Mike Bickle emphasizes the prophetic significance of Joel 3:1-8, discussing God's impending judgment on the nations that have oppressed Israel. He highlights the historical context of Jewish suffering and captivity, asserting that these events are part of a divine drama leading to the second coming of Christ. Bickle calls for the church to understand and proclaim these truths, as they are crucial for the end times, and stresses the importance of standing in solidarity with Israel. He warns that the nations will be held accountable for their actions against God's people, and that a remnant of Israel will ultimately be restored and saved. The sermon serves as a call to action for believers to prepare for the challenges ahead and to proclaim God's sovereignty and justice.

And Lord, we ask you again for the inspiration of your spirit and your word to touch our heart, to give us living understanding. Lord, we wanna be an oracle of the Lord in your hand. In the name of Jesus, amen. So we're on our 10th class. This, we're looking at the session notes, number 12, Joel chapter three, verse one to eight. Let's read it through just to kind of get familiar, get the overview of what's happening. For behold, in those days and at that time. Now incidentally, the phrase in those days and at that time, it's still referring to, and in those days I will pour out my spirit. He's in the same conversation. He's talking about the timeframe of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So because there's a chapter break, some people start reading Joel three, verse one. They start reading Joel three, one. They ought to start in Joel 2, 28 and you get the whole flow of what's going on here. So behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. Now that's a real interesting new twist. He's been talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now he's talking about Jewish prisoners in death camps. Like what? I mean, he just makes this sudden turn, the captives, the prisoners. And we know from history that when the Jews are in camps by antisemitic nations, it's a very, very traumatic situation. These are prison camps. These are death camps. This is at that time when I bring back the captives, the prisoners from Judah and Jerusalem. At that same time, I will gather all the nations. I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. You'll find out in a few moments, that's in essence around the city of Jerusalem. That's talking about the area of Jerusalem. I will enter into judgment with them there. With who? With all the nations. The Lord says, I have an appointment in the city, in the area of Jerusalem. I have an appointment for all the nations to judge them in that place. The place where they have done their greatest crimes in history. I will bring my judgment against them in that very place. And I will do it on account of my people, my heritage, Israel, whom they have, and he lists three sins, particular sins. They've scattered my people among the nations. Number two, they've divided up my land. And number three, they've cast lots, or they sold into slavery, is what we're gonna find out in a moment. They've cast lots for my people. They've given a boy, a little Jewish boy, they sold him for his insignificant amount of money as the payment for a harlot. And they sold a girl for such an insignificant amount as a cup of wine or a glass of wine. He says, indeed, now God challenges these nations around Israel. What have you to do with me? This is a really heavy challenge. It's a divine sarcasm. He goes, oh, resisting nations. Do you think you can pick a fight with me? That's what he's saying. He says, what will you have to do with me? Oh, Tyre and Sidon, which is that's modern day Lebanon. He says, so you think that it's of no consequence that I have warned you. You've cast away my warning and you rise up and attack my purposes and you think it's of no consequence. That's a terrifying sentence here. What indeed, what have you to do with me? Oh, Tyre and Sidon, again, that's Lebanon and all the coast of Philistia. That's the Gaza Strip. He goes, you think that you will challenge me? He says, will you retaliate against me? In other words, will you hear my claims, my warnings, throw them aside and rise up and attack my purposes? That's what he means. Will you retaliate against me? But if you do retaliate against me swiftly and speedily, I will return retaliation back on you. So of course, now this is a Jewish prophet saying this to the Gentile nations and this just bolsters the pride and the arrogance of the Gentile nations. They go, how dare you, oh, Jewish prophet, warn us in the name of the God of Israel who does not even exist, you would warn us? This is very dramatic passage here. The Lord says, I will return your retaliation back on your own head because you've taken my gold and my silver. You've plundered my nation. He says, and you have carried it into the temples, into your own temples. You've used my money to fund your own sacrilegious worship systems. He says, you use my money to support that which is against me, worship movements that are against me. He goes in also verse six, the people of Judah and the very people of Jerusalem, you sold them as slaves to the Greeks that you would take them far away from the borders of Israel. Behold, he says, I'm going to cause you to reap what you've sown. I will raise them out of the places of slavery where you've sold them. And I will return back upon your own head as a nation, that which you did to Israel, return it back to you. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of Judah and they will sell them. Now this is indentured servants type thing. This isn't the cruel barbaric servitude. This is your own children will actually serve them and their purposes for charge and for money. And they will sell them to the Sabaeans, a people far away. The Sabaeans is the country of Yemen and Southern Arabia. For the Lord has spoken. Okay, we'll break this down a little by little because it has a tremendous relevance for what's happening in the world today and what we are to prophesy and declare. Again, this is a politically incorrect message. It's the Jewish people do not like this message. You are going into slavery. The Gentile nations don't like this message. You will be paid from the Lord for taking them into slavery. Both groups don't like Joel chapter three or they don't like elements of Joel chapter three. But the prophetic church must declare these truths even ahead of time and even in the heat of the battle, we will declare