Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100117.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Joel: Call To Revere Almighty God
Part III: God's Promised Blessing For Repentance Out Of Reverence For Him, Joel 2:18-3:21
C. God's Promised Judgment Of Those Who Mistreat His People
(Joel 3:1-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. When God's people sin, He may allow their evil foes to mistreat them as part of His discipline, a fact predicted regarding the nation Israel in the Mosaic Covenant of Deuteronomy 28:15, 25.
    2. However, when His people repent, the Lord turns on their evil foes to punish them, and to deliver His people from them. This fact is taught in Joel 3:1-17, and it provides direction for us in our era:
  2. God's Promised Judgment Of Those Who Mistreat His People, Joel 3:1-17.
    1. As we previously learned in this lesson series, Joel 2:18-3:21 describes God's promised blessings when His people, Israel, repent of their sin (Joel 2:12-17) in the coming Great Tribulation Period.
    2. One of God's blessings will be His deliverance of Israel from her invading, evil Gentile foes, a truth extensively predicted and explained in Joel 3:1-17 (as follows):
      1. The "those days" of Joel 3:1 are described in Joel 2:18-32 as the days when Israel repents under the trauma of God's judgment in the Great Tribulation Period, which judgment will have included God's allowing humanly overpowering evil Gentile foes to invade the land of Israel, cf. Joel 2:1-11.
      2. At that time of Israel's repentance, God will regather the nation Israel that had been dispersed in divine judgment among her Gentile foe nations, bringing her back into the Promised Land of Israel, Joel 3:1.
      3. In concert with this gathering, God will also arrange for Israel's Gentile foes to be gathered into "the valley of Jehoshaphat" where He will enter into judgment against them (NIV, ESV) on behalf of His people and heritage, Joel 3:2a. There was no such valley in Israel's past, and though some hold this to be the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem or the valley yet to be formed when the Mount of Olives splits east-to-west, with part of it moving north and the other part moving south, it is best to see the valley as a figurative reference to the whole Armageddon campaign, "the valley of the Lord judges," what the name means in Hebrew; Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Joel 3:2-3; Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 1421.
      4. This judgment will involve God's punishing evil Gentiles for (a) scattering His people Israel, (b) for dividing up the Holy Land that is actually God's land, (c) and for taking Israel into slavery, Joel 3:2b, 3.
      5. Joel 3:4-8 specifies God's judgment on the Phoenicians and Philistines who notoriously plagued the people of Israel in antiquity, but who typify the Lord's judgment on all such evil Gentile foes of Israel:
        1. In a series of questions to the Phoenicians in Tyre and Sidon and to the Philistines along Israel's western Sea Coast, God asks if they are trying to pay Him back by mistreating His people, Joel 3:4a.
        2. The Lord answers His own questions, noting He will repay these nations swift and speedy judgment for taking His wealth to their temples (Joel 3:4b-5) and for selling His people, Israel into slavery to the Greeks, scattering them from their homeland, Joel 3:6.
        3. In retribution, God promises to reverse the roles, to make Israel enslave these former foes and to scatter their children to other nations as they had mistreated Israel's children, Joel 3:7-8 with 3:3.
      6. God then prophetically calls for the nations to come into Israel to fight, to beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears, to embolden themselves for war that they come into the valley of judgment and be figuratively trampled by God in the winepress of His fierce wrath, 3:9-14a.
      7. At that time, the sun, moon and stars will be darkened, the heavens and earth will quake, terrifying Israel's Gentile foes as God destroys them, while Israel will enjoy God's refuge and help, Joel 3:14b-16.
      8. At that time, Israel will realize the Lord is God, that He dwells in His temple site, and Jerusalem will be holy with Israel's alien foes never again being even allowed to pass through the land, Joel 3:17!
Lesson: When Israel repents, the evil Gentiles God allowed to afflict her in judgment will God Himself severely punish, recompensing them for all of their mistreatment of His people, Israel.

Application: (1) If afflicted by evil foes in God's permissive discipline, may we repent to see God be a Refuge in punishing our foes and perpetually delivering us! (2) May we not mistreat other people, for God's discipline will severely fall on us for this just as it will fall on His repentant people's foes!