SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/12/2015
12:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Nations:
Prepare for War
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jowl 3:9-15
Message of the
verses: “9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men! Let all the
soldiers draw near, let them come up! 10 Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks
into spears; Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man." 11 Hasten
and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down,
O LORD, Your mighty ones. 12 Let the nations be aroused And come up to the
valley of Jehoshaphat, For
there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the
harvest is ripe. Come,
tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their
wickedness is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near
in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.”
Just a quick note from the Spiritual Diary I did
actually yesterday morning and one of the references for it was Joel 3:15 as
that SD was on the fifth bowl judgment when the kingdom of the Antichrist will
be dark, a darkness that you can actually feel.
Joel’s prophecy goes right along with what the sixteenth chapter of
Revelation speaks of as when the last two judgments come it will be the end of
the world as we know it and the only thing that will save the world from total
destruction is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Wiersbe agrees with my assessment of this section as
he writes “This passage describes what is generally called ‘the battle of
Armageddon,’ when the armies of the nations unite against the Lord and His
Christ (Ps. 2:1-3) and gather to destroy Jerusalem (Joel 3:3:16; Zech. 12-14).”
Now as we go on in this passage we see some more
similarities from the book of Revelation 14:14-20 when both passages speak of
the ripeness of sinful man as they compare it to ripe grapes ready to be taken
to be harvested, and when we look at them in more detail it will be the Lord
Jesus Christ and also a powerful angel that will do the harvesting of these “grapes.”
Jesus also spoke extensively on this subject in what is
called “The Olivet Discourse” and that can be found in Matthew 24-25; Mark 13;
and also Luke 21, as in these familiar passages we learn that the Lord speaks
of the events leading up to His return to planet earth.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section by
writing “Joel 3:10 commands the nations to arm for battle, even to the point of
turning farm tools into weapons, but Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 describe a
different scene: ‘they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks’ (Isa. 2:4). But Isaiah and Micah are describing the future
kingdom, when people will learn war no more and no longer need weapons; while
Joel is describing the battle that ushers in that peaceful kingdom.” I find it interesting that the verse from
Isaiah 2:4 is posted on the outside of the United Nations building, and as
usual they even get the timing of that wrong.
8/12/2015 12:50 AM
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