The Locusts’ Devastation

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the Lord is about to come. Indeed, it is near!

Joel 1:15-20 described the results of the future supernatural locust invasion. Joel 2:1-10 will give the specific details.

In ancient days, the trumpet was sounded to signal Judah that an invading army was arriving. Zion will be the nation of Israel during the Great Tribulation. The trumpet will be sounded to alert the nation of Israel that the Day of the Lord was near. The Day of the Lord is the Great Tribulation.

2:2 It will be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds, like blackness spread over the mountains. It is a huge and powerful army— there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!

Joel described three details about the Day of the Lord. First, it will be the darkest day of human history. Darkness means evil. Second, it will be a powerful and devastating storm, similar to a tsunami, hurricane, or tornado. It will destroy everything in its path. Third, it will be like darkness spreading over the mountains. This is a dangerous place for a hiker, because they are just one step from death.

Next, Joel described a supernatural army that will come against Israel during the Great Tribulation. This army will be huge and powerful. It will be a unique army. This army will be so unique, that there is no army in the past or future history of the world in which it can be compared.

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; a flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness— for nothing escapes them!

During the Great Tribulation, this supernatural army will devastate everything in its path. They will enter land that looks like the Garden of Eden. After they trample through this land, it will look like a desolate desert with no life. Nothing will be able to escape from their destruction.

2:4 They look like horses; they charge ahead like war horses.

This supernatural army looks like horses, but they are not. They charge like horses, but they are not horses.

2:5 They sound like chariots rumbling over mountain tops, like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble, like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle.

This supernatural army sounds like chariots over mountain tops, but they are not. The chariots on mountain tops will cause loud and reverberating noises over the land. They will crack like blazing fire, or like electricity. They will sound like a noisy army who is ready for battle.

2:6 People writhe in fear when they see them.  All of their faces turn pale with fright.

During the Great Tribulation, this army will cause great fear among the people of the entire earth.

2:7 They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter their path.

This supernatural army of the Great Tribulation is very quick and very athletic.

2:8 They do not jostle one another; each of them marches straight ahead. They burst through the city defenses and do not break ranks.

This supernatural army is extremely disciplined.

2:9 They rush into the city; they scale its walls. They climb up into the houses; they go in through the windows like a thief.

When this supernatural army attacks, they go into individual homes. They go through windows, just as a thief would go through a window.

2:10 The earth quakes before them; the sky reverberates. The sun and the moon grow dark; the stars refuse to shine.

When this supernatural army attacks, they will attack like locusts. Their attacks will have three effects upon nature. First of all, earthquakes will accompany their attacks. Second, the sky will shake and tremble. Third, there will be a complete blackout of the earth. This will be the third of five blackouts which will occur just before and during the Great Tribulation. It will occur sometime during the first half of the Great Tribulation.

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders as he leads his army. Indeed, his warriors are innumerable; Surely his command is carried out! Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome and very terrifying—who can survive it?

Jehovah will lead this supernatural army against the unbelievers who are living during the future Great Tribulation. The army will be so large that it cannot be counted. God will command this army to attack those unbelievers who have accepted the mark of the beast. His command will be carried out. The Great Tribulation will be a terrible time in history for the planet earth. No one will be able to survive the Great Tribulation unless they are supernaturally protected by God.

As Joel concludes his description of this massive invasion, he points out that this invasion will occur as divine judgment from God. He states that God is able to execute His word. He will execute it during the great and very terrible Day of Jehovah.

Joel described the two demonic invasions of Revelation 9. During the first demonic invasion, the demons will torment those on earth who have accepted the mark of the beat. These demons will torment unbelievers for five months, but they will not have the authority to kill anyone.

The second demonic invasion comes five months later, This next invasion will kill one third of the inhabitants of the world. The size of this demonic army will be composed of 200 million demons. Revelation 9 even mentions the same blackout. During this blackout, there will be no light penetrating to the earth from the sun, moon, or stars. Therefore, this is not a locust invasion, but a locust-like invasion. The demons involved in these two future invasions will have the appearance of locusts as well as the appearance of horses and horsemen. They will be quick, deadly, disciplined, and devastating.

