Joel 2:10, commentary and pictures

The earth quaking, the heavens trembling, and the sun and moon growing dark with the stars withdrawing their light take place before the advancing agents God uses in His great work in the day of the Lord. They are the Lord's army and His very great camp, strong to execute His word in the great and very terrible day, the heavenly and angelic host accompanying Christ to execute judgment and destroy the wicked, while those who held them to be literal hold that they are devouring insect hordes advancing over the agricultural world in the last days. The shaking and darkening belong to the time just before and nigh at hand to the coming of Christ, at the commencement of the great day of wrath and before the thousand years and the resurrection of the just. The darkening of the sun and moon on May 19, 1780 and the falling of the stars seen by millions on November 13, 1833 fulfill the withdrawing of light and mark the last generation showing the end is near. It is a trumpet warning that the day is nigh, calling all even now to turn to God with all the heart with fasting, weeping and mourning, to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and latter rain and to prepare for Christ's second coming.

Army and Its Setting

The verse belongs to a nine-verse account of the agents God uses in His great work in the day of the Lord and what they do as they advance. Before them the earth quakes and the heavens tremble, while the sun and the moon are darkened and the stars lose their light. These signs make the day of the Lord great and very terrible, which none can abide, for they go before the Lord's army, His very great camp, strong to carry out His word.

The prophecy describes literal, devouring insect pests, not figurative armies of men, with work beginning in insect devastation of vegetation. Vast hordes advance in the last days over the agricultural world, destroying crops and threatening life, and they will be faced increasingly toward the future. Human efforts and inventions cannot prevent this scourge, as recalled by a reported locust invasion in Palestine advancing in vast numbers and resisting human efforts to stop it.

The language of earth quaking, heavens trembling, and heavenly lights darkening is too elevated and too strong for ordinary or local locusts and their ravages. The signs are not merely local damage from locusts but accompany the Lord's army as it carries out His purpose. They describe the movements and operations of powerful agents called forth in martial array in the great day of the Lord, with power and terror beyond ordinary description and beyond language's power to portray.

The agents are the Lord's army and His very great camp, strong to execute His word in the coming great and very terrible day. They are a great and strong people set in battle array who run like mighty men and men of war, march without breaking ranks, cannot be wounded, and overrun city, wall, houses and windows like a thief, leaving desolation behind them. They march under the Seventh Trumpet and the last trump to bring utter ruin upon the world for making the Image of the Beast and worshiping the Beast and his Image.

The army is the heavenly and angelic army accompanying Christ at His appearing, when He executes God's judgment and destroys the wicked. Before this great army of angels the earth quakes and the sun, moon and stars withdraw their shining in the great day of the Lord. This takes place when multitudes are in the valley of decision, when the heathen are gathered to be judged and the sickle is put in for the final harvest. Local calamities upon Judah and Jerusalem in the prophecy typify far greater calamities, war and trouble that will precede the great day of Jehovah at the end of earth's history.

Shaken Earth Darkened Lights

Before them the earth quakes and the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and the stars withdraw their shining and lose their light. These shakings and darkenings are prophetic signs in the heavens set before the great day of the Lord. They belong with the scriptural warnings associated with the coming of the Son of man, alongside other prophecies of the sun going dark in the daytime. They accompany the destruction of the earth at the day of the Lord.

The shaking is literal earthquake and trembling of the heavens, seen in increasing earthquakes and other physical disturbances showing that Christ's coming is at the door and the great day is near. The darkening of the sun and moon was fulfilled on May 19, 1780, and the falling of the stars on November 13, 1833. The shaking of heaven and earth is also the voice of God uttered before His coming to an unprepared world, at the time of the seventh plague.

That shaking is Jehovah uttering His voice before His army, whose camp is very great. It declares that the great and very terrible day of Jehovah is near. Terrifying earthquakes and destroying fires are its warning voice, calling everyone even now to turn to Jehovah God with all the heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, with rent heart and not garments, because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving-kindness, and repents of evil.

