Context No. 3634 of 4322 · Joel

Joel 3:1-16: in context

1“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land, 3and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. 4“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head. 5Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples, 6and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border. 7Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head; 8and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for the LORD has spoken it.” 9Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. 10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ 11Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together.” Cause your mighty ones to come down there, LORD. 12“Let the nations arouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” 14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 16The LORD will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but the LORD will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.

Joel foresees a day when God gathers the nations for judgment, holding them accountable for how they treated his people, scattering them, dividing his land, trading children for wine. God does not forget the wrongs done to the vulnerable and the oppressed; the day of reckoning does come.

Joel calls it the valley of decision, where multitudes gather as the day of the LORD draws near, the sun and moon darkened. It is a fearful picture of judgment. But the passage ends with a striking turn: the LORD roars from Zion, and the heavens and the earth shake, yet the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the children of Israel. The very day that terrifies the nations is a shelter for God's own people. The God who judges the whole world is the refuge of those who belong to him. When the earth itself shakes with the day of the LORD, his people find in him not terror but a stronghold.

Do I find in the God who judges the world my refuge and stronghold, so that the day that terrifies the nations is, for me, a shelter?

Sources

Joel 3:16: "The LORD will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but the LORD will be a refuge to his people."
Joel 3:2: "I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people."
Joel 3:14: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near."