Justice, Mercy, and the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:1-17)

Introduction

Good morning, friends! I want you to imagine you’re relaxing on a cold, rainy night, watching your favorite movie or television show, or your favorite sports team, with a nice cup of hot tea in your hand. You are utterly comfortable, sleepy even, and then… suddenly, you hear them—a whirlwind of sound, a crack of thunder, an alarm of coming danger, and you’re terrified. The high-pitched siren points to an imminent tornado heading your direction. What do you do? You don’t keep sipping your tea. You don’t lounge back in your chair, continuing as if nothing is wrong. No, you’d rather grab the essentials: your children first, and then the photo albums, laptops, your three dogs, and other items of importance. Then, you make haste for the storm shelter or innermost room, and you do so together. You are now wide awake, huddled under a mattress, eagerly listening to the local news channel for the “all-clear.” It finally comes, but it was not without waking up and turning away from the comfort of your living room chair and that delicious cup of hot tea. In other words, you abandoned temporal comfort and gathered what truly matters: your family and the memories of them captured in pictures.

This situation, although imaginary, could happen here in the Panhandle of Texas during tornado season. Indeed, most of us have found ourselves in such a situation, or a similar one. Yet, the Lord saw us through. He had mercy on us and spared us from the terrors of destructive, fallen creation, or of a day gone terribly wrong. Still, we know that some of us have not been so fortunate. Yet, let me tell you, brothers and sisters, the Day of the Lord will be even more destructive and glorious than even the harshest tornado or the most devastating invasion of locusts.

Overall, our passage today, Joel 2:1-17, demonstrates that God is both just and merciful, and we ought to respond to Him with genuine repentance and expectation that He will set all things right.

But, before we dive into this text, some background information is necessary. The Prophet Joel tells a similar story to our imaginary tornado encounter. However, unlike our illustration, it is not just a possible scenario but one that actually happened. In Joel 1, the Prophet speaks of a plague of locusts. When we read this, we likely think of two things.

1. A plague of locusts seems like an evil thing and an effect of living in a fallen world.
2. We will probably remember the eighth plague of God’s judgment on Egypt, recorded in Exodus 10:1-20.

In other words, the locusts in Egypt and in Judah were not merely a side effect of fallen creation but were orchestrated by God to execute His righteous judgment on a land of sin and wickedness. We must not say that God is the author of evil, but that things we often perceive as evil are used by Him according to His redemptive plan. We also must not say that all natural disasters are God’s judgment upon humanity and the land. However, God does work through His creation, despite its fallen nature.

This is the same judgment Joel speaks of, and just as before toward Egypt, it comes to Judah through an invasion of locusts that have wreaked havoc, devoured the land, and caused widespread devastation. In fact, in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, the Lord, through Moses, makes known the consequences of breaking His covenant, including an invasion of locusts that destroy fields and crops. Furthermore, in this particular section, Moses includes a prophecy of the Babylonian exile. Such mentions make it challenging to determine whether Joel was composed before or after the exile or whether the locusts are literal insects or soldiers.¹ With this background established, we can turn to our text for today.

Please turn with me to your Bibles to Joel 2:1-17, and together we will see how God is both just and merciful. Pray with me before we read God’s Word together: Father God in heaven, we pray that You would speak to us through Your Word given to the Prophet Joel. Open our ears to hear from You, our minds to understand You, and our hearts to obey You. We pray this in Jesus’s excellent name. Amen.

The Prophet Joel writes

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:1-17).²

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Joel 2:1-17 explains two expressions of God’s character—justice and mercy—and elicits three proper responses in light of such.

Body

Essentially, Joel is divided into two sections. Verses 1-11 deal primarily with God’s judgment in the Day of the Lord, and verses 12-17 primarily deal with God’s mercy as a response to this judgment. Let’s begin with the first section.

Justice (vv. 1-11)

Verse one begins with the emphatic exclamation: “Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near.” Just as the tornado and storm from earlier were announced through an alarm, the Lord does the same here. Moreover, just as the tornado was imminent, so is the Day of the Lord, which will be far more devastating than any storm. The Prophet’s purpose in making this announcement is to awaken the people to their depravity and sin. Just as we were removed from our pleasure or relaxation and hot tea by the sound of the tornado alarm, the blowing of the trumpet seeks to do the same for wicked people. John Calvin explains it this way: “The objective of the narrative then is, to make the people sensible, that it was now no time for taking rest; for the Lord, having long tolerated their wickedness, was now resolved to pour upon them in full torrent his whole fury.”³

In verse 2, Joel used the language of darkness and gloom to demonstrate that this judgment is sure. Think of the storm once again. The sky goes black, and you know that destruction is in store. Furthermore, in the latter section of verse 2, he personifies God’s judgment as an army of great people. The Day of the Lord will be like the sacking of a great city by strong men. Yet again, it is far more dreadful than that even. Again, this army could be a callback to the Assyrian armies that brought Judah into captivity, or a prophecy of such, depending on whether the book was written before or after the Babylonian exile. I personally, yet undogmatically, prefer the pre-exilic composition.

Verses 3-5 carry on the metaphor. A beautiful place lies before this army, but their marching and warfare turn the land into burning desolation. They move quickly like horses and leave a fiery trail in their path. This is the judgment of the Lord; It utterly, yet righteously, destroys all in its path.

