THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS COMING

The nations are building up a judgment that will pour forth will violent intensity at the end of the tribulation period. Israel will be the target and will be hated by the nations, especially by the Arab peoples who surround the restored Jewish homeland. This is made clear in Joel 3:1-17. A terrible judgment will take place when God has restored the fortunes of both the southern kingdom Judah, and the northern kingdom Israel. Then God "will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat ("Yahweh judges"), the valley that lies east of Jerusalem, the Kidron Valley. God will be defending His people who had been scattered "among the nations" (v. 2c). The Jewish people belong to the Lord in a special way. Joel says they are "His inheritance" (v. 2b). In the past, the nations had dispersed the Jewish people, they had "divided My land" (v. 2d) and had "cast lots for My people" (v. 3). Part of those to be judged are the descendants of Tyre, Sidon, "and all the regions of Philistia" (v. 4). These are the Canaanite-like peoples whose children have been in the land of Israel for centuries but no longer as a nation over the past 1,000 years or more. God says that He will "swiftly and speedily … return your recompense on your head" (v. 4). Thousands of years ago, these peoples had been guilty of selling "the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory" (v. 6). Unger notes: That these were the first Greeks the Jews knew. "No doubt the germ of Greek civilization was influenced through the Jewish slaves imported into Greece from Phoenicia by early traders." God has a long memory and will bring a judgment upon these people and upon the Greeks who so mistreated the Jewish people. God will hold court among the nations. "Let the nations be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehospaphat, for there I will sit to judge, all the surrounding nations" (v. 12). The Lord will shout from Zion and from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will tremble. But the Lord is a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the sons of Israel (v. 16). The Lord, the Messiah, will be reigning in Jerusalem. "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy" (v. 17). History will not be complete until Christ returns and reigns in the Holy Land, and throughout the earth! His coming will be literal and actual, not in a mystical spiritualized sense. Dispensationalists, along with the orthodox Jews, know that the Messiah's feet will touch the Mount of Olives and He will reign among His people! Only then will all the wrongs of this world be made right. This is what we look for! –Dr. Mal Couch