Greetings! Welcome back to our study of the Resurrection of the Dead. In our last post, we talked about how when the Lord Jesus comes back at His Second Coming, He will be accompanied by His army and how it will be made up of both angels and resurrected human beings. The Lord will need His army to have both angels and humans: the angels will war against Satan and his army in the unseen realm. Whereas His human army will war against the Antichrist and his army in the seen realm. In this post, we’re going to read about a description of the Lord’s army fighting with supernatural ability. Stay tuned!

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

Second in a Two-Part Series
By Karen Thompson

THE RESURRECTED DEAD ARE THE LORD’S ARMY

A Description of the Lord’s Mighty Army

The most interesting prophecy about the Lord’s army is in Joel chapter two; Joel gives us a description of the Lord’s mighty army. Let’s first read the entire description and then we’ll go through it verse by verse.

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: 2 a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. 3 A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like swift steeds, so they run. 5 With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. 6 Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of color. 7 They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. 8 They do not push one another; every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down. 9 They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. 11 The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it? (Joel 2:1–11 NKJV).

This portion of scripture is a description of the Lord’s return with His army of saints in the end times, coming to do battle with Antichrist in the battle of Armageddon. The phrase “the day of the Lord” is stated twice, in the beginning of the description of the Lord’s army and at the end. When you see this phrase in scripture, the vast majority of the time, it’s referring to the end times.

First, I want to point out a conflicting interpretation. The Amplified Bible interprets verse two to be an unsaved, enemy army: “There is a [pagan, hostile] people numerous and mighty….” I assume the Amplified Bible has interpreted this to be an enemy army that has come to invade Jerusalem. However, this verse is without a doubt describing the Lord’s army, His army of resurrected saints. They have come with the Lord to rescue the Jewish people from the grasp of Antichrist who has taken control of Jerusalem. As we go through the verses, it will become obvious this passage of Scripture is describing a supernatural army commanded by the Lord.

At this point, it would be helpful to have background on the situation. The Antichrist will have control over Jerusalem for the last half of Daniel’s 70^th week, which equals three- and one-half years. We know Antichrist will invade and control Jerusalem because Revelation chapter 11 tells us: “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months” (Rev. 11:1–2 NKJV). In these verses, the angel is telling the apostle John that the temple and altar in Jerusalem are off limits to the Gentiles. But the Gentiles will have control of the court outside the temple, and they will have control of the entire city of Jerusalem. The Gentiles being referred to here are, of course, the Antichrist and those with him. Antichrist captures Jerusalem when he invades it in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th week. The last part of verse two tells us how long Antichrist will “tread underfoot” Jerusalem: “And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” Forty-two months is three- and one-half years. At the end of the three- and one-half years, Jesus will return with His army to battle Antichrist. So the people that will be terrified by this great army are the Gentiles who have taken control of Jerusalem.

A Supernatural Army

Let’s start our study by looking at the first two verses: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.”

Verse one begins with sounding an alarm: “Blow the trumpet in Zion” and “sound an alarm in My holy mountain.” The words “Zion” and “My holy mountain” tell us it is Jerusalem in Israel that is being warned. The next sentence begins “let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.” The reason they will tremble is due to fear. The rest of the sentence tells us why they should fear: “for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand.” As already stated, the phrase “the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand,” tells us this is an end time prophecy. The Lord is coming to pour out His wrath upon His enemies.

Verse two describes the day of the Lord: “a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.” The day of the Lord is symbolized as darkness accompanied with gloom. The thick clouds and darkness is then compared to how the clouds spread over the mountains. This symbolizes that the gloom and dread will be widespread, covering all the land. You won’t be able to escape it.

Then the last part of verse two describes what the gloom and darkness symbolize: “A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.”

It says “a people come,” meaning they are not angels. It describes them as “great.” The word translated as “great” is the Hebrew word rab, and it means “much, many, abounding, numerous.”⁶ And then it says they are strong; the word translated as strong is the Hebrew word atsuwm and it means “mighty, vast, numerous.”⁷ So this army will be massive in number. It continues to say, “the like of whom has never been,” meaning these people are unique, one of a kind. And there will never be a people like them, even for many generations after. The people in this army are very special and unique. 

Verse three says, “A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them.” They’re described as a fire—a fire that devours. Basically, the fire goes before them and after them. There is a similar description of the Lord in Psalms 50:3: “Our God comes and does not keep silence; a fire devours before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest rages” (Amp.). Just like the Lord’s mighty army, a devouring fire goes before Him. The last part of the verse describes the destructive power of the fire. They walk through a land that is beautiful and lush like the Garden of Eden, but they leave behind it a desolation. Nothing escapes this army of fire.

Verse four says, “Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like swift steeds, so they run.” The Hebrew word translated as “horses” is Cuwc and it means: “swallow, swift horse, chariot horses.”⁸ One of the definitions of “swallow” is “to take in so as to envelop; withdraw from sight; assimilate or absorb.” This army is likened to horses when they run, swift horses, like war horses. This verse symbolizes the army’s supernatural speed at which it moves, and that like clouds, it will envelop the enemy, swallow them up.

Verse five says, “With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array.” This verse describes the noise a great army makes when it is on the move: like the sound of chariots… like the sound of a flaming fire… like the sound of people in battle array. A roar!

Verse six says, “Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of color.” This verse describes how terrifying the sight of them will be: for the fear of them, all the color will be drained from people’s faces when they see this army.

Verse seven says, “They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks.” This verse describes the soldiers’ supernatural fighting skills, saying they run, they climb, and they march. They don’t just run, they run like mighty men. They don’t just climb, they climb over walls like men of war. They don’t just march, they march in formation and never break rank.

Verse eight says, “They do not push one another; every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down.” This verse describes the precision and discipline of the soldiers as they march together. They don’t push or bump into each other; every man stays in his column. Mind you, they stay in their columns when they are traveling at great speed.

The next sentence tells us they have supernatural abilities: though they are lunging between the weapons, they are not “cut down,” meaning they are not killed. I prefer the King James translation: “…and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.” After getting stabbed with a sword, these soldiers aren’t injured. If there was any doubt, this verse confirms this is a supernatural army.

Verse nine says, “They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief.” This verse describes the army’s invasion of the city; its soldiers run throughout the city, run atop the wall that surrounds the city. They climb onto the houses and enter the windows like a thief. Entering a window like a thief is to say they’re stealth so as to go undetected.

Verse ten says, “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.” This verse describes the army’s supernatural effect upon the earth. It is so great and mighty that the earth quakes, the heaven’s tremble, and all the lights—the sun, moon, and stars—lose their intensity. Earthquakes and the sun, moon and stars losing their brightness are happenings that take place in the book of Revelation.

Verse eleven says, “The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” This is the verse that confirms this is the Lord’s army. It starts out, “The Lord gives voice before His army.” Or as King James says, “The Lord utters His voice.” The Lord is shouting commands to His army.

This verse confirms this army is not as the Amplified Bible interpreted them to be: “[pagan, hostile] people.” This verse clearly says this is the Lord’s army in these two phrases: “The Lord gives voice before His army” and “His camp is very great.”  Then it says, “Strong is the One who executes His word.” The One being talked about is Jesus, executing the Father God’s word!

The soldiers in this army are described as having qualities that are supernatural. They are able to run as fast as horses, and yet, they never break formation. Without gear, they are able to leap on top of the walls surrounding Jerusalem. And the most supernatural quality is that when they fall on a sword, they receive no injury. That is a description of believers who have received their resurrected, immortal bodies—bodies that have been delivered from the sting of death!

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