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says, “return to me with all your heart—with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your garments!”

Notice that this message is not to modern charismatics who are living in affluent America. This is Joel’s message to the future Jews who will be living during the Great Tribulation. The Jews are to turn from the leadership of the Antichrist. They are to turn to Jehovah, who is the God who keeps His promises. When Israel returns to their land, they are not just to tear their garments. They are to tear their hearts. They tear their hearts by fasting, weeping, and mourning.

2:13 Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate,  slow  to anger and boundless in loyal love—often relenting from calamitous punishment.

Jehovah is reminding these future Jews that He is merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, and filled with love. They can survive the catastrophes of the Great Tribulation, but only if they return back to Jehovah. Israel is the divorced wife of Jehovah. Jehovah is wooing His divorced wife back into His arms.

2:14 Who knows? Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, and leave blessing in his wake— a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!

According to Zechariah, two thirds of the Jews will be killed by the anti-Semitic genocide program of the Antichrist. However, one third of the Jews will survive and enter into the 1,000‑year Millennial Kingdom as believers. These believers will offer meal and drink offerings to Jehovah during the Great Tribulation.

2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly!

The first trumpet was a warning to Israel that a supernatural army was about to invade their homes. The second trumpet will be a call for Jewish prayer and fasting. Jesus will not return until the Jews cry out, “Blessed is here who comes in the name of the Lord.”

2:16 Gather the people; sanctify an assembly! Gather the elders; gather the children and the nursing infants.  Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom and the bride from her private quarters.

At the end of the Great Tribulation, all of the old people, children, nursing infants (0‑5 years old), husbands, and wives will gather together for a public assembly.

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;  please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, “Where is their God?”

At the end of the Great Tribulation, the Jewish temple will be rebuilt and the Levitical priesthood will be restored. The priests will cry to Jehovah during a national prayer and fasting. The place of crying for the priests will be between the altar and he temple door. They will cry for Jehovah to lift the famine and return back home. After the two demon invasions, the Gentiles will mock the Jews, saying “Where is your God?”

The Lord’s Response

2:18 Then the Lord became zealous for his land; he had compassion on his people.

Jehovah will listen to the cry of His divorced wife. He will be jealous for her, wanting her back in His arms. He will have compassion on His rebellious and adulterous wife. God will never allow Israel to be completely destroyed. He will always preserve, protect, and keep a believing Jewish Remnant.

2:19 The Lord responded to his people, “Look! I am about to restore your grain as well as fresh wine and olive oil.  You will be fully satisfied. I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

Jehovah responded to the cry of His divorced wife. She is hungry from the famine of the Great Tribulation. She cannot buy food from the Gentiles, because she has not accepted the mark of the beast.  No one can buy or sell unless they take this mark. Jehovah is about to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant and restore His divorced wife into the land. When He brings His divorced wife into the land of Israel during the Millennial Kingdom, the Gentiles will never mock her again. They will never commit adultery with her again. Ten Gentiles will hang upon the shirt of one Jew, begging for instruction of Jehovah.

2:20 I will remove the one from the north far from you. I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. His stench will rise up as a foul smell.” Indeed, the Lord has accomplished great things.

The two demonic armies came from the south. The army from the north is the army of the Antichrist. He is traveling to Petra to exterminate all of the Jews. Jesus said that He would not return until the Jews cried out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Satan will attempt to exterminate all of the Jews before they can make this call.

God will remove this army from the north during the Campaign of Armageddon. He will stomp on them, just as a vinedresser stomps on grapes. Their bodies will be stacked from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. There will be so many dead bodies, that it will cause a big stench. When the enemies of God die, this will be a great victory for Israel.

2:21 Do not fear, my land!  Rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has accomplished great things!

