Reflections on Joel 3

 Joel 03  (Contemporary English Version)

1. At that time I, the LORD, will make Judah and Jerusalem prosperous again.
   
2. Then in Judgment Valley I will bring together the nations that scattered my people Israel everywhere in the world, and I will bring charges against those nations. They divided up my land
   
3. and gambled to see who would get my people; they sold boys and girls to pay for prostitutes and wine.
   
4. You people of Tyre and Sidon and you Philistines, why are you doing this? Are you trying to get even with me? I'll strike back before you know what's happened.
   
5. You've taken my prized possessions, including my silver and gold, and carried them off to your temples.
   
6. You have dragged the people of Judah and Jerusalem from their land and sold them to the Greeks.
   
7. But I'll make the people of Judah determined to come home, and what happened to them will happen to you.
   
8. I'll hand over your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, who live far away. I, the LORD, have spoken!
   
9. Say to the nations: "Get ready for war! Be eager to fight. Line up for battle and prepare to attack.
   
10. Make swords out of plows and spears out of garden tools. Strengthen every weakling."
    
11. Hurry, all you nations! Come quickly. Ask the LORD to bring his warriors along.
    
12. You must come now to Judgment Valley, where the LORD will judge the surrounding nations.
    
13. They are a field of ripe crops. Bring in the harvest! They are grapes piled high. Start trampling them now! If our enemy's sins were wine, every jar would overflow.
    
14. Crowds fill Decision Valley. The judgment day of the LORD will soon be here--
    
15. no light from the sun or moon, and stars no longer shine.
    
16. From the heart of Jerusalem the LORD roars like a lion, shaking the earth and sky. But the LORD is a fortress, a place of safety for his people Israel.
    
17. I am the LORD your God. And you will know I live on Zion, my sacred hill, because Jerusalem will be sacred, untouched by foreign troops.
    
18. On that day, fruitful vineyards will cover the mountains. And your cattle and goats that graze on the hills will produce a lot of milk. Streams in Judah will never run dry; a stream from my house will flow in Acacia Valley.
    
19. Egypt and Edom were cruel and brutal to Judah, without a reason. Now their countries will become a barren desert,
    
20. but Judah and Jerusalem will always have people.
    
21. I, the LORD, live on Mount Zion. I will punish the guilty and defend the innocent.

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As God turned from His wrath toward Judah and turned to mercy toward the nation, He also turned to judgment for the nations that were instruments of judgment on Judah. While we can go back and forth as to whether God caused these nations to destroy Judah or simply allowed them to, the issue of God's judgment on them was their own motivation for carrying out the judgment on Judah. They certainly weren't mere puppets in those events functioning outside their own will, but were doing what they intended to do - destroy Judah, scatter the people in foreign lands, and divide up the land. God had punishment in store for the nations that did this. Those mentioned in this passage were Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon) and Philistia.

These nations that destroyed Judah and scattered the people also took the treasures of the temple and used them in their own temples for worship to their pagan gods. They sold the people of Judah into slavery in other nations. Now God was going to reverse all this by bringing the people of Judah from those places where they were sold and returning them to their land, and then selling the Phoenicians and Philistines as slaves to the people of Judah who would then sell them to other nations.

As the description of judgment on the nations continues into verses 9 and following, it takes on a tone of divine warfare against these nations and the sound of Armageddon. This places these events at a time yet in the future. The nations will be summoned to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for these events. Whether or not this is a real place, it means “the Lord judges” or "Valley of decision."

The events in the Valley of Jehoshaphat on the Day of the Lord will be terrifying: "The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will cease their shining." And "heaven and earth will shake." (3:15, 16) But this will only be so for the nations that God will be judging. As for His own people, God will be a refuge. God vows that at that time, "Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will never overrun it again." (3:17)

Once God has restored Judah and brought judgment on the nations that harmed her, Judah will be a paradise: "In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will issue from the LORD's house, watering the Valley of Acacias." (3:18) In contrast, "Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland." And this desolation will be "because of the violence done to the people of Judah in whose land they shed innocent blood." (3:19)

The description of Judah after these events reminds us of the paradise of the Garden of Eden. It is as if God has reinstated what He intended in the beginning before sin messed it up.