Joel 3:1-16--The LORD Judges the Nations

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.

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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.