The Jews will never again have to worry again about all of the Gentiles in the world gathering against them in order to exterminate them. The stench of dead Gentiles will be removed. Israel can rejoice, because they will enter into the Millennial Kingdom as a nation of Jewish believers.

2:22 Do not fear, wild animals! For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass. Indeed, the trees bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest.

During the Millennial Kingdom, the animals will return to their Garden of Eden conditions. The trees and plants will also be restored to their original condition. There will be no more famines, so the animal world will rejoice.

2:23 Citizens of Zion, rejoice! Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! For he has given to you the early rains as vindication. He has sent to you the rains— both the early and the late rains as formerly.

The citizens of Zion are not modern day charismatics. They are the Jewish citizens who will inhabit Israel during the Millennial Kingdom.

The Jewish citizens of Zion are to rejoice, because Jehovah has kept His promise of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Hebrew for “early rains as vindication” is אֶת־הַמֹּורֶ֖ה לִצְדָקָ֑ה (et-ha-marah-la-zadik), meaning the teacher of righteousness. The citizens of Israel during the Millennial Kingdom are to rejoice, because they will be given “the Teacher of Righteousness,” or the Messiah. Almost every English version mistranslates this verse, mostly because of bias or unbelief in dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is the doctrine that God will literally keep all of His literal promises to Israel.

The early and former rains are the literal rains that will return to Israel during the Millennial Kingdom.

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain; the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil. 2:25 I will make up for the years that the ‘arbeh-locust consumed your crops— the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust— my great army that I sent against you.

The Millennial Kingdom will produce an abundance of crops to make up for the crops which were lost during the previous locust famines.

2:26 You will have plenty to eat, and your hunger will be fully satisfied; you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has acted wondrously in your behalf. My people will never again be put to shame.

The believing Jewish Remnant will have plenty to eat during the Millennial Kingdom. The hunger conditions of the satanic world system will be removed. The entire nation of Israel will praise Jehovah as their Creator God. The Gentiles will never put the Jews to shame.

2:27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God; there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

All of the nation of Israel who survives the Great Tribulation will know that Jehovah is in their midst. Jehovah in their midst is the Teacher of Righteousness, or the Messiah. The Gentiles will never put the Jews to shame again.

An Outpouring of the Spirit

2:28 (3:1) After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; your young men will see prophetic visions.

“After all of this” is after the two demonic invasions, the bowl judgments, and the national conversion of Israel, which will occur at the end of the Great Tribulation. 2/3 of the Jews will be exterminated. The 1/3 of the Jews who survive will all be baptized into the Holy Spirit. This means that the entire nation of Israel who survive the Great Tribulation will become believers. This is the national conversion of Israel in which Paul talked about in Romans 11, where he said that “all Israel will be saved.”

Every single Jew who survives the Great Tribulation will be saved. This includes the sons, the daughters, the elderly, the young men, and the young women. All of these Jews will have prophetic dreams and visions. Notice that this verse says nothing about modern charismatics having dreams and visions. This verse speaks about the national conversion of Israel. This instant salvation process will regenerate the entire nation of Israel all at once, just as it did to a small sample at Pentecost in the Book of Acts. When the whole nation is baptized into the Spirit, they will immediately have dreams and visions that authenticate their national conversion. What happened in Acts was a small sample of what will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation.

2:29 Even on male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

“In those days” is the last days of the Great Tribulation and the beginning days of the Millennial Kingdom. The male and female servants will be the believing Jews who receive national salvation.

2:30 I will produce portents both in the sky and on the earth— blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

God will send a warning to all of the nations before the Great Tribulation begins. His warning will be supernatural blood, fire, and smoke. When nations see these signs, then they need to turn to God immediately so that they can be raptured before the Great Tribulation. If they refuse to heed these warnings and turn to God, then they must enter the Great Tribulation as unbelievers.

2:31The sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the color of blood, before the day of the Lord comes— that great and terrible day!