Timing Before Day

The shaking of earth and heaven with darkened sun and moon and withdrawn starlight belongs to the time just before, nigh at hand and approaching the great and terrible day of the Lord, identified with the coming of Christ when all things reach their end. It is part of Joel's description of an invading army whose work begins in insect devastation of vegetation, yet points forward to that final day. These tremblings and darkenings are prophetic signs in the heavens before the great day, belonging to the scriptural warnings associated with the coming of the Son of man. They show that the world is in the last days and that Christ's coming is near, belonging to a work that takes place before the Lord comes.

When that day is drawing near the trumpet warning and alarm in Zion is to be sounded, calling the people to tremble at the great and terrible day made known by earthquakes and signs in the heavens with darkened sun, moon and stars. The approaching day calls even the meek to seek meekness and righteousness in preparation to meet the Lord.

There are two distinct classes of sun and moon darkening, and this verse shows the second, literal class. It is not a precursory warning omen given for the saving benefit of the world, like the darkening fulfilled before the end. It is the literal quaking of earth and trembling of heavens with darkened sun and moon and withdrawn stars in the scenes that usher in the great and terrible day, fulfilled at the commencement of the great day of wrath when probation is closed and the filthy remain filthy still, so it cannot result in salvation for the enemies of God.

The prophecy is fulfilled at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the thousand years and the resurrection of the just. Then together the land is restored, God's Spirit is poured out, and God delivers His people, all occurring just before the resurrection of the righteous.

The darkening of sun and moon and ceasing of the stars to shine belong to the same prophetic sequence of signs described in the Gospels and Revelation. They were still future when John wrote Revelation, so they do not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. They are distinct from the supernatural darkness at Christ's crucifixion, which had no accompanying darkening of the moon or withdrawing and falling of stars, and they belong to the later period before the great and terrible day, associated with the signs Christ gave before His coming.

The signs can have a partial fulfillment at a major crisis and a complete fulfillment at the world's final crisis, since the last days include the very last day, when the prophecy applies in full.

Signs Fulfilled in History

Joel 2:10 presents the darkening of the sun and moon and the withdrawing of the stars' light as signs accompanying the day of the Lord that mark the last generation and show the end is near. The darkening of the sun and moon occurred on May 19, 1780, and the falling of the stars on November 13, 1833, and these signs together with other prophetic signs show Christ is near, even at the door. The prophecy of a great sign involving the stars was fulfilled in the phenomenon of falling stars seen by millions and serving as a sign of Christ's second coming. The shaking of earth and heavens with sun, moon, and stars losing their light are signs of Christ's coming that also belong to increasing earthquakes and other physical disturbances.

The sun is to be darkened, the moon not to give her light, and the stars to withdraw their shining immediately after the tribulation of the long centuries of persecution from 538 to 1798. That darkening was fulfilled on May 19, 1780, when the sun became black as sackcloth at midday and the full moon that night gave no light and appeared as blood. The falling of the stars was fulfilled on November 13, 1833, held by others as November 30, 1833. The May 1780 event was a great darkness over the earth and daylight sky in which birds and farm animals behaved as if night had come. When these things come to pass Christ is near, even at the door, and the generation that sees all these signs shall not pass till all things including the coming of Christ be fulfilled.

The literal shaking of the heavens with trembling sun, moon, and stars is still future and immediately precedes the sign of the Son of Man in heaven and the Lord's appearing in the clouds. The verse is one of the Bible's seven references to signs in the sun, moon, and stars. These signs are placed in the heavens and are to occur as warnings ushering in the day of God.

Coming Judgment and Renewal

The quaking of the earth and trembling of the heavens with darkened sun and moon and light-withholding stars accompany the Lord's return with the armies of heaven to smite the nations. They belong to the destruction of the earth at the day of the Lord and mark the nearness of that day of God's wrath with its judgment upon the wicked. These fearful signs confirm that the great and terrible day of the Lord is the time of Christ's coming, when the dead are raised and the living are gathered to Him. The trumpet warning and alarm belong to the time when that day is drawing near.

