Joel 2:1-17

2:1-9 | Blow the trumpet means to be on alert for an enemy attack (Num. 10). The correspondence between the army of locusts that had so swiftly swept through the land and this future, invading, powerful army is unmistakable. As this army advanced, all the people in and around Jerusalem felt terrified and turned pale (drained of color) with fear. (similar imagery appears in Rev. 9:3-10 to describe an end-times army).

2:3 | This huge army advanced like a forest fire, consuming everything in its path (Romans often referred to locusts as “burners of the field”). Before the devastation, conditions were like the Garden of Eden – idyllic – but afterward, nothing was left but a scorched earth wilderness. Nothing escaped the advancing judgment.

2:4 | The locusts looked and behaved like horses – a symbol of power and might, especially to an Israelite nation that was historically known for infantry warfare due to its hilly terrain (Rev. 9:7-9).

2:10-17 | The environmental disturbances caused by this army’s advance, such as earthquakes and the heavens trembling, are common in biblical descriptions where God wages war (Ps. 18:7; Nah. 1:5; Matt. 24:29). Turn to Me is Joel’s message of repentance from the Lord, similar to the message of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:1-3).

2:15-17 | As in 2:1, the prophet urges the blowing of the trumpet (or shophar) in Zion, but this time it is a call to a sacred assembly and to consecrate a fast. God’s people needed to gather together and recommit themselves to Him. The Lord stood ready to forgive and bless them if they would only repent.