these oracles of the Lord and they will be costly to declare them. Again, in this context and in Bible school, it's kind of interesting to study Joel three but when we have to say these things out there, it will be a whole different issue but the Holy Spirit will back it up with power. Let's look at Roman numeral one, the second coming of Jesus. Jesus is going to return to the earth, we know that. But the events leading up to it and the events that will follow it, the leading up to the coming of the Lord, we're in those events now, those decades leading up to his coming in my opinion and even the events immediately preceding it, they constitute the greatest drama imaginable. I mean, the story could not be more dramatic. There's never been a movie that's been produced or a story that's been told that has more drama than the drama God is orchestrating across the earth in the generation the Lord returns. There's so much evil going on, there's so much good, there's so much heroic goodness and there's a great perversity and evil and yet there's sudden reversals and turnaround where the Lord breaks in suddenly, reverses the fortunes of those who call upon his name. I mean, it's so dramatic and we have a role in this great drama and that's why I have such a burden that the people of God would understand it because so many of God's people have never studied these chapters, these 150 chapters in the Bible that speak about the end time drama and the events, positive and negative, leading to the coming of the Lord and what happens after he comes. And it's not okay that we're illiterate of most of these 150 chapters in the Bible related to this great drama. So we must begin to see what God has put in his word about this drama and it's very exciting. It's dangerous, it's dynamic, it's glorious, it's everything, it's every emotion imaginable. Paragraph B, before the Lord returns, the anti-Semitic nations, which will be many, many nations of the earth, many more than are right now anti-Semitic, many more will shift over to have a real entrenched position of hatred against Israel. They will take the Jewish people captive and they will scatter them across nations against their will in captivity, much like what Hitler did in Nazi Germany. He took them outside of their own country of Germany, German Jews, and put them in death camps in other nations surrounding. Now, Zechariah chapter 14, verse two, gives a very clear statement of what's going to happen in this drama. The reason we need to know this drama is we're gonna participate in the drama. The people of God will in that hour. And again, I believe we're in the early days of this. I believe we're some decades away, but I believe that there are people in this room, you will see these events with your eyes. I believe that. In your lifetime, in the lifetime of your children and grandchildren, I believe you will see these things. For I, here's what the Lord says in Zechariah 14, verse two, I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. Now, I've said this a number of times, God's gathering the nations and so is the devil. There's two different gatherings. Yeah, I mean, it's the same event. They're all coming to Jerusalem. The devil's deceiving them and he has his own motives that are evil and God's drawing them and he has his own motives, which are redemptive. So this passage, we're seeing God is drawing them. In other passages, we see the devil is drawing them. Both are true. I will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken. That's a statement when you go, because we're praying, we're crying out for the purpose of God in the city of Jerusalem. Let me tell you this. The city of Jerusalem will be captured one day before the Lord returns. It will happen. It is going to happen. And I've said that to some of my friends that live there and some of them don't like that. I go, we are not going to break the word of God. It is going to happen. The city will be taken again and the houses will be rifled. The women will be ravished, that is raped and abused. And half of the city will go into prison camps. That half of the city of Jerusalem will be taken against their will into death camps. And many will die and some will survive. Now at this point in time, there's 600,000 Jews that live in the city of Jerusalem. If this happened today, based on today's numbers, that would be 300,000 Jewish people taken into prison camps from one city alone. And this is going to happen. And it's, but there will be a remnant that will survive that God will supernaturally protect. And they will call on the name of the Lord and they will stay in the city of Jerusalem. They won't be taken out, which means though the city will be taken, there will be a resistance, a Jewish resistance in the city until the Lord comes himself. Matter of fact, when Jesus comes at the second coming, part of what he's doing at the second coming, he's coming to rescue the Jewish resistance movement that's calling on his name in the city of Jerusalem, surrounded by the nations in a great siege on the verge of being utterly annihilated. And then the son of David himself comes out of heaven and rescues him. And they go, son of David, you, Jesus of Nazareth, you are the Messiah. And then Israel saved and the story gets really cool after that. Paragraph C, Jesus even prophesied this issue of Jews in death camps and prison camps. Again, it says captivity, it says prison, but I tell you, when you look at history, these are not nice accommodation camps. I'm telling you, this is bad. The devil wants to destroy and annihilate the Jewish people. And the reason we care about this, because Jesus is requiring that his church stands in the gap for them. He requires it. And many believers will refuse it because they don't even know it's in the Bible and they will actually deny the Lord and fall away in all of this drama. And many others that will understand it's in the word, they understand the reason of it, they understand the purpose of it, they will be girded and ready and equipped to stand and God will use them in supernatural ways to reveal Jesus and to bring deliverance. And even the Lord will visit them in power, in honor, and it will be a glorious hour of purifying for the body of Christ. A lot of Gentile believers, like I don't get the Israel thing you need to understand the Israel thing before it's over because the Lord has a dynamic role for the Gentile church to stand in the gap as his voices, I mean, as his voices, his representatives declaring comfort to Israel and saying, Jesus is your