How The Rescue Will Begin

Joel 3: 1-8

Joel has taken the recent locust plague that the people had just suffered through as a picture of the Assyrian attack that was coming soon, and both of these as showing how much worse the final antichrist would treat the people. 

Then he encouraged them with the news that the Lord God Himself will come to rescue His people, to fulfill all His promises and restore everything they had lost. 

Now he will show them how the rescue will begin.

(1) "For behold, in those days and at that time, 
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 

He is setting the stage here. 

(2) "I will gather all the nations
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.

This valley of Jehoshaphat is not named here as a geographical place, but a scene of judgment and decision. The Lord will gather all the nations who have fought against His people. We know from other scriptures, that this will be in the Armageddon valley.

Then I will enter into judgment with them there
On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, 

This is the charge that they will be accused of:

Whom they have scattered among the nations; 
And they have divided up My land. 
(3) "They have also cast lots for My people, 
Traded a boy for a harlot
And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

They have dominated the people and taken them out of their own land, scattering them into all the other parts of the world to deprive them of their nationality, trying to blend them into all the other cultures, erasing their own. 

They have divided up the land into parcels that have been given to their enemies to occupy and defile. 

They have devalued the people, reducing them to cheap property, paying for a night with a harlot with a boy, and a flask of wine for a girl. 

(4) "Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your head. 

These areas are the well-known ancient centers of the slave-trade. God says that because they have a grudge against His people Israel, to want to exact revenge on them in order to attack the Lord God; then God will turn the tables on them and do to them what they do to His people.

(5) "Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples, 

They have robbed the people of all their wealth when they were prosperous, and robbed the Lord's temple of everything valuable to use in worship of their idols.

(6) "And sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them from their territory, 

They sold the Jews, not just for monetary profit, but to erase them from the world as Jews, making them part of the other worldly cultures. This is an effort to nullify the promises God made to Israel, to make it impossible for Him.

(7) "behold, I am going to arouse them from the place where you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head. 

God knows who His people are, and He will allow them to maintain their identity as Jews and bring them back to their land. God will show that revenge belongs to Him, and He will give them back what they gave His people, trying to attack their Lord God.

(8) "Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the Lord has spoken. 

The Sabeans are the nation that derived from Sheba, the grandson of Noah, and they settled most likely in Africa. God uses them as an example of a far-away foreign place where He will have His people send the children of those who sold the children of Israel. 

We never need to think that we should get even with anyone for anything. This is revenge, and we cannot handle it, it destroys us. We are to trust that our God will handle the situation, and forgive, which releases us from all the power they have over us. 

God's enemies who worship idols and demons are the devil's minions, who are deceived by him. They attack God's people because they can't get to God to harm Him in any way. 

Our Lord God is going to settle every score, pay off every debt, level every playing field. Our Lord God is perfectly just and fair, and He will see to it that everyone gets exactly what is due him, whether that be judgment, or whether that be reward for obedience. 

O my Father, thank You for being God! You are so good, so compassionate, so gentle; and You are also just and powerful and mighty. You will make sure that everything is done and finished. You gave to Your Son to be our Lord, to move along the progress of Your Plan of the Ages, to dispatch the spiritual help to combat the spiritual forces that war against You by attacking Your people. 

My Father, You are protecting Your sons and daughters from the machinations of the enemy. You are taking everything he means for evil, and bringing tremendous good out of it for Your people. You are showing Yourself powerful against his increasing fury, because he knows his time is short. 

O Father, strengthen Your children against our enemies. Let Your love in us demonstrate Your positive strength against the negativity and attacks of the enemy. Help us to overcome the evil with good. Hold us up in Your mighty hand in the fight, and after all is done, we will stand. 

Even though we may stumble, we will not fall. We can be troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We can be perplexed, but we'll not be without help. We can even be persecuted, but we won't be forsaken; and cast down, but not destroyed (II Corinthians 4: 8-9). Father, You have provided everything we will ever need, in every area of living and thinking and thriving. 

And even when we don't see how it could ever work out, You already have done the rescuing and reviving and redeeming. You have already finished everything, and told us how it will go, as we live through it. When things aren't going right, that's when we'll look up, for our redemption draweth nigh! 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!