Alas for the day!
for the day of the LORD is at hand,
and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
and who can abide it?
And rend your heart,
and not your garments,
and turn unto the LORD your God:
for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness...
Joel 1:15/2:11.13
--Chapter 1: The Locust Plague and Call to Mourning
--Chapter 2: The Day of the Lord and Promise of Restoration
--Chapter 3: Judgment of Nations and Blessings for God’s People
Chapter 1: The Locust Plague and Call to Mourning
Invasion of Locusts (1:1–7): Joel opens with a devastating locust invasion that destroys crops and threatens famine, symbolizing God’s judgment on the people for their sins.
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
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.
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
1:2-4,6,7That which is to be told from one generation to another (as stated in verse 3) is information concerning the four great devastating powers described in verse 4 as follows: "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 thath the caterpillar eaten."
We cannot say definitely that by the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar God had exactly in mind Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, yet the following significant statements are worthy of due consideration:
1. These devastators are called "a nation," Joel 1: 6.
2. They are likened to a "lion" (Joel 1 :6), as is Babylon elsewhere.
3. They are likened to an army. Joel 2: 25.
4. They are identified as "the heathen." Joel 2: 17.
5. They are spoken of as rational creatures. Joel 2: 17.
If, however, the prophet has precisely in mind literal locusts, cankerworms, palm, cankerworms, and caterpillars, he must by these foresee the devastations of the seven last plagues, which later we will notice in reference to Joel 1: 16-20.
In verses 7 and 8 we find the region or people to be devastated by these four great powers, designated by the following terms:
a. A Vine.—"He hath laid My vine waste." Christ called His church a vineyard. Matthew 20: 4.
b. A Fig Tree.—"And barked My fig tree." Christ likened His people to a fig tree. Luke 13: 6, 7.
c. A Virgin.—"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth." Paul likened the church to a virgin. 2 Corinthians 11: 2.
We cannot say definitely that by the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar God had exactly in mind Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, yet the following significant statements are worthy of due consideration:
1. These devastators are called "a nation," Joel 1: 6.
3. They are likened to an army. Joel 2: 25.
4. They are identified as "the heathen." Joel 2: 17.
5. They are spoken of as rational creatures. Joel 2: 17.
If, however, the prophet has precisely in mind literal locusts, cankerworms, palm, cankerworms, and caterpillars, he must by these foresee the devastations of the seven last plagues, which later we will notice in reference to Joel 1: 16-20.
In verses 7 and 8 we find the region or people to be devastated by these four great powers, designated by the following terms:
a. A Vine.—"He hath laid My vine waste." Christ called His church a vineyard. Matthew 20: 4.
b. A Fig Tree.—"And barked My fig tree." Christ likened His people to a fig tree. Luke 13: 6, 7.
c. A Virgin.—"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth." Paul likened the church to a virgin. 2 Corinthians 11: 2.
Q: A duel Prophecy for then (literal Israel) and the End (spiritual Israel)?
This is where the devastation begins and it begins with four words in Hebrew that hit like hammer blows.
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Call to Mourning (1:8–12): The prophet urges the people, including priests and leaders, to mourn the devastation and recognize the spiritual significance of the disaster.
Call to Mourning (1:8–12): The prophet urges the people, including priests and leaders, to mourn the devastation and recognize the spiritual significance of the disaster.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
for the husband of her youth.
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted:
the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers,
for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
1:10-12This is where the devastation begins and it begins with four words in Hebrew that hit like hammer blows.
What the Gazam left, the Arbe ate. What the Arbe left, the Yeleq ate. What the yell left, the hasil consumed.
Four different Hebrew words for locust.
Four distinct terms, each one carrying its own meaning.
Gazam comes from a root meaning to gnaw or to cut off.
It is the cutter, the one that severs the crop at the base.
Arbe comes from raba, meaning to multiply or to swarm.
This is the locust in its most recognizable form, a living cloud that blackens the sky.
Yeleq comes from lac meaning to lick.
It is the licker, the one that strips whatever the swarm left behind. And hasil comes from hassle meaning to devour or consume completely. It is the finisher.
Whether these represent four species of locust, four developmental stages of the same insect, or four successive waves, the literary effect is identical.
Total annihilation. 
The first wave cuts.
The second wave swarms.
The third wave licks.
The fourth wave consumes what is left.
And when all four have passed, there is nothing.
Joel 1:7 says, It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it down. Their branches are made white.
Even the bark is gone. Even the branches are exposed. The land does not just lose its harvest. It loses its ability to produce the next one. And Joel does not let you observe this from a distance. He grabs the
people by the collar. Joel 1:5, Awake you drunkards and weep and wail all you drinkers of wine because of the sweet wine for it is cut off from your mouth.
