THE BOOK OF JOEL PART II
Lesson3: Chapters 3-4
The New Age and the Day of Yahweh
For the Day of Yahweh is near for all the nations. As you have done, so will it be
done to you: your deeds will recoil on your own head.
Obadiah 1:15
God does not let himself be outdone in generosity. Be sure that he grants
faithfulness to those who give themselves to him.
St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge
While Part I of the Book of Joel describes the natural disaster of a plague of locusts followed by a severe drought (1:2-2:17), a foreign invasion, and a call for repentance and conversion, the chapters of Part II are about salvation. They give God's answer and predict the restoration of Judah after an apocalyptic war with Gentile nations, God's forgiveness, and the salvation of the covenant people in the "Day of Yahweh." In the first oracle in the second half of the Book of Joel, God responds to the people's good reaction to the earlier oracles, acting as a preface to the salvation text that follows.
Joel 2:18-3:5 is written in poetic form while 4:1-8 is in prose. Joel 4:9-21 returns to a poetic narrative. Answers to the questions are at the end of the lesson.
Joel 3:1-5 ~ The Outpouring of the Spirit
In some translations, these verses are 2:28-32.
Yahweh said in answer to His people
(2:19a) 3:1 "After this I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity. Our sons
and daughters shall prophesy, your old people shall dream dreams, and your
young people see visions. 2 Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out
my spirit in those days. 3 I shall show portents in the sky and on earth, blood
and fire and columns of smoke." 4 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the
moon into blood, before the Day comes, the great and terrible Day. 5 All who
call on the name of Yahweh will be saved, for on Mount Zion will be those who
have escaped, as Yahweh has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant whom Yahweh is
calling.
The Hebrew word "achar", translated as "after this" or "afterward" in verse 1, signals the transition from the worldly blessings in the earlier verses to the spiritual blessings (IBHE, Vol. III, page 2097; Strongs, Hebrew Dictionary, #310). God's Spirit will be poured out on everyone regardless of social standing (verses 1-2). This prophecy is in accordance with Moses's prayer in Numbers 11:29b, when he said, "If only all Yahweh's people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit!"
Question #1: Why do Christians call Joel "the prophet of Pentecost." See Acts 2:17-20 and Joel 3:1-5. Joel's mission was to call the covenant people to public repentance to prepare for the coming "Day of Yahweh," the day of Divine Judgment.
After the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus's disciples and Apostles praying in the Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday, St. Peter understood the miracle he witnessed was a petition made by Moses and prophesied by the prophet Joel. He quoted from Joel 3:1-5a in Acts 2:16-20, declaring: On the contrary, this is what the prophet was saying: "In the last days—the Lord declares I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams. Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out my Spirit. I will show portents in the sky above and signs on the earth below. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, that great and terrible Day. And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Peter quoted from the verses that preceded Joel 3:5/2:32 but left out the last part of Joel 3:5b. This occurred on the great day of the Jewish pilgrim feast of Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) when God the Holy Spirit came in fire to indwell the 120 Jews and Israelites of the Old Israel who became on that morning the "first-fruits" of the New Covenant Kingdom of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Upper Room was on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Please note that when the New Testament quotes Old Testament Scripture, it is understood that one should consider the entire passage as important to the message. The part St. Peter did not quote is a passage that the Jewish crowd would have known: for on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped, as Yahweh has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant [sariyd] whom Yahweh is calling. The Hebrew word "sariyd," remnant, is the same word Isaiah used in Isaiah 1:9 ~ Had Yahweh Sabaoth not left us a remnant, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same as Gomorrah (IBHE, Vol. III, page 1614; see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary #8300). Yahweh will save a remnant of the faithful who call on His name.
The outpouring of God's Spirit and the Day of Yahweh is the LORD's response to:
Question #2: What is the significance of the last part of Joel 3:5 related to the 120 Jewish/Israelite disciples of Jesus in the Upper Room who received God the Holy Spirit on that day that changed the course of human history? What would the Jewish crowd have realized concerning the passage Peter quoted and the missing last part of Joel 3:5? Read Acts 2:1-21.
Question #3: The pouring out of God's Spirit fulfills an ancient desire of Moses from Numbers 11:16-30. What was the ancient event that prompted Moses, and what was different?
In Acts chapter 2, St. Peter saw Joel's prophecy fulfilled on the Jewish feast of Pentecost when God the Holy Spirit came to fill and indwell Mary and Jesus's disciples praying in the Upper Room in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-21). Also, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus's disciples repeats God's Spirit descending upon Jesus at His baptism (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22) so that by the power of the Holy Spirit Christ would fill the lives of believers, making them new creations in Christ capable of bringing the New Covenant to completion and carrying on Jesus's earthly mission to spread the Gospel of salvation (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3, 17, 1-2).
