Joel chapter 2 commentary

Joel, the prophet by

James Tissot c.1896

Joel 2:12-14

" 'Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing -- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God" (Joel 2:12-14).

Here... is the only solution to Israel's woes and troubles: Repentance! It is doubtful whether any exhortation to a new life is to be found in the Bible to compare with this sustained and detailed pleading. But for long centuries God's people have been impervious to these appeals of heaven. Yet repentance -- note the piling up of phrases -- is the only thing that can save Israel from the unparalleled disaster which today appears threateningly on the horizon.

It is an aspect of the teaching of God's Word concerning Israel, which the New Israel just as stubbornly refuses to recognize, that except there be repentance first, even the omnipotence of an Almighty God cannot save the people of His choice. It is not possible to print out in full the entire list of Scriptures about this. Instead, the bald references are given. If any reader doubts the Bible's intensity of emphasis is really as strong as all that, let him work his way patiently through the subjoined catalogue. He will then ask himself, and his fellows, in amazement why such a vital theme has gone so much ignored for so long a time. Is it because earlier teachers left it alone, and if they didn't see it, it can't have been there? Or is it because, even for those who are spiritually streets ahead of natural Israel, repentance is an unpopular topic?

cf. Zec 6:15; 12:10-14; 13;9; Isa 17:6-8; 19:20; 59:20; Eze 20:42-44; 36:24-28; 37:11,23; Psa 81:13,14; Rom 11:15,26; Jer 3:14-18; 4:1,2; 29:12-14; Deu 4:27-31; 30:1-3; Mat 23:39; Amos 5:15; Lev 26:40ff; 1Ki 8:47-49; Gen 18:19; Zep 2:1-3; Acts 3:19,20.

In the face of this sustained remonstration, is it possible to believe that the Second Coming of the Lord will/can take place except the people of God demand it by their holy way of life and godliness? (2Pe 3:11,12).

The character of the repentance called for by the prophet Joel is spelled out very precisely, both as to disposition and the practical godliness summed up in the religious routine appropriate to his own day: 'meal offering and drink offering unto the Lord.' In practice, in this 20th century, what sort of repentance does Jehovah demand from His Israelis? One thing, for certain: an avowal of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Let a Jew of today make that initial big step, and Messiah Jesus will see to the rest in due course. The guarantee for this, says Joel, is the character of the God of Israel which he quotes with gusto from Jehovah's own declaration to Moses: 'gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness' (Exo 34:6). This character of God had been exhibited in His longsuffering extended to brutal grasping Assyrians in the days of Jonah (Jon 3: 5-10; 4:11); and, thanks to the godly zeal of Hezekiah, was exhibited by the chosen people, undeserving, in Joel's own day (see, by all means, 2Ch 30:6-9).

Happily, neither Joel nor any other inspired writer goes so far as to assert that Messiah will come to the rescue of his nation only when all Israel is repentant. If Jehovah treasured seven thousand in the days of Elijah, is He not likely to be content with even fewer in the 3 1/2 year ministry of Elijah's great successor ? (Mal 4:6)

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the above is taken from brother Harry Whittaker's book, Joel

You may wish to read it online for yourself by clicking on the link. It is an excellent companion for our current reading cycle.