But the locusts did not just destroy the food supply.
people by the collar. Joel 1:5, Awake you drunkards and weep and wail all you drinkers of wine because of the sweet wine for it is cut off from your mouth.
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Call to Repentance (1:13–20): Joel calls for fasting, prayer, and repentance, emphasizing the need to turn back to God to avert further calamity.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests:
howl, ye ministers of the altar:
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God:
for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden
from the house of your God.
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,
gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. O LORD, to Thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
1:13-15,19,20But the locusts did not just destroy the food supply.
They destroyed the worship supply.
In ancient Israel, the grain offering and the drink offering were daily acts of worship brought to the temple.
When the harvest is gone, the offerings stop.
When the offerings stop, sthe rhythm of worship breaks.
The locusts did not just attack the economy.
They attack the relationship between the people and God.
They attack the relationship between the people and God.
And that is the real devastation Joel is describing. 
Not just empty fields, empty altars.
Then Joel does something no one expects.
He takes the locust plague and turns it into a lens.
Then Joel does something no one expects.
He takes the locust plague and turns it into a lens.
He looks through the swarm and sees something far larger behind it.
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day. For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
The day of the Lord.
In the prophetic tradition, the day of the Lord does not mean a single calendar date. It refers to any moment when God steps into history and acts decisively either in judgment or in salvation, often both at the same time. The locust plague is a day of the Lord.
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day. For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
The day of the Lord.
In the prophetic tradition, the day of the Lord does not mean a single calendar date. It refers to any moment when God steps into history and acts decisively either in judgment or in salvation, often both at the same time. The locust plague is a day of the Lord.
But it is also a preview of a larger final day of the Lord that Joel will describe before the book ends.
The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee - Even the cattle, wild and tame, are represented as supplicating God to have mercy upon them.The rivers of waters are dried up - There must have been a drought as well as a host of locusts; as some of these expressions seem to apply to the effects of intense heat.
--We have observed abundance of tears shed for the destruction of the fruits of the earth by the locusts;
--now here we have those tears turned into the right channel, that of repentance before God.
Chapter 2: The Day of the Lord and Promise of Restoration
The Army of Locusts (2:1–11): Joel describes a powerful, unprecedented army, often interpreted as a metaphor for the Day of the Lord, bringing judgment and destruction.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains:
a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses;
and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
They shall run like mighty men;
they shall climb the wall like men of war;
and they shall march every one on his ways,
and they shall not break their ranks:
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
And the LORD shall utter His voice before His army:
for His camp is very great:
for he is strong that executeth His word:
for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
and who can abide it?
2:1-7,9-11In view of the fact that the great day of the Lord is hastening on
apace and but few precious moments of probation remain, it behooves the church of God to rouse from its spiritual lethargy and seek repentance.
There are many in Zion who are satisfied with their spiritual attainments. They feel “rich, and increased with goods,” and in “need of nothing” Revelation 3:17.
A day of darkness - A time of exceeding great troubles and calamities.
But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29,30
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Return with All Your Heart (2:12–17): God calls His people to sincere repentance, fasting, and prayer, promising mercy if they turn back to Him.
Return with All Your Heart (2:12–17): God calls His people to sincere repentance, fasting, and prayer, promising mercy if they turn back to Him.
Therefore also now, saith the LORD,
turn ye even to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
--And rend your heart, --
--and not your garments,--
--and turn unto the LORD your God:--
for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.
Who knoweth if He will return and repent,
and leave a blessing behind Him;
even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children... let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD,
weep between the porch and the altar,
and let them say, Spare Thy people, O LORD, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people,
Where is their God?
2:12-17The important thing is that they turn back to the LORD in sincerity, and God tells them how.
I. Sincere repentance is to turn to God, and therefore away from our
sin.
II. Sincere repentance is done with all your heart, giving everything you can in surrender to God.
III. Sincere repentance is marked by action (with fasting) and emotion (with weeping…mourning). Not every act of repentance will include fasting and weeping, but if action and emotion are absent, it isn’t real repentance.
--We don’t repent with the idea “God is so mean that if I don’t return to Him, He will destroy me.”
I. Sincere repentance is to turn to God, and therefore away from our
II. Sincere repentance is done with all your heart, giving everything you can in surrender to God.
III. Sincere repentance is marked by action (with fasting) and emotion (with weeping…mourning). Not every act of repentance will include fasting and weeping, but if action and emotion are absent, it isn’t real repentance.
--We don’t repent with the idea “God is so mean that if I don’t return to Him, He will destroy me.”
--Instead, the idea is “God is so gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness that He will spare me from what I deserve if I turn back to Him.”
--Ultimately, it is His goodness that leads us to repentance. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4.
