Joel 3:17-21
English Standard Version

The Glorious Future of Judah
17 “So you shall know that I am the LORD your God,
    who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
    and strangers shall never again pass through it.

18 “And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
    shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD
    and water the Valley of Shittim.

19 “Egypt shall become a desolation
    and Edom a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the people of Judah,
    because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem to all generations.
21 I will avenge their blood,
    blood I have not avenged,
    for the LORD dwells in Zion.”

The book of Joel ends with a promise of a glorious future for the LORD's people.  The LORD will return to His holy mountain (Mount Zion), to Jerusalem, The City of the Great King.  Jerusalem will once again be called The Holy City, and there will never again be strangers (those who are not the people of God) who enter it.  This leads me to think we're talking about The New Jerusalem with The New Heavens and New Earth, as all the enemies of God have been destroyed.

The Land will be extremely fruitful so that even the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk and all the streambeds of Judah will be filled with living water.  The source of this living water will be from the Temple of the LORD (see Ezekiel).

The once powerful nations that have been a thorn in Jacob's side will be destroyed--Egypt and Edom will never again vex them.  The LORD's people will live in the Promised land throughout all generations, and He will avenge the innocent blood of His people that was shed by Egypt, Edom, and all the other enemies of His people.  By this, all people will know that the LORD lives in Zion and He delivers, saves, and avenges His people--the people that He has chosen to love and call by His Name.

Joel 3:1-16
English Standard Version

The LORD Judges the Nations
3  “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD has spoken.”

9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate for war;
    stir up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near;
    let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11 Hasten and come,
    all you surrounding nations,
    and gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O LORD.
12 Let the nations stir themselves up
    and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
    all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
    for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
    for their evil is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes,
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of the LORD is near
    in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The LORD roars from Zion,
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the LORD is a refuge to his people,
    a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The LORD will judge the nations on how they have treated His people--the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This is not the only place in the Bible where this kind of judgment is described, but it is clear that the purpose of this judgment is to punish those who have mistreated the people of Israel, scattering them across the whole earth, driving them out of the Land that the LORD prepared for them and even selling them into slavery to Gentile nations.  These offending nations will themselves be scattered and be dispossessed from their land and made to be exiles to the farthest reaches of the earth and made to be slaves to distant foreigners.  All the things they willfully did to the LORD's people will come back on them.  And the LORD will gather together His people to Himself from the uttermost parts of the earth and will restore them.

The nations will prepare for war and turn everything they can into a weapon of war, and they will arm all men for war, even the weak.  They believe that somehow they will overwhelm the LORD with such great numbers, forgetting that He is the one who spoke everything into existence out of nothing, and it will take nothing more than a word for Him to defeat all of them.

The symbolism of the harvest and the winepress is used to say that the time for the final judgment has come.  All these nations have a decision--will they submit to the LORD and His King and be submissive to His people or will they rebel against the the LORD and be destroyed and their souls sent into everlasting judgment (the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels)?

The LORD will shout so loudly that heaven and earth will shake--with a mighty roar.  None of the LORD's enemies will be able to hide, but the LORD will protect all of His people just like He kept those who belonged to Him safe inside the Ark on the day of judgment when the Flood came.  In the same way, the wicked will perish, but the righteous will be delivered and saved.

Joel 2:28-32
English Standard Version

The LORD Will Pour Out His Spirit
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

How do we know we are living in the last days and that the day of the LORD is quickly approaching? One of the ways is fulfillment of Scriptures like this one which was partially fulfilled in Acts 2 at the day of Pentecost.  This exact passage was quoted as being fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon men and women from every nation and tongue, and many spoke in tongues and prophesied on that day.  There was no distinction between male and female, servant and master, slave or free.  All were one in the Spirit and one in the Lord.

Verses 30 through 32 are still to be fulfilled in the very end of days.  There will be great miracles done (great plagues will be sent to judge the wicked, but the righteous will be saved), and the sun will become dark and the moon will turn to blood.  Then another verse that was quoted at Pentecost, "And all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Joel sees all of the future compressed together like looking at a mountain range and two different mountains appear to be one in the distance.  It's not until you get closer, possibly even start claiming the first mountain that you start to see the depth and realize the other mountain is still some distance away.

As the land of Goshen was the place of protection for the LORD's people in the time of the Exodus, so the city of Jerusalem will be a place of protection for the people of the Lord during the time of Jacob's Trouble (the Great Tribulation) and those who call on the name of the LORD will be saved.  Only those whom the LORD calls as His own will be saved from the plagues and destruction that is to come upon the wicked in the great Day of the LORD.

Joel 2:18-27
English Standard Version

The LORD Had Pity
18 Then the LORD became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.
19 The LORD answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

20 “I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his vanguard into the eastern sea,
    and his rear guard into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

21 “Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
22 Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit;
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

23 “Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and rejoice in the LORD your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

24 “The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the LORD your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.

The prophetic ministry of Joel is in the midst of the period of restoration after the decree from Cyrus goes out and everything is rebuilt.  The people were disheartened that there were Gentiles living among them who thought the Land now belonged to them and they were harassed and threatened by these people (see the book of Nehemiah).  The LORD promises that He will restore the Land to the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey that it once once--lots of grain and oil and wine.  Their enemies would be driven out just like the LORD did during the original Conquest.

