JOEL 1


1 The word of Yahweh that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Joel's prophecy is another illustration of the propheto-symbolic style. He takes his stand-point upon Yahweh's land eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and notes down certain striking political phenomena which he observes in the field of vision, whose horizon is bounded by

"the Great and Terrible Day of Yahweh."

The things he observes pertain to Israel's fortunes from the invasion of Judea by "a strong nation," which he, Daniel, and Jeremiah, liken to "a great lion,"-Nebuchadnezzar-to that last and approaching overflow of the Lord's land by "the northern army" of the Assyro-Babylonian Gog of the Latter Days. The points of his prophecy are,

1. The overthrow of the kingdom of David by Nebuchadnezzar;

2. A remoter eclipse of the luminaries of Judah's heavens;

3. A gathering of the nations against Jerusalem to battle, on the approach of the Day of the Lord;

4. The extinction of the Gentile heavens forever, and the breaking up of their world in the Day of the Lord;

5. The pouring out of the Spirit upon Israel; and,

6. The consecration of Jerusalem, and the redemption of the Holy Land and people from Gentile oppression for ever.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, April 1855