Joel 2:8, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a disciplined and irresistible advance in which each marches in his own path without thrusting or hindering another, and on whom weapons have no effect so that no wall, device, or hiding place can stop or turn them aside. It belongs to Joel 2:1-11, the sounding of the trumpet in Zion and the coming of a great people and strong as the Lord's very great camp executing His word just before the great and terrible day of the Lord. In its plain sense it is devouring hordes of locusts laying vegetation waste, while those who held the fuller application teach that it is the heavenly angels marshaled as executioners following Christ to judge and destroy the wicked at His coming. Those who held the further application teach that it portrays the Lord's remnant people in the last days advancing in ordered unity like an armored company, each keeping his assigned path and rank with alienation banished. That readiness comes through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in latter-rain power and holy living, which alone fits them to sound the alarm, give the loud cry, and finish the work swiftly before the final visitation of wrath and the seven last plagues.

Language and Imagery

The advance is disciplined, with no one crowding or pushing against another but every one walking in his own path. Ranks are kept unbroken, each following a distinct course and staying in the assigned way without colliding, jostling, or hindering another. This order belongs both to devouring insect hordes that strip vegetation and to the Lord's great army and very great camp executing His word in the day of the Lord. The same order was seen in the locust invasion of Palestine in 1865, which moved in regular lines like an army despite efforts to stop it. The march comes when the trumpet is blown in Zion sounding the alarm, amid darkness, desolation, and utter ruin.

Those who fall upon the sword are not wounded, so weapons do not injure them when they strike against them. No human weapon can break their advance or stop them from carrying out the work assigned to them. Human inventions and devices cannot prevent their ravaging march, which presents a terror of the last days. Further destructive insect outbreaks of this kind are a sign of trouble near at hand.

The march is irresistible, with ranks that cannot be broken as each agent follows his own set path to accomplish the appointed work. No wall, bolt, hiding place, safeguard, or human defense can obstruct them, and weapons cannot harm them. The wicked cannot escape them or hide from them, and will realize they are in the hands of heavenly executioners against whom all human defense is utterly powerless. This same picture includes climbing over walls and entering in through windows to bring widespread devastation as a sign of the approaching end.

Setting in Joel

Joel 2:8 belongs to Joel 2:1-11, the description of a great people and strong who are the Lord's army and His very great camp executing His word. They are a strong people set in battle array, mighty men and men of war, coming when the trumpet is blown in Zion sounding the alarm. They move swiftly and solemnly to accomplish the events of the day of the Lord amid darkness, desolation, and utter ruin. In that march each keeps to his own path without thrusting or jostling another, and even falling upon the sword they are not wounded, showing a disciplined and irresistible advance and invulnerability. This vision is of the final visitation of God's wrath at the end of the world, ushering in ruin beyond imagination and beyond human language after an unrivaled time of trouble and just before the resurrection that begins the thousand years.

The vision was given nearly eight hundred years before Christ, before Hosea. It was so fearful that Joel begged for the scene to be torn from his eyes. The calamity it describes upon Judah and Jerusalem is typical of far greater calamities to come upon the world when the great day of the Lord is near.

Joel 2 has a double application, with a partial fulfillment at an earlier great crisis and a complete fulfillment in the final crisis of the world. The last days include the very last day. In this setting the disciplined marching host that keeps its path and cannot be wounded belongs to the army of pests that are signs of the Lord's coming. It stands together with the great preparations made in the last days for universal war and with God's promise in the outpouring of His Spirit.

Identity of Army

The army is literally devouring insects, great hordes of locusts and grasshoppers that devastate vegetation and make the land desolate. They advance in orderly ranks, each following its own course and keeping its own path without colliding, thrusting, or hindering another. Even when they fall upon the sword and strike weapons they are not wounded or injured, and no human inventions, devices, or efforts to stop them can prevent their ravaging work. The destruction of vegetation by grasshoppers is at least a beginning of this army's work, and its orderly march was illustrated by the locust invasion in Palestine and Syria in 1865 moving in regular lines like an army despite efforts to stop them, with further destructive insect outbreaks a terror of the last days and a sign of trouble near at hand. Yet the description is too elevated and forceful to be explained as ordinary locusts and their ravages, for the agents advance in ordered ranks on distinct paths without pushing another and remain unwounded even when they fall upon swords.

The army is the Lord's heavenly agents and angels marshaled as His army and very great camp in the great day of the Lord at the second coming of Christ to execute His will and His word upon the wicked in the day of judgment. It is the heavenly army that follows Him as He judges, smites the nations, and destroys the wicked, accompanying the Lord at His coming and portraying the destruction that comes at His return. Each keeps his own path with ranks that cannot be broken, they cannot be wounded by the sword, and no wall, bolt, hiding place, safeguard, or human weapon or defense can obstruct, injure, or stop them as they carry out God's judgment. The wicked cannot escape them or hide from them, and will then realize they are in the hands of heavenly executioners against whom all human defense is utterly powerless. The army is also the Lord's own strong people set in battle array, a great people and strong, mighty men and men of war, His army and His very great camp executing His word in the great and terrible day with perfect order and invulnerability, marching every one on his ways without breaking ranks when the trumpet is blown in Zion sounding the alarm amid darkness, desolation, and ruin, bringing utter ruin upon the world for making and worshiping the Image of the Beast under the Seventh Trumpet with the notes of the last trump.

