Christ in Joel

Joel 1 stands at the head of a book that gives Scripture one of its great phrases - the day of the LORD - and the chapter is built to drive a stripped and starving people back to God. A locust plague has eaten everything: That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten (v. 4). The new wine is cut off from the mouth (v. 5), the vine is…

Joel 2 begins in dread and ends in the dearest promise of the last days. The trumpet sounds an alarm in Zion, for the day of the LORD comes as a great and terrible army - darkness, fire, the earth quaking, the sun and moon gone dark - until the question stands open: the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? (v. 11). Into that terror the LORD Himself speaks the answer, and it is mercy: turn ye even to me with all your heart… and rend your…

Joel’s final chapter brings the whole book to rest at the last great reckoning - the LORD gathering all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat to plead with them there for my people (vv. 1-2) - and then at the abundance that lies beyond it. The center of the chapter is a harvest of judgment: Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe… multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision (vv. 13-14). The book…