2:18–20 We now come to the turning point of the book of Joel—the point at which God’s jealousy leads to pity for the chosen people. God removes both the everyday judgments and the threat of final judgment from their lives, verse 18.
This passage too, however, is not to be understood in terms of some sort of self-seeking on God’s part. Rather, God’s “jealousy” could also be translated as God’s “zeal”—the word has both meanings in the Hebrew. The God of the Bible is a zealous God, with a purpose that is being worked out in the world. God will not be deterred or turned aside from fulfilling that purpose. This purpose is the restoration of the good and abundant life that he intended for his world in the beginning—the life that was corrupted and destroyed by human sin. And God’s means of working out that purpose is to make a covenant people who know how to live in righteousness and trust under God’s guiding lordship (Exod. 19:3–6; 1 Pet. 2:9–10). Into that covenant fellowship, then, God works to draw all peoples, that the earth may be filled with the glory and knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea (cf. Isa. 2:2–4; Hab. 2:14; Zech. 8:20–23).
Israel, in the time of Joel, has deserted its God and turned to other deities. But God is jealous (Exod. 20:5)—that is, zealous—for the purpose of recreating his world (Exod. 34:10; Isa. 9:7). Therefore, Israel’s apostasy will not change the fact that Israel is God’s people, living in God’s land (v. 18), and God will use Israel in spite of itself. God will maintain his covenant with Israel in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness. The Lord will enter into communion with Israel, in spite of its desertion. The covenant remains unbroken. God is faithful to it. That is the message of this passage.
As evidence of that covenant faithfulness, God will therefore restore the grain and the wine and the oil that will make it possible for Israel to enter into the communion of the temple sacrifices once again (v.19), and the nations will no longer be able to say that Israel’s God has deserted it. But more than that, God will remove the threat of judgment on the day of the Lord, verse 20. (The NIV reads northern army, but the Hebrew has “the northerner,” referring to the enemy from the North, cf. 2:1–11).
Such pity is totally unearned grace, occasioned not by Israel’s repentance but solely by God’s zeal for his purpose and mercy toward Israel in using it in that purpose. Thus, while all of those gifts of mercy mentioned in 2:19–27 correspond to Israel’s need detailed in 1:2–2:17, it is not Israel’s need or its turning that prompts God’s actions toward it. Verses 2:17–20 have the standard form of a communal lament (v. 17), followed by an oracle of assurance (vv. 19–20), but the two sections are bound together theologically by the “pity” of God.
Some commentators have maintained that 2:20 refers once again to the locust horde. In their view, God drives the locusts into the Dead Sea on the east and into the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and the stench of the locusts’ rotting bodies on the seashores then fills the air. Once again, however, the enemy from the North is intended, and the mentioned stench simply reaffirms that the fearful enemy is dead and that the final judgment on Israel has been turned aside forever.
2:21–27 Because God will maintain his covenant with his chosen people, covenant blessings will therefore be restored to them, and the hardships that Judah has experienced in the past will be reversed by God’s great acts, verse 21. The promises of 2:21–27 overcome the sufferings specifically mentioned in chapter 1: The ground will be restored (cf. 2:21 with 1:10); the wild animals will be fed (cf. 2:22 with 1:20); joy will return to Judah’s harvests and worship (cf. 2:23 with 1:16); the drought will be a thing of the past (cf. 2:23 with 1:10, 12, 18–20); the fruit trees will bear (cf. 2:22 with 1: 12, 19); threshing floors and wine vats will be full (cf. 2:24 with 1:5, 17). All are covenant blessings that God will again bestow on this people (cf. Deut. 11:13–17; 28:3–5, 11–12; Lev. 26:3–5). All make up part of the blessed future to which Judah can look forward. As a result, Judah will be able once again to rejoice in the fellowship of the Lord its God (vv. 21, 23), and will praise God’s name (v. 26).
Best of all, however, Israel will know that the Lord is its God, dwelling in its midst (v. 27; cf. 3:17) in fulfillment of the ancient promises (cf. Exod. 25:8; 29:45; Lev. 26:11; 1 Kgs. 6:13; Isa. 12:6; Ezek. 37:27–28; Hos. 11:9; Zeph. 3:15, 17). No longer will Israel seek after other gods and goddesses, but it will know that the Lord alone is God, because he alone has saved it (cf. Isa. 45:5, 6, 18, 22; 46:9). Israel’s apostasy will be done and gone, replaced with commitment to an everlasting covenant (cf. Gen. 17:7–8; Hos. 2:16–23).
These are all future promises in Joel, but, as with all of God’s promises in the OT, they have “found their yes in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:20). He now has restored us to communion with the Father (2 Cor. 5:17–19). His cross and resurrection have now imputed to us that righteousness in which we may stand in the day of the Lord (Rom. 8:31–39; 1 Cor. 1:8; Eph. 4:30; 6:13). His gospel has given us joy in his abundant life and worship (John 15:11). His resurrection has made it sure that at the end, the whole creation will be healed (Rom. 8:19–22).
Additional Note
There are two poems in this section, vv. 18–20 and 21–27. Verses 18–20 divide into two strophes, vv. 18–19 and 20. Verses 21–27 have four strophes, vv. 21–22, 23, 24–25, 26–27, with the speech of God alternating with that of the prophet. This second poem of vv. 21–27 has something of the form of a standard oracle of salvation, as found for example in Isa. 41:8–13. Such a salvation oracle included a statement of God’s past dealings with Israel (Isa. 41:8–9), an imperative “Fear not!” and a promise of God’s intervention (Isa. 41:10), a description of the results of God’s actions (Isa. 41:11–12), and an explanation of God’s actions (Isa. 41:13). As he does with all standard forms, Joel uses the genre of the salvation oracle with great flexibility.