We today notice Joel 3:17-21, the Prophet’s sweet “Millennium” Paragraph.

Nearly all the Old Testament Books of eschatology have one, some more than one!

“So 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. And 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. Egypt 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. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.” Joel 3:17-21

The Unit is full of promises.

The Lord Jesus has returned to earth. And is “dwelling” in Zion, in Jerusalem! I’m thinking of Zechariah’s great chapter 14 now. The Second Coming, literally.

Thus, Judah’s Capitol City is “cleansed, sanctified!” Actually “holy” means “set apart, sanctified, consecrated.” Ezekiel 48:35 chimes in with these words: “And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” Wow!

Truly Israel will then have become a “land of milk and honey!” Grape harvests unprecedented, and that “Water of Life” is mentioned yet again!

Judgment has fallen upon the enemies of God’s people, Egypt and Edom being named particularly. The noun “wilderness” means “desert,” like many lonely and solitary places forsaken by God.

Yes, God remembers sins (even of a Nation) … especially those dealing with “innocent bloodshed.”

Then the grand finale of all promises to Israel, I think. The Jews in their land … forever! “Judah shall dwell FOR EVER, and Jerusalem FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.”

The verb “dwelleth” in this Text, when used of God (verse 17 and again in verse 21), is “shakan,” as in the “Shekinah Glory” of the Almighty!

And the verb “dwell,” used of the Jews (verse 20), is “yashab,” meaning “to dwell, remain,” in a permanent sense. It is NOT the word “to sojourn,” to live in tents, roaming an area.

Total cleansing, too!

The verb “to cleanse” (verse 21) is rare! It is used twice in this single verse … and elsewhere in the whole Bible only 42 more times. It means “to hold guiltless.” To so forgive as to allow someone “to go unpunished!”

Yes, Joel ends with a note of Grace!

As does the New Testament, the book of Revelation: “The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:21

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Joel 3:9-16 depicts Armageddon, the Battle (some say war) of Armageddon.

At the end of the Tribulation.

Immediately prior to the beginning of the Millennium.

Our Text today: “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: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. 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. 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. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The 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.” Joel 3:9-16

We here hear “similarities” to Isaiah and Zechariah and Matthew and John and best of all, JESUS!

The nations of the world (most of them if not all) joining forces to come against Israel.

Disturbances in the atmosphere (sun, moon and stars).

The Lord (obviously) has returned to earth.

And has become the “Hope” of His people, the Jews!

Our Saviour will “help” Israel too, becoming their “strength,” in Hebrew “maoz,” meaning “Rock, Fortress, Refuge!”

These events will come to pass, sure as I am sitting at a keyboard trying to share them this Saturday morning.

ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED!

And Jesus (for 1,000 years) shall sit and rule on David’s Throne, King of the Jews indeed.

Next, the Lord willing, Joel’s view of the coming Kingdom of our Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Clearly, Joel is a Prophet!

 

Today (2016) it is called the “United Nations.”

Previously, the “League of Nations.”

Anciently, the “Tower of Babel” Union!

But in the future, apparently when Jesus returns again to earth, the (confederated) nations of our planet will be summoned by Almighty God Himself. Called into judgment!

Joel 3:2, using God’s Words, prophesies: “I 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.” The verb “will plead” is “shaphat” in Hebrew, meaning “to judge” 119 times in the Old Testament!

This is indeed what has become known prophetically as “The Judgment of the Nations.”

But how have those nations treated Israel?

Why is God so determined to visit “judgment” upon them?

Joel 3:3-8 allows God to continue with the indictment, the Judge on the Bench: “And 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. Yea, 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; because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: 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.”

Wow!

Merchandising the Jews!

Hating Israel!

Yet for sure … every single (guilty) nation is to be judged (severely) by God!

Matthew 25:31-46 may be describing this same Event, this identical Judgment: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Again, the Judgment of the Nations!

The hateful ways these peoples (nations, ethnic groups) have treated the Jews, God’s Chosen People, is the criteria for this judgment!

Amazing.

I have much to learn in this area of Bible Prophecy. Perhaps we all do. But I believe what Joel has written, because I take all the Bible to be God’s inspired Word!

This I do know.

Mistreatment of the Jewish people is a sin which God does not forget!

