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Joel 2: 25. In Joel 2: 23-25 the people are told to be glad and they certainly have
much to be glad about. Verse 24 states that "the (threshing) floors shall be full of wheat
(corn) and the fats (vats) shall overflow with wine and oil". No problem now with the
meal and drink offerings! Not only are the offerings restored but verse 25 sees the
restoration of everything to Israel. Everything that was lost to the locusts is restored!
Everything that was lost to that great army is restored! No wonder they are told to rejoice
and be glad.
Some people have a problem with the words "My great army which I sent among
you". Did God directly cause this catastrophe? No! But because He is the omnipotent,
all powerful One Who can do anything and Who can stop anything, He could have
stopped the ravaging locusts and He could have stopped that great army of Joel 2: 2-10
even before it had embarked upon its mission--but He chose not to. Thus because He
didn't, because He allowed it; He takes the responsibility and so calls the plague of
locusts My "great army". Thus any catastrophe He allows His people to go through is
fully noted by Him and He the righteous One, more than compensates them for their
suffering with blessings either in this life or after resurrection (Rom. 8: 18 and
II.Cor.iv.17 show Paul appreciated this point). Another example of this is found in the
opening chapters of Job where Satan wishes to inflict hardship onto Job and his family
(Job 1: 1-11). The Lord allows Satan to do this (1: 12) but later in Job 2: 3 He takes the
responsibility for these sufferings upon His own shoulders. The last chapter of Job then
shows how the Lord more than compensated Job for what He permitted Job to undergo.
Joel 2: 26, 27. This section of the structure closes with verses 26 and 27. The people
are told that they "will praise the name of the Lord" and that they will know that He is in
the midst of them. There are also two references, one in verse 26 and one in verse 27, to:
"My people shall never be ashamed" (A.V.).
". . . . . never again shall My people be put to shame" (N.I.V.).
". . . . . never again shall My people be derided" (Moffatt).
This even sees the fulfillment of the promise of Deut. 28: 13:
"And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only,
and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy
God."
Many of the promises to the people of Israel are conditional upon the behaviour of that
people. Deut. 28: 13, above, has "if thou hearken unto My commandment". Similar
conditions are found in such passages as Lev. 26: 3, 4 and Deut. 11: 13, 14. However
there is a time coming when this people will hearken and will obey. It will be after those
days when they shall "look on Him Whom they pierced". It shall be in those days after
the return of Christ. Jer. 31: 33, 34 records that:
"After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it
in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour, every man his brother, saying Know the Lord, for they
shall all know Me, from the least of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity.
I will remember their sin no more."