Section II Joel's Call to Repentance
Joel 2:12-19
A. APPEAL TO REPENTANCE, 2:12-14
Chapter 2:12-19 is a call to national repentance. Israel can avert judgment by a sincere turning to God in repentance and mourning.
The announcement of the day of the Lord (11) was to produce repentance in the face of threatening judgment. Therefore also now (12) may be interpreted as “yet even now” (RSV).
The nation was to turn with all your heart. Every element of true repentance is present: the confession of sin through weeping, mourning, and fasting. The prophet immediately balances the external evidences with the words of v. 13: rend your heart, and not your garments. God's primary requirement is always “a broken and a contrite heart” (Ps. 51:17). To such an attitude He always responds in love, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil (13; “suffers himself to repent of the evil” 1).
Who knoweth? (14) may perhaps be understood as meaning God will repent of His judgment. To have been more confident of God's changed attitude would have been offensive to the divine sovereignty. A blessing in the form of a meat (cereal) offering and a drink offering would be a sign that He had restored the land, making the offerings possible. The restoration would also be a sign of the renewed covenant.
B. THE SCOPE OF REPENTANCE, 2:15-17
Once again in v. 15 the call to assembly is made. In v. 1, the trumpet gives a warning; here it represents a summons to repentance. Note that it is in a context similar to 1:13-14 and that 2:15b is identical to 1:14a. The nationwide call to repentance is emphasized by a listing by age of the groups involved: the elders (16), children, and babies; even the bridegroom and bride are summoned from their nuptial chamber. No age or rank is excepted—indicating the all-inclusive guilt of the nation. All are exposed to judgment before the Lord.
In 17 we find the source of a well-known figure of intercession. The priests as mediators are to weep between the porch and the altar. They are to stand between the porch of the Temple and the altar of burnt offering (brazen altar, II Chron. 4:1; see Chart B), and entreat the Lord in behalf of the people. Consistent with the context, Joel is not speaking in v. 17 of foreign domination, but the fear of scorn as a result of national calamity. The clause that the heathen should rule over them is translated, “make not thy heritage … a byword among the nations” (Berk.). The fear was not alone for the sake of Israel but that pagan nations might express doubt as to the existence or the power of Jehovah with the taunting words, Where is their God?
Joel is explicit in his demand for repentance as a condition of restoration: (1) The condition: the nation was to turn with all its heart, 2:12-13; (2) The response: the grace, mercy, and kindness of God, 2:13; (3) The conclusion: the restoration to the covenant relation, 2:14.
The promise given in response to the prayer of the priests for the nation refers to both the present and the future. The destruction of the locusts will give assured anticipation of corn, and wine, and oil (19) because the Lord is jealous for his land (18) and pities his people. The taunt, “Where is their God?” in v. 17 is answered in v. 19, and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen.