MULTITUDES. Joel ch 2 v 1-2. Ch 2 v 12-16. Ch Ch 2 v 18-19. Ch 3 v 1-3 and v 9-16.
Joel ch 3 v 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.
Another translation puts it this way: “Multitudes, multitudes waiting in the valley for the verdict of their doom.
It sounds like a newspaper headline. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.”
Is this a present or future headline? It is God who has written the headline. What is the story behind the headline? We need to know when, where and why this will happen. What will be the outcome?
Ch 2 v 1. “The day of the Lord is coming.” The day of the Lord is a statement, which occurs throughout the Scriptures. It may be a significant day in the life of Israel or in the life of a particular nation. In Zephaniah ch 1 v 7 the day of the Lord was a day of judgement on Judah. In Ezekiel ch 30 v 3 it was a significant day for Egypt and Ethiopia. There are forty chapters in the Bible concerning judgement on the nations.
In Gen ch 15 v 13 God told Abraham that the Children of Israel would be 400 years in Egypt. The trigger for their moving to the Promised Land was that the iniquity of the Amorites had reached its fullness. Then Israel would be the one to wipe out the Amorites.
Edom likewise reached its limit in A D 105 and the Nabateans wiped them out. This had been prophesied in Obadiah.
The theme of the book of Daniel is the sovereignty of God. He raises up kings and dashes them down at a later date. In ch 2 v 21 it says: “God removes kings and sets up kings.” History is His story. Babylon was used to be the instrument of punishment of Judah when they had fallen into sin. Later Babylon itself was judged.
In Joel’s prophecy there were three days of the Lord envisaged.
1. The immediate day of the Lord. An invasion of locusts in Joel ch 1. The locust grows rapidly from larva to winged adult and at every stage its appetite is insatiable. There is no green thing left after it has been. The swarms are driven by the wind from Arabia. It is an object lesson of God's judgement. Nothing will be left after God has condemned the sinner to Hell. Everything will be gone.
Like all of the minor prophets the early part of Joel’s book is all about judgement on the Jewish people in his day for their sins. Joel has a mission. He was to point out the sad condition of the spiritual life of the nation of Judah. There was a crisis in the nation. In a crisis the optimists will say: "The crisis will soon be over." The pessimists will say: "It is going to get worse." The scoffers will say: "What does it matter anyway?" Joel was a realist. The truth is seeing things as they really are. Mostly people drift along from day to day. They take their blessings from God for granted. Then one day God permits a natural calamity to occur. It may be a flood or a drought or a sudden illness. In it God reminds a man of his total dependence upon Him. In a crisis a man discovers the poverty of his artificial civilisation and his throwaway society.
As a direct consequence God sent a plague of locusts to attack Israel. God had called the Jewish people for the purpose of revealing Himself through them as a nation. But they had failed. Isaiah summed up the failure in a crude way in ch 26 v 18. “We were with child and have brought forth wind.” In other words they had failed to bring salvation to the World. That was their calling in God. That was the immediate day of the Lord.
2. The imminent day of the Lord. This was the day when the Assyrians would invade Israel. This happened in 701 B. C. By the shape of their heads locusts look like miniature horses. The Assyrians would come riding real horses and conquer the land.
3. The ultimate day of the Lord. This day of the Lord has still to come. Ch 2 v 1. There will be a day of invasion of Israel in the last days when the nations of the World will come in the same way. The locusts are a picture of a more terrible invasion, which will destroy the land. The heathen will swarm all over the land of Israel. It is one of the ways in which the Bible is so exciting. It is not just about past events in history, interesting as they are. It is also about events still to happen at a future date. The man of God should have his Bible in one hand the daily newspaper in the other hand. God is sovereign in the affairs of the nations.
