Mining the Minors: Joel (6)

Some people can find the church just about anywhere. Mike Fuhrer finds the church in Jerusalem during the great tribulation, and he gets this from today’s passage in the second chapter of Joel.

Now, there is no doubt he’s right about the Jerusalem part. Joel unambiguously locates the majority of his prophecy right in Israel’s capital. Throughout his three chapters, the prophet makes mention of Israel three times, Judah six, Jerusalem six and Zion seven. Unless all these 22 references are allegorical, there is no doubt about the geographic location in view. When Joel speaks of walls and houses, it is the walls and houses of Jerusalem he has in mind.

But the church? Really?

Stay tuned, we’ll get to that bit shortly. Or skip to the end if you’re too curious to wait.

5. The Lord Takes Pity on Israel

Joel 2:18-19 — No More Reproach

“Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.’ ”

When we left the remnant of Israel last week, we were told they will gather together in the soon-to-be-rebuilt temple of Jerusalem for a time of corporate, national public repentance expressed through their priests. Joel does not detail the specific nature of Judah’s sins, but the pressing issue for Israel since the first century is no longer the idolatry that was their greatest national failing in the pre-exilic period; rather, it has been their rejection of Messiah, an act prophesied but still future at the time of Joel’s ministry. Nothing in the nation’s history can top that epic error. Yet here we see the Lord’s response to their cry for help and their acknowledgement of their guilt. Surely he is gracious.

The word “jealous” translates a Hebrew word with a wide semantic range covering the English concepts of jealousy, envy and/or zeal. I tend to think the Lord’s zeal is in view here. The point, I believe, is that the repentant cries of God’s people will rouse him to action on their behalf. Prior to the Lord’s response, his people will be the laughing stock of the world’s proud nations. In a very short time, that will all change.

Joel 2:20 — Go North Young Man

“ ‘I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things.’ ”

Changing the weather will not be enough, of course; God must deal with the source of the problem as well. The invading army of “the northerner” will strip the land as bare as a locust horde. Now the Lord will drive that army away, decimate and destroy it. The stench and foul smell suggest innumerable fatalities will attend its retreat, but the method by which God will drive the invaders away remains unspecified.

This conflict is distinct from the final battle (the “full winepress” of chapter 3) which takes place near Jerusalem.

Joel 2:21-22 — More Great Things

“ ‘Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield.’ ”

It is not perfectly clear in the previous verse who has done the “great things”. If the Lord, then there has been an awkward pronoun shift (at least in English) that makes the verse difficult to parse. If the northerner, then there is almost surely an intentional parallelism with the statement in verse 21 that “the Lord has done great things” — the two-word phrase in both verses is identical in Hebrew. The idea in both cases is that something has grown great, and that what the Lord is doing eclipses anything that has gone before.

Joel 2:23-24 — Vindicated!

“ ‘Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.’ ”

The “children of Zion” are the repentant survivors of the nation, including those who have been faithful all along. Just as rainfall vindicated Elijah’s ministry to his enemies, this rain tells the world God is on the side of the Jews, and on the side of those martyred in his name during the great tribulation period.

Joel 2:25-27 — Restoring the Years

“ ‘I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.’ ”

These verses contain divine promises not yet fulfilled. Firstly, that God’s people in Judah will never again be put to shame (stressed twice for emphasis). Secondly, that this restoration will take place at a time when “I am in the midst of Israel”, not unrecognized and unappreciated as in his first advent, but known, identified with and loved by his nation. If we were still in any doubt, these things have yet to take place.

The restoration of the years eaten by locusts is an unexpected blessing to Israel and a reminder to Christians that even when God’s children have been out of fellowship with him for a time, repentance always brings blessing. It would be too much to say it’s an iron clad guarantee that all the effects of sin are magically undone when we confess and repent. That is not how life works. Believers, like everyone else, have genuine agency, and our choices have real-world consequences. Nevertheless, the Lord’s generosity is not defined by the outer limits of our imaginations, nor is he penurious when prodigals repent. With our God, the fatted calf and the exuberant celebration are never far away.