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Restoration Promised (2:18–27): God assures the people that He will restore the land, provide abundance, and remove the invading forces.
Then will the LORD be jealous for His land,
and pity His people.
Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto His people,
Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil,
and ye shall be satisfied therewith:
But I will remove far from you the northern army,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back toward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done monstrous things.
and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
2:18-20,23,25I will restore - the years - It has already been remarked that the
locusts not only destroyed the produce of that year, but so completely ate up all buds, and barked the trees, that they did not recover for some years.
Here God promises that He would remedy that evil; for He would restore the years that the locusts, cankerworm, caterpillar, and palmerworm had eaten.
--Notice the four locusts from chapter 1 are listed here again but the order is reversed.
--In chapter 1 the sequence was gazam, arbe, yeleq, hasil, cutter, swarmer, licker, devourer.
--In chapter 2 the order is arbe, yeleq, hasil, gazam.
The list is unwound.
The destruction is being walked backward as if God is rewinding the devastation frame by frame and replacing every loss with abundance.
What was consumed is returned.
What was licked clean is refilled.
What swarmed is scattered.
What was cut off is regrown.
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Outpouring of the Spirit (2:28–32): Joel prophesies the future outpouring of God’s Spirit, a promise of spiritual renewal and hope.
Outpouring of the Spirit (2:28–32): Joel prophesies the future outpouring of God’s Spirit, a promise of spiritual renewal and hope.
And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
2:28-32Centuries later, a group of believers are crowded into an upper room in Jerusalem during the feast of Pentecost.
But in Acts 2:17, (And it shall come to pass in the last days, saithGod, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:) under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter changes the phrase to in the last days.
Acts 2 records what happened.
A sound like a rushing wind fills the house.
They begin speaking in languages they have never learned.
They begin speaking in languages they have never learned.
A crowd gathers.
Some are amazed. Others mock them and say they are drunk.
Some are amazed. Others mock them and say they are drunk.
And Peter, the same man who denied Jesus three times, stands up and says six words that connect everything.
Acts 2:16: This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.
--Not this fulfills, not this completes. This is what was spoken.
Peter is drawing a line of connection.
He is saying, "What Joel saw in a vision, you are watching happen in real time. The spirit that was promised after the locust plague is being poured out right now in this room on these people."
Peter is drawing a line of connection.
He is saying, "What Joel saw in a vision, you are watching happen in real time. The spirit that was promised after the locust plague is being poured out right now in this room on these people."
And notice what Peter does with the text. In Joel 2:28, the Hebrew says, "Afterward," referring to after the restoration.
He is widening the lens.
--Joel's prophecy is not a single event with a single fulfillment.
--It is the inauguration of an era.
--Pentecost opened the door, but the door is still open.
And there is one more line in this prophecy that reaches further than most people realize.
And there is one more line in this prophecy that reaches further than most people realize.
Joel 2:32: And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.....everyone. Not just Israel, not just the priests, not just the prophets, everyone who calls.
Chapter 3: Judgment of Nations and Blessings for God’s People
The Lord Judges the Nations (3:1–16): Joel foretells God’s judgment against the nations that have oppressed His people, emphasizing divine justice.
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people... whom they have scattered among the nations,
and parted My land. And they have cast lots for My people;
and have given a boy for an harlot,
and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem
have ye sold unto the Grecians,
that ye might remove them far from their border.
Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles;
Prepare war, wake up the mighty men,
let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruninghooks into spears:
let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full,
the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of His people.....
3:2,3,6,7,9-16
This has several parts:
I. The resurrection of the wicked (awakened out of their sleep of death) for their judgment before the Great White Throne in
Revelation following the Millennium.
II. Remember that according to Revelation they prepare to attack the Holy City, New Jerusalem, at one point. Here God mocks them to beat their plowshares into swords and come up.
III. He then backs up to the current time where people are in the valley of decision. A sober thought.
IV. He then refers to His 2nd Advent. In other words--MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN.
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Blessings for God’s People (3:17–21): The book concludes with promises of security, prosperity, and God’s presence among His people, highlighting restoration and blessing for those who remain faithful.
Egypt shall be a desolation,
and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness,
for the violence against the children of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall dwell for ever,
and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:
for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
3:19-21End Time Application:
EGYPT = The Civil Powers of the secular world that persecute God's people in the end at the behest of the Beast Entity.
EDOM = The Beast Entity that was the mastermind behind the persecution of God's Remnant.
JUDAH = The Remnant saved out of wider Israel of those who profess to be "Christians".
Think of it this way:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs
come out of the mouth of the dragon,
and out of the mouth of the beast,
and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Revelation 16:13SUMMARY:
from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, My people,
that ye be not partakers
of her sins,
and that ye receive
not of her plagues.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Revelation 18:4/Joel 3:14
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