man, and covered him with dishonour, pierced him with misery, dug his grave. It has boasted itself against God, spoiling His works, thwarting His purpose, grieving Him at His heart. It has done great things. It is doing them, it is preparing to do them. We often stand appalled in the presence of evil; we are awed by it, staggered by it. There is something in it that is so mysterious, immeasurable, unfathomable, unaccountable. All our efforts to arrest it seem ridiculous. Scientists identify it with the cosmical force. Philosophers recognise in it the authority of necessity. Reformers and educationists faint as they struggle against the sea-power of evil. And the religious worker often feels the terrible chill of despondency and despair.
II. We dwell upon the “great things” of the Divine grace. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.” The adversary has magnified himself, vaunted himself, to do “great things,” and God responds to his challenge: “I, the Lord, will do great things; I will show that My strength prevails against the rage of evil, I will drive the locusts into the sea, I will destroy the destroyer, and bring his work to a perpetual end.”
1. Let us notice the wonderful way in which God limits evil. “But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate., with his face towards the cast sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.” If we look into nature we see that limits have ever been put to the destructive forces. The geologists tell us this. The wild, terrible, murderous dragons of the primitive age were held in check. According to the theory of some scientists, the stronger animals invariably destroy the weaker, but, if that be so, how is it that these awful primeval monsters, all teeth and claws, did not take possession of the earth and keep possession? It is certain that they did not; palaeontology answers us that the best armed species are those which have almost always disappeared. There were laws and forces which hedged in the wildest elements, and gave security and permanence to the weaker but nobler races. And we to-day see the same restraints put upon the noxious things of nature. The naturalist makes this clear. In New Guinea is a venomous bird known as the “Bird of Death.” Its bite causes excruciating pain, blindness, and lockjaw. No person bitten by it, it is asserted, has recovered, and death comes within a few hours. How is it that this bird of bad omen has not multiplied and taken possession of the forests? How is it that the birds of Paradise manage to survive by its side? Or, to come nearer home, how is it that the hawk does not exterminate the sweet singers of our woods? The “devil plant” of the Mississippi is most fatal; ii kills insects and cattle, and rich meadow lands shrivel at its insidious approach as if they had been touched with fire. How is it that the infernal thing remains within certain regions? In Nicaragua is the “vampire vine,” which seems literally to drain the blood of every living-thing, which comes within its deathdealing touch. How is it that this vampire vine does not prevail, and drive out the vine whose purple clusters make glad the heart of man? One of the old kings had a garden planted solely with poison flowers; how is it that the whole earth has not become such a garden? The fact is, there is a vigilant, benign law, a balance of nature, which keeps these formidable growths within limit beyond which they cannot pass, and, instead of sickly colours, vile odours, and deadly poisons dominating the panorama, the landscape is full of loveliness, fragrance, and health. The octopus, the alligator, the shark threaten the seas, but the same law prevails there that prevails on the land, shielding whatsoever passeth through the depth of the seas. And the physiologist tells us the same story. One would expect that diseases of the blood and brain would be transmitted from one generation to another, until the whole race would become infected, and the earth degenerate into a lazar house; but the physiologist answers us that there is “a limit to the transmission of abnormal characteristics.” And if you look into history you are taught exactly the same lesson. The Pharaohs, the Neros, the Attilas, the Mahomets, the Tamerlanes, the Alvas, the Napoleons now and again threaten civilisation; it lies helpless and bleeding at their feet; but the historian shows that there is always a rock on which their Armadas suffer shipwreck, a Moscow in which their armies perish. And it is thus to-day in this world of ours. All about us are horrible things, infectious literature, vile institutions, degrading practices, which threaten the very life of the nation. And prowling around are thousands of selfish, cruel monsters, ready to prey on their helpless fellows. It is a mystery that they do not eat us up. But they do not. Just as there is a secret law circumscribing the shark, the vampire, the corpse plant, the upas, so God’s eye is upon the drinking, saloon, the infamous press, the gambling club, the camera obscura of lust, the prize ring, the opium den, and all the rest of the terrible things which menace civilisation, and the proud, raging waves of hell foaming out their own shame are broken on unseen, mystic sands which God has fixed as the bounds over which they may not pass. He limits one bad thing by another bad thing; He limits one bad thing by a thing less bad; He limits all bad things by the golden ring of His perfect sovereign government.
2. But God does not merely intend to limit evil; He designs the full triumph of righteousness. It is not enough that He should restrain the force and fury of the devil within given breakwaters; He means to confound evil, to abolish it. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord hath done great things.” “And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” “The Lord hath done great things” in the direction of this absolute victory. The Gospel is a revelation of “great things.” The advent of our Lord; His personal moral glory; His ministry; His passion; His atoning death; His resurrection; His ascension into heaven; His sending forth of the Holy Spirit; His session at the right hand of God,--these are the mighty accomplished facts of redemption which justify our boast that the Lord hath done “great things.” Over against the destructive things and methods of wickedness He has put a “great salvation” which was first spoken by the Lord, and which was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. And in its application the “great salvation” has vindicated its name. At once in the actual world the first evangelists proved its efficacy. The “great things” of God at once assert themselves against the “great things” of darkness, against the rulers of this world. And is not Christianity the great force that overcomes evil in the world of to-day? It is the saving power in the heathen world. And here at home the “great things” of the Gospel are the hope of society. Not!ling goes to the root of the evil we bemoan but the doctrines of the Gospel; nothing really grapples with sin but the power of grace; nothing creates amongst us a living, organic righteousness except the truth and love and power of God in Jesus Christ. And it will continue to save and bless. Do not lose heart, do not be overwhelmed by the vision of evil. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Gracious promises
These promises are applied and amplified. Application is made to the land, that it should not fear, but rejoice seeing God was to do eat things; and to the beasts, that they should lay aside their fear, since the earth was to be blessed with pasture and fruit. Learn--
1. The Lord would have His promises and comforts applied to them to whom they are given, for their refreshment.
2. God’s kindness to penitents will be such, as not only to refresh themselves, but to gladden and refresh their land, their beasts, and all in their kind.
3. Penitents are instrumental to draw down blessings on themselves and on what they enjoy.
4. God’s care of the earth, and of the very cattle, may assure penitents of His respects to them.
5. God, when He pleaseth, can make fears end in joy, and the hope thereof should bring joy, when fear is vet on.
6. God’s great power who promiseth, and who hath given proof thereof in executing threatenings, may guard against fear, and afford ground of hope, were the thing promised never so great and difficult.
7. God can, and in due time will remove the fears of His people, by giving actual proofs of His love, for so are they encouraged by the promises made to the beasts for their sake and good. (George Hutcheson.)