By the time of chapter 2 v 4 the locusts appear as invading troops. Joel could only use the words at his disposal. He would never have understood guns or tanks or airplanes. The modern army does not fire with arrows but with missiles. This picture of invasion resembles the war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. Is this battle the same as the attack by Gog and Magog? Probably but not necessarily. A prophecy is easy to understand when it has been fulfilled. But before it is fulfilled it is not easy to see exactly how it will work itself out. America and Britain have paved the way for Gog’s attack on Israel. They invaded Iraq a few years ago without a United Nations mandate. Russia will be entitled to say that America and Britain have set a precedent. They will attack without a United Nations mandate. But there will be no protest from the nations of the World. Most will be glad to see the end of Israel and the Jewish people. Psalm 2 says: “What fools the nations are to rage against God. How strange that men should try to outwit God. They say: “Come let us free ourselves from all this slavery to God.” Psalm 83 speaks of the enemies of Israel. They consult together and say: “Let us wipe Israel out as a nation. Let the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
WHEN. When is this day of the Lord to take place? The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision or the valley of judgement. It will happen when God has brought the Jewish people back from many nations. They will be living securely in Israel.
This passage conjures up a picture of the final act in a great theatrical production. In the final act the whole cast comes on stage for the finale. Israel is back in the Promised Land. The nations are in communication with one another. There is moral decline and a rebellion against God throughout the World. Ch 2 v 10. The sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will no longer shine. This has happened once before in India when there was a long winter. Ash was spewed from a volcano in Indonesia. The ash obscured the sun and moon and the stars seemed to have disappeared. There was no summer that year in India. The number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are increasing steadily. The Earth is groaning as sin increases and man’s rebellion against God rises to a crescendo.
WHERE. Armageddon is a name, which conjures up a final battle. The battle of all battles.
Rev ch 16 v 16. “And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon.” Throughout history many battles have taken place at Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley in Israel. Megiddo is located in the fertile Valley of Jezreel, where the trade routes converge. It is a flat area of ground, lying at the South west of the Sea of Galilee, near to Nazareth. Israel was constantly the political pawn fought over by military powers, which aspired to control the Middle East. It was a strategic location. The control of the land of Israel would tilt the balance of power in their favour. The land was a prize worth fighting for by Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Interestingly Nazareth where Jesus lived and worked for thirty years in located on the hills above and overlooking Megiddo. As a young man Jesus must have read these verses and looked out across the valley of Jezreel.
WHY. Why is this battle to take place? Ch 3 v 16. On this occasion God roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem. The issue to be decided is the nation of Israel and the salvation of the Jewish people. The nations have been dealing badly with the Jewish people in the land of Israel. God is not pleased and He says so.
In the midst of the attack on Israel God cries out to His people Israel. Ch 2 v 12. “Even now return to me with all your heart.” God calls on His people to respond to His great love. It is so important that even the bride and bridegroom are told to defer their marriage celebrations. This is of the utmost importance. Why should the peoples of the World say to Israel: “Where is your God?” Israel is linked to God and God is linked to Israel. Even the pagans in the World know that, if there is a God, He must somehow be revealed through the Jewish people. The Russian Emperor once said to his attendant: “Give me one good reason why I should believe in God.” His attendant replied: “Your Majesty. The Jews.” Even without their Messiah the Jews remind the World of God. What will it be like when all the Jews worship Jesus their Messiah! The Devil certainly knows that. That is why Satan is doing his level best to destroy the nation of Israel. This event is tied up with God’s Word, God’s Land and God’s people. It is the culmination of man’s rebellion against the Kingdom of God on Earth. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.
v 18. God is jealous for His land. It is acceptable to be jealous for something, which belongs to you. A man is entitled to be jealous for his wife. God is jealous for His land. In ch 3 v 3 God declares that the land of Israel is His land. Of course He owns the whole World. But God associated Himself with Israel in a particular way. 2 Kings ch 21 v 4. “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” Time and again God says through the prophets that He will bring the Jewish people back to the Promised Land a second time. Isaiah ch 11 v 11. “Yet a second time the lord will recover the remnant of His people.” Ezekiel ch 36 v 11. “I will cause the land to be inhabited as in former times.” It is not because they deserve it but for the honour of His name. Ezekiel ch 36 v 22. “It is not for your sake O house of Israel that I am about to act but for the sake of my holy name.” Joel ch 3 v 19. “I will no more make you a laughing stock among the nations.” The World has long regarded the Jewish people as the wandering Jew, hunted from place to place.
