Joel 2:26

IN the case which is particularly mentioned in this chapter, the nation of Israel had very grievously gone astray and therefore they were visited by a very remarkable chastisement. An unusual plague of locusts devoured all the fruit of the field and the people were vexed with a sore famine. The day of the Lord was very terrible and none of them could abide it. The Prophet Joel was commissioned to exhort them to repentance and if, indeed, they listened to his earnest entreaties their later history was bright with mercy. By God's good hand upon them, they were brought to repentance—they wept and cried to God and then the same God who with His left hand had been wondrous in chastisement, was, with His right hand, equally wonderful in blessing and enriching them. He loaded their floors with wheat and made their vats to overflow with wine and oil. He restored unto them the years which the locust had eaten, so that they ate in plenty and were satisfied and praised the name of the Lord, who had dealt wondrously with them. He dealt with then by way of wonders when He smote them and by way of wonders when He returned to them in mercy. It was no unusual thing for the nation of Israel to meet with wonders—they were cradled in prodigies, they grew up amid miracles, they dwelt among marvels—the history of the favored tribes is a long list of miracles.

IN the case which is particularly mentioned in this chapter, the nation of Israel had very grievously gone astray and therefore they were visited by a very remarkable chastisement. An unusual plague of locusts devoured all the fruit of the field and the people were vexed with a sore famine. The day of the Lord was very terrible and none of them could abide it. The Prophet Joel was commissioned to exhort them to repentance and if, indeed, they listened to his earnest entreaties their later history was bright with mercy.

Praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you - In so destroying this formidable enemy; and so miraculously restoring the land to fertility, after so great a devastation.

And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied - It is of the punishment of God, when people eat and are not satisfied (see Hos 4:10); it is man’s sin, that they are satisfied, and do not to praise God, but the more forget Him Hos 13:6. And so God’s blessings become a curse to him. God promises to restore His gifts, and to give grace withal, that they should own and thank Him. Who hath dealt wondrously with you - “First, wonderfully He afflicted and chastened them, and then gave them wonderful abundance of all things, and very great and miraculous consolation after vehement tribulution, so that they might truly say, This is the change of the Right Hand of the Most High.” And My people shall never be ashamed - o: “So that they persevere in His service. Although he incur temporal confusion, yet this shall not last for ever, but the people of the predestinate, penitent, and patient in adversity, will be saved forever.”