3237.— Questions on Joel
By Editor
Concerning Joel 2:18-32, doubtless a good part of it would have been fulfilled back in the very time in which the prophet spoke it, in the times of the backsliding of Judah and Israel, 800 years before Christ. It is typical of God's children in the last days, and it seems to us that its ultimate fulfilment will not take place until the old earth passes into the new. While great spiritual blessings will be poured out upon God's children before Christ comes, when they will seek Him with all their heart as Joel intimates, the great fruitful earth will not be seen till the Lord Himself shall become its King, and sin is forever passed away. The plagues there brought to view, or the great northern army which the Lord sends, seem to us to be the great hordes of insects, crop-destroying and life-destroying, which will come upon the world in the last days. The ravages committed by insects is even now appalling. The loss climbs away up into the millions of dollars every year. These will increase as the years go by. God will deliver His people, but the great fruitfulness of the future will be only when the new earth is ushered in as recorded in verses 25 and 26. The "afterward" of verse 28 should be interpreted by Acts 2:17, "It shall come to pass in the last days." In the Hebrew Bible verse 28 begins an entirely new chapter.