Joel 1:1-20 The word of the LORD
that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give
ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or
even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let
your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that
which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which
the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. Awake, ye drunkards,
and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine;
for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon
my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth
are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
[Babylonian Captivity?]He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath
made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made
white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of
her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from
the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the
new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen;
howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the
harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig
tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the
apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy
is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, and lament,
ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in
sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink
offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Sanctify ye
a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants
of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Alas for the day! for the day of the
LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall
it come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and
gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their
clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for
the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are
perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are
made desolate. O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured
the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees
of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers
of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the
wilderness.
Joel 2
Joel 2 is split into two time periods leading up to the day of the Lord,
both referencing the sixth seal events. What is interesting is how it shows
two different paths leading to the day of the Lord from differing perspectives.
First it begins at the abomination of desolation going through the sixth
seal to the day of the Lord. Then it jumps back to the Diaspora and re-gathering,
Gog/Magog, the sixth seal and then the day of the Lord.
Joel 2:1-2 - Day of the Lord coming, a day of darkness and wrath
(warning of coming time) Joel 2:3-9 - Abomination of desolation and
slaughter of 2/3 of Israel (time of Jacob’s trouble) Joel 2:10
- 6th seal Joel 2:11 - Day of the Lord (wrath of God) Joel 2:12-14
- Therefore (because of these things) turn to God with fasting, weeping,
and mourning; rending your heart
Diaspora & Re-gathering through
Gog/Magog to day of the Lord
Joel 2:15-17 - Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly requesting
the Lord to spare His people. Joel 2:18-27 - Lord responds with latter
rain and removal of northern army and Israel never ashamed Joel 2:28-30
- Afterward, Lord pours His spirit on all flesh and shows wonders in
the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joel 2:31-32 - 6th seal before day of the Lord and whoever calls on
the name of the Lord will be delivered.
Joel 2:1-32 [The Warning] Blow ye the trumpet in
Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants
of the land tremble: for the day of
the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness
and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as
the morning spread upon the mountains:
[The Time of Jacob’s Trouble] a great people and a strong;
there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it,
even to the years of many generations. [Followers
of the antichrist] A fire devoureth before them; and behind them
a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them,
and behind them a desolate wilderness;
[Islam]
yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the
appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise
of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise
of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set
in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained:
all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they
shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one
on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Neither shall one
thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they
fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and
fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon
the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble:
[The
6th Seal] the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the
stars shall withdraw their shining:
[Day
of the Lord -
God’s Wrath] And the LORD shall utter his voice
before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth
his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
and who can abide it? Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn
ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping,
and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn
unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if
he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat
offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
[Cut back in time: Diaspora Regathering]
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather
the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth
of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the
ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let
them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach,
that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among
the people, Where is their God? Then will the
LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the LORD
will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and
wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more
make you a reproach among the heathen:
[Gog/Magog] But I will remove far off
from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and
desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward
the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall
come up, because he hath done great things. Fear not, O land; be glad
and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts
of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the
tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God:
for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause
to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain
in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats
shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years
that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and
the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat
in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God,
that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
[Ezekiel 39:25-29 <
There’s an interesting parallel here.] And ye shall
know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God,
and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 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.
[The 6th Seal followed by the Day of the Lord]
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 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.
Joel 3
Joel 3:1-8 - In those days and in that time when Israel is living in
the land, all nations will be gathered and brought to the valley of
Jehoshaphat. What the nations did to Israel will be put back on their
heads. Joel 3:9-12 - Gentiles: prepare war and let all men of war
come up (Gog/Magog?) Joel 3:13-14 - Put in sickle, harvest is ripe
and winepress is full for their wickedness is great. Revelation 14:17-20
Joel 3:15 - 6th seal Joel 3:16 - Heavens and earth shake (wrath of
God) but the Lord will be the hope of His people (1/3 remnant refined
through fire Zechariah 13:8-9) Joel 3:17 - Then Jerusalem will be
holy and the mountains will drop new wine and fountain out of the house
of the Lord (millennium?) Joel 3:18-21 - Fate of Egypt and Edom (destruction), also
of Israel and the promise of their cleansing.
Joel 3:1-12 For, behold, in those
days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah
and Jerusalem, 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. 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. 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.
This chapter starts off with “in those days, and in that time,”
which if run over from the previous chapter, Joel 2, talks about the end-times
specifically during the 70th week of Daniel. We
saw and are seeing the continued aliyah of Jews back to Israel as prophesied
in Ezekiel 36 and elsewhere in the Bible. Zidon’s destruction is also
in Jeremiah 47 linked with Gaza, Tyrus, Philistines, and Ashkelon. What
is the war the Gentiles prepare for?
Gog/Magog? After the abomination of desolation?
Armageddon? The
valley of Jehoshaphat is the valley between Jerusalem and the mount
of Olives.
Joel 3:13-17 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.
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.
This is the same sequence found in Isaiah 13:10-13 and elsewhere.
It shows the second sickle harvest from Revelation 14:17-20. This is
the harvest of the wicked into God’s wrath. This takes place just
after the sixth seal when the day of the Lord begins after the harpazo.
Revelation 6:12-17 is the sixth seal and Revelation 7 goes into the sealing
of the 144,000 and the multitude in heaven (the bride of Christ before the
throne in heaven after the harpazo).
Joel 3:18-21 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 out 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.
“Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
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