Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 2:30

"And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke." — Joel 2:30 (ASV)

And I will show wonders - Each revelation of God prepares the way for another, until that last revelation of His love and of His wrath in the Great Day. In delivering His people from Egypt, the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:22). Here, in allusion to it, He says, in the same words, of the new revelation, that He will show, or give, wonders, or wondrous signs (as the word includes both)—wonders beyond the course and order of nature, and portending other dispensations of God, of joy to His faithful, terror to His enemies. As when Israel came out of Egypt, the pillar of the cloud was a cloud and darkness to the camp of the Egyptians, but gave light by night to the camp of Israel (Exodus 14:19–20), so all God’s workings are light and darkness at once, according to the people who see them or to whom they come.

These wonders in heaven and earth began in the First Coming and Passion of Christ, grew in the destruction of Jerusalem, but shall be perfectly fulfilled toward the end of the world, before the final Judgment, and the destruction of the Universe. At the birth of Christ, there was the star which appeared to the wise men, and the multitude of the heavenly host, whom the shepherds saw.

At His Atoning Death, the sun was darkened, and there was three hours’ darkness over the whole land (Luke 23:44–45; Matthew 27:45); on earth, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened (Matthew 27:51–52; see also Luke 23:45 for the veil); and the Blood and water issued from the Saviour’s side.

After His Resurrection, there was the vision of Angels, terrible to the soldiers who watched the tomb, comforting to the women who sought to honor Jesus. His Resurrection was a sign on earth, His Ascension in earth and heaven. But our Lord speaks of signs both in earth and heaven, as well before the destruction of Jerusalem, as before His second Coming.

With regard to the details, it seems probable that this is an instance of what we may call an inverted parallelism; that having mentioned generally that God would give signs in (1) heaven and (2) earth, the prophet first instances the signs in earth, and then those in heaven. A very intellectual Jewish expositor has suggested this, and certainly it is frequent enough to be, in more concise forms, one of the idioms of the sacred language.

In such case, blood and fire and pillars of smoke will be signs in earth; the turning of the sun into darkness and the moon into blood will be signs in heaven. When foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, the Day of vengeance, which fell with such accumulated horror on the devoted city, and has for these 1800 years dispersed the people of Israel to the four winds, our Lord mentions first the signs on earth, then those in heaven: Nation shall arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven (Luke 21:10–11). Before the Day of Judgment our Lord also speaks of both (Luke 21:25–26):

1. There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars;
2. And upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; people’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

The Jewish historian relates signs both in heaven and in earth, before the destruction of Jerusalem:

• “A star stood like a sword over Jerusalem.”
• “A light which, when the people were assembled at the Passover at 9 at night, shone so brightly around the altar and the temple, that it seemed like bright day, and this for half an hour.”
• “The eastern door of the temple, which 20 men scarcely shut in the evening, stayed with iron-bound bars and very deep bolts let down into the threshold of one solid stone, was seen at 6 o’clock at night to open of its own accord.”
• “Chariots and armed troops were seen along the whole country, coursing through the clouds, encircling the cities.”
• “At the feast of Pentecost, the priests entering the temple by night, as their custom was for worship, first perceived a great movement and sound, and then a multitudinous voice, ‘Let us depart from here.’”

These signs were authenticated by the multitude or character of those who witnessed them.