Joel 3

Joel 3:1

E. Judgment of Gentile Nations (3:1-16a)3:1-8 God will gather the Gentile nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat and will judge them there for their treatment of the Jews. Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia will be recompensed for plundering and enslaving God’s people. The people in those cities would in turn be sold as slavesa fitting punishment for their crime. 3:9-16a The Gentiles are told to “Prepare for war!”, for the Lord will fight with them in the valley of decision. In the Valley of Jehoshaphat the Lord will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. The sovereign God is currently testing all men and nations, as unfashionable as that concept may be to today’s worldly thinkers. Stevenson remarks: Men dismiss the Biblical teaching concerning judgment to come, for individuals and nations, as a now outmoded concept. But the people of God have held fast through all the generations to the assurance that, in the “day of the Lord,” the Judge of all the earth will do right. That is our confidence, based upon the rock of Holy Scripture.

Joel 3:16

F. Restoration and Future Blessing of the Jews (3:16b-21)But the LORD will bless His people with deliverance, safety from invaders, and abundant supplies. The land of Israel would become fruitful and well-watered: the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water. Egypt and Edom will become a desolate wilderness, . . . but Judah will be inhabited forever. God will also acquit her of her guilt of bloodshed. The book ends on a secure note with a reason: For the LORD dwells in Zion.