Joel 2:28-29 — Pouring Out the Spirit

“ ‘And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.’ ”

To call Pentecost “the fulfilment” of these words seems to me a stretch, though many do. I rather think when Peter says, “This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” to the Jews gathered in response to the miraculous display of tongues, he means something along the lines of “This manifestation of the Spirit is of the same sort as that described in Joel.” Manifestly, the things prophesied by Joel and quoted by Peter were not comprehensively fulfilled in the first century, and I don’t think Peter was claiming they would be. More to say on this subject when we look at “Joel in the New Testament”.

Joel 2:30-32 — Calling on the Name

“ ‘And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.’ ”

The wonders in heaven, the blood and fire, darkness of the sun and so on call to mind the Lord’s words concerning the moments before the coming of the Son of Man in the synoptic gospels, as well as the fourth trumpet of Revelation. As is often the case with Bible prophecy, it is quite possible a number of events that will occur some time apart from each other are combined in a brief list.

Everyone Who Calls

We often hear the statement “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” used as a catchy bromide to sum up the gospel’s offer of eternal life through Christ in the present era. I suppose that is an adequate broader application of the words, but it is surely not a reasonable representation of what Joel was saying in his day. All the same, familiarity with its use in preaching the gospel causes some commentators to read the present-era saints back into this passage, where I do not believe we belong.

Mike Fuhrer indulges in a little speculation as to who this group mentioned by Joel might be:

“Who are those fugitives who escape and from what are they running? Who are those whom the Eternal calls? Revelation 12:15-17 prophesies of a remnant of commandment keepers, presumably the church, fleeing from a flood of Satan’s persecution. In fleeing, where did they go? In this speculative scenario, they go to Jerusalem before the army of locusts attacks and perhaps before the drought takes hold. They are in Jerusalem during that catastrophe where, apparently, there is food and water.

These church members could be the fugitives and those whom God calls.”

Well, no. I do not think Joel is referring to the church at all. Why would God need to call again those he has already both called and chosen?

The Revelation 12 Connection

Firstly, there are several groups of people referred to in Revelation 12, a passage it’s fair to say does not lend itself to universal interpretive agreement. I take the “woman” to be the faithful Israelite remnant and her male child to be the Lord Jesus. The dragon pursues the woman into the wilderness but cannot destroy her because of help she receives. Finally, the dragon goes off to make war on “the rest of her offspring” who “keep the commandments of God” and “hold on to the testimony of Jesus”.

Taken in isolation this wording could technically apply to the church, but we should not take it in isolation. In context, it could as easily describe diaspora faithful or Gentile converts after the rapture of the church. Revelation does not depict the church on earth anywhere after the end of chapter 3 until chapter 21. Further, the dragon “goes off” to make war against these people, which suggests they are somewhere else entirely, not Jerusalem, which makes it harder to identify this group with either the group in Joel or the hypothetical group about which Mike Fuhrer speculates.

In addition, it is also possible to interpret Revelation 12 historically, which, if correct, would automatically invalidate such a theory.

As the Lord Has Said

Secondly, let’s come back to the passage at hand rather than trying to squeeze in dubious passages from Revelation. The “everyone” in Joel 2:32 is qualified by the statements that follow it: “For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.” That is, the people who call on the name of the Lord in Jerusalem and are saved are “in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem”. Therefore the most likely candidates (and, from Joel’s perspective, only plausible candidates) are believing Jews (“the remnant of my people”).

Israel is a small country, only 263 miles north to south and a little over 20,000 square km in area. It’s hard to envision the surviving Israelis, the massed armies of the north and a massive influx of persecuted Gentile believers all fitting there comfortably at the same time. Rapture issues apart, the church finding sanctuary in Israel during this period seems to me highly improbable, as well as an extremely poor choice for a place to escape to. After all, didn’t the Lord advise his own kinsmen to flee Jerusalem in those days?

Further, when Joel says this will happen “as the Lord has said”, he would seem to be implying there existed a previous prophetic word concerning this group. That would obviously not apply to the largely Gentile church (an OT mystery), but certainly applies to the faithful Jewish remnant in Israel. If the historical timing we have established for the prophets so far is remotely accurate, then Micah spoke of this group prior to Joel, as did Zephaniah. In the end-times remnant of Israel, Joel was dealing with a well-established prophetic theme.

Thus, in context, the most reasonable interpretation of “those whom the Lord calls” is the future Israelite remnant and those to whom they witness. That seems to me an interpretation Joel would have understood and his devout audience recognized.