Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Joel
Book: Joel
Chapter: 1
Overview:
A
Plague of locusts.
(1-7) All sorts of people are called to
lament it.
(8-13) They are to look to
God.
(14-20)
1-7 The most aged could not remember such calamities as were
about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land
to eat the fruits of it. It is expressed
So as to apply also to
the
Destruction of the country
By a foreign enemy, and seems to
refer to the devastations of the Chaldeans.
God is
Lord of
hosts, has every
Creature at his command, and, when he pleases,
can humble and mortify a proud, rebellious people,
By the
weakest and most contemptible creatures. It is just with
God to
take away the comforts which are abused to luxury and excess;
and the more men place their happiness in the gratifications of
sense, the more severe temporal
Afflictions are upon them. The
more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we
expose ourselves to trouble.
8-13 All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will,
sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place
their happiness in the delights of sense, when deprived of them,
or disturbed in the enjoyment, lose their joy; whereas spiritual
joy then flourishes more than ever. See what perishing,
uncertain things our
Creature-comforts are. See how we need to
live in continual dependence upon
God and his
Providence. See
what ruinous work
Sin makes. As far as poverty occasions the
decay of
Piety, and starves the cause of religion among a
people, it is a very sore
Judgment. But how blessed are the
awakening
Judgments of God, in rousing his people and
Calling
home the
Heart to
Christ, and his
Salvation!
14-20 The sorrow of the people is turned into
Repentance and
humiliation before
God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame,
Sin must be confessed and bewailed. A
Day is to be appointed for
this purpose; a
Day in which people must be kept from their
common employments, that they may more closely attend
God's
services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and
Drink.
Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the
national calamity, therefore every one must join in
Repentance.
When joy and gladness are cut off from
God's
House, when serious
Godliness decays, and
Love waxes cold, then it is time to cry
unto the
Lord. The
Prophet describes how grievous the calamity.
See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression.
And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to
God but
for
Corn and
Wine, and complain of the want of the delights of
sense? Yet their crying to
God in those cases, shames the
stupidity of those who cry not to
God in any case. Whatever may
become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness,
believers will find the comfort of acceptance with
God, when the
wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.