Interpretation of the Book of Joel

There is much debate as to when the Book of Joel was actually written, but most scholars agree that it was written sometime in the middle of the 700s BC. That would make it over 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar took the Israelites captive into Babylon. The Book of Joel is prophesying future events that will happen to the Nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. These events include both the time that Nebuchadnezzar took the Nation of Judah captive and the period of time that the Roman Caesars ruled the Nation of Israel. The four locusts mentioned in Joel 1:4 are symbolic and correspond to the four beasts which Daniel saw in his vision which he received many years later during the Jewish captivity in Babylon. The chewing locust was the Babylonians. The swarming locust was the Persians. The crawling locust was the Macedonians. The consuming locust was the Roman Empire during the reign of the Caesars. Joel 1:6 For a nation has come up against My land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. This is referring to the Babylonians (the lion is the symbol of the Babylonians). The symbol for the Romans was the eagle. Joel 1:16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? Jeremiah 52:6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places (all of these things happened as recorded in the Jewish Wars by Josephus). Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand; The day of the Lord includes both the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, as well as the destruction of the temple. This has happened twice; when Nebuchadnezzar took the city and when the Romans overran it in 70 AD. Therefore this prophecy is referring to both events. Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains (thick dark clouds were created when the temple and other buildings throughout the city were set on fire. If there was a low pressure front present, these clouds would hang low in the sky at the top of the mountains). A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations (since there were many successive generations between the times of the Babylonians and the Roman Caesars, this refers to both times). lvi

Joel 2:7-8 They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another; every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down (this is a good description of how the Roman army fought, they marched in tight rows and columns and when a soldier in the front was cut down the soldier behind him would step up and take his place thereby maintaining a strong united front). Joel 2:10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness (Matthew 24:29). This did indeed happen when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD during Caesar Titus reign. Also the light from the sun and moon was diminished by the dark smoke created by the burning temple and buildings throughout the city. Joel 2:28-29 And it shall come to pass afterward (a period of time after the Israelites return from Babylonian captivity) that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost as reported in Acts 2:1518 for these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is (Peter did not say that it was going to be fulfilled sometime in the future, but was referring to that particular moment) what was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy Joel 2:30-31 And I will show wonders in the heavens (sky) and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke (this is foretelling the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD). The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood (the ash from the eruption caused the light from the sun to be darkened and it caused the moon to have a red appearance), before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord (this is a different day than the great and terrible day of the Lord) Joel 3:1 For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, Many preachers today are saying that this passage refers to the establishment of the Nation of Israel in 1948 AD, but this is not true, since the Jews that returned to that new state were not captives but were only in exile. There is a big difference between being in captivity and being in exile. [This prophecy is referring to the time of the Babylon captivity only, since there were very few captives left after the Romans got through torturing and killing them. Many of the Jews were killed immediately after they surrendered (these were the fortunate ones). The rest were sold into slavery or killed in the coliseums around the empire or sent to the Aegean Islands as prisoners of war. In 67 AD, Caesar Nero began digging the canal at Corinth Greece and the prisoners were moved from the islands to Greece to do the digging. But, a short time later, after Nero committed suicide, Caesar Galba stopped the canal digging and sent the prisoners back to the Aegean Islands. There they remained until Caesar Vespasian began lvii

construction of the Colosseum at Rome. The slaves were then moved to Italy to quarry the stones and transport them the twenty miles from the quarry to the building sight. After the Colosseum was completed, the captives that remained were killed, in the very structure that they had help create, by gladiator swords and wild animals that had been imported from Africa. This was the fulfillment of the Revelation prophecy of John of Patmos (Revelation 6:8).] Ezra 2:1 Now these are the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Joel 3:5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried into your temples My prized possessions. Here again this only refers to the Babylon captivity since the temple items that were plundered by the Romans before the temple was destroyed were not taken into the Roman temples. Ezra 1:7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods. All the rest of the passages in this prophecy of Joels can apply to both of these time periods. They are describing what will happen to the people if they continue in their errant ways, and what God would do for them if they would turn back and follow Him.

Notes on visions, dreams, and prophecies

Most visions are received in night dreams or while the recipient is in a trance state. 2. Most dreams and visions contain symbols which need to be interpreted, with the exception of what I call imminent premonitions (when someone receives a dream of something that is about to happen). A good example is when God used an angel to warn Joseph in a dream that he should move the family to Egypt (Matthew 2:13). 3. If something is unknown or does not exist at the time a prophecy is given, then symbols are used, i.e. the locust in Joel 1:4. Otherwise, all prophecies and the correct interpretations of visions must be taken literally except when they are about spiritual things; then they become parables since physical things are not found in the spiritual realm (heaven). 4. No time that the events will occur can be mentioned in prophecies because mans free will affects the time of the actual occurrence of the events, but know that Gods will, will be done. 1.

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