Final Blessing (3:18-21).

        All Old Testament prophecy sees in the final setting up of God’s kingdom here on a transformed earth the goal of God’s purposes; and this is echoed in Rev. 21, 22, where heaven is linked with earth but does not swallow it up or obliterate it.

        There may be adequate reasons for anticipating an end of the material universe, and placing the eternal state in a purely spiritual “heaven,” but they hardly justify the complete spiritualization of the Old Testament hope. The prophets’ vision of a transformed earth was not merely the highest that they were capable of apprehending of God’s purposes; it was also the vindication of God’s wisdom and purposes in creation. There is no trace in the Bible of that depreciation of the material and temporal found Christianity. While we must never forget that the unknown future can only be pictured in terms of the known present, we should yet hesitate to deny reality to the glowing visions of the prophets, and to affirm that this world is in­capable of salvation and transformation in the cosmic stretch of the power of the Cross.

        Joel’s vision is limited to Judah and Jerusalem, not even the north of Palestine being included. It is quite understandable, then, that he sees only judgment and not blessing for the other peoples. This is one of the strong arguments for an early date for the prophecy.