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Joel 2:28-3:2128And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. 32And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. 1For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. 3And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. 4Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; 5Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: 6The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. 7Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: 8And 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. 9Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. 11Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. 12Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. 13Put 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. 14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 16The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 17So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. 18And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. 19Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 20But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. (Joel 2:28‑3:21)
“And it shall come to pass afterward”,—after the fulfillment of the promised judgments and the blessing of Israel in their land as described in verses 1 to 27,— “that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (verse 28). “All flesh” takes in the saved Gentiles as well as Jews, for though Israel will, during the Millennium, stand in very close relationship with God, a countless number of Gentiles will then be blessed also (Revelation 7:9, 109After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9‑10)).
The Holy Spirit in Old Testament times came upon “holy men of God” who “spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:2121For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21).), but He did not indwell believers until the day of Pentecost (Acts 2); in His power they have all been baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles (1 Corinthians 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)), and are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2: 22); beside much more that the Scriptures reveal regarding His present work, He is the earnest of the believer’s inheritance (Ephesians 1:1414Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14) These blessings are peculiar to the present dispensation, and the passage in Joel does not promise any of them to the earthly saints who will be in the Millennium.
Verses 30-32: In our times, no signs are given but that of Jonas the prophet (Matthew 12:39-4039But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39‑40)), but when the present day of grace is over, and God is about to show His power, there will be wonders, warning the world of what is to come (See Revelation 6, and following chapters).
In that day many who have not heard God’s present message of salvation, will be delivered from the coming wrath. 2 Thessalonians 2:11,1211And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11‑12) closes the door against the neglectors and rejectors of the gospel now made known.
When the Lord descends to this earth, the mighty Conqueror over all His foes, He will “bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem” (chapter 3, verse 1), and they will be a free people in their own land. There will be a judgment of the Gentiles for their treatment of Israel from the earliest oppression of them, down to the last.
Verses 9-12 bid the nations come to the valley of Jehoshaphat, prepared with all their resources, both of fighting, equipment and of men; God’s mighty ones, the angels, whom the Lord in. His hour of trial would not call to His aid (Matthew 26:5353Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)) will be there to meet them.
Two symbols of judgment, found again in the Revelation 14 are used here; —in reaping the harvest there will be made a separation between the objects of mercy and the objects of wrath, but the winepress speaks only of vengeance upon the wicked. The nations here referred to are evidently those headed by the Assyrian of the last days.
The prophecy closes with a glowing description of the land of Israel in the Millennium, when the judgments are executed and peace reigns. Egypt will suffer, and Edom much more, because of past guiltiness concerning Judah.
ML 12/27/1936