3 "I shall show
portents in the sky and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke." 4 The
sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the Day
comes, the great and terrible Day. 5 All who call on the name of Yahweh will be
saved, for on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped, as Yahweh has said,
and in Jerusalem a remnant whom Yahweh is calling.
Even the cosmos will respond with wonders, but the greatest is the promise that everyone who
calls on the name of the LORD will receive God's gift of salvation! The
description of the sun turning to darkness recalls the eclipse that occurred
when Jesus was crucified in Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44.
Joel 4:1-3 ~ The Judgment of the Nations is Announced
Yahweh said in answer to His people (from 2:19), 1"For in those days and at that time, when
I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I shall gather all the nations
together and take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there I shall put
them on trial as regards Israel, my people and my heritage, for having
scattered them among the nations and having divided my land among themselves. 3
They drew lots for my people, bartering a boy for a whore and selling a girl
for wine to drink."
As in earlier parts of Joel's book, Yahweh's words (1:8, 12-13, 17) are mixed with those of His prophet (1:9-11, 14-16, 18-20, 21b). Israel's restoration involves the judgment of her enemies. The Day of Yahweh becomes a day of punishment for those nations that oppressed the covenant people (cf. Obadiah 1:15-21).
The judgment on Israel's neighbors who are guilty of stealing the land Promised Land and trafficking its people occurs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (verse 2).1 In Hebrew, Jehoshaphat means "Yahweh judges." It is the symbolic name for the place where God will judge the nations. In verse 14, the place of judgment is also called the Valley of Jarush, the Valley of Decision, and the Valley of Verdict (see Isaiah 66:16 and Jeremiah 25:31). From the 4th century BC, Jewish and Christian tradition identified the place as the Kidron Vally on the east side of Jerusalem that separated the Mount of Olives from the eastern wall of the Holy City. However, modern scholars do not believe it refers to a physical location but is a symbolic name that refers to the Last Judgment instead.
The ancient Biblical scholar known as Pseudo-Clement wrote, recalling 2 Peter 3:10: "Remember always that the day of judgment is coming, as hot as a furnace when the heavens will be devolved, and the earth will melt like lead in the fire, and all our deeds, even our most secret thoughts, will be laid bare" (Epistula II ad Corenthios, 15, 10-15; Navarre Bible page 102).
Joel 4:4-8 ~ Charges Against the Phoenicians and Philistines
4"And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Can you take revenge on
me? If you take revenge on me, I shall quickly, instantly, make your revenge
recoil on your own heads 5 for having taken my silver and gold away and carried
off my valuable treasures to your temples, 6 and for having sold the children
of Judah and Jerusalem to the Ionians, to be taken far away from their own
frontiers. 7 Look, I shall rouse them from the places to which you have sold
them; I shall make your actions recoil on your own heads 8 by selling your sons
and daughters by the sons of Judah, who in turn will sell them to the Sabaeans,
to a nation far away, Yahweh has spoken!"
Unlike the unnamed enemies of the covenant people in the previous prophecy, God names the Phonecians of the cities of Syre and Sidon and the cities of the Philistines who lived along the Mediterranean coast.2 He charges them with plundering the covenant peoples' towns and selling Jewish children into slavery (verses 5-6).
In verse 6, Ionians can refer to several groups of Greeks. In its limited sense, the term referred to the region of Ionia in Asia Minor. However, in the broader sense, it could refer to all speakers of the Ionic dialect, including the Greek cities founded by Ionian colonists, and to all those who spoke the languages of the Eastern Greeks, including Attic. The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world.
7 "Look, I shall
rouse them from the places to which you have sold them; I shall make your
actions recoil on your own heads 8 by selling your sons and daughters by the
sons of Judah, who in turn will sell them to the Sabaeans, to a nation far
away, Yahweh has spoken!"
The prose material
in Joel 4:4-8 illustrates a common Biblical theme also found in
Psalm 7:16; 9:16; 35:8; 37:14-15 and 57:7.
It expresses having one's evil deeds, in this
case selling Judahites into slavery, turned into one's own punishment
(Obadiah 1:15). Yahweh decrees that their children will be sold into slavery by the
Juhahites to the Sabaeans (verse 8), traders from the southwestern tip of the
Arabian peninsula, present-day Yemen (cf.
