Joel 2:1 - Meaning and Application

Here God is dealing with his own professing people because of their sins, and carrying out the judgment written in the law (Deuteronomy 28:42). The fruit of their land would be eaten by locusts, one of the plagues of Egypt that God had said he would send on them (Deuteronomy 28:60).

The warning is sounded in Zion: “Blow the trumpet in Zion” (Joel 2:1). This could be a call to gather the invading army, but it more likely means a warning to Judah and Jerusalem that judgment was coming. They were to prepare to meet God in his judgments and try, by prayers and tears, to turn away the blow. It was the priests’ duty to sound the trumpet (Numbers 10:8), both as a plea to God in distress and as a summons for the people to gather and seek his face. Ministers still have the work of warning people from God’s word about the deadly results of sin and declaring his anger against human wickedness.

Zion and Jerusalem are not promised freedom from God’s judgments if they anger him. But they are given the mercy of being warned, so they can make peace with him. Even on the holy mountain the alarm must be sounded, and there it is most frightening (Amos 3:2). If a trumpet is blown in the city, in the holy city, the people will surely tremble (Amos 3:6). Let all the people of the land shake with fear, since the judgment itself will make them tremble.

The day of battle is coming, and it is near, with no way to avoid it. It is the day of the Lord, the day when he shows and magnifies himself in judgment. It is a day of darkness and gloom (Joel 2:2). That was true in a literal sense, since the swarms of locusts and caterpillars were so thick they darkened the sky (Exodus 10:15). It is also true in a moral sense, because it will be a sad time of heavy trouble. The darkness will come like morning spreading over the mountains, sudden and unstoppable, reaching far and wide like the light of day.

The invading army is then pictured in battle order (Joel 2:2). They are a great and strong people. Anyone who sees the huge number of locusts and caterpillars destroying the land will feel that nothing like it has ever been seen before. Such unusual judgments are rare, which shows God’s patience. After God once drowned the world, he promised never to do that again.

This army is described as bold and fearless. They are like horses, like war horses rushing into battle without fear (Job 39:22), and like horsemen driven by battle spirit, running forward at full speed (Joel 2:4). Some old writers noted that a locust’s head is shaped somewhat like a horse’s head. They are also loud, like the noise of chariots, many chariots, driven hard over rough ground on the mountain tops (Joel 2:5). This picture helped shape John’s description of the locusts he saw rise from the bottomless pit: they were like horses prepared for battle, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots and many horses running to battle (Revelation 9:7, Revelation 9:9). Travelers say that in some places the sound of locust swarms has been heard six miles away. Their noise is also compared to a roaring fire, like flames devouring dry stubble. That sound is frightening because it points to destruction. When God’s judgments are abroad, they make a great noise, and that is needed to wake up a careless and dull world.

The army is also very orderly. Though it is countless and eager for spoil, it moves like a strong people drawn up for battle (Joel 2:5). Each one goes straight ahead on his path, as if trained to keep his place and stay beside his neighbor. They do not break ranks or push one another (Joel 2:7, Joel 2:8). Their number and speed do not create confusion. In this we see how God can direct creatures that have no reason to act by rule, when he wants to use them for his own purposes. We also see how important order is for those serving God, each person doing his own work and not crowding another’s place.

They are very swift. They run like horsemen (Joel 2:4), like mighty men (Joel 2:7), and they hurry to and fro in the city and run upon the wall (Joel 2:9). When God sends his command on the earth, his word runs very quickly (Psalm 147:15). Angels have wings, and so do locusts when God uses them for his purpose.

The destruction they bring is terrible. In the countryside, a fire seems to go before them, and another flame follows behind them, because they consume everything as if they breathed fire (Joel 2:3). Before they arrive, the fields look like the garden of Eden, pleasant and fruitful. After they pass, those same fields look like a barren wilderness. One would never think the land had once been so rich, or that such a change could happen so quickly. Nothing that can serve as food will escape them. No one should take pride in the beauty of their land any more than in the beauty of their bodies, because God can quickly change both.

They also enter the city. They climb the wall (Joel 2:7), run on the houses, and come in through the windows like a thief (Joel 2:9). When Egypt was struck with locusts, they filled Pharaoh’s house and the houses of his servants (Exodus 10:5, Exodus 10:6). The locusts from the bottomless pit, Satan’s agents and the messengers of the man of sin, do the same. God’s judgments, when he sends them with authority, cannot be kept out by bars and bolts. They will find a way in, or force one.

The people should learn from this that resistance will be useless. These enemies cannot be wounded, and so they cannot be stopped: if they fall on the sword, they will not be hurt (Joel 2:8).

Those who cannot be hurt cannot be stopped. So before this army’s face, the people will be in great pain (Joel 2:6). It is like merchants who suffer dread when they hear that enemy ships are right at hand. One person mourns over his field, another over his vineyard, and all faces grow dark. That means total alarm and despair. Fear can make a person pale at first, but when fear settles into hopelessness, the face turns dark.

God can quickly turn what is now a source of pride and pleasure into a source of pain. The terror that will spread through the land is described in strong images (Joel 2:10). The earth will quake and the heavens will tremble. Even the people who seemed most steady, as firm as heaven and earth, will be shaken with shock. Or, as people themselves tremble, it will seem to them that everything around them is trembling too.

Because fear spreads so widely, or because the life they depend on is failing, their eyes will grow dim and their sight will fail. Then the sun and moon will seem dark, and the stars will stop shining. When God shows anger toward people, even the lights of heaven become little comfort to them. By rebelling against their Creator, people have lost the blessing of all created things.

This is also a warning of a greater day still to come. There will be a day when this will happen in full, when the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll, and the earth and all its works will burn up. Smaller judgments should wake us up to think about the final judgment.

We are also told to look up to the one who commands this terrifying army, and that is God himself (Joel 2:11). It is his army, his camp. He raised it, gave it its mission, and speaks before it, as a general gives orders and encourages his soldiers. It is the Lord who gives the command to these creatures, and they obey exactly.

Some think that with this cloud of locusts God also sent terrible thunder, since thunder is called the voice of the Lord and was another plague in Egypt. That would help explain why the heavens and the earth trembled. This is the day of the Lord, as it was called in Joel 2:1, because in this battle he is the one who wins. It must be his day, since his camp is so large and powerful.

Those whom he uses to carry out his judgments are made strong enough for the task. God gives them the strength needed for what he appoints them to do. That makes the great day of the Lord very frightening to all who will then be shown his justice. For who can stand before it? No one can escape God’s wrath, resist its force, or endure its weight (1 Samuel 6:20; Psalm 76:7).