answer. Jesus is your answer. And of course they'll say, we don't believe in Jesus, but we will be the only group in the earth standing for them, making provision for them, calling out for them with supernatural miracles in the name of Jesus. And this is going to kind of disorient the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel for a while until they figure out we really are those grafted into the vine of the tree of Abraham. We are grafted into the Jewish faith. It's their Messiah that we worship. They're not joining our religion. We joined the tree of Abraham, that olive tree, we were grafted into it. And this will kind of like, we thought Christian was Gentile. No, true Christianity is in the tree of Abraham. It's that olive tree we're grafted. You have the prophets, you have the promises, you have the covenants, you have the word of God. It's your people that salvation was given to. And we were graciously brought into your story. Now we're calling you into your story, but they won't believe us because they'll just think that we're Gentile, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever, until we stand in the gap and risk our life and show supernatural power in the name of Jesus. And this is going to shift the entire opinion of the Jewish nation, those that survive, to where they will call upon Jesus, then Jesus will come into Jerusalem, deliver them, and then set up his kingdom in there and then drive evil off the planet. I mean, it's a very, very dramatic, dynamic story. But Jesus here in paragraph C, he tells us, so those that love Jesus, you cannot cast this aside. It says, they, Israel, will fall by the edge of the sword. They will be led away captive into all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, which are fulfilled at the time of the second coming. Now, many people kind of cast this prophecy of Jesus away because they said that happened in 70 AD. The Israel was taken into prison camps. It's true. But here's, I believe, the right interpretation. It was partially fulfilled in 70 AD, not completely. There are several dimensions to this prophecy that have not happened yet. Israel was not taken into captivity into all nations. They were driven out of Jerusalem, taken into captivity to a few nations. But this is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled because the Old Testament prophets, as you will see on the notes that you have here, which we won't look at, probably the last five or seven pages of the notes that you have in the study guide there is, we're not even gonna look at, but I'm giving you a whole list of places where the Old Testament prophets talk about this prominent feature of the end times, and that is Jews in death camps. That's almost never mentioned when we talk about the end times and the second coming of the Lord. It's almost never mentioned. But it's one of the most prominent themes of the Old Testament prophets. And Jesus returning, he's not just returning to rapture us to go away. He is returning to rapture us, but he's coming to deliver the captivity of the Jewish people and shock the nations of the earth with his great deliverance. The second coming is in context to a military conflict and the liberation of prison camps. The second coming from the Old Testament point of view is described in that context. And so to not understand this is to be in confusion on many, many passages related to the second coming and the end times that are in the Old Testament. And we'll never understand the New Testament descriptions of the second coming unless they are in unity and contextualized with the Old Testament descriptions of the second coming and the end times. We gotta bring the two together to get the whole picture and to see it accurately. Let's look at top of page 112. Paragraph G, I just have a whole list of verses about how Israel will go into captivity in the end times. Again, I'm not happy about this. It's not my idea. Just in the flesh, I'm just like overwhelmed at the reality of this. But you have a list there, and again, about the last five or seven pages of the notes that you have, I give you the verses with a little description on most of them. It is a very prominent theme in the Bible, but almost totally ignored today by the body of Christ. And we can't ignore it because we are going to be the ambassadors of the Lord in the crisis on his behalf to them. And we can't not get what's going on. We have to get it. We have to grasp where this thing is going. And this will really inconvenience our life and our plans and our ministries. This Israel in death camps is going to be a burden to the whole earth. When Nazi Germany rose up in the 1940s and put Jews in death camps, the body of Christ in Europe were mandated by God to stand in the gap for their deliverance. And there were a few heroic. I mean, maybe some thousands, undoubtedly. I don't know the number, but the majority of the church ignored it and backslid and denied the Lord. There were heroic examples. And in those heroic examples, people like Corrie ten Boom, and you know the story, The Hiding Place. It's one of the classic films from the 70s, which told the story of Corrie ten Boom and her family and the Netherlands and Holland and how her family hid the Jews and went into the death camps themselves because they violated the state laws. You cannot hide the Jews and led many people to the Lord. And the family died in the death camps, but young Corrie ten Boom was delivered and she was spared. And she went around to tell the nations what happened. Men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the heroic pastors that took a stand in Nazi Germany and stood for the Jews and against Hitler. And Niemüller, one of the most well-known pastors in the land who stood against Hitler and for the Jews. They all went to the death camps and died in them, but bringing salvation, the message of Jesus to the Jewish people and led many people to the Lord. As the stories are told, nobody knows the whole story. If this is going to purify the church and it's gonna be the occasion of tremendous signs and wonders in the church because the signs and wonders, as we know, are not just to make meetings exciting. They will be an issue of life and death for the end time church. It will be a very weighty, serious issue. It won't just be fun and games and the Holy Spirit won't be something we play with. It will be a very serious, sober reality operating in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And of course we know that, but when we look across the nations, it