Let us open our Bibles to Joel, chapter 3. Have you ever noticed that while reading a story in the Bible, it starts to sound more and more like the world you’re living in today? This week, as I prepared for this study, I had the text of Joel open on one screen and the latest news on another. At one point, I had to pause and ask myself: Are they talking about the same thing? Or did I accidentally mix up my screens?
That is exactly the impression you get when reading Joel chapter 3, where the Lord declares that He will gather all nations right next to Jerusalem into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Valley of God’s Judgment. There, He says, “I will enter into judgment with them on behalf of My people and My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and they have divided up My land.”
The reason for the judgment is clearly stated: on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel. This is where we see many instances of the possessive preposition MY, appearing 18 times in the Book of Joel. As it is here: the LORD speaks of Israel and, twice over, He refers to it as My Land. Four times He calls Israel My people, and further, He proclaims that the Jewish people are My inheritance, My vine, and My fig tree. And twice the Lord speaks of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, a piece of land many contend for, as My Holy Mountain. It is His. And He considers this land of Israel as My silver, My gold, My precious treasure.
But notice His complaint in this specific verse of Joel 3:2: And they have divided up My land. Isn’t that exactly what we are witnessing today? They are dividing the West Bank and Gaza Strip, trying to establish a new nation within the very land God has given to Israel in the Scriptures.
This recent decision was made during a UN vote this month, with 157 of the 193 United Nations member nations expressing their intention to recognize another state on God’s land. That amounts to over 80% of the nations.
It is in this book that the judgment begins with the Northerner, in Joel 2:20, this mysterious title given to the leader of these nations, whom John calls the Beast or the Antichrist.
We have started examining the first part of the verse, but the second part provides some striking details about his fall. Let us read Joel 2:20. “But I will remove the northerner far from you, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea.” He will lie flat with his face toward the Eastern Sea, which is the Dead Sea, and his back toward the Western Sea, which is the Mediterranean Sea.
Here he lies, possibly face down on the ground, defeated. This is how his kingdom will fall. But now, does this description remind you of another prophecy? It completes Zechariah’s prophecy when he describes the coming of the Messiah.
See what it says about his fall in Zechariah 14:4, describing the Second Coming. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (that is Yeshua) which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, (like it is in Joel) making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
Imagine this powerful scene as Yeshua arrives, with many recognizing the One they have pierced. The prophecy states that His feet will rest on the Mount of Olives, directly across from the Temple Mount. The mountain will split from east to west, creating a large valley facing the Temple Mount, similar to the one Joel describes.
This is the area where the courtroom is set up because there will be a judgment of the nations, a judgment on those who came to destroy Israel. Therefore, while Zechariah explains how Yeshua will return and judge the nations, and how a valley will form when He sets His feet on the Mount of Olives, Joel provides the length of this valley, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, about 80 km or 50 miles. This is where the Northerner and his armies will lie flat and be judged.
However, in the description we see in Joel 2:20, the Lord seems to be directly responding to a claim that many have been asserting for some time. We have all surely heard the slogan: “From the river to the sea.” But note that this very phrase echoes a scene described in Joel 2:20. The river is none other than the Jordan River, which flows into the Dead Sea. From the River to the Seas is basically what Joel says, from the eastern sea to the western sea. There the nations will be judged.
What men see as a symbol of victory, God views as a sign of judgment and ultimate defeat. The slogan “From the River to the Sea,” often heard today as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” is not new. It originated from protests in the 1960s and 1970s by the PLO and later Hamas, which aimed not for peaceful coexistence with Israel but to replace Israel entirely. The slogan was not a call for peace but a demand for Israel’s destruction as a sovereign nation. Once again, it is not Israel that will vanish, but the evil one, as explained in Joel 2:20.
But this isn’t all that Joel reveals about the valley that will be formed when the Messiah returns. He has two names for it. The first is in Joel 3:2, where it is called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and in vs. 14, where it is referred to twice as the Valley of Decision. The Hebrew name Yehoshafat means “YHWH judges.” This valley represents a place of divine judgment. It is mentioned twice, here and in vs. 12, where the Lord says I will sit to judge all surrounding nations.
Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures is this valley mentioned except here, so we didn’t know its exact location until we examined Zechariah. It does correspond to the final valley that will be created when Yeshua sets His feet on the Mount of Olives. Traditionally, the Valley of Jehoshaphat has been identified at this very place by both Jews and Christians; they saw it as the part of the Kidron Valley situated between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem, the same valley between the two seas.
Click Here for the Video : Joel part 5 : When God Rises to Judge the Nations