Chapter I.
Verse 2: "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?"
The prophet will foretell something to come: a colossal scene,
---greater than the flood,
---greater than crossing the Red Sea,
---greater than anything which heretofore has happened in the memory of man.
Verse 3: "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
The coming event must be retold from one generation to another.
It must be passed on until it becomes a proverb; it must be the keynote for coming ages.
Verses 4-15: As when one pitches a tent, he drives the first stake,
then the last, and sights into line all the intervening stakes; so with Joel.
He drives the last stake when he drives the first.
After a series of instructions, then painful descriptions followed by instructions, comes the CLIMAX in verse fifteen: "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come."
That which is to be told from one generation to another (as stated in verse 3) is information concerning the four great devastating powers described in verse 4 as follows: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left thath the caterpillar eaten."
We cannot say definitely that by the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar God had exactly in mind Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, yet the following significant statements are worthy of due consideration:
1. These devastators are called "a nation," Joel 1: 6.
2. They are likened to a "lion" (Joel 1 :6), as is Babylon elsewhere.
3. They are likened to an army. Joel 2: 25.
4. They are identified as "the heathen." Joel 2: 17.
5. They are spoken of as rational creatures. Joel 2: 17.
If, however, the prophet has precisely in mind literal locusts, cankerworms, palm, cankerworms, and caterpillars, he must by these foresee the devastations of the seven last plagues, which later we will notice in reference to Joel 1: 16-20.
In verses 7 and 8 we find the region or people to be devastated by these four great powers, designated by the following terms:
a. A Vine.—" He hath laid my vine waste." Christ called His church a vineyard. Matt. 20: 4.
b. A Fig Tree.—" And barked my fig tree." Christ likened His people to a fig tree. Luke 13: 6, 7.
c. A Virgin.—" Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth." Paul likened the church to a virgin. 2 Cor. 11: 2."
B.G.Wilkinson
Verse 2: "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?"
The prophet will foretell something to come: a colossal scene,
---greater than the flood,
---greater than crossing the Red Sea,
---greater than anything which heretofore has happened in the memory of man.
Verse 3: "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
The coming event must be retold from one generation to another.
It must be passed on until it becomes a proverb; it must be the keynote for coming ages.
Verses 4-15: As when one pitches a tent, he drives the first stake,
He drives the last stake when he drives the first.
After a series of instructions, then painful descriptions followed by instructions, comes the CLIMAX in verse fifteen: "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come."
That which is to be told from one generation to another (as stated in verse 3) is information concerning the four great devastating powers described in verse 4 as follows: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left thath the caterpillar eaten."
We cannot say definitely that by the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar God had exactly in mind Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, yet the following significant statements are worthy of due consideration:
1. These devastators are called "a nation," Joel 1: 6.
2. They are likened to a "lion" (Joel 1 :6), as is Babylon elsewhere.
3. They are likened to an army. Joel 2: 25.
4. They are identified as "the heathen." Joel 2: 17.
5. They are spoken of as rational creatures. Joel 2: 17.
If, however, the prophet has precisely in mind literal locusts, cankerworms, palm, cankerworms, and caterpillars, he must by these foresee the devastations of the seven last plagues, which later we will notice in reference to Joel 1: 16-20.
In verses 7 and 8 we find the region or people to be devastated by these four great powers, designated by the following terms:
a. A Vine.—" He hath laid my vine waste." Christ called His church a vineyard. Matt. 20: 4.
b. A Fig Tree.—" And barked my fig tree." Christ likened His people to a fig tree. Luke 13: 6, 7.
c. A Virgin.—" Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth." Paul likened the church to a virgin. 2 Cor. 11: 2."
B.G.Wilkinson