First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

Ministers are not depicted as formalistic tearless religious functionaries in this book,

but as intercessory prayer weepers davening between the Ulam and the Mizbeach

in the Beis Hamikdash. The Shofar is blown twice, once to call an emergency assembly;

and once to sound the battle alarm. The book begins with agricultural calamity

on a cosmic scale, and ends with Millennial bounty also on a cosmic scale.

The invader jihadists (see Joel 3:9 KOF DALET SHIN piel) prepare to war with Hashem

but their religious "holy war" meets defeat in the Valley of the Verdict, the Valley of Decision.

What sets the stage for the cosmic dimension of this prophecy is the repetition of heavenly portents

that we see in 2:2 and 2:30 and 3:15. The portent beginning in 2:2 shows us that the L-rd himself

is at the head of this invading Army, just as He will be with that heavenly invasion army

at the Parousia (see Daniel 7:13-14). There are also cosmic signs of heavenly

portent when the Jewish pentecostals have the Ruach Hakodesh poured out on them (see Joel 2:30)

and when the anti-Hashem jihadists are judged in Joel 3:15. The drunkard has wine snatched from his lips,

the kohenim have no nesekh wine libation and the joy of the L-rd is snatched from the

Beis Hamikdash. However, in the glorious end, after teshuvah, the mountains drip with wine,

for elsewhere in Scripture it says to not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Ruach Hakodesh.

Even though drunkards may go into the Golus, the anti-Semitic pagans will pay dearly for this in judgment.

Yoel tells us that repentance means waking up from addictive stupors and mourning and grieving for one's sins,

even changing into a fasting man's sober wardrobe, even crying out to G-d with weeping, yet not formally but from the heart.

The calamity of the insect invaders is a portent and a warning of the coming Exile-bringing army invaders and finally a warning of the most terrifying invasion of all, G-d Himself who will invade in the Parousia.

In the word of the L-rd that comes to Joel, the prophet witnesses

a locust plague, interpreting it as an act not of neutral

"Nature" but of the Creator who is active in nature to bless or

to judge His creation. Using imagery we also see in Revelation

ch. 9, Yoel (Joel) depicts this locust plague as an omen of the

Day of the L-rd (called also the Parousia in the Brit Chadasha

Scriptures), that time when G-d would decisively break into

history, save His people, and settle the score for once and for

all with His enemies, both militarily and politically. The Day of

the L-rd is a Gadol "great" day (Yoel (Joel) 2:11), a day that is

Karov ("threateningly near" or "imminent"--Yoel (Joel) 1:15;

2:1), a HaGorah "dreadful, terrifying" day. The sun shall be

turned to darkness, and the moon to the color of blood (2:31),

the stars shall withdraw their shining (3:15). Around Jerusalem

there will be a valley, the valley of (G-d's) HeCharootz

"verdict" because he will sit to judge the multitudes (3:14) on

that great and terrible "Day." Yoel (Joel) has a vision: he sees

hordes of marching locusts and they are terrifying harbingers of

not only the coming onslaught of an end-time invading foreign

army called "the northern one" HaTsfoni (see 2:20) but also a

heavenly army of the Lord's hosts on the Day of the L-rd (see

1:6; 2:4,11) when He will judge all nations in the environs of

Jerusalem (3:2, 12-21). With great alarm and urgency, Yoel (Joel)

calls upon the people to assemble for repentance and fasting end

prayer so that G-d might relent and not send His own end-time

army on a cosmic mopping up operation following the invasion of

the locust attackers.

Then in ch. 2:28-39 Yoel (Joel) uses the same word Shafach that

Isaiah uses when he talks about "pouring out" the wine on the

ground in a ritual called a drink offering (Is. 57:6). Yoel

(Joel) sees that just as G-d's wrath was poured out on the people

in a devastating outpouring of locusts, so G-d's mercy will be

"poured out" (2:38) on people in the Tevilah of the Ruach

Hakodesh. One of the effects of this merciful Spiritual effusion

or tevilah is that ordinary sons and daughters will become

prophetically gifted maggidim. According to Acts chs. l-2, one

hundred and twenty male and female Jewish street maggidim turned

the world upside-down on Shavuos C.E. 30 (Pentecost) when the

initial evidence of their prophesies spoken in tongues unknown to

them proved that Yoel (Joel)'s prophecy of the tevilah of the

Ruach Hakodesh was beginning to be realized.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Isaiah 4:2; 11:1-4; 63:2; Zecharich 3:8;

6:12; Ezra 3:8 tell us that the Moshiach, the Branch of the L-rd

and of David will be called L-rd and Yehoshua (Moshiach

Yehoshua). (The Moshiach is also called L-rd in Malachi 3:1 and

Psalm 110:1, since Adon refers to Adonai in Zecharich 4:14 and

6:5.) Yoel (Joel) 2:32 tells us that "everyone who calls on the

name of the L-rd will be delivered" on the great and dreadful day

of G-d's judgment that is coming.

