2:23,24
The first part of the prophecy has been all doom and gloom with the terrible effect of the locust swarm, along with the promise of worse to come. But that is the outlook only if the people continue in their rebellion against God. And note that in this case the rebellion seems to have been largely one of ignoring God. However, if the people do follow the earlier injunction to repent and turn to the Lord, then the prospects are radically different. Now instead of the prospect of disaster, the people should be glad, for the Lord will rain abundance upon them. Note again, that just is it was the Lord who sent the army (or locusts) against Israel (Joel 2:11), it is He who sends the blessing.
2:25
This verse makes it clear that it was God who sent the locusts against the people, but it is equally clear that He will “repay them for the years that the locusts have eaten”. There is complete restoration. We have great problems in our modern minds with God being in anyway responsible for disasters, and there are indeed questions that we struggle to find an answer too (as, indeed, did Job). The Bible has far less qualms about attributing these things to the Lord, and we can learn much from that. However, there is one further thing we should note. We tend to think that “the Lord did it and that is the end of the matter”, or “someone else did it, therefore the Lord was not involved”. Ie we think in terms of only one agent. The Bible does not do this. God’s involvement, including direct involvement, does not exclude human responsibility. Usually both are involved.
2:26
The people will be physically blessed, but the greater change will be a change of heart. There will be an attitude of praise within their hearts and minds. And this change of heart is based on God’s actions. We tend to think that we should praise the Lord even if He seems to do nothing. There is some virtue in this, but if we look at the Bible we find that a repeated pattern is that people praise the Lord because of what He has done. And this pattern was repeated in the New Testament.
2:27
The people would then know that the Lord is God and that He is in Israel. This mirrors the oft repeated phrase in the Old Testament of “I will be your God and you will be my people”. This is the goal. We are meant to know who the Lord is, we are to belong to Him, and we are to know that He is with us. “And there is no other”. It is not a matter of supporting the stronger God. There is only one God, Satan is not a God. “I am in Israel”. God is with us. Remember that one of the titles of Jesus is “Emmanuel, God with us”. We need to meditate upon this. So often we feel alone, when we face trouble we act and think about the situation as if we are alone in the situation. We are not alone, and we are not meant to feel alone. We should seek the presence of the Lord.
2:28
These verses were quoted by Peter in his sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21). We should also remember that the section division that you probably have in your Bible was not there in the original. So the promise here follows on from what has just been said. “And afterwards ..” ie it is after the salvation spoken of in the preceding verses. In Acts it is after the events of the cross, resurrection, resurrection appearances and the ascension. “I will pour out my Spirit on all people”. This signifies that the people belong to God, are anointed by Him. There will be obvious effects in terms of prophesying, having dreams and visions.
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