Joel 2:32

And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered,.... Or "saved", as in Acts 2:21; from those miseries and calamities before described, from the

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Yet when nature seems out of course, and such terrible convulsions overthrow all states and kingdoms, and nothing but ruin and destruction appear on every side, yet then most certainly it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord; whoso heareth the gospel, repenteth of sin, believeth in Christ, and prayeth for grace, peace, and glory; whoso worshippeth the Father through the Son in truth and faith; shall be delivered; either delivered from those sad outward afflictions, or else, which is infinitely better, from eternal miseries, which will swallow up the unbelieving and impenitent world. When the Jews who rejected Christ were destroyed by the Romans, all (as Eusebius reports) the Jews that believed in Christ and submitted to the gospel escaped. In Mount Zion; in the true church, typified by Zion, the city of David; and in Jerusalem; not local Jerusalem; there was the chief place of slaughter, blood, fire, and death; but mystical Jerusalem, the church and city of the Messiah; shall be deliverance; salvation, whether temporal or eternal, or both; as the Lord hath said; according as God hath promised; and this promised deliverance gives the believer satisfaction and rest, whether in life or by death. And in the remnant, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also, whom the Lord shall call; called of God to be his peculiar people; called to the knowledge of Christ, to profess his name, to believe in Christ, and by him to wait for eternal life and glory, ,5,7.

Joe 2:32 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.Ver. 32. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever, &c.] Lest any good soul, hearing the former heavy menaces, should say with the disciples, Mark 10:26, "Who then can be saved?" or, with those despondents in Jeremiah 2:25, "There is no hope," the prophet concludeth with this comfortable corollary, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord] Yea, that but "nameth the name of Christ" in faithful prayer, desiring and endeavouring to "depart from iniquity," 2 Timothy 2:19; the same shall be delivered] He shall have safety here and salvation hereafter, Romans 10:13. "Watch ye therefore, and pray always," saith our Saviour, "that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man," Luke 21:36; Luke 21:25. Something God will yield to the prayers of his people when he seemeth most bitterly bent and unchangeably resolved against them, Matthew 24:20, and when the tribulation is so great that it is not likely that any flesh shall be saved, Joe 2:21-22. Prayer, saith one, is the best lever at a dead lift, provided that it be the prayer of faith; for mercy is the mother, faith the midwife of deliverances. Hence it followeth, For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem] Where the pure word of God was preached, Isaiah 2:3, and men’ s hearts purified by faith, Acts 15:9, shall be deliverance] From all evils and enemies. Psalms 76:3, "There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah." There? where? In Salem, in Zion, Joe 2:2, where God’ s people were praying. This Moab knew, and therefore more feared a praying people than a numerous army, Numbers 22:3. This the queen mother of Scotland knew, and therefore said, that she feared more the fasting and prayers of John Knox and his disciples than an army of twenty thousand men. Let God’ s suppliants but call upon him in the day of their trouble, and he will deliver them, that they may glorify him, Psalms 50:15. He will deliver them; yea, and honour them. With long life will he satisfy them, and show them his salvation, Psalms 91:16. Holy Merlin, chaplain to the Admiral of France, at the Parisian massacre, had the performance of this promise, among many others. For understanding the danger they were all in, he prayed in the Admiral’ s chamber, and, by his command, a little before the murderers brake in, and by a singular providence, escaped into a hay mow, where he lay hidden for a fortnight, and was miraculously fed by a hen that that came daily and laid an egg near by him.

(32) Deliverance.—Or, perhaps better, those that escape. St. Paul quotes from this verse (Romans 10:13), transferring the reference to the Messianic advent, to prove the universality of the deliverance effected by our Lord, who abolished the difference between Jew and Greek. In His Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, freed from the persecutions and defilements of the world, there is salvation for all who call upon the name of the Lord, their names are inscribed upon the roll as citizens of Zion.

Verse 32. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord] כל אשר יקרא בשם יהוה col asher yikra beshem Yehovah, "All who shall invoke in the name of Jehovah." That CHRIST is the Jehovah here mentioned appears plain from Romans 10:13-15, where the reader had better consult the notes. "This refers," says Bp. Newcome, "to the safety of the Christians during the Jewish and the Roman war." It may: but it has a much more extensive meaning, as the use of it by St. Paul, as above, evidently shows. Every man who invokes Jehovah for mercy and salvation by or in the name, JESUS-that very name given under heaven among men for this purpose-shall be saved. Nor is there salvation in any other; and those who reject him had better lay these things to heart before it be too late. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem] Our blessed Lord first began to preach the Gospel in Mount Zion, in the temple, and throughout Jerusalem. There he formed his Church, and thence he sent his apostles and evangelists to every part of the globe: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Of the Jews there was but a remnant, a very small number, that received the doctrine of the Gospel, here termed the remnant that the Lord should call; קרא kore, whom he calleth. Many were called who would not obey: but those who obeyed the call were saved; and still he delivers those who call upon him; and he is still calling on men to come to him that they may be saved.

32. Those however who have responded to the grace given to them (Joe 2:28 f.), and are the true servants of Jehovah, will be secure, even in the midst of such alarming manifestations (cf. Joe 3:16 b). call on] this is the conventional rendering of the Hebrew phrase employed; but it means properly to call with, i.e. to make use of the name in calling; and it may denote (according to the context) either to proclaim (Exodus 33:19), or to announce publicly, celebrate (Isaiah 12:4; Psalms 105:1), or as here, to invoke (so Genesis 4:26; Genesis 12:8, and most frequently). The meaning is of course not an invocation rendered merely by the lips (the “Lord, Lord” of Matthew 7:21), but one which is also the expression of the genuine feelings of the heart. In the context, it is evident that the prophet is speaking only of the Jews; but the terms used by him are perfectly general (“whosoever”); the conditions of salvation are not membership in Israel, but trust in God: hence implicitly others besides Israel are included in the expression; and in this wider sense the words are quoted by S. Paul (Romans 10:13) to shew that the Greek not less than the Jew is entitled to share in the salvation of the Gospel. shall be deliverance] there shall be those that escape (R.V.),—viz. from the impending judgment (comp. in the Hebr. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 37:32). The same words in Obadiah 1:17 “But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,” whence indeed the clause following, “as Jehovah hath said,” makes it probable that Joel quotes them. and among the fugitives (shall be) those whom Jehovah calleth] i.e. among the fugitives who in various places escape the disaster there will be some whom Jehovah will also call to His salvation. The reference is probably to the Jews dispersed among the heathen: amongst these also there will be some worthy to participate in the deliverance more abundantly shared in by their brethren of Judah and Jerusalem. The word rendered fugitives is the one which regularly denotes those who succeed in escaping after an engagement, the capture of a city, &c., as Joshua 10:20 (“the fugitives which took flight of them”), 28, 37, 39 (R.V. none remaining; but the root, as Arabic shews, means to run away in fright): comp. Joshua 8:22 “left them no fugitive, and none escaping”; similarly Jeremiah 42:17. The words from Joe 2:28 to Joe 2:32 (delivered) are quoted in Acts 2:17-21[46] by St Peter, with reference to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. It would be incorrect, however, to regard a particular occasion as exhausting the fulfilment of the prophecy.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord - To call upon the name of the Lord, is to worship Him, as He is, depending “upon” Him. “The name of the Lord,” expresses His True Being, That which He is.

32. Though a day great and terrible, it will be such only to the nations (Joe 3:2); the true worshipers of Jehovah need have no fear.Whosoever — A very comprehensive word, but it is clear from the