seems like in cares mania, the Holy Spirit is kind of understood as a play thing or something to just make meetings funner and make things, stories more exciting. And let me tell you, the Holy Spirit is serious about preparing a people for the most dramatic hour of human history with life and death implications at every single part of the drama. And at such a time as this, we're getting ready for that hour that's coming. So we need to know these passages. We need to reckon with them. So I've talked to a number of my Jewish leaders in Israel. I've talked to them and they said, man, you keep hitting this death camp thing. I said, we have to, we have to. And I said, everyone needs to know. The Jewish people need to know where this is going. So, well, that's so negative. Some of them have told me, I go, I know, I know. I don't vote on it. I just read it. I don't write the script. I'm just the mailman. I deliver it like all of us. We're ambassadors. I go, you need to prepare the Jewish people for what's coming. And guys like me and many of us, we need to prepare the Gentile church to take a stand and be able to have understanding at such a time as this. I go, we have to understand this stuff. We have to. Well, there it is, Roman numeral two. Why do we need to understand this? I think I just went into it. First, Jews in death camps, prison camps is a prominent feature. It's a main part of the Old Testament testimony of the coming of the Lord. And it reveals the nature of Satan's rage against Israel. We know Satan hates Israel, but I don't think we grasp the intensity of his rage. He wants to annihilate. I'm talking about obliterate the Jewish people where there is nobody who calls on the name of the Lord to return to Jerusalem. Because Jesus said, I won't come back until the Jewish people in that city beckon me, invite me. And the enemy, the Satan is in his heart purpose. There will be no Jewish people to call you back. And therefore you will never come back. And therefore I will never be thrown into prison when you come back. He hates the Jewish people. But it also, this shows the measure of the intensity of what God will do to purify Israel and the church. This is going to purify the nation of Israel, this fire. But it will also purify the church like it did in Europe. Of course, most of the church in Europe in the 40s fell away from the Lord. But it's not gonna be that way at the end. God will have a people of all the nations. We will be true to the word of the Lord and we will trust in Jesus. And we will have our lives anchored in eternity and we'll be fearless in front of death. And that's where this thing is going. And the power of God will break forth in remarkable ways in this kind of context. Okay, top of page 113. And another reason we understand this about the prison camps, it gives us insight into God's heart to restore. Anyone, even Israel and her rebellion who's under severe discipline. When we read the story of the Jews or the testimony of scripture of the Jews in prison camps, that's not the whole story. The whole story is they're liberated. Part of the story is they go into them, ouch. The other part of the story, they're liberated. And when they're liberated from the death camps, they come into salvation. And it's a glorious story. And here, there's a message in the story. There's many messages in the story, but one of them is, even a rebellious nation that I have disciplined, I will restore them suddenly and I will give them double honor when I restore them. So the message that we receive as individuals and even as nations is that whenever God's discipline is severe, there's always restoration, even double honor if we will but call on the name of the Lord. That's all he's waiting on for them to call on the name of the Lord. And when we see the whole story, we see how severe the discipline, but we see the double honor. And we say, if you'll do that for Israel, then we know it's in your heart. This is what you will do for anyone that calls on your name, whether a nation or an individual. And we have the testimony of God's heart towards Israel. Number, I mean, paragraph C, the third reason we have to know this is because we can't understand the storyline without this. When we study the second coming passages in Old and New Testament to get a unified storyline that has no contradictions with it, we have to understand these many, many passages. I haven't counted them, but there's like 25 of them. I mean, there's more descriptions about the death camps than almost any other subject about the end time. There's more on agricultural restoration and a few other things, but that's at the top of the list. I mean, the trumpet, da, da, da, da, that everyone's captured, that's only mentioned like four times. The prison camps is like 25 times. That we will be changed in an instant and transformed instantly, that's only mentioned twice. That every eye will see him, that's mentioned twice, yay, three times, if you throw in Zechariah 12. I mean, when you put all the different features of the second coming descriptions in the Bible, this issue of the trauma of the prison camps is at the top of the list. I don't mean it's number one, but it's in that top two or three of priority of what God wants us to grasp about the end time drama. It must be grasped, it must be grasped. Roman numeral three, as I talk about this, then of course, the people that have a real heart for Israel, which is in my opinion, everyone who's really paying attention to what God's saying begins to waken up to how significant the battle for Jerusalem is in the spirit. And again, many of you are 20 years old, you said, my church didn't do it, I've only been here a few minutes, a few months or so, I don't get it. Give yourself a little bit of time, but I wanna say this, if you're paying attention, sooner or later, you're going to catch the weight of how significant, quote, the Israel issue is on God's heart in the end time drama. It's what I call the battle for Jerusalem. One of the premier battles in the spirit is the battle for Jerusalem. Jesus wants it, the devil wants it, all the nations are attacking it, and it's all dramatic and dangerous and glorious all at the same time. Well, when people, they love Israel, whether Jews or Gentiles, they love Jesus, they love the nation of Israel and God's purpose, they go, well, do the Jews go back? Do the Jews stay here? What do they do? And I have on this section five different responses of the Jewish people related to the land of Israel. And I believe that there are these