Joel 2:30

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth,.... This, and what follow, refer to the prodigies seen in the air, and done in the earth, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem (r);

And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. As Messiah's manifestation is full of joy to believers, so it has an aspect of wrath to unbelievers, which is represented here.

And I will show wonders; as he promiseth such grace to believers, so he warneth them that they should not be surprised with those alarming prodigies which in those days God would show, which would usher in the hard times that should be chastisement to the best, and destruction to the worst: whoso will read and observe what historians and naturalists report of those times will see this fulfilled in the very letter, and ,29 Mr 13:24 ,25. In the heavens and in the earth; above men, and under their feet; all which signs are particularly named, and first the signs on the earth. Blood; possibly eruption of blood, as some fountains have been reported to have run with blood, and these prefiguring the great effusion of blood by the sword and wars following, or by antichristian persecutions. Fire; either breaking out of the earth, or else unusual lightnings, and unparalleled flashes of lightnings in the lower region of the air, setting many things on fire. Pillars of smoke; from those burning things fired by lightnings, or by extraordinary flashes, a smoke shall go up like a pillar. Particular instances of these may not here be gathered together, but Hottinger, that learned and painful historian, hath gathered many together of the first age, and so of the following ages of the church, in his Ecclesiastical History, which who desireth may consult.

Joe 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.Ver. 30. And I will show wonders in the heavens] Prodigia beneficia credentibus, malefica et horrifica incredulis, saith Cornelius a Lapide, who interpreteth the text of those signs and wonders that shall precede the day of judgment: and for confirmation hereof allegeth Joe 3:2, together with Matthew 24:29 Luke 21:25. And had he looked a little higher into those chapters, and taken in all the troubles that befell the Church from our Saviour’ s ascension to his second coming, together with those horrible calamities and confusions that shall befall the wicked, for contempt of the gospel, and persecution of the professors thereof, he had done right, in mine opinion. It is ordinary with the prophets to set forth horrible commotions by such figurative expressions: see Jeremiah 4:23, &c.; Isaiah 13:10 Revelation 6:12. Those that have received the spirit of adoption, must not dream of a delicacy, but expect persecution. Christ came to send fire on the earth, Luke 12:49. Neither may persecutors hope to escape unpunished, but look to be pursued by Divine justice. How heavy was the hand of God upon Jerusalem, that slaughter house of the saints; and afterwards upon the ten persecutors of Rome! 1. Nero (whom Tertullian rightly calleth Dedicatorero damnationis Christianorum, quippe qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit, the first bloody persecutor of the Christian religion) lost 80,000 of his subjects by the pestilence, had his army utterly routed and cut off in Brittany, both the Armenias revolted from him, the senators rose up against him, and compelled him to be his own executioner; 2. Domitian was butchered by his soldiers; 3. Trajan died of a dropsy; 4. Severus died miserably here at York; 5. Maximinus, with his son, was cut in pieces; 6. Decius died in a far country; 7. Valerian was flayed by Sapores, King of Persia, who took him prisoner. 8. Aurelian was slain by his own men; 9. Dioclesian poisoned himself; 10. Maximian hanged himself. What should I speak of Julian, Anastasius, Heraclius, &c.; the French persecutors, Francis II, Charles IX, Henry III, the Guises, &c.; Philip II of Spain, who returning out of the Low Countries, met a storm, and suffered shipwreck, to the great danger of his life? He said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranism, which he presently began to do with all his might. He afterwards died miserably of the lousy disease. Queen Mary died of a tumour, or else of grief of heart for King Philip’ s unkind departure, severe losses, Calais surrendered, harm done by thunders from heaven and by fire in the royal navy, extreme dearths raging, her conceptions failing. What heavy judgments befell various particular persecutors of those times, Poole, Gardiner, Bonner, Morgan, Story, Burton, see Acts and Mon. 1902, 1904, &c., 1915.

(30, 31) The sun . . . and the moon.—These words, recalling some of the portents in the ancient history of the Jews (especially as instanced in some of the plagues of Egypt) are taken up by our Lord Himself, as ushering in the great day of judgment; and they are echoed again by St. John in the vision of the opening of the sixth seal: “For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” (Comp. Joe 2:11 of this chapter.) The sun and moon, &c., may include the luminaries in heaven and the potentates on earth.

Verse 30. Wonders in the heavens and in the earth] This refers to those dreadful sights, dreadful portents, and destructive commotion, by which the Jewish polity was finally overthrown, and the Christian religion established in the Roman empire. See how our Lord applies this prophecy, Matthew 24:29, and the parallel texts.

30–31. The signs of approaching judgement which will then appear. shew] lit. give, as Exodus 7:9; Deuteronomy 6:22. wonders] better (for the word used has no connexion with those commonly rendered wonderful, wondrous) portents, extraordinary phenomena—natural, or supernatural, as the case might be—arresting attention: see e.g. Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:9; Isaiah 8:18; Ezekiel 12:11. blood and fire] i.e. either, as some suppose, wars on an unprecedented scale (‘portents in the earth’), or more probably (as wars are not suggested by the context), abnormal atmospherical phenomena (cf. Joe 2:31). pillars of smoke] Son 3:6, of the smoke of incense, heralding a procession (the word rendered pillars occurs only in these two passages). Possibly of the columns of smoke rising up from burnt cities (Judges 20:38; Judges 20:40; cf. Isaiah 9:18); more probably (Thomson, The Land and the Book, Southern Pal., p. 142) with allusion to columns of sand and dust raised high in the air by local whirlwinds accompanying a sirocco, which sometimes “march with great rapidity over the open plain, and closely resemble ‘pillars of smoke’.”

And I will shew wonders - Each revelation of God prepares the way for another, until that last revelation of His love and of His wrath in the Great Day.

30, 31. Wonderful indications of the approach of the judgment. Show — Literally, give. Wonders — Hebrews mophethim.