The army is evil spirits assembled for the battle of the great day of God, moving in disciplined order each on his own path without colliding and remaining unwounded even when falling upon weapons, preserved and furthered in deception by Satan's power until Christ comes to destroy them. It also contributes to a vivid picture of warring nations as a sign preceding the day of the Lord and as a warning to the church in the last days about destruction coming upon the world. At the same time it portrays the Lord's remnant people advancing in ordered unity in the great and terrible day, each keeping to his own assigned path without colliding, hindering another, or breaking rank, disciplined and unharmed as they stand in that day. They move together in exact order like an armored company of soldiers clothed with armor, with ranks closed and alienation banished, acting together in the work of God especially when the effort is difficult. Those enlisted in the Lord's army should so keep rank and move in exact order.

The verse points to the wicked being raised for final destruction and to a place being prepared for the beloved City to be safely inhabited at the end of the thousand years.

Time and Accompanying Signs

The army moves just before the day of the Lord, at the coming of Christ in the great and terrible day when heaven's armies follow Him to judge, smite the nations, and destroy the wicked. It is the Lord's own army and camp, the agents who accomplish the events of that day, advancing in disciplined and irresistible order with each in his own path and no one thrusting or obstructing another. No human weapon can break that advance or stop the assigned work, for even falling upon the sword they are not wounded. The destruction of vegetation by grasshoppers is at least a beginning of this army's work.

Joel 2:1-14 foretells signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars showing that Christ's coming is near, even at the door. Those signs were to appear immediately after the tribulation of the long centuries of persecution from 538 to 1798. They were fulfilled when the sun was darkened at midday on May 19, 1780, when the full moon that night gave no light and appeared as blood, and when the stars fell on November 30, 1833, so that the generation seeing all these things shall not pass till all be fulfilled including the coming of Christ.

The prophecy belongs to the latter rain for the remnant, the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in latter-rain power as wonderful in power and results as the early rain on the day of Pentecost. It brings refreshing from the presence of the Lord, ripening of the harvest, and the end of the conflict, with God in the midst of Israel. It comes after the trumpet alarm that the day of the Lord is nigh at hand and the call to turn to the Lord with all the heart, and it leads to the former rain moderately and to the former and latter rain together. It is received on condition of full return and faithfulness in tithes and offerings, and it is seen when people seek and find the truth, whose tread is heard across the land like a mighty army.

It belongs to the final visitation of God's wrath at the end of the world, ushering in the seven last plagues with ruin beyond imagination and beyond human language. That visitation comes after an unrivaled time of trouble and just before the resurrection of the dead that begins the thousand years. It was seen nearly eight hundred years before Christ's first coming and was so fearful that Joel begged for the scene to be torn from his eyes.

The orderly march is illustrated by the 1865 locust invasion in Palestine and Syria, moving in regular lines like an army despite efforts to stop them, and by caterpillars in steady destructive march. The locusts advance in ordered paths without colliding and remain unharmed when they encounter weapons. As a vast disciplined army they keep ranks as they advance, climb walls, enter through windows, and spread widespread devastation. Such destructive insect outbreaks, and the prospect of further ones, are a sign of trouble near at hand and of the approaching end.

The verse stands in the Bible's delineation of the last days accompanying the church's backsliding and union with the world, including persecution of those who obey God. It applies to the time when dissenters who keep God's commandments flee persecution and face drought and desolation.

Unity and Holy Living

Those enlisted in the Lord's army are to keep rank and move in exact order, each staying in the assigned path without hindering or colliding with another. They advance together in disciplined unity like an armored company of soldiers, with ranks closed and alienation banished. This united action in the work of God holds especially when the effort is difficult.

The one supreme consideration and great requirement for prosecuting God's last great work and finishing the delayed work in this generation before the soon coming of Christ is the reception of the Holy Spirit in its fulness, the presence in its fulness of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which alone is sufficiency. That power fits for service in such a way as to finish the service it qualifies to perform, producing a clear, strong, definite message with no weakness or tameness. When that message is lifted up and given its supreme place in the hearts of those charged with giving it, every believer occupying his privileged position can give it quickly, within twelve months to the United States.

All of God's people are to be clothed with armor and keep perfect rank, a condition not yet reached but entered through the shaking experience and the reception of the Laodicean message. After that unity and readiness is reached will follow the loud cry, the gifts of the Spirit, and the speedy finishing of the work. Victory in the shaking time means deliverance from the bondage that causes spiritual blindness, closed mouths, and deathlike stillness and dullness, filling believers with gratitude and holy, sacred joy. Then they all move in exact order like a company of soldiers, every one in his path without thrusting another, and in that united orderly condition the loud cry of the third angel's message is heard, with victory and service and victory in service as the call of the hour. In view of Christ's near coming the church is to sound an alarm in preparation for the approaching day of the Lord, the people are to tremble, and even the meek are to seek meekness and righteousness in practical reform and holy living.