The Glorious Future: Joel ends his book by portraying the glorious future that awaits the people of God. Their enemies have been destroyed, and peace reigns on the earth (cf. Ps. 46:8–11). In the place of the catastrophes that they knew in the past, they have become inheritors of abundant life. Indeed, Joel’s portrayals of that life, borrowing partially from Amos 9:13, pick up the themes of his first chapter and show their exact opposite. Once the sweet, new wine was cut off from Judah (1:5), but now the mountainsides with their vineyards will yield it in abundance. Once the cattle gave no milk, because there was no pasture for them (1:18), but now in God’s kingdom abundant pastureland on the hills will ensure copious supply. Once, in the drought, there was no water (1:17–20), but now even…