1 Kings 10:1-2; Psalm 72:10; Jeremiah 6:20).
Joel 4:9-14 ~ A Summons to the Nations
9 "Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for war! Rouse the champions! All you troops,
advance, march! 10 Hammer your ploughshares into swords, your bill-hooks into
spears; let the weakling say, "I am tough!" 11 Hurry
and come, all the nations around, and assemble there! Yahweh, send down your
champions! 12 Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of
Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgment on all the nations around. 13
Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is
full; the vats are overflowing, so great is their wickedness!" 14 Multitude on
multitude in the Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yahweh is near in the
Valley of the Verdict!
"Prepare for war" in verse 9 is literally "sanctify war," calling to declare a holy war and a sacred undertaking (Isaiah 13:3; Jeremiah 6:4; 22:7) prefaced by ritual offerings (cf. 1 Samuel 7:8-10). Verse 10 uses the same imagery as Isaiah 2:4, but the meaning is reversed when calling the people to prepare for war. The battlefield will be the Valley of Jehoshaphat before God's judgment occurs. The victory will belong to Yahweh and His faithful covenant people.
Question #4: What does Yahweh tell the nations to do with their agricultural tools?
Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 presume the defeat of Israel's enemies, and the imagery of verse 10 is reversed. After commanding Israel's enemies to prepare for war, those nations assemble in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where, in keeping with its name, Yahweh will sit in judgment!
11 Hurry and come, all the nations around, and assemble there! Yahweh, send down your champions!
Question #5: Who are Yahweh's champions? See Zechariah 14:5.
13 Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full; the vats are
overflowing, so great is their wickedness!" 14 Multitude on multitude in the
Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of the Verdict!
Israel's enemies are "ripe" for judgment. Joel uses the language of an autumn harvest to
describe the army of Yahweh's unrelenting assault against them. The decision
and verdict are Divine Judgment for Israel's enemies and restoration for the
covenant people in the apocalyptic context of a renewed Israel. The final oracle
describes Yahweh's divine judgment and final victory for His people. The
"Valley of Decision is the same as the Valley of Jehosaphat.
CCC 1040 uses this
passage in its teaching about the Last Judgment, quoting
Daniel 7:10 and
Malachi 3:19.
Yahweh's decision and divine verdict settle the matter. The Hebrew word can also mean Valley of the Sledge since is the same word for a sledge underset with sharp stones used for threshing grain (cf. Isaiah 28:27; 41:15; Amos 1:3), also suggesting the energy of a divine harvest from verse 13.
Joel 4:15-17 ~ The Day of Yahweh
15 Sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brilliance. 16 Yahweh roars from Zion, he
thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble. But Yahweh will be a shelter
for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites. 17 "Then you will know that I
am Yahweh your God residing on Zion, my holy mountain Jerusalem will then be a
sanctuary, no foreigners will overrun it ever again."
The center of the final oracle is verses 16-17: Yahweh roars from Zion, he thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble ... "Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God residing on Zion ...." Joel sees God presiding over Jerusalem and protecting His covenant people (Zion), dwelling on His holy mountain and acting as their refuge and strength (cf. Pslam 46). It is an image that recurres throughout the Bible and is repeated in the Prologue of John's Gospel in 1:14, where John wrote that God "dwelt among us!"
In 4:15, we once again have the same imagery from 3:5 that prefigures the day of Jesus's crucifixion when the sun turned dark in a God-ordained eclipse from noon to 3 PM followed by an earthquake (Matthew 27:45-46, 51; Mark 15:33-34; Luke 23:44-46). This oracle has yet to be fulfilled but may foretell the future events in Revelation 6:12 when the Lamb breaks the sixth seal: In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake, and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places. Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb. For the Great Day of his retribution has come, and who can face it?"
Verse 17 identifies Jerusalem as "holy" and off-limits to unbelievers. The Hebrew word translated as "foreigners," "aliens," or "strangers" identifies non-covenant people (also see Isaiah 52:1; Jeremiah 31:40; Zechariah 9:8). St. Paul mentioned the "dividing wall" that prevented unbelieving Gentiles from entering the Temple's inner courts (Ephesians 2:14), a violation punishable by death. Paul saw the wall as being symbolically broken by Jesus's sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross, removing the division between Jew and Gentile so He might end the hostility between them (Ephesians 2:16). The Passion of Christ brought peace between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, undoing the enmity that ran like a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (Ambrosier, Ad Ephesios 2, 14).
