Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc30/v30250

Text File | 1994-03-01 | 6KB | 109 lines

30250
 ** From the desolations about to come upon the land of Judah, by
 the ravages of locusts and other insects, the prophet Joel
 exhorts the Jews to repentance, fasting, and prayer. He notices
 the blessings of the gospel, with the final glorious state of
 the church.

 * 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.

30257
 #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!

30263
 #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.
30270
 * God's judgments. (1-14) Exhortations to fasting and prayer;
 blessings promised. (15-27) A promise of the Holy Spirit, and of
 future mercies. (28-32)

 #1-14 The priests were to alarm the people with the near
 approach of the Divine judgments. It is the work of ministers to
 warn of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal the wrath
 from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
 The striking description which follows, shows what would attend
 the devastations of locusts, but may also describe the effects
 from the ravaging of the land by the Chaldeans. If the alarm of
 temporal judgments is given to offending nations, how much more
 should sinners be warned to seek deliverance from the wrath to
 come! Our business therefore on earth must especially be, to
 secure an interest in our Lord Jesus Christ; and we should seek
 to be weaned from objects which will soon be torn from all who
 now make idols of them. There must be outward expressions of
 sorrow and shame, fasting, weeping, and mourning; tears for
 trouble must be turned into tears for the sin that caused it.
 But rending the garments would be vain, except their hearts were
 rent by abasement and self-abhorrence; by sorrow for their sins,
 and separation from them. There is no question but that if we
 truly repent of our sins, God will forgive them; but whether he
 will remove affliction is not promised, yet the probability of
 it should encourage us to repent.

30284
 #15-27 The priests and rulers are to appoint a solemn fast. The
 sinner's supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. God is ready to
 succour his people; and he waits to be gracious. They prayed
 that God would spare them, and he answered them. His promises
 are real answers to the prayers of faith; with him saying and
 doing are not two things. Some understand these promises
 figuratively, as pointing to gospel grace, and as fulfilled in
 the abundant comforts treasured up for believers in the covenant
 of grace.

30297
 #28-32 The promise began to be fulfilled on the day of
 Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and it was
 continued in the converting grace and miraculous gifts conferred
 on both Jews and Gentiles. The judgments of God upon a sinful
 world, only go before the judgment of the world in the last day.
 Calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire
 toward him, dependence on him, and, as evidence of the sincerity
 of all this, conscientious obedience to him. Those only shall be
 delivered in the great day, who are now effectually called from
 sin to God, from self to Christ, from things below to things
 above.