ed, the dead body should still
continue to appear as His kingdom, but strips off the mask of hypocrisy
from His degenerate Church, by representing her outwardly as that
which, by her guilt, she has become inwardly. This thought commonly
appears in a special [Pg 298] application, by the mention of the name
of the particular people whom the Lord is, in the immediate future, to
employ for the realization of it. In the case before us, however, He is
satisfied with pointing to the dignity and power inherent in Him. The
enemies are designated only as _people from the North_. But it was from
the North--from Syria--that all the principal invasions of Palestine
proceeded. Hence there is no reason either to think of one of them
exclusively, or to exclude one. On the contrary, the comprehensive
character of the description distinctly appears in i. 4. It is there,
at the very threshold, intimated, that the heathenish invasion will be
a fourfold one,--that Israel shall become the prey of four successive
extensive empires. Joel's mission fell at the commencement of the
written prophecy; and in harmony with this, he gives only an outline of
that which it was reserved for the later prophets to fill up, and to
carry out in its details, by the mention of the name of each single
empire, as the times moved on. It was enough that Joel prophesied the
destruction by these great empires, even before any one of them had
appeared on the stage of history, and that he was enabled to point even
to the fourfold number of them.

The threat of punishment, joined with exhortations to repentance, to
which the people willingly listened, and humbled themselves before the
Lord, continues down to chap. ii. 17. With this is connected the
proclamation of salvation--which extends down to chap. iii. 2 (ii. 29).
The showing of mercy begins with the fact, that God sends the _Teacher
of righteousness_. He directs the attention of the people to the design
of their sufferings, and invites the weary and heavy laden to come to
the Lord, that He may refresh them. His voice is heard by those who are
of a broken heart; and there then follows rich divine blessing, with
its consummation--the outpouring of the Spirit. Both--the sending of
the Teacher of righteousness, and the outpouring of the Spirit--had
their preliminary fulfilments; the first of which took place soon after
the commencement of the devastation by the locusts, in the time of the
Assyrians,--a second, afte