Genesis 12:1-3 has been proved again and again! “Now the LORD had said unto Abram (Abraham), Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great NATION, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE, and CURSE HIM THAT CURSETH THEE: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

True!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Many Bible writers have little “time indicators” they use to “forward” the stories they tell or the doctrines they teach. Matthew loves the adverb “then.” And Mark frequently utilizes the word “straightway.” But the Old Testament Prophets (Joel included, of course) use phrases like “in those days” or “at that time.” Normally (and logically) with the Prophets some future event is in view.

For example, Joel 3:3 … “For, behold, IN THOSE DAYS, and IN THAT TIME, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem.” Joel here is relating words from Almighty God, clearly.

God is going to “congregate” Israel!

To “gather” (or “re-gather”) her from the far-flung corners of the world.

The Lord perhaps began to do that back in 1948 with the re-establishment of Israel as a little Nation. BUT … Joel has in mind a greater and fuller re-gathering.

By using “Judah” and “Jerusalem” the Prophet here gives us his own time-line. Yet he still means all the Jewish people.

But WHY does God want them “in the land” once more?

Because He promised such to Abraham and his children, his offspring! Genesis 15:18 tells it in brief: “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” That’s a  lot of real estate! Much more than Israel has ever literally possessed, so far.

Then too, God is going to subject Israel to a time of Tribulation (out of love for her, to humble her and ultimately bring her to Jesus) … for this she needs to be in the Land, her Land!

So … Joel here tells us of the gathering process.

Isaiah, I think, describes the same gathering. “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time TO RECOVER the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and SHALL ASSEMBLE the outcasts of Israel, and GATHER TOGETHER the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isaiah 11:10-12

Jeremiah too. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, which BROUGHT UP AND WHICH LED led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” Jeremiah 23:5-8

Wow!

Then … tomorrow … Lord willing, we shall see the next event in Joel’s chronology.

This man sure says a lot in a little space!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

One of the most complete “quotations” of the Old Testament in the New Testament involves Joel 2:28-32. Simon Peter incorporates this Text into his great “Day of Pentecost” Sermon.

I want to show you the specifics, now.

Joel 2:28-32 … “And 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 and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And 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.”

Then Peter in Acts 2:16-21 … “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Now it is obvious to see that Peter is being led of the Holy Spirit.

And we are being given a classic view of proper Bible “hermeneutics,” or (hermeneutics defined) the “science of Scriptural interpretation.”

But WHY does Peter quote all the way through Joel’s Paragraph … even including the non-pertinent sentences about the “signs in heaven above and earth beneath?”

Because … Joel has his eye trained primarily on (as of 2016) future events, the Tribulation and Millennium. While Peter is merely using the Old Testament Passage as an “illustration” of what happened at Pentecost, the “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit upon the nascent Church.

Peter’s ploy here has aided many a “liberal” (one not believing in the Tribulation or Millennium either, literally so anyway) to suggest that the moon and sun and stars will NEVER actually do such things, darken and appear bloody. Nor will the fire fall as Joel suggests, all being merely symbols. Because those things did not happen (by any stretch of the imagination) 2,000 years ago at Pentecost.

Well … here’s the answer, or part of it.

Peter is DETERMINED to include the whole Joel Text … because he feels he MUST reach that last verse in the Unit. The one about “whosoever will” being saved. (Which was clearly about to happen as Peter preached that Day of Pentecost! In fact … 3,000 souls!) So … Peter I think keeps the whole Joel 2:28-32 Pericope in place, undivided.

And folks, Joel did promise … “and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord SHALL BE DELIVERED.” This last Hebrew verb, “malat,” is translated “saved” at least 5 times in the Old Testament.

So Peter did directly follow … “and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

And the boisterous Disciple was content thereafter to let us progenitors of the Faith decipher the issue from that point! He (Peter) clearly wanted to establish one of the great facts of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. Jesus died for everyone, for “whosoever!”

No, the Tribulation did not occur in Peter’s lifetime.

It is still future. As is the Millennium, the thousand year rule of Jesus Christ here on this earth.

A time when yet again (to the fullest extent in all human history) the Holy Spirit will be “poured out” by Almighty God, just as prophesied of old.

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell