Joel 3:15-21
Joel 3:15
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars
shall withdraw their shining.
As we read in Matthew 24:29 that very shortly before the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ the sign we will see will be the sun and moon
darkened. The stars shall also be
darkened. This will be the final
sign. The sun will be darkened on
the side of the earth where it is day and the moon and stars will be darkened on
the side of the earth which is at night so it is one singular event.
God also gives a meaning that these kingdoms and empires had basked in
their glory and pride but there is coming a day for each one where their glory
will fade and go completely out and they will be as magnificent as a darkened
moon or star which are nothing but rocks in space.
Joel 3:16
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.
Here we have a prophecy of the coming of Christ when he
will roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem.
Christ is called the lion of the tribe of Judah.
And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
(Revelation 5:5) Zion is another name for the body of believers.
Therefore
the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
(Isaiah 51:11) Isaiah
51:11 is dripping with salvation language as it speaks of the redeemed of the
LORD which are the believers in Christ.
Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree:
(Galatians 3:13) The joy will
be everlasting which means it is beyond time and this present earth. Sorrow and
mourning will flee away is also the language of Heaven.
And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
(Revelation 21:4) God
himself will wipe away all sorrow forever and the believer will never know
anything sorrowful again.
Then Joel 3:16 states that the heavens and earth will
shake which means a cataclysmic event will happen.
For
thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a
little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the
dry land; (Haggai 2:6)
When God thundered at Sinai, He shook the mountain as well as the people of
Israel and that is why they became extremely fearful and asked Moses to
intercede between God and them. Now God has promised that He will once again
shake the earth but this time He includes Heaven. The first time the Lord came,
it was for the purpose of dying for the sins of the Elect but the second time He
comes it will be for the purpose of ending up the history of the earth and
universe. The earth will be destroyed by fire and the unbelievers will be judged
and then the new heaven and the new earth will be made. The second of Coming of
Christ will be a fearful thing for the unbeliever. That is why in Revelation
6:12-17, all the people of the world, great and small, are looking for the rocks
to hide them because they know the day of the Lamb’s wrath has come with a great
cataclysm.
During the time the people of
earth will be in fear for things coming on the earth.
Therefore I will shake the
heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD
of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
(Isaiah 13:13)
The Lord will be protecting his people and they will
never have to worry about being subject to the final judgment of God.
He talks about the strength of Israel which is the Israel of God the body
of believers.
And as many as walk according to this
rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
(Galatians 6:16)
Joel 3:17
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 I looked, and,
lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four
thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
(Revelation 14:1) Mount
Zion is another term for the kingdom of God which every true believer is a part
of. The Kingdom of God is looked
upon as a holy mountain.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the
serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith
the LORD. (Isaiah 65:25)
As we see in Isaiah 65:25 that these particular animals were enemies and
were hostile to each other but here in the holy mountain of God or the Kingdom
of God there is no hostility as all are at eternal peace with each other.
The Jerusalem which will be holy is not the physical city of Jerusalem
but it is the New Jerusalem, the Redeemed city of the LORD.
{9} By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
{10} For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9-10)
The city which Abraham looked for was made by God completely.
The city made by God was the body of believers because it was built
through grace and no work of man.
And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. (Revelation 21:2)
The strangers are the unbelievers.
There will be no unbelievers dwelling in glory with the true redeemed
believers.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold,
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a
whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among
them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
(Deuteronomy 31:16) The
strangers which surround Israel became a snare to them and they followed their
false gods which led them to the point they are at now, awaiting the judgment of
God upon them.
Joel 3:18
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.
The mountains which will drop down new wine is the
Kingdom of God which will send forth the Gospel to the world.
But new wine must be put into new
bottles; and both are preserved.
(Luke 5:38) Jesus stated that
new wine must be put into new bottles, in other words, you cannot add grace to
the old law and combine the two and receive salvation.
The new wine or grace must be allowed to stand on its own without any
feasts or sacrifices on the part of man.
Grace and law cannot be homogenized, each one is its own entity.
Christ is become of no effect unto
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
(Galatians 5:4) Christ
has no effect on those who attempt to attain salvation by keeping the law
because they are trying to gain their own salvation by works and that is totally
opposite of grace. The milk which
will flow from the hills is the milk of the word of God which will be preached
from Zion or the body of believers.
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
(1 Peter 2:2) Then the
rivers of Judah shall flow with the waters of salvation which will clean
everyone who has become saved.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon
you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,
will I cleanse you. (Ezekiel 36:25)
Then there will be a fountain coming from the house of the LORD which
will be the gospel of the Kingdom of God going forth throughout the entire
world.
I will open rivers in high places, and
fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of
water, and the dry land springs of water.
(Isaiah 41:18) The water
of the gospel will go forth bringing water to those who are thirsty for the
righteousness of God’s kingdom.
Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
(Matthew 5:6) The waters
of righteousness shall fill the true believer for eternity.
The valley of Shittim was located in the plains of Moab towards the
southeast. It was a very dry and
thirsty place just like the soul of unsaved man which is dry.
For if they do these things in a
green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
(Luke 23:31) The Green tree represented the true believer as the dry
represented the unbeliever. The
gospel would go forth from the house of the LORD and those who are ordained to
eternal life will believe and they will be turned from a dry tree to a green
tree.
Joel 3:19
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.
Since Egypt kept Judah and Israel in bondage for 400
years, God is going to make Egypt a desolation.
Once Israel left Egypt, Egypt never became a power to be reckoned with
again. The book of Obadiah details
the judgments against Edom because when Babylon was ransacking Judah, they took
the side of the Babylonians instead of coming to the aid of Judah.
Their arrogance will cause them to be made a desolation in the
wilderness. Edom should have come
to help Judah but instead their actions came against Judah and that caused many
more Jews to be killed in the invasion by Babylon.
Joel 3:20
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation.
Once again we have the language of salvation because we
see the word “forever” in the text.
Those who are in Christ are the spiritual Jews and they will have eternal life
and dwell forever in Heaven which is the land of the believer.
{13} And ye shall know that I am
the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of
your graves, {14} And shall put my
spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then
shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
(Ezekiel 37:13-14)
Before a person becomes saved they are spiritually dead which is represented by
the graves.
Even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
(Ephesians 2:5) Then
when God raises us from being spiritually dead he places the Holy Spirit in us
and that causes us to have life forever and then places us in our own land which
is the Kingdom of God. If a person
lives in the USA and becomes saved then God has placed them in their own land
and that is the same with any country on earth.
If you live in Denmark, Madagascar, Russia, Hong Kong, North Korea,
Paraguay or any country on earth.
Your physical body may dwell there but once you become saved you have dual
citizenship which means physically you are in a country on earth but by means of
salvation you are in your own land which is the Kingdom of God.
When he states that Jerusalem will go from generation to generation it
means in perpetuity and it will never end.
It is another description of eternal salvation for the body of believers,
the new Jerusalem.
Joel 3:21
For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:
for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.