five responses, there might be more, but these are just five that I've identified. There'll be very different responses to Israel, to Jewish people going to be in the land. The first response is very negative, I call it apostate Israel. Those are the Jews in the land that take the mark of the beast, they worship the Antichrist and they'll never be saved when they do that. So apostate means they fell away. Well, I mean, they've denied the Lord in the full sense, apostate. The next group, I call it apostolic Israel. Those are the guys and gals in the land, the Jewish people, believers in the land who love Jesus, they will have supernatural protection and they will come and go and preach the gospel and do signs and wonders and they will even be in the land and they'll go places and come back and they will have a supernatural dimension about their life. I call that apostolic Israel. Then D, there's Israel in flight. There are the Jewish believers who are in the land and they read the exhortation of Jesus in Matthew 24. Jesus said in verse 15, when you see the abomination of desolation happen and the abomination of desolation in one sentence means the Antichrist worship system being set up in the Jerusalem temple. That's what it means when it's all boiled down in a practical way. When you see the Antichrist worship system in the Jerusalem temple, when it's all set up and this man stands in that temple and says, hey, by the way, I'm God, worship me. And he says, when that happens, Jesus said, flee. You better leave. Now, I believe some Jews will stay by the will of God. Others will flee by the will of God. So some people said, well, should they stay or should they go? I said, they should obey God. And it's common for whatever position a particular person has, that's what they tell everybody else to do. Those that go, you must go. I said, well, not necessarily. Those that stay, you must stay. Not necessarily. I think you should obey the Lord. Should you as a Jew stay in a foreign land or should you go back to Israel? Some are sent back, some are not sent back. I say, obey the Lord. But again, you're gonna, whoever counsels you more times than often, they're gonna counsel you with what they did. And that's cool, that's understandable. But it's not a sufficient answer. I believe the sufficient answer is there are different responses and the Jewish people must, one by one, obey the Spirit's direction in their life. So some will flee. Some will flee when it happens. Then there's Israel in prison. Those are the ones that are in the land and they're taken away captive. Half the city of Jerusalem will be taken away captive. And then there's, top of page 114, there's Israel that's killed. I mean, this is so dramatic. I mean, again, it's just, it doesn't seem right just to say it in a teaching as a point in passing. But it says in Zechariah 13, eight, that one third of the nation will be killed. I mean, two thirds. Two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed. And you say, that is horrific. It is. One third will be saved. You know, if there is about, and no one knows exactly the number of Jewish people in the world because there's so many ways to count Jewish lineage and, you know, by the mother, the father, the both, the one fourth, the two thirds, you know, there's so many designations. But if there are 18 million, that's a, that's a, some say that's a little high and others say, no, there's about 18 million Jews in the earth. We're talking 12 million of them dying, six million of them being saved because one third gets saved. We're talking five or six million come to Jesus. Not, not a hundred thousand, five or six million come radically to Jesus born again. That's the great story. Five or six million. The, the other side of the story, 10 or 12 million die. And you say, well, I don't want to know that. We do want to know that. This is the gravity of how serious this conflict is going to be. It is so weighty. It is so real. It is so not avoidable or pleasant. It must be answered with the word of the Lord, meaning we must as God's people understand it, be prepared to speak into it. We must have an understanding of it. We must take a stand. We must be involved. And we have to know it's, it's, it's, it's horrifying because in the Hitler death camps, it was 6 million. In the Antichrist death camps, it may be 12 million that died. We don't know, but it's two thirds. It's two thirds of the Jewish people. And that's, that's a heavy, heavy word. It might be twice the number of Adolf Hitler. We don't know. But all I know is that it's, we don't get a vote on that. What we're working for is those standing in the gap and for the five or six million that will be saved. And again, when Jewish people hear this, they absolutely hate what I've just said the last three minutes. They hate it with a passion, but it's in the Hebrew prophets. It's a, it's a Jewish prophet who said it. It's not a Gentile. It's a Jewish prophet who said this. Zachariah and many other witnesses of Jewish prophets. Isaiah said it more than anybody who was one of the premier Jewish prophets. Okay, the return of the Jewish captives to Israel. The reason I'm hitting, focusing on the captives because the captives are mentioned several times in Joel chapter three, verse one to eight. And so it's the subject of the captives and Joel doesn't ignore it. Joel addresses the subject. He addresses the subject. They will be in captivity and he addresses the subject and the nations that participated will be judged. So we have to say both of them. They are going into captivity. Ouch. They will be judged. We say, yeah, I want to say that. You wait till you meet those other nations and those leaders. You may not have that kind of boldness that it kind of feels like we ought to have. That boldness may not be there automatically. This is a weighty, difficult message. Okay, Roman numeral four, the return of the Jewish captives to Israel. They are going to return in those days. And at that time, just Joel chapter three, verse one. When I bring back the captives. Well, in order to bring the captives back, the captives have to first be taken. For the bad news is they're taken. The good news is I, the Lord, will bring them back. Jesus at his second coming will function as the greater Moses, delivering the captives of Israel, not just in Egypt, but all throughout the Middle East and other nations as well. But they'll be primarily the Middle East, but they will be in all nations. Jesus will come not only as the Moses that delivered the Jews from