Joel 3:8-14
Joel 3:8
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the
hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a
people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
God now states in no uncertain terms that he is going to
take their sons and daughters and sell them to the Sabeans.
If you recall it was the Sabeans that killed the children of Job which
means they had been around for over 2,000 years, so they have a long history.
And the Sabeans fell upon them,
and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the
sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
(Job 1:15) The Sabeans
were located in the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula
which would have been a very far distance from the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon. It will happen because the
LORD had spoken it which means it will come to pass in his timing and in his
way.
Joel 3:9
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up
the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Here God is taunting the Gentile nations because they
believed that they were invincible and here God is goading them on to prepare
for war, not against Judah but against him.
He tells them to get your mighty men prepared for battle and also all the
men of war to come against God who they believed they had defeated because they
defeated the people of Judah and Israel.
Basically what God was saying was “try me and see if your strength
prevails against me personally?” To
respond to that challenge would be a person’s death!
Joel 3:10
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks
into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Here is a call to arms that even if they are farmers
using farm implements they must now take those peaceful instruments and turn
them into instruments of war. Those
that are weak, let them have faith in their implements of war which would give
them a false confidence. This type
of situation was experienced in the far east in Japan and Okinawa.
During the time of the feudal lords, the common people could not fight
back against them because they had weapons of war like spears and swords but all
the peasants had were farming implements.
What they did was they started creating defense and offensive weapons
from farming implements and used them in conjunction with Karate and Kung Fu and
were able to battle the warlords successfully.
The Nunchakus made famous by Bruce Lee was one of the fighting
instruments that came out of that time period.
Joel 3:11
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather
yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O
LORD.
Here the LORD is telling them to set yourselves in array
for battle and names them as “heathens” because that was the type of nations
that surrounded Israel. He is now
challenging the heathen nations who prided themselves on being so strong that
nothing could stand in their way especially empires like Assyria and Babylon.
God specifically sends the challenges to the “mighty ones” to come down
to battle. He is assembling them in
a certain place. He might be
goading them toward Jerusalem and Judah which of course if they do start
marching, they will never reach their goal.
The LORD’s army is definitely not of this earth which Elisha and Gehazi
saw for themselves.
And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray
thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young
man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha. (2 Kings
6:17)
Joel 3:12
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of
Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
Here we have God telling the heathen to waken or be
stirred up and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat which is the day of judgment
for those nation surrounding Israel that have persecuted them.
The judgment they will receive will be the destruction of their nations
and their power as empires will no longer be there and will be just a weak
entity. It is like on Judgment Day
at the end of time, these heathens will stand for the final judgment when all
the nations of the world will be gathered before the throne of Christ.
They will give an account for their sins against God and those nations
who persecuted the Christian will give an account for their sins against the
body of Christ.
Joel 3:13
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get
you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is
great.
Here we have two scenarios the first one is the harvest
of the earth where both believers and unbelievers will be reaped from the earth.
The unsaved will go to judgment and the believers will go into Heaven.
{15} And another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy
sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the
earth is ripe. {16} And he that sat
on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
(Revelation 14:15-16) In
Joel 3:13 the sickle being put into the earth is also the judgment which will
take place of both the Assyrians and the Babylonians because their sins have now
become complete. There is a certain
time that God waits for because of his patience but while he waits these heathen
nations continue to mount up their sins it Heaven.
But in the fourth generation they
shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
(Genesis 15:16)
God was telling Abraham that Israel would serve Egypt and when the
fullness of the iniquity of the Amorites are fulfilled, then Israel will be free
from Egyptian bondage and will be divinely empowered to deal with the Amorites.
Joel 3:14
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the
day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.