God is in total control

 Joel 3:4-16

Yesterday, I was going to address the contrasting nations called to judgment, and the chosen people Israel weeping over living independently of God and rejoicing that God had opened their eyes and heart and is returning them to their homeland.  So that is the focus this morning, we have all the nations gathered in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and yet no one knows where that is.  Many believe it is the valley of Jezreel near Megiddo, where the battle of Armageddon will take place.

The apostle John saw this day in a vision from God and recorded it in Revelation 16:12-16, “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

Tyre and Sidon were trading hubs for slaves, and when Israel lost wars, their children would be put on the block to be sold at one of these places, that may be the reason God singled them out.  The nations that attacked Israel not only took its children but it also carries off its treasure, the gold and silver, and God is proclaiming it was not Israel but His children, His gold, and silver.  But God, what a great term, but God is going to awaken His people, and they are going to come back to the land of their fathers.

But God is going to allow those nations to reap what they have sown; it will be their children that will be sold by the people of Judah to the Sabeans.  Who were the Sabeans: They were "men of stature," and engaged in merchandise, and the Sabeans mentioned in Job 1:15 were probably Cushite?

Be sure of this one fact, God is in total control, He was the one that called the nations into battle, and they believed it was Israel they were going against, but how wrong they were.  

And why did God bring about this judgment; because the wickedness of the nations is great?  It is judgment time, it is too late to repent, the last person on earth that was called by God has answered the call, and now the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn, and an unbelieving world is to be judged.  On that same day God is going to be a refuge, a stronghold for His chosen people Israel, this is what Joel was told to write.  “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!  For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earthquake.  But the Lord is a refuge to his people a stronghold to the people of Israel.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice