Joel's Crystal, Clear Vision of Our Day...Joel pt 8

https://billrandles.wordpress.com/2021/01/19/joels-clear-vision-of-our-day-joel-pt-8/ ^ | 01-18-21 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

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. (Joel 3:1-3)

The Prophet Joel ministered between 835-800 BC, seeing events lining up from his day all of the way down to the final days of history. Like Mountain Peaks in line, Joel saw the Babylonians invasion of Judah, coming as four waves of swarming, biting, devouring and gnawing locusts, leaving almost nothing behind.

Joel saw other invasions as well, coming as a judgment of God upon his own unrepentant people, all of them in their own way, devouring and stripping the holy people, eventually scattering them across the globe, leaving only the remnant God had preserved.

This prophecy offers a remedy from Almighty God, that is , repentance and turning to God with all of the heart.

The Prophet Joel even predicted the time when the remnant of Israel did indeed repent and were filled with the Holy Spirit, a prophecy which was confirmed shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and which marked the commencement of the “Last Days”.

In Chapter three, Joel is given a ‘high definition’ vision of the very last of the last days, which looks an awful lot like the very time we now find ourself living in. Joel prophesied the Geo-Political events that are occurring right before our very eyes.

Allow me to ‘unpack’ Joel chapter three.

The Prophesy gives us the time of fulfillment “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem…”. From the year 70 AD unto the year 1948, there was no Israel. God had allowed the Romans to erase the nation, kill almost a million Jews and to glut the world’s slave markets with Jews. All of the prophecies of the second coming of Messiah presuppose a nation of Israel and a Jewish held Jerusalem. It wasn’t until 1948 that the miracle happened, a scattered and dead nation, (for two thousand years) had been reconstituted, when Jews from around the world began pouring back into the Holy Land and Israel was reborn. This prophecy is dated, as being ‘post 1948’.

* Joel sees a congress consisting of ‘all nations’. " I will also gather all nations…The literal possibility for this aspect of the prophecy is only recent, for at no other time in human history has there been even a possibility for the “gathering of all nations” since the Tower of Babel judgment.The nations have been absolutely Divided and scattered ever since then.

But as of 1946, All nations have indeed been assembled into a congress, the United Nations which arose, like Israel, out of the aftermath of World War 2 .

“the kings of the earth and their rulers take counsel together against the LORD and His Christ”.

* The Prophecy involves the Valley of Jehoshaphat– “… and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat… “.

This part of the prophecy can be understood on three levels

1) There is a valley of Jehoshaphat, which is outside of Jerusalem.

2) The name Jehoshaphat- means “Jahweh shall Judge”. “I will gather all nations to the valley of Jahweh shall Judge…”.

3) The story of Jehoshaphat- ( 2 Chronicles 20)- God would have us consider the story of Jehoshaphat because it prefigures the end of the world in certain ways.A multi national confederation sets a siege against Judah and Jerusalem, and all seems lost, until the people seek God, pray, fast and turn to Him, and He delivers them miraculously.

* The Lawsuit– “…and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel…” God will “plead with them…(the nations)”. In the final conflict, God will gather the nations around Jerusalem, and will slap a lawsuit on them…(That is what ‘plead’ means here). There will be four separate indictments in it, and the nations will have to answer to God for them.

1) The Nations have scattered God’s people

2) They have parted God’s land

3) They cast lots for God’s people,

4) They sold out the innocent children of Israel, for the hire of a harlot, and for wine.

We will take a look at each of these four indictments in the light of History and current events…

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Maudeen]

Thank you for posting! Anxiously await Part 9.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Excellent!

[metmom]

Amen!

[kelly4c]

Excellent. Bookmark.