Yoel (Joel) 2:28a (HEBREW 3:1)

Then afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons

and your daughters shall prophesy...

Some scholars believe that Yoel (Joel)'s prophecy could be dated

in the 9th century or even before 701, when Assyria threatened

Jerusalem. The truth is, we don't know for sure when this great

prophet lived. So Yoel (Joel)'s writing constrains the scholar's

dogmatism with a measure of humility. One thing seems likely,

however: if Yoel (Joel) was written in the 9th century, he is

quoted or alluded to by many of the other writing prophets, and

his little book has had a great impact on preachers down through

the centuries, which is a true statement no matter when the book

was written. If Amos (760-750 B.C.E.) is aware of Yoel (Joel)'s

prophecy, this would help to explain the similarity of Amos

1:2=Yoel (Joel) 3:16 and Amos 5:20=Yoel (Joel) 2:2. If the

affinity between Yoel (Joel) 3:10 and Is. 2:4; Mic. 1:3 means

that Yoel (Joel) is aware of the preaching of Isaiah (710-681

B.C.E.) and Micah (750-686 B.C.E.), however, then Yoel (Joel)

must be later than Amos. For other possible connections like

these, see Amos 9:13=Yoel (Joel) 3:18; Obad. l5=Yoel (Joel) 1:15;

2:1; Obad. 17=Yoel (Joel) 2:32. It seems that, because of these

and many other cross-references in Yoel (Joel), perhaps either he

is aware of these other prophets or they are aware of him. But

this is not necessarily the case, even though very often the

words are exactly alike in the Hebrew, since the Ruach Hakodesh

is at liberty to duplicate his messages through different

prophets. For this reason we cannot completely rule out a later

date for Yoel (Joel), even if we prefer an earlier one. But his

message does not hinge on precise dating, so it is not fruitful

to endlessly examine this question of dates.

In the word of the L-rd that comes to Joel, the prophet witnesses

a locust plague, interpreting it as an act not of neutral

"Nature" but of the Creator who is active in nature to bless or

to judge His creation. Using imagery we also see in Revelation

ch. 9, Yoel (Joel) depicts this locust plague as an omen of the

Day of the L-rd (called also the Parousia in the Brit Chadasha

Scriptures), that time when G-d would decisively break into

history, save His people, and settle the score for once and for

all with His enemies, both militarily and politically. The Day of

the L-rd is a Gadol "great" day (Yoel (Joel) 2:11), a day that is

Karov ("threateningly near" or "imminent"--Yoel (Joel) 1:15;

2:1), a HaGorah "dreadful, terrifying" day. The sun shall be

turned to darkness, and the moon to the color of blood (2:31),

the stars shall withdraw their shining (3:15). Around Jerusalem

there will be a valley, the valley of (G-d's) HeCharootz

"verdict" because he will sit to judge the multitudes (3:14) on

that great and terrible "Day." Yoel (Joel) has a vision: he sees

hordes of marching locusts and they are terrifying harbingers of

not only the coming onslaught of an end-time invading foreign

army called "the northern one" HaTsfoni (see 2:20) but also a

heavenly army of the Lord's hosts on the Day of the L-rd (see

1:6; 2:4,11) when He will judge all nations in the environs of

Jerusalem (3:2, 12-21). With great alarm and urgency, Yoel (Joel)

calls upon the people to assemble for repentance and fasting end

prayer so that G-d might relent and not send His own end-time

army on a cosmic mopping up operation following the invasion of

the locust attackers.

Then in ch. 2:28-39 Yoel (Joel) uses the same word Shafach that

Isaiah uses when he talks about "pouring out" the wine on the

ground in a ritual called a drink offering (Is. 57:6). Yoel

(Joel) sees that just as G-d's wrath was poured out on the people

in a devastating outpouring of locusts, so G-d's mercy will be

"poured out" (2:38) on people in the Tevilah of the Ruach

Hakodesh. One of the effects of this merciful Spiritual effusion

or tevilah is that ordinary sons and daughters will become

prophetically gifted maggidim. According to Acts chs. l-2, one

hundred and twenty male and female Jewish street maggidim turned

the world upside-down on Shavuos C.E. 30 (Pentecost) when the

initial evidence of their prophesies spoken in tongues unknown to

them proved that Yoel (Joel)'s prophecy of the tevilah of the

Ruach Hakodesh was beginning to be realized.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Isaiah 4:2; 11:1-4; 63:2; Zecharich 3:8;

6:12; Ezra 3:8 tell us that the Moshiach, the Branch of the L-rd

and of David will be called L-rd and Yehoshua (Moshiach

Yehoshua). (The Moshiach is also called L-rd in Malachi 3:1 and

Psalm 110:1, since Adon refers to Adonai in Zecharich 4:14 and

6:5.) Yoel (Joel) 2:32 tells us that "everyone who calls on the

name of the L-rd will be delivered" on the great and dreadful day

of G-d's judgment that is coming.

Yoel (Joel) 2:28a (HEBREW 3:1)

Then afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons

and your daughters shall prophesy...