Egypt, but the Moses, the greater Moses that delivered the Jews in the nations from captivity. Paragraph eight, instead of winding his book down, you know, to a slow end, you know, after the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Joel is in the same paragraph. It's unfortunate there's a chapter break right there, you know, between chapter two with the great outpouring of the Spirit and it ends. How does the great outpouring of the Spirit chapter end? Those that call upon the name of the Lord will be delivered. And the next verse is at that time when I bring the captives back. So those that call upon the name of the Lord will be delivered and they're in captivity calling on the name of the Lord if you put the two verses together. And you have to put the two verses together to get the storyline clear. There's no break in Joel's thoughts between Joel two and Joel three. It's a continual thought. He's in one prophetic oracle. He's giving one message. Paragraph B, now look at five things that happened simultaneously, meaning in the same timeframes. What do I mean by simultaneously? Five things are happening at the fullest degree though each of them have happened partially throughout history. All five of these have had a partial fulfillment in history but all five of them have their complete fulfillment in the same timeframe. First, the great outpouring of the Spirit. Of course, it's been going on 2000 years but it's gonna really go to another level before the Lord returns. Then the supernatural deliverance of the Jews. Then the terrifying signs in the heavens. The liberation of Jews in prison camps and God's judgment on anti-Semitic nations. All five of those are integrated together and here's the point I want you to get. The outpouring of the Spirit in the spirit of prophecy is related to these other four ideas. The outpouring of the Spirit is not separated from these other ideas. They are joined together, the spirit of prophecy. Now through history, the Holy Spirit has poured out His Spirit and accomplished many purposes but when it comes to a crescendo at the end, all five of these will be merged together. They will be prophesying about the deliverance of the Jews. They will be prophesying about the terrifying signs in the heavens. They will be prophesying about the liberation of Jewish camps. They will be prophesying about judgment on the anti-Semitic nations. The prophets will do all of these things together. That is so, so we find the message for which the outpouring of the Spirit is going to be identified with. It's not the only message but it's part of the message when we read the book of Joel in its context. Okay, top of page 115. Top of page 115. The gathering of all nations, Roman numeral five. I will gather all nations. I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with all the nations there, specifically at the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I believe the Valley of Jehoshaphat is in the region, the area of the city of Jerusalem. Now paragraph eight. First, God's gonna gather all the nations together to Jerusalem for judgment. It's clear in many places that they're gathered to Jerusalem. God gathers them to the city of Jerusalem. Here it's called the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Now the Valley of Jehoshaphat, it's a little precarious because there's no such valley called the Valley of Jehoshaphat in Israel or in Israel's history. There is no place. So the commentators go, what is that valley? Where's this Valley of Jehoshaphat? It's not in history. So therefore, some commentators say because there isn't an identifiable place called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, it's because it's only symbolic. I don't think that's the best answer. I think the Valley of Jehoshaphat is a specific place. It's the, I have it here at the end of paragraph eight. You can read it there. It's the valley where Jehoshaphat, when he had a great victory. Matter of fact, he had a solemn assembly. He called the people to fast and pray. They were surrounded by the enemy. They fasted and prayed. They had a supernatural deliverance and they went to this valley and they worshiped the Lord and gave him thanks. Jehoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat, he was a King of Israel. I believe that's the Valley of Jehoshaphat because Jehoshaphat had a, again, surrounded by hostile nations, fasted and prayed, called the people together, had a supernatural deliverance and praised the Lord in this valley. It's my opinion that is the Valley of Jehoshaphat just outside the city of Jerusalem. And because many passages describe clearly, Jerusalem is the city that the nations will be gathered. And so if I put that together, I believe that Jehoshaphat worshiped the Lord and had the great victory commemorated in the valley outside of Jerusalem. You put that together with the fact that all the nations are gonna gather to Jerusalem and that's where the Lord is going to meet them and judge them. And that's clear from scripture. So I believe the Valley of Jehoshaphat is in fact in the region of Jerusalem. Paragraph six, three reasons. Now this is not the only three reasons, but these are three that Joel highlights. And these three matter because if God spoke them through the prophets, he is saying pay special attention to these three reasons. And more difficult for us, he's saying, I want my prophets to say them, like, ah, say them to who? Let's say them at a church conference. That won't cost you anything. I want you to say what Joel said. Like when, you know, when I study this passage, it's a very interesting. When I think about saying this in front of Islamic leaders, in a, I don't talk about in a church prophecy conference, I'm talking about out in the open air, I think, huh, okay. God is going to gather all of you, not just Islamic, all the nations, all the nations, he's going to gather all of you to Jerusalem. Well, we beg your pardon. We're going to Jerusalem because we have a unified plan and we are going to destroy that wicked city. Well, that's your version. The God of Israel is leading you into an ambush. Where's the ambush? He's coming from heaven suddenly with the multitudes. You're being led to an ambush. Oh, the God of Israel is calling us mighty nations to Jerusalem? We don't think so. We think we're going because we're rid of these people that are a burden to us. The God of Israel doesn't even exist. If he existed, Israel would have been delivered a long time ago. No, the God of Israel was crucified on a cross