Joe 2:3 | KingComments | STEP | After the sudden and massive rise of the enemy, its all-consuming effect is now described. Everything the enemy encounters on the way is totally destroyed by him. Fire in the Bible is often the expression of God’s judgment. It is also the designation of a power that consumes everything in nature. Look at a field where the locust has not been yet. It looks like the garden of Eden, the paradise, the pride and glory of the country. Look at that field the next day when the locust has been there and it looks like a desolate wilderness, where there is no memory of the wealth and beauty that the field had the day before. All the actions of the Assyrians resemble what is caused by a plague of locusts. There is no escape from that enemy by fleeing from it or hiding from it, just as there is no escape from God’s judgment on the day of the LORD. “The garden of Eden” is an indication for a paradisiacal, extremely flourishing area, the opposite of a wilderness ( ). This contrast between paradise and wilderness, but then vice versa – the wilderness becomes a paradise – is also found in Isaiah 51 and Ezekiel 36 ( ; ).

‏ Joel 2:3

Paradise and Wilderness

After the sudden and massive rise of the enemy, its all-consuming effect is now described. Everything the enemy encounters on the way is totally destroyed by him. Fire in the Bible is often the expression of God’s judgment. It is also the designation of a power that consumes everything in nature.

Look at a field where the locust has not been yet. It looks like the garden of Eden, the paradise, the pride and glory of the country. Look at that field the next day when the locust has been there and it looks like a desolate wilderness, where there is no memory of the wealth and beauty that the field had the day before. All the actions of the Assyrians resemble what is caused by a plague of locusts. There is no escape from that enemy by fleeing from it or hiding from it, just as there is no escape from God’s judgment on the day of the LORD.

“The garden of Eden” is an indication for a paradisiacal, extremely flourishing area, the opposite of a wilderness (Eze 28:13 ; Eze 31:9-18). This contrast between paradise and wilderness, but then vice versa – the wilderness becomes a paradise – is also found in Isaiah 51 and Ezekiel 36 (Isa 51:3; Eze 36:35).