HERE we have the ushering in of the day of the Lord, and what immediately precedes it. The prophecy is especially in reference to Judah and Jerusalem, although we are told that the Spirit will be poured out upon “all flesh.”
God calls the swarms of locusts, the cankerworm, caterpillar, and palmerworm, His “great army,” which He sent among them (chapter 1:4 and 2:25); and the dearth and barrenness thus caused is used by the prophet to call the people’s attention to their sad condition, the judgments of God, and the coming day of the Lord.
As to the scarcity caused by the insects, the prophet says to the drinkers of wine, “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wise, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” The priests are called on to mourn because the meat offering and drink offering, is cut off from the house of the Lord; and because of this the ministers of the altar should howl, and lie all night in sackcloth. The husbandmen and vinedressers are to howl because the harvest of the field is perished, the vine is dried up, the fig-tree languisheth. The beasts also groan because there is no pasture. All the inhabitants of the land are called upon to sanctify a fast, and call on the Lord. All this precedes the day of the Lord; for the prophet exclaims, “Alas for the day! the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” (chapter 1)
But more than this. Though the prophet sounds a trumpet of alarm because the day of the Lord cometh, and is at hand, a terrible army— “His army”— invades the land. They are a great people, and strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more after it for many generations. A fire goeth before them, &c. (chapter 2:11, 20.) Under a heavy sense of this, and knowing that the day of the Lord is near, the prophet calls on the people to deep and universal repentance. He assures them that, if they truly repented and turned to the Lord, He would be jealous for His land, and pity His people. He would give them corn, and wine, and oil, and no more make them a reproach among the heathen, and remove far off from them “the northern army”— the Assyrian, who will devastate the land in the last days. They shall eat plenty, be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord their God that hath dealt wondrously with them; they shall never be ashamed, and shall know that Jehovah is in the midst of them. There shall be an outpouring of His Spirit upon “all flesh,” and their sons and daughters shall prophesy; there shall be wonders in the heavens and in the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be delivered; “for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” (Chap. 2).
But while Judah will be delivered from captivity, God will bring down all the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and plead with them there, for scattering His people among the nations, and parting His land. The prophet says: “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The Lord shall roar out of Zion.... but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.” This day of the Lord will be a time of marvelous blessing to Israel, and of abasement to their enemies. “In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk ... Egypt shall be a desolation; and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah.... But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”