to pay the price for redemption and he's coming back to take over the world. Right. I mean, it's just a difficult message. But again, don't just study it because it's fun to study. It is enjoyable to study the prophecies. Study it and picture yourself saying it, not in a church conference, out there. And don't say it till you get it clear. This isn't the moment to kind of, to show your bravado, you know, to, hey, I fear no man. Don't, get clear first and be anointed and say only what he says to say. This isn't the time for showmanship, prophetic showmanship. This is the time for real, precise obedience in the spirit. But this is the message we will say. Not the only message, but this message, this politically incorrect message to both the Jews and the Gentiles, both the church and the non-church, both of this message at every place is totally politically incorrect. It's like the Lord, it's like the preacher said, God's not out to hurt your pride. He's out to kill it. And that is the truth. Now he gives the three reasons. Paragraph A, they scattered Israel. They scattered Israel. Secondly, they divided up the land. And thirdly, they enslaved the people. Now all three of these have happened throughout history and they have historical precedent, but all three of them are gonna reach their highest measure of sin and judgment in yet the future. B, scattering Israel. The point isn't that the nations are gonna scatter Israel. The point is what God's gonna do about it. I mean, the message isn't, hey, guess what Israel, you're gonna be scattered. No, that's not the main message. The message is, hey nations, you scatter Israel, the Lord is going to hold you account and he's going to confront you face to face because of it. Top of page 16, 116. Let's go to 117. God's challenge to the nations. I've all but said that, I've gone through this, but it's such a dramatic passage. It's this divine sarcasm, sort of sarcasm isn't the right word, but it's this challenging in your face oracle of God to these nations. It's in the spirit of Psalm 2. Now, if you don't know Psalm 2, just write that down and say, I must learn Psalm 2, okay? Psalm 2 is a must for every believer in the generation the Lord returns. Psalm 2 is the clearest description of the end time drama, Psalm 2. I'm gonna just take one minute and tell you what Psalm 2 is, though I don't have it on the notes. Psalm 2 has 12 verses, 12 verses. Psalm 2 was described by Charles Spurgeon, who's one of the greatest, most well-known preachers in England in the 1800s in London. Charles Spurgeon, I read this years ago, I just love it. I just can't improve on it. I just use his version of it. He said, Psalm 2 is the divine drama in four different acts. It's on the stage of history. Act number one, all the kings of the earth are on the stage. Every one of these acts, they each get three verses. Four acts in this divine drama, they each get three verses. Act one, they get three verses. The kings of the earth, they stand on the stage and they raise their fist to God and they say, God, we don't want you, we don't want your son, we don't want your word, we're finished with you, we're in unity, you're out of here. That's act one, the curtain closes. Act two, three verses. The father comes on the stage and he says to the nations, I laugh at your threats, I mock your threats, for I will destroy you in my fury, and it doesn't matter that you don't like my son, I've already anointed him. The curtain closes. It opens for act three. Jesus comes on the stage and he says, Father, release the nations, I ask you in intercession, let me break the nations, let me possess them, and the nations are like, ah! The curtain closes, opens again, act four. King David comes on the stage and King David says, if I was you guys, he goes, oh kings, oh judges of the earth, he says, be wise. He says, you should tremble before him, and if I was you, I would kiss the son, I would bow down and pay homage, I would kiss the son. That's the only way you, that's your only way out of this fight that you have picked. So that's the four acts. Again, act one, three verses, the kings, we want your son out of here. Act two, the father says, it doesn't matter, he's already anointed. Act three, Jesus says, give me the earth. Act four, David says, you better bow down, oh nations. That's what's going on. Very dramatic psalm, psalm two. It's all about, it has its fullness in the end times. Anyway, this passage here, verse four to eight, is in the same spirit of the dialogue. The father is challenging the nations, just like psalm chapter two. It's almost like a different version of that same conversation. And God says, in verse four, what have you to do with me? He goes, you're telling me, oh Tyre and Sidon, again, that's modern day Lebanon. You tell me that you don't care about my word and my threats? And they said, we don't care about your word and your threats. Oh, coastlands of Philistia, again, that is Gaza today. You don't care that the Jewish prophets warned you to back down? No. You don't care about my word? No. Because what's gonna happen is these nations will join the Antichrist worldwide army and the Antichrist will have big muscles, so to speak. He'll have the most powerful army in history and they will stand behind his, under his shadow and they will say to God, we are part of the most successful military force in human history and weak little Israel with no army, with no resources, with the whole world against them. We don't care what you say, prophets of Israel, God of Israel. And God says, you should care. Because though Israel is weak, Israel's God is not weak. And that's what's going on here. He says, you will retaliate against me? You think because you joined this big international army that's so powerful that somehow you're immune from my word and that I will not challenge you face to face before all the earth? He says, if you retaliate against me, if you throw my word down, I will swiftly, I will speedily return judgment back on you. Now, who is going to say that between now and when Jesus returns? You. You are gonna speak this conversation. Oh, you want the spirit of prophecy? Give me the spirit of prophecy, dreams and visions. What the dream is, tell the rebellious nations I'm about to destroy them. No, no, Lord, I was thinking of more. Tell the secrets of the heart that I have a big ministry and it'd be a great conference and it'd be exciting. And Jeremiah was the young man, he got the prophetic spirit, but it was tell nations this and that. Like, oh no, I don't wanna tell them