The next section of Joel's chapter is a challenge, and an ironic one at that. In Joel 3:9-13, God challenges the nations that have made war on His people to turn their plows into swords and their pruning hooks into spears and marshal their forces to do battle against Him in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges which seems appropriate. Now continuing the story in verses 9-13.
So God challenges the nations that have made war on His people and there are two great ironies in this challenge. First, the challenge to beat plows into swords and pruning hooks into spears is a reversal of the promises God makes elsewhere concerning the Millennium.
In Isaiah 24 God speaks of a day when many will go to the mountain of the Lord to learn His ways and walk in His paths. In that day, says God, this will happen:
The second irony is the obvious one: mere men marshaling forces to do battle with God. God calls upon the nations to prepare for war in Joel 3:9; this is the method whereby He brings the nations to their deserved judgment. The word prepare is literally sanctify, that is, set this apart, make this your own ultimate goal, because this is to be war to the finish.
The Lord is telling them to prepare to the utmost and do their best to do their wickedness against Him. To that end let the nations muster and mobilize their manpower to the very hilt. Let them come fully equipped, so that no man lacks proper weapons. Let every tool used for peaceful pursuits, the plowshares and the pruning-hooks, be beaten into swords and spears.
So great will be the desire to destroy God's people that even the weak will fancy himself to be strong. What an assemblage that will be! The nations will be banded together and confederate as never before. The second psalm tells us explicitly that God laughs at such presumption. Psalm 2:1 says:
In the midst of the scene which passes before Joel's vision he prays that God's mighty ones of Joel 3:11 may come down, in contra-distinction to the supposed mighty men of verse 9.
The nations are seen as bestirring themselves to the white heat of wrath against Israel at that time.
Their objective is the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and there the nations will meet the great King of Israel, their protector through all ages, and their Champion in their darkest and blackest hour, the Eternal Jesus Christ, who will sit ready to judge once and for all the accumulated sins of the nations against Israel. What a fearful day that will be! The nations will have an easier time causing the sun to cease shining, than to escape it.
Now the judgment is described under the double figure of harvest and the vintage. The harvest is ripe, and the winepress and the vats are full to overflowing. What this means is stated in literal language in verse 13: For their wickedness is great.
When God's mighty ones meet the mighty men of the nations in mortal and final combat the impact will be tremendous. The lifeblood of the nations will drench the soil of the earth. It is tragically sad that the nations will not learn the lesson regarding God's people before it is too late.
Remember that this is not just a knee-jerk reaction with God, because the wickedness of the nations has been insufferably great for a long time. But the story is so weighty that it must be told out further. Joel sees the nations assembled in innumerable quantities of people in the valley where God, not man, will make His decision. Continuing on in verse 14.