The LORD would do all this not because the people had suddenly become righteous, but because the LORD had compassion on them.  He will send them showers of blessings, will fill up their storehouses with grain and their vats with wine and oil, and they will be more than satisfied with what the LORD provides for them.  They will be lacking nothing.  Never again will His people be put to shame (we know that does happen again and they leave the Land again and come back to it again, so this must be looking forward to the end times again and there is a "near" and a "far" view of this prophecy).

Joel 2:12-17
English Standard Version

Return to the LORD
12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the LORD your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the LORD your God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16     gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

17 Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O LORD,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

Even though they are on the brink of disaster, the LORD calls His people to repentance once more and offers to be their Savior.  The people are reminded of His goodness and mercy that He told Moses of in the book of Exodus, but along with that came the promise of judgment for the wicked.  He is both things at the same time.  There is a chance He might relent, though not a definite promise.  As opposed to the invading army that is leaving nothing but wasteland behind them, perhaps the LORD will fight for them and destroy their enemies once more and leave a blessing behind Himself for them.

The priests and the government leaders are to blow the trumpets to call for a solemn assembly and declare a fast unto the LORD.  All people great and small, young and old are to gather together to fast and repent.  Even those who were ready to celebrate their weddings should stop and come to participate in this fast, because it is the most important thing they can do right now--to fast and pray for the mercy of God and to ask Him to change their hearts as only He can.

The priests were never supposed to show their emotion or mourn, but they are commanded to do so here because of their sin and the sin of the people.  They are to mediate and cry out for mercy.  Joel says the LORD should do this not just for the sake of His people, but for the sake of His own name, which the other nations now disparage.  They mock Him and wonder if He even exists if He will not defend His people who are called by His Name.  We know He does exist and He is directing events, and the Babylonians are His agents of change for His people, but there is coming a day when He will act to save His people, but not before their 70 years of exile are up.

Joel 2:1-11
English Standard Version

The Day of the LORD
2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
    sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

3 Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
5 As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

6 Before them peoples are in anguish;
    all faces grow pale.
7 Like warriors they charge;
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
    they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another;
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
9 They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them;
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
11 The LORD utters his voice
    before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;
    who can endure it?

We read Joel 2 and wonder if this is talking about the coming judgment of the Exile, but then we realize it cannot be because it says "and never again after them" for the number of people that would be attacking the Holy Land, and we know that one day all the nations of the world will gather together to make war against the Lord and His people.  So, this was only partially fulfilled by the time of Exile, but won't reach it's complete fulfillment until the time of the Great Tribulation.

There will be indeed be plagues of darkness and locusts and there will be wars and all the nations of the world will rise up against Jerusalem and the Holy Land which has been protected from all the plagues (it will look like The Garden of Eden in comparison to the rest of the earth).  The attackers consume everything like locusts and there is nothing but fire and destruction behind them.  This is what they intend to do to The Beautiful Land, but the LORD Himself will stop them.

It is unclear the way these armies are described if they are armies of men or demons or demonized men that Joel is seeing the true power behind them, but they certainly seem to be doing the work of the devil to steal, kill, and destroy.  The people in front of them are in fear.  The earth and the heavens shake with the sounds of their footsteps and chariots and weapons of war.  It would seem as if the LORD is once again going to use the armies of the world to bring judgment (and possibly destruction) to the people of Israel.  There appears to be no hope.  This is indeed their darkest hour (quite literally with no sun or moon giving light).  It will be in this very moment when the things are darkest that the LORD will appear to once and for all save His people.  That is what we will talk about next time.

Joel 1:13-20
English Standard Version

A Call to Repentance
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
    and cry out to the LORD.

15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
16 Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

17 The seed shrivels under the clods;
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

19 To you, O LORD, I call.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

The LORD calls on a public, corporate time of repentance led by the priests.  They are to put off their priestly garments and to wear sackcloth (a visible sign of their mourning and repentance over their sin).    To remove their priestly garments, they would have to stop performing their priestly duties--making sacrifices for the people  The LORD says this is more important than these sacrifices that were coming from a rebellious people that were just going through the motions.  He wanted their hearts first and foremost.

Next, a call for the political and tribal leaders to come together and call a day of fasting for all the people.  They were gather all the people together at the Temple for this day of mourning, fasting, and prayer, led by the priests and the elders of the people.

Why should they do this and do it now?  Because the Day of the LORD is at hand.  There's that theme of this entire book again.  In this context, it is speaking of the Babylonian Exile and the judgment that is going to come on the LORD's people, starting with the house of God.  However, the Day of the LORD is not something that was localized to that day and time, it is also a day that is coming in the future when the LORD will come to make war against all of His enemies and establish His Kingdom forever and ever.  His people should repent and be ready for His glorious appearing so they will not be put to shame when He appears.

All the covenantal blessing tied to the Land and given to the People are dying as a sign to the people of their spiritual state and that they are spiritually dead and disconnected from God.  They need to repent and turn back to Him before it is too late, or judgment will come upon them.  The pastures were burned with fire, the animals pant with thirst and there is no water to quench their thirst.  Even the seeds that could be used to replant for another season have been destroyed.  There is utterly nothing left.  Everything is dead or dying.