that. And tell your own nation, Jeremiah, some things. And Jeremiah was thrown into prison for doing it. And so you wanna be a prophet, good. God's looking for fearless, prophetic voices that will take a stand for truth. He says, verse five, you've taken my silver and my gold. Now Haggai 2, the famous verse in Haggai 2, verse eight, where God says the gold and the silver is mine. That's an end time passage. God says, don't take my silver and gold. And here's what they do with the silver and gold. They take it from Israel. Now they've done it through history because all of these have happened through history, but they have a crescendo. They have the greatest fulfillment at the end of the age. They use the money to finance their godless, idolatrous worship systems. Of course, we know from Revelation 13, verse 16 and 17, that the Antichrist is gonna finance a worldwide worship system, and he's gonna make everybody take a mark to pay into that system. And God says, that's my gold and my silver, and it's not gonna finance your worship movement. And the Antichrist says, yes, it will. And God says, because gold and silver is power. God says, those are my resources. They will not be used to worship devils. And the challenge is on. Verse six, and the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, you've taken them into slavery. And he says, that's not okay. I want them freed. Matter of fact, you are going to pay for this. And you can read the rest of the notes on your own on that. And the point I wanna make is, not only do we need to understand it so we understand the drama more clearly so we can make sense of it, because we wanna be able to read the Bible anywhere and make sense of the drama without there being contradiction in the storyline. But we also know we have to prophesy these themes in the decades ahead. Oh, not just in the decades ahead. We might need to start prophesying them sooner than later. They need to be spoken by God's servants, which the majority are Gentile born-again believers. There are Jewish, there are a lot of Jewish believers, but there's hundreds of millions of born-again spirit-filled believers, and they must start saying what God has said in the word of God. Okay, let's go to top of page 18, 118. No, we've already gone there. Let me see, bottom of page 118. I'm just gonna bring this to an end in just a minute, and then we're gonna have a few moments of question and answer. Roman numeral eight, the issue, the underlying issue is God's sovereignty. People say, and rightfully so, I understand it. They go, I don't get this Israel thing. This, it bugs me, like, who cares? And I've heard this for years. I said it, you know, I remember when Bob Jones first met me, he go, I don't do the Israel thing. He goes, you will, mark my word. I said, our people don't shop in Grandview. He said, they will do that too. And he was right. It's the issue, paragraph A, of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty is the foundational premise behind the whole human story. God has the right to choose what he wants to do, who will be in authority, where he wants to do it, and how the storyline will unfold. He has the right to choose all of that. What is it he wants to do? I want my son to rule all the earth. You're God? You want him to rule all the earth? He'll rule all the earth, done, that's it. He has the right to choose who will be the primary authority figures. He goes, I want the Jewish people. I mean, all believers will be involved in it. I want them to be the lead nation. You want it? Yes, okay. If it's you, I love you, I love whatever you want. You're God, let's do it. He gets to choose where? He said Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? It's none of your business, it's Jerusalem. If you choose Jerusalem, I love you, I love what you love, Jerusalem. Jerusalem's as good as any other place. He said, that's the place I've chosen. Because back in the beginning, when all things were even, so to speak, he could have chosen anywhere. He says, that's the place I want to rule, not just for a while, forever. This is an eternal decision, not a haphazard one. This is a thoroughly thought through decision from eternity past, with eternally future implications. I want to choose how the drama will unfold. I'm going to choose the drama and how it will come to completion. I'm going to gather all the nations around Jerusalem. The Jewish people will eventually accept my son, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, top of page 119. Paragraph B, man in our unrenewed thinking, we don't like this. We want God to rule from our nation. If I was you, God, I would rule from my nationality and my nation. The Lord says, no, you're not me and I've chosen another. Okay, okay, that's good enough with me. Paragraph C, it's an issue of the revelation of his glory. He is orchestrating history to reveal the glory of his name. He says this in Ezekiel 20, 36. He goes, Israel, I'm not doing it for you particularly. I do love you. But God so loves the earth. I love the nations. I do love you, Israel. But I'm doing this to prove and exhibit my holy name to everyone. I'm going to pull off, I'm going to have a storyline against all odds. And I'm going to, the phrase I've used over the years is God, it's not a perfect phrase, but God puts himself in divine checkmate. It's like he paints himself into a corner on purpose. He gave the oil to the Islamic nations who hate Israel. He gave the oil. It's not like, Lord, you put the oil in the wrong spot. You're kidding. Yes, you gave it to those guys. Oh no, I thought I told them to put it over there. That's not what happened. That's not an accident. He put the oil so the whole earth needs the oil to run. And he did it on purpose. Then, so all the nations are against Israel. Then the nation that is most hostile against Jesus has to be the nation that will be most fervent for him. So he's got the nation that's not going to exist because everyone's against them. And then they have to worship Jesus and choose him, though they hate him more than any other nation hates him. The father says, watch this. I will save the weakest nation from all the others. And I will take the most rebellious nation and make them the most tender loving nation. Watch this. I will flex my muscles, show my love, exhibit my brilliance, and the whole earth will bow down and say, you are God. And I won't violate anyone's free will when I do it. That's what's going on. Well, why don't we just end with that? Amen. We'll just end with that. You just read the rest.