Mining the Minors: Joel (10)

Of all the Minor Prophets to date, the New Testament’s writers arguably quote Joel the most. I say “arguably”, because some of the language used by Joel is so similar to that of other prophets, especially Isaiah, that in several cases it’s not certain whether the NT writer was thinking of one passage or the other, or perhaps had both in mind. Many of these occur in the book of Revelation.

For anyone interested in deeper study of the end times, I’ve included all possible references in each of the Minor and Major Prophets at the end of each section. There are too many of these to quote them all in full here.

Joel in the New Testament

1/ Acts 2:17-21 quotes Joel 2:28-32

Acts 2:17-21

“But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be,’ God declares, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit,’ and they shall prophesy. ‘And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”

Peter’s use of Joel 2 at Pentecost to explain the display of miraculous tongues taking place before the eyes of crowds of surprised Jews is probably the most famous quotation of Joel in the New Testament. His version varies from the Hebrew text of Joel in such minor ways that it’s hardly worth citing the latter for comparison. Apparently, it is even closer to the Septuagint text of Joel. He changes “It shall come to pass afterward” to “In the last days” and flips two lines about the young and old men. Otherwise, it’s almost a word-for-word rendering, but then, he had a large audience of devout Jews to convince.

At best, the circumstances that gave rise to Peter’s quotation of Joel 2:28-29 partially fulfilled Joel’s prophecy. Pentecost did not exhaust it. Peter could have truncated Joel as the Lord did with Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth when he got to the part that had yet to be fulfilled. However, had he done so, we would have lost Joel’s final line, which is crucial to Peter’s presentation of the gospel: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That part was definitely applicable to Pentecost, and several thousand took Peter up on his offer. The blood, fire, vapor and darkened skies of Joel were not, and probably just as well.

Peter’s point was not that Pentecost constituted any kind of exhaustive fulfillment of Joel, but that the display was clearly of God, not just because it was miraculous but because it was of the same sort as that described by Joel. Faithful Jews over the centuries expected the Holy Spirit to be poured out indiscriminately on young and old, male and female. Here it was happening before their eyes. There remains a day to come in which the Holy Spirit will be poured out once again on Jews in Jerusalem as Israel is regrafted into the olive tree of God’s blessing and testimony.

2/ Matthew 24:29 references Joel 2:10 and/or 3:15

Matthew 24:29	Joel 2:10	Joel 3:15
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”	“The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.”	“The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.”

Mark 13:24 is so similar to Matthew 24:29 that both men are evidently reporting on the same event, the Lord’s extended response to the question “When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” There is a similar theme here, but in Joel, these events happen twice: first, in association with the locust horde/army invading Jerusalem in 2:10, then again at the final gathering of the nations for judgment in the valley of decision in 3:15.

It seems likely the Lord intended to call to mind the latter events rather than the former, but the language is identical.

3/ Romans 10:13 quotes Joel 2:32

Romans 10:13

“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ”

When Paul quotes Joel in Romans 10, it is the third time he has used the word “everyone”. Here the use of Joel has little to do with its original context, describing a future in which a returning Christ will deliver his earthly people, the Jews. Rather, Paul is stressing the universality of the gospel message in the present day: it is for Jew and Gentile alike. The chapter sadly hints that in this era, more Gentiles than Jews will take advantage of the offer. The full restoration of Israel awaits the Lord’s return. Like Peter, Paul is using Joel 2:32 as a truism, proverb or supporting evidence for a proposition, rather than suggesting the preaching of the gospel fulfills it.

4/ Revelation 6:12-13 probably alludes to Joel 2:31

Revelation 6:12-13	Joel 2:31
“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.”	“The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

At least two of the events associated with the sixth seal in Revelation allude to Joel’s prophecy: the sun being darkened and the moon becoming like blood. The wording of Joel comes closer to being a fit than any other Major or Minor Prophet.

See also Isaiah 24 (the judgment of the nations), Isaiah 13 (the judgment of Babylon), Isaiah 34 (the destruction of Edom) and Haggai 2:6. Some mention the darkening of sun and moon. Most mention the earthquake. Nobody but Joel associates the moon with blood.

5/ Revelation 6:15-16 alludes to Joel 2:11

Revelation 6:15-16	Joel 2:11
“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’ ”	“For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”

This is also in connection with the sixth seal judgment.

See also Isaiah 2:9, 19; 13:13; Hosea 10:8 and Psalm 110:5.

6/ Revelation 9:7-9 alludes to Joel 1:6 and Joel 2:4-5

Revelation 9:7-9	Joel 1:6	Joel 2:4-5
“In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.”	“For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.”	“Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.”

The similarities of language make it difficult not to identify the locusts of Revelation with the locust horde/army of Joel. The pros and cons of doing that are considered here.

7/ Revelation 14:14-20 alludes to Joel 3:13

Revelation 14:14-20

Joel 3:13

“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’ So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, ‘Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.”

“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.”

We are dealing with symbolic language and imagery easily misunderstood. What is apparent in Revelation is that there are two parties with sickles: one like a Son of Man seated on a cloud, almost surely the Lord Jesus, frequently described that way in the Old Testament; and “another angel” with a sharp sickle. So there are two judgments going on here, one after another. William MacDonald speculates the first is a Gentile harvest and the second a harvest of unbelieving Jews. I find that difficult, since Joel’s prophecy includes not just the sickle to gather the clusters, but also the winepress to tread out the grapes, so I take it that Joel saw the latter judgment but not the former. If the order of events in Joel is correct, then Israel’s repentance and cry to God come before this final judgment of the nations. It seems to me the judgment of unbelieving Jews all takes place in the first two chapters of Joel, not the third. The chapter 3 judgment is of the nations on behalf of Israel, not of Israel itself.

The Lord Jesus receives instruction from an angel to begin his judgment. If we find the idea of the glorified Christ being commanded by a lesser being troubling, bear in mind that “concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. It is the Father doing the commanding; the angel is merely passing on a message from Father to Son, a message that ends in the Son’s glory and vindication before the entire world.

See also Isaiah 63:1-6 (“I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth”, which almost surely speaks of the same times and circumstances) and Lamentations 1:15 (which has the Lord treading the winepress image used in connection with his judgment of Judah through Babylon). Someone has calculated that the 1,600 stadia are the equivalent of a river of blood running for 180 miles, certainly far enough to reach Edom from Jerusalem.

8/ Revelation 16:14-16 possibly alludes to Joel 3:2

Revelation 16:14-16	Joel 3:2
“For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (‘Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!’) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”	“I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel.”

This is more a similarity of ideas than words and phrases, but we are clearly dealing with the same time and place. See also Zephaniah 3:8 and Zechariah 14:2.