Say to the nations far and wide: “Get ready for war! Call out your best warriors. Let all your fighting men advance for the attack. Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to be warriors. Come quickly, all you nations everywhere. Gather together in the valley.” And now, O Lord, call out your warriors! “Let the nations be called to arms. Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I, the Lord, will sit to pronounce judgment on them all. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full. The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people.” Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision. There the day of the Lord will soon arrive. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will shake. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a strong fortress for the people of Israel. “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, live in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy forever, and foreign armies will never conquer her again. In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Water will fill the streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the Lord’s Temple, watering the arid valley of acacias. But Egypt will become a wasteland and Edom will become a wilderness, because they attacked the people of Judah and killed innocent people in their land. “But Judah will be filled with people forever, and Jerusalem will endure through all generations. I will pardon my people’s crimes, which I have not yet pardoned; and I, the Lord, will make my home in Jerusalem with my people.” Joel 3:9-21
The prophet delivered God’s message of the end to hostile
nations some eight centuries before the birth of Jesus. He draws the canvas of humanities’ aggression
coming to an end. Judgment is completed with
a finality that draws all the wickedness together in one cataclysmic moment in
time. The Lord is victorious in the
Valley of Decision, Megiddo, where war will give way to genuine, everlasting
peace. There will be no signed treaties,
only to be discarded when the next warrior ascends a throne; there will be warrior
nations no longer!
What is also pictured is the best part of future history –
God, Jehovah, JHWH, Creator, Sustainer of Life, Savior, and Everlasting King of
Kings dwelling with the entire family of humanity. The veil of darkness between Heaven and earth
will be lifted, and all people will walk in the light of God’s love. Every ruler and follower who rejected God’s
authority has been defeated. There is no
longer a call, nor a cause for warriors…the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, in all
righteousness, judges the earth for sin, and separates the sheep from the
goats.
We are only a day past Veteran’s Day and the ache in my soul
for those whose lives ended on the battlefields of all wars is still
strong. Having seen something of war up
close I cannot march proudly in parades without tears. I cannot stir up much pride in the name of organized
human slaughter. I long for the Parousia,
the coming of Christ on the clouds to put an end to the madness of warring
souls.
I am aware of the reality of evil, all too aware; I know my
own soul’s madness and warring ways. It
is the human condition of sin that drives us to the darkness.
And I know the pragmatism of human minds, rationalizing
killing to prevent wanton bullying of one nation against another’s
freedom. Bullying is all too noticeable
in 21st century culture. The
ferocity of the recent American presidential contest is a chief example of our
bent towards warring madness.
And, so, I pray the prayer of the end of Scripture:
He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Revelation 22:20
For You Today
But let us also never forget that war is primarily killing. And God holds us accountable for our actions. When we choose to choose war, we had better
look deep within at our purposes; what some call “holy” is nothing but anger driven
to insanity by lust for power.
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title image, Pixabay.com
W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on Joel 3 see: God's Challenge and
for Revelation 22:20 see Passover's New Day
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