Again, the Prophet Joel continues this personification in verses 6-9, with a brief note aside in verse 6 on how the people being judged react. They are utterly terrified, just as we are, by the tornado. The following verses demonstrate, once again, the imminent nature of this judgment in that the soldiers “are not halted.” Moreover, they illustrate the determination of the soldiers, for “they do not jostle one another, [nor do they] swerve from their paths.” In other words, the Prophet Joel emphatically declares that God’s judgment is near, swift, and with great determination to destroy sin and enemies.

The two final verses of the section, verses 10-11, show the reaction of the heavens: “The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.” The Day of the Lord is so devastating that it shakes the earth and alters the heavens. Such is the power that comes from the decree of the Lord, “who can endure it?”

The personification and cosmological language of this section definitely demonstrate the drastic nature of such a day, but they still leave us with questions. Regardless of knowing the imminence and destruction of such a day, we may still be wondering, “What and when exactly is the Day of the Lord?” While the Day of the Lord could refer to the day the Assyrians come, it most definitely means the day of universal, final judgment on the world as a whole. The IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets explains it this way: “On many occasions it is evident that the future is in view, where the Day of the Lord is a prophesied day that brings either judgment or restoration. There is some room for variation in whether this future appearance of the Day of the Lord also indicates an eschatological end to history.”⁴ However, Joel’s apocalyptic imagery makes it apparent that this is primarily eschatological, or an event that occurs at the culmination of all of history.

So, how should we respond to this announcement of the Day of the Lord and its imminence? Here’s our first response to the justice of God:

1. We must respond in fear.

We should react in fear or reverential awe of the sovereign, all-powerful, and all-just God. We should respond in fear because God is holy and does not tolerate sin. His judgment is warranted. Yet, that is not the end of the story.

Mercy (vv. 12-17)

Even amongst righteous and holy judgment, God speaks a better word: “Yet even now.” The Prophet writes in verse 12-13, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” Isn’t it interesting that all the previous verses of the chapter were descriptive or the words of Joel, although inspired by God, yet when the section on mercy comes, God Himself makes this wonderful demand. Why is it wonderful? Well because it presents the awesome dichotomy to God’s justice. Mercy! God is Just, of course we know that, but He desires mercy and explains what receiving mercy looks like. It is inward. It is not the tearing of garments but the tearing of hearts in weeping and mourning over sin. So, now we arrive at our second response to God as just and merciful.

1. We must respond in fear.
2. We must respond in genuine repentance.

This is a personal turning away from sin. Yes, it proceeds out of a fear of judgment, yet the mourning that occurs is not a mourning over judgment but a mourning over sin. Turn away from the luxury of your cup of hot tea, brothers and sisters, and mourn that you have not spent more time with what matters.

Verse 14 is an amazing verse. Remember the locusts? Because they destroyed the fields and crops, sacrifices in the temple were impossible. Joel 1:9 declares, “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD.” In verse 14, God resolves to provide what is needed through restoration of the fields and crops. While not a prophecy of the Messiah directly, it does fulfill a central truth in Christ: when sinners cannot provide a necessary and sufficient sacrifice, God will provide what He requires. In Joel’s time, it meant restoring the sacrifices that anticipated an ultimate sacrifice. In the fullness of time, it meant that God Himself would take on human flesh and offer Himself as the final and all-sufficient sacrifice. Through such a sacrifice, He redeemed a people to Himself. Just as we are gathered here today under the atoning blood and reign of Christ, the people Joel’s time also gathered together under the Mercy of God revealed in their sacrifices. Let’s see how Joel continues.

Verses 15-17 echo previous verses in the book and chapter, primarily Joel 1:13 and 2:1. The trumpet once again blasts and the people are told to gather—people of all kinds and ages: elders, children, infants, bride, and bridegroom. What do they gather for? They gather to fast under the administration of the sacrifices; they gather to plead with God for mercy. This leads us to our third response to God’s character as just and merciful:

1. We must respond in fear.
2. We must respond in genuine repentance.
3. We must respond in unity.

This unified response is both to judgment and mercy. We must come together to mourn our sin. We must come together to celebrate God’s mercy and grace.

This judgment of mercy and grace is revealed fully in Christ who received the judgment of God through His work on the Cross. He offers us mercy if we turn away from our sin, both personally and together, and towards His work on our behalf. Trust in Him.

Conclusion

In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, do not grow idle and comfortable in your sin. Just as Joel encouraged responses from his people in light of God’s justice and mercy, so you must too respond to it. Respond to God’s judgment and mercy in reverential fear, in true repentance, and do so together. We are not meant to do this all by ourselves, but we have been blessed with a family under the headship of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

If you do not know Jesus, or have questions about Him, I plead with you, seek Him out and He will answer you. Moreover, we are here for you as you explore what it means to know and follow Jesus. Before we continue on in worship, let us pray:

Father in heaven, we know you are both just and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Please help us to be awoken to our sin and complacency in it. Shock us. Break us. Do what You must do. Yet, have compassion on us, O Lord. Show us Your mercy and grace in the Gospel. May Joel’s words remain in our hearts and minds this week as we seek You in reverence, repentance, and unity. Bless us abundantly, Lord, for we know You are good. We pray this in Jesus’s name—in Him whom we find ultimate rest. Amen.

Blessings, brothers and sisters.

Footnotes

1. Michael A. Grisanti, “The Book of Joel,” in The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament, edited by Eugene H. Merrill, et al. (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 423-426. ↩

2. Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture references in this manuscript are to the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016). ↩

3. John Calvin, Commentary on the Prophet Joel, in Calvin’s Commentaries, vol. 14, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, trans. Rev. John Owen (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 44. ↩

4. Mark J. Boda, and J. Gordon McConville, eds., “Day of the Lord” in Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 136. ↩