The Fifth Sunday of Easter (OTA)

Joel 3:1-16

3  “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD has spoken.”

            9       Proclaim this among the nations:

                  Consecrate for war;

      stir up the mighty men.

                  Let all the men of war 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 warrior.”

            11       Hasten and come,

      all you surrounding nations,

      and gather yourselves there.

                  Bring down your warriors, O LORD.

            12       Let the nations stir themselves up

      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.

                  Go in, tread,

      for the winepress is full.

                  The vats overflow,

      for their evil 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 the moon are darkened,

      and the stars withdraw their shining.

            16       The LORD roars from Zion,

      and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

      and the heavens and the earth quake.

                  But the LORD is a refuge to his people,

      a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Joe 3:1–16). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The Day of the LORD is at hand.  The Day of the LORD comes with fierce strength.  The Moon will be darkened and the light will with draw.  The LORD has come to Zion with power and strength.  But the LORD will call his people from the Nations.  The LORD will redeem his people from their sins.

Once people would come to the LORD's mountain and find peace.  But now the great warriors come to Mt Zion.  They come with their harvesting tools turned into weapons of War.  The LORD God will come and fight against the wicked.  The LORD fights against those who would corrupt his people.

Jesus Christ came to teach his people.  He came to instruct them of truth.  He came to lead people in way so that they would be ready to fight.  But he sends them not into battle but into a harvest field.  The Lord is read to harvest his people.  He is ready to reap the harvest from his wheat.