Ch 2 v 21. “The Lord has done great things for Israel.” He promised in v 25 to make up for the years when the swarming locusts devoured the land. Ch 2 v 27 “My people will never again be put to shame.” The media are doing all they can to bring shame on the Jewish people. Every little mistake is magnified. The World demands of Israel a standard, which no nation is attaining. Any nation facing a barrage of rockets into built up areas would respond. It is the duty of any government to defend its people. Every time Israel responds to rockets by Hamas from schools and mosques the World media condemns Israel.
Ch 2 v 28. There is the promise by God that one day He will pour out His Spirit on the Jewish people. In a small way that happened at Pentecost. The early Church was entirely Jewish. Jesus said that salvation is of the Jews. John ch 4 v 22. Jesus said that to the Woman at the Well. The Bible tells a man all he needs to know about salvation. The Bible is a Jewish book, written by Jews, apart from Luke who was probably a proselyte. So salvation is of the Jews. Jesus is the King of the Jews. Jesus was declared King by Herod at His birth. Mat ch 2 v 2, “Where is He who is born King of the Jews?” Luke ch 23 v 38. Pilate insisted on an inscription above Jesus’ head on the cross. “This is the King of the Jews.” God will pour out the Holy Spirit in a larger measure on a future day. Zech ch 12 v 10 confirmed the prophecy in Joel. It will happen again when the people look on Him whom they have pierced. (This is a spiritual looking on him. The word is looking upon Him or looking up to Him i. e. respecting and acknowledging Him. They will not see Jesus physically on that day.) Salvation is always faith in the unseen Jesus. There will be signs in the sky. There were signs in the sky when Jesus died on the cross.
Moving in to Chapter 3. God said that He would restore the fortunes of the Jewish people. He has and He is. The economy of Israel is booming, despite an Arab boycott on Israeli goods. The Jewish people are leading the World in medicine and technology. Tourism has hit an all-time high. Growth is at 4.5%. On top of that a substantial gas field has been found offshore with 16 trillion feet of gas. Also there is evidence of a major oil field deep below Israel. These have been there since God established the World. But only now with increased technology have they been located. Ch 3 v 3. Despite this the nations of the World are determined to divide up God’s land. God has declared war on the nations of the World. Ch 3 v 9. “Who is for the fight?” God invites the nations to come to battle. He dares them to attack Israel. Have the leaders never read this book? Obviously they do not believe in the truth of the Bible.
In the Gog and Magog prophecy it is God who puts a hook in the jaw of Gog and brings him into the battle and ultimately the slaughter. It is generally agreed that Gog represents Russia. The other peoples who join in are Iran, Sudan and Lybia. These are the centres of Islamic fundamentalism. All the demonic principalities fall out with one another. The only time they are united is in their hatred for God and for His people. The Gentiles are grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. God only has one people. Believers also are the objective of the hatred of Satan and his henchmen.
Aliyah may well be the hook, which God will use. Aliyah is the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel from all the nations where God has scattered them. The Aliyah is a holy business and nothing can be done casually. As soon as Pharaoh agreed to let the Children of Israel go, he regretted the decision and went after them. The economy of Egypt had been built on slave labour and it would go into decline. In the same way Gog (Russia) has benefited from the Jewish people working in the land. Gog watches the Jewish people making their way back to live in Israel. He will realise that this will have an adverse impact on the economy of the land of Russia.
The final struggle in the World will be concerned with the oil reserves in the Middle East. Russia will come for material gain - to take a spoil. “Oil.” The hand, which controls oil controls the World. 85% of the E. U.'s oil and 100 % of Japan's oil comes from the Middle East. 47 % of U.S.A. oil comes from the Middle East. Russia has been losing ground to Europe and Europe is taking an increasingly larger share of the World market.
In order to control the oil in the Middle East Russia has to knock out the only nuclear power in the Middle East – Israel - a country with one of the finest air forces in the World. There is vast wealth in the minerals of the Dead Sea. Since the beginning of the World God has been depositing these minerals in the bank account of Israel to bless His people. This may be part of the spoils sought by Russia. Now there has been a vast gas field discovered off the shore of Israel. There is the likelihood of a vast deep oil well within the land of Israel.