Joel 4:18-21 ~ The Glorious Future of Israel
18 When that Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk,
and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring
from Yahweh's Temple and water the Gorge of the Acacias. 19 Egypt will become a
desolation, and Edom and desert waste on account of the violence done to the
children of Judah whose innocent blood they shed in their country. 20 But Judah
will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation! 21 "I
shall avenge their blood and let none go unpunished," and Yahweh will dwell in Zion.
God promises His covenant people a renewed Holy Land. Since there is no longer a Temple of the LORD on Mt. Moriah, this oracle either refers to the rebuilt Temple after the return from the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC or a future Temple after the destruction of the removal of the Muslim shrine from the Holy Mountain of God in Jerusalem.
Gorge of the Acacias... The acacia tree is common to the Levant. The location of the gorge is thought to be the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem between the city's wall and the Mount of Olives. Joel's book ends with a vision of the eschatological Jerusalem in the new golden age. In the final verses, Joel paints the picture of an Eden-like Judah where:
The same imagery appears in Isaiah 30:25; Ezekiel 47:1-2; and Zechariah 14:6-11. Jesus will repeat the theme of "living water" in John 4:10 when speaking to the Samaritan woman and again in 7:37-39 when He stood in the Temple precincts and announced to the crowd of worshipers that from His heart would flow springs of living water. In verse 19, God's wrath will fall on Israel's enemies, Egypt and Edom; they will become the ones to suffer devastation.
Finally, in the last verse, God promises Israel/Judah will never again suffer exile. The Lord God will always inhabit Jerusalem: "Yahweh will dwell in Zion" (verse 21). See the document "Zion and the Presence of God. St John used the same imagery in his vision of the messianic Jerusalem coming down from Heaven in Revelation 21:10-11, with its most precious hope for the future of humankind.
Israel ceased to exist after the Assyrian conquest in 722 BC. Judah, renamed Judea by the Romans, ceased to exist after the end of the Second Jewish Revolt in 134 AD. The nation of Israel was recreated in 1947 by the United Nations after World War II and recognized as an independent nation when the British army withdrew in 1948. Israel has been fighting for its survival ever since. In the final verses of the Book of Joel, Yahweh promises Judah/Israel's continual survival, that He will avenge their split blood, and He will dwell in Zion-Israel forever!
Endnotes:
1. Ancient
Israel's neighbors included the Arameans, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites,
Philistines, and Phoenicians.
2. The Philistines and Phoenicians were Israel's coastal neighbors to the west. The Philistines lived in cities along the southern coastal plain, and the Phoenicians were to the north, in modern-day Lebanon, and became a mercantile power in the region, trading in everything from grain to slaves. DNA evidence shows that the Phoenicians were the descendants of the ancient Canaanites who occupied the Promised Land before the Israelite occupation of Canaan. The Philistine origins are outside the Levant, with different groups having migrated to the Levant. Their language and culture show ancient Greece and Aegean influence.
Catechism references (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
The Lord's Day (CCC 1166, 1334)
3-4 CCC 678*
3:1-2 (CCC 1287*)
3:1-5 (CCC 715*
Answers to questions:
Answer #1: Christians call Joel "the prophet of Pentecost" because in his first sermon after the Holy Spirit took possession of the New Covenant Church at the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, Peter understood that event fulfilled the prophecy in Joel 3:1-5 (see Acts 2:17-20). Quoting that passage announced that the event in the Upper Room with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the New Covenant Church heralded the final age of humanity destined to end on the Final Judgment Day of the LORD.
Answer #2: The Jewish crowd would have realized that they were standing in the old part of the city of David known as "Mt. Zion." The event of the crowd of Jewish pilgrims from across the Roman Empire hearing the Apostles and disciples of Jesus professing Jesus' Gospel message of salvation in each of their languages and dialects (Acts 2:8-11) was a fulfillment of what was prophesied by the prophet Joel: God had poured out His Spirit and the sons and daughters of Israel who were Jesus's disciples were offering prophecy (Joel 3:1). The disciples and Apostles of Jesus were the fulfillment of the "faithful remnant" in the prophecy of Joel 3:5.
Question #3: In that passage, the LORD placed some of Moses's prophetic spirit on Israel's chosen leaders/elders. When two men who should have been present but stayed in the camp also began to prophesy, and Joshua protested, Moses told Joshua he desired that all Yahweh's people were prophets with God's Spirit upon them (Numbers 11:29). In Joel's prophecy, there are no limits placed on who would receive the blessing of God's Spirit, which would include elders, young sons and daughters, and servants "to include "all flesh."
Answer #4: He tells them to turn their agricultural tools into weapons of war.
Answer #5: The "champions" of Yahweh's holy army are the angels, the "holy ones" of Zechariah 14:5.
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