The shaking and darkening take place before the advance of the Lord's great army of angels in the great day of the Lord at Christ's appearing. That is when multitudes stand in the valley of decision, when the heathen nations are gathered to be judged and the sickle is put in for the final harvest. Joel 3:12-15 places these events at the same gathering of the nations for judgment when God's heavenly army carries out His judgment.

What was beheld in vision eight hundred years before the first advent of Christ was part of the final visitation of God's wrath. It means amazing revolutions and an unrivaled time of trouble preceding the resurrection of the dead that marks the beginning of the thousand years. It describes the greatest of God's judgments in the seven last plagues, where devastations wrought by men are surpassed by ruin wrought by God, so fearful that Joel begged for the scene to be torn from his eyes. It agrees with the earth being reduced to chaos and desolation before it is renewed as a dwelling place for the righteous. That desolation accompanies persecution of those who keep God's commandments, who as they flee for their lives will face drought with dried-up rivers and barren wilderness pastures. It shows the world is in the last days, when the end of the Sunday-sabbath movement brings persecution upon those who obey God.

Warning Repentance and Mission

Joel 2:1-23 is a trumpet warning for this time that the day of the Lord is nigh at hand, describing the latter rain and outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the remnant as wonderful in power and results as the former rain at Pentecost. The trumpet blown in Zion sounds the alarm, the Lord pleads for His people to turn to Him with all the heart and return to Him, and He promises to give the former rain moderately and to cause former and latter rain to come down together, to be in the midst of Israel so His people shall never be ashamed. Fulfillment of that promise means refreshing from the presence of the Lord, ripening of the harvest, and end of the conflict, received only on condition of faithfulness including bringing all the tithes into the storehouse. It will be so powerful that the unprepared will fall under its power to rise no more. Peter applied Joel 2 to Christ's disciples carrying out the gospel commission at Pentecost, where the outpouring of the Spirit and its gifts was for women as well as men, enabling women to serve in ministry.

The verse belongs to the soon coming of Christ and the finishing of God's last great work in this generation. The one supreme requirement for prosecuting that work is reception of the Holy Spirit in its fullness, the presence in fullness of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which alone is sufficiency and fits believers for service in such a way that they finish the service it qualifies them to perform. It calls for a clear, strong, definite message with no weakness or tameness, lifted up and given supreme place in the hearts of those charged with giving it to the world, for no finishing power will attend the message until then. That enabling is such that every Sabbath-keeper occupying his privileged position can give the message to the people of the United States within twelve months.

The earth quaking and heavens trembling with darkened sun and moon and stars withdrawing light is Jehovah uttering His voice before His army whose camp is very great, showing the great and very terrible day of Jehovah is near. Terrifying earthquakes and destroying fires are its warning voice, calling everyone even now to turn to God with all the heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, with rent heart and not garments, because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving-kindness, and repents of evil. The day of the Lord is no ordinary day, so meeting it requires no ordinary preparation but turning to God with all the heart, with no half-way work, with such a sense of sin and deep contrition and repentance as brings fasting and weeping and mourning.

The approaching day calls for the alarm to be sounded and the people to tremble, and even the meek are urged to seek meekness and righteousness in preparation to meet the Lord. Joel 2:1-20 as a trumpet warning for this time means it is fully time for watchmen on the walls of Zion to cry aloud and spare not, lifting up the voice like a trumpet to show the people their transgressions and sins because God's law has been made void. The prophecy is of warning and reform messages with worldwide application, given to prepare people for Christ's second coming. The darkening of sun and moon and loss of the stars' brightness as signs of Christ's coming are a warning to the world and a reason for believers to look expectantly toward redemption. These signs preceding the day of the Lord, when earth and heavens tremble and sun, moon, and stars lose their light, belong to Joel's warning to Zion, the church, in the last days, urging its priests and ministers to earnestness in view of the destruction that will overwhelm the world.