Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 2:31

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh." — Joel 2:31 (ASV)

Before the great and terrible Day of the Lord come: “The days of our life are our days in which we do what we please; that will be the ‘Day of the Lord,’ when He, our Judge, shall require the account of all our deeds. It will be ‘great,’ because it is the horizon of time and eternity: the last day of time, the beginning of eternity. It will put an end to the world, to guilt, to what is merited (whether good or evil). It will be ‘great,’ because in it great things will be done.

“Christ with all His Angels will come down and sit on His Throne. All who have ever lived, or shall live, shall be placed before Him to be judged. All thoughts, words, and deeds shall be weighed most exactly. On all, a sentence will be passed—absolute, irrevocable throughout eternity.

“The saints shall be assigned to heaven, the ungodly to hell. A great gulf shall be placed between them, which shall sever them forever, so that the ungodly shall never see the godly, nor heaven, nor God, but shall be shut up in a prison forever, and shall burn as long as heaven shall be heaven, or God shall be God.”

“That day shall be great to the faithful, terrible to the unbelieving; great to those who said, ‘Truly this is the Son of God;’ terrible to those who said, ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’”

“When, then, you are hurried into any sin, think of that terrible and unendurable judgment seat of Christ, where the Judge sits on His lofty Throne, and all creation shall stand in awe at His glorious appearing, and we shall be brought, one by one, to give account of what we have done in life.

“Then, beside the one who has done much evil in life, terrible angels will stand. There will be the deep gulf, the impassable darkness, the lightless fire, retaining in darkness the power to burn but deprived of its rays.

“There is the poisonous and ravenous worm, insatiably devouring and never satisfied, inflicting unbearable pangs by its gnawing. There is that sharpest punishment of all: that shame and everlasting reproach.”

“Fear these things; and, instructed by this fear, restrain your soul as with a bridle from the lust of evil.”