God’s purpose is to receive the glory of His name. Ch 38 v 16. Don’t you just long to see the power of God manifested to a rebellious World and to be able to say: “My God did that!” It does not mean that Gog is a pawn in the hand of an all powerful but immoral God. Gog acts freely according to the evil dictates of his lust for conquest and easy spoil. Yet there is the controlling hand of God who is in control of all things. God plans to vindicate His honour among the nations. God is going to defend His people. He will fight for them. Why? Ch 3 v 17. “You will know that I am the Lord your God who dwells in Zion.”
Zechariah ch 14 v 2. God says that He will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. This is going to be a time for settling old scores. God will avenge the blood of the Jewish people. Pharaoh tried to drown the Jewish children in the River Nile. He was himself drowned in the Red Sea. The Assyrians and Babylonians exiled the Jews from Judea and Samaria. They were themselves wiped out. Haman tried to exterminate the Jews. He was hanged on his own gallows. Hitler burned the Jews in the ovens of Auswitzch. His body was itself burned in Berlin when the Russian army entered Berlin. God knows what the nations have done - even in secret - and will settle accounts. When the Lamb of God becomes a lion, the nations of the World will tremble in fear. All who deal badly with Israel will be dealt with by God in the same way. People can no longer throw stones at Jesus. Instead they hurl insults and rockets at His people. In 1938 the leaders of the World knew exactly what Hitler intended to do to the Jewish people. They attended a conference on the shore of Lake Geneva to discuss what they should do for the Jewish people. One by one they walked away and said that there was nothing they would do. Hitler’s ambassador attended the conference. His advice to Hitler was: “You can do what you like to the Jewish people. No one cares.” That was 73 years ago. Little has changed in the World. God has taken His time to bring the matter to judgement.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. A vast army will attack Israel to bring about her downfall. For a time it will look like the end for Israel. The television cameras will almost certainly be present. They will be anticipating victory for Gog and final defeat for Israel. It will make good television. We will all be able to see the events unfold on television. Make sure you do not miss it. When God acts it will be awesome. Ezekiel ch 38 v 21. God says: “I will summon every kind of terror against Gog.” What will it be like?
Ezekiel ch 39 v 22. “The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.” Just when it seems like the end for Israel God will show up and deliver His people. Only God's intervention could save Israel. It is a day, which Paul saw in the future. Rom ch 11 v 26. “So all Israel will be saved.” No Jewish man can be saved unless he accepts Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. Those Jewish people alive on that day will be saved. They will see their God act supernaturally and believe in Jesus. They will be added to those before that day who likewise accepted Jesus as their Lord and saviour. Nonetheless the Jewish people are in a covenant relationship with God on account of the patriarchs and God’s promise to their descendents. God has said that He will defend His people. He will do it just as He has said.
God does everything for His glory and for His name. Isaiah ch 42 v 8. “I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I give to no other.” Exodus ch 9 v 16. God told Moses to say to Pharaoh: “I have let you live to show you my power so that my name may be declared throughout the Earth.” Why did God bring you here this morning? It was that you might praise Him and wonder at His Word of salvation. He wants you to grow spiritually to be like Jesus.
Multitudes will be represented there. Physically the area of land is not big enough to accommodate all seven billion people in the World. However when your government votes in the United Nations against Israel your people will be represented in the valley of decision. Does your government vote for or against God’s people? In Gen ch 12 v 3 God said: “I will bless those who bless my people and curse those who curse my people.” Do you want the Lord to bless your land? Then you should ensure that your government does not stand with the ungodly cursing Israel.
In Mat ch 24 v 21-22 Jesus spoke of a time of tribulation such as the World has never known. How this statement by Jesus ties in with Joel’s prophecy is not clear. It will be clear one day. There is no doubt that Jesus did not promise a time of prosperity and peace. He warned about hatred and persecution as well as death. Some had thought that people in places like Uganda would be exempt from the worst of the troubles. However, if there is an economic collapse and a financial meltdown every country in the World will be affected one way or another. The wonderful thing is that God has given us advance warning.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.
This may not be tomorrow’s headline in the newspaper. But it will happen one day because God has said it will. Have you made your decision yet?