The Pulpit Commentary — Joel — Section 59

V. PnoCJtSSION OF THE CONDEMNED OR[HINALR TO THE PLAOB OF l't11'1IBBMENT. The proph<>t bimReJr is filled with ami\Zement at the ae11embling multltudea, Ho looka on for a time in wonclor, as one ml\HB of living beings follows in quick aucceaaion another1 till at. l1tst, as if the prOCOBBion would never come to an end, he is lost in wonder, and exclaims, in view of the Qtillemb\ing throngs and multitudes, "Whichever wn.y he looked tl111rc were yet more of these tumultuous masses, so that thore we.a nothing beside them. It was one living, surging, boiling sea; throngs upou throngs-mere throngs." The place of rendezvous is the valley of Jehoshaphat, or tho ve.lley of ju<lg- ment, where Joho~ah judgeth; hut it is also the valley of decision. This ls something more than mere judgmcnt ; it is the place of sharp, strict, severe judgment. Vers. 15-17.-Tluit day-thefe,ar ef the wicked, the hnpe of the;"ust. These verses picture the dread accompaniments of the time and place of the destruction of the wicked. They give us a glimpse, and a most alarming one, of the final catastrophe. I. Trm DAY OF DECISION SHALL BE A DAY OF DARKNESS, Apart from the decision itself and consequent execution of Divine wrath upon the ungodly-an execution which, u if baffiing the power of words to describe, is left to imagine.tion to conceive-the attend1mt terrors of that de.y invest it with the blackness of darkness. Not only shall sun and moon withdraw their shining and undergo e. tote.I eclipse, but the ste.rs shall frown upon them. The lights of heaven shall be darkened, or those lights shall dwindle before the unspee.kable brightness of the glory in which the Judge shall appear, just as the stars pa.le e.nd disappear in presence of the sun when he rises in splendour above the eastern horizon. II. THAT DAY SHALL BE A DAY OF DBEADFUL1'"ESB. Dreadful sounds Its well as dreadful eights shall angment the terrors of that de.y. "As the failure of ·the light of. the sun at our Lord's passion betokened the shame of nature at ,the great sin of man, so, at the day of judgment, it sets before us the awfulness of God's judgments, e.e though it de.red not behold the severity of him who judgeth and returneth every man's work upo::i his own head;" so the voice of God, when he shall roar out of Zion, shall be a voice of terror. Even when the voice of God speaks words of warning, it is compared to the roaring of a lion, as we read, " The Lord bath roared, who will not fear? the. Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy ? " How much more when that terrible voice is no longer a voice of warning, but a voice of wrath? IIL 'l'HAT DAY SHALL DE A DAY OF DESOLATENESS. The frame of nature shall feel the shock of strong convulsions. The heavens and the earth shall shake, but ~hie shaking is only a prelude to something still more awe-inspiring, even such convule1one as seem to betoken their dissolution. "Nor shall it be a slight shaking of the earth at his coming," se.ys an old writer," but such the.tall the dead shall be roused, as it were, from their sleep." And when the de.y of final decision comes, " the heavens," we are told, "shall pass away with a great voice, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Minor judgments are premonitions of, and should be improved as, prepare.tione for the judgroent of the great de.y. "The day of wrath! that dree.dful day, When heaven and earth she.II po.as awe.y, What power shall be the sinner's stay? Whom shall he trust that dreadful day? " When, shrivelling like a perched scroll, The flaming heavens together roll, And Jonder yet, and yet more dree.d, Swells the high trump that wakes the dee.d; "Oh I on that day, that wre.thfnl day, When man to judgment wakes from· clay, Be thou, 0 Chriat, the sinner's Bte.y, Though heaven and earth shall pass e.we.y." When God, in punishing his enemieR, sbakBB as it were earth and heaven, co.using such changes au,! ~ommoLions a.s 110em to threaten a general upheaval and convulHioll of thCJ c.ourse of i:u,t.11re, it is n.ot 11~eif the people of God should he agitatcil with foars and en, nt, 1-21.] THE BOOK OF JOEL, 57