There will be five blackouts before and during the Great Tribulation. The first blackout is mentioned here. It will occur BEFORE the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation begins when the Antichrist signs a peace treaty with Israel. The other four blackouts will occur during the Great Tribulation. When unbelievers experience a worldwide blackout, they need to turn to Christ immediately. Otherwise, they will miss the rapture and enter the Great Tribulation as unbelievers.

There are many false prophets today who teach that the blood moon will appear on a Jewish holiday in 2014-2015. Details of this false prophecy are listed in the appendix at the end of this chapter.

2:32 It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised; the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.

The national salvation of Israel will not occur until the Jews call upon the name of the Lord. Jesus told Israel that He would not return until they cried out “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

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Appendix:

There are many false prophets today who teach that the blood moon will appear on a Jewish holiday in 2014-2015. The two major proponents of this false teaching are Mark Blitz and John Hagee. Hagee’s book Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change was a number one best-seller on the Amazon Book list. Many gullible Christians who are not grounded in the entire counsel of the Word of God are buying these books in great volumes and being deceived.

A blood moon is a lunar eclipse of the sun when the moon appears to be a reddish color.  However, it is not always red. A lunar eclipse happens when the earth is blocking the light of the sun from being reflected on the moon. It can only happen around the 15th of the month. Since the Jewish calendar is lunar rather than solar, many of the Jewish holidays occur on eclipse days. Passover and Sukkot will often fall on eclipse days. Therefore, one in about every six blood moons will occur on either Passover or Sukkot, so it is not a rare event like many of the false teachers want you to believe. It also is not unusual to have no blood moons for a few years followed by four blood moons in a two-year period. It is easy to backdate and find something significant that happened to the Jews around the time of a these moon eclipses that could be viewed from somewhere on earth during Passover and Sukkot. Three out of four of the blood moons that take place in 2014 and 2015 will not even be visible from Israel at all.

According to Joel 2:30, wonders in the sky will appear as blood, fire, and smoke. This verse in not about a normal lunar eclipse. It is predicting a supernatural event that is a warning to all nations on the earth that the Great Tribulation is very near.

Some false teachers teach that the second coming of Jesus will occur on the Sukkot of 2015. This is impossible. The Antichrist first must sign a peace treaty with Israel. Then, Christ appears seven years afterward.

Blood mooners also quote Rev 6:12-14 to support their false teaching:

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

The Joel blood moon comes before the Great Tribulation. The Revelation 6 blood moon comes during the sixth seal, which is at the first half of the Great Tribulation. There are five blood moons in Scripture, one before the Great Tribulation, and four afterwards. Notice that this is not a normal eclipse, as an earthquake accompanies the blood moon.

6:13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

The stars fall from the sky. This is not a normal eclipse.

6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

The heaven closes like a scroll. Every mountain on the earth is moved. This is not a normal eclipse.

Jesus gives a parallel passage in Luke 21 about these same events.

Luke 25  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Those are miraculous signs, not eclipses. The signs affect the sun, moon, stars, and seas.

21:26  Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Men will have literal heart attacks when they see these miracles in the sky. The powers of heaven will be shaken. This is not a normal lunar eclipse.

These three passages are all there is in the Bible about blood moons. From these passages, false teachers, charismatics, and ignorant Christians are claiming that four lunar eclipses that are not even seen in Israel are the fulfillment of the second coming of Christ. A sign is not a sign if most people of the world never see it.

In conclusion, these false prophecies and teachings (1) make a lot of money for pastors who teach for mammon, (2) tickle the ears of baby Christians, and (3) discredit Christ, the Word of God, and His church. Christians need to spend more time studying the entire counsel of the written Word of God rather than listening to the verbal speculations of finite men. Satan has his own false teachers inside the local churches. Their goal is to keep the believer confused by tickling his ears with half-truths. It worked with Eve and it works with those who are not grounded in the entire counsel of the Word of God. Fragmented Christians will buy these books and witness this false teaching to others. The only divine revelation for the believer is the written Word of God.