The Judgment of the Nations Pt. 2

(Read Joel 3:1-16)

We are continuing to consider the judgment of the nations at Jesus’ return.

3)    Where will this judgment occur?  Joel 3:2,12,14; Rev. 16:16.

Joel says this judgment takes place in the valley of Jehoshaphat.  This is a valley of uncertain location.  It may refer to the valley in 2 Chron. 20 where the armies of Israel, in the time of Jehoshaphat, saw God fight for them and defeat their enemies.  This would be the Kidron Valley between the Mount of Olives and Mount Mariah.  If this is the case, and that it is not a way of speaking of the Valley of Jezreel where the armies of the antichrist are gathered to make war against Christ, then the understanding would be thus: after the antichrist and his armies are destroyed by Christ then those of the nations left on the earth will be gathered in this valley for judgment.  On the other hand, the name Jehoshaphat means “the LORD judges.”  Thus the valley that bears his name could be Jezreel, called the Valley of Jehoshaphat because it is the place where God judges.  In Joel 3:14 this location is called the valley of decision, almost certainly a symbolic name simply because that is where the decision of God is announced.

4)    What will be the basis of judgment?  Joel 3:2-8; Matt. 25:31-46.

Joel is clear that the judgment has to do with the way the nations treated Israel, God’s earthly people.  He says it is on account of My people, My heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land and so forth (3:2-3).  An illustration of this judgment is given from history when Tyre, Sidon and the Philistines did this very thing (3:4-8).  The judgment at the time of Armageddon is the same as it was in Old Testament times.  For example, in Ezekiel 35 Edom is judged because she sought to take Israel’s land when the Nation was taken captive, and because she rejoiced at Israel’s calamity.  This was, in fact, what God had promised Abraham when He established His covenant with Abraham and his descendants: I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you (Gen. 12:3).  This promise was passed on from Isaac to Jacob (Gen. 27:29).  Balaam, in his prophecy in which he could only speak what God told him to speak, said the same: Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you (Num. 24:9).  

What is missed by many people is that Jesus in Matthew 25 says the same thing.  The nations are divided as sheep and goats.  The judgment, Jesus says, is based on how they treated the least of these My brethren (v40).  The saved nation of Israel, prepared to enter His earthly kingdom, will be at His side in this judgment.  Those who fed, gave a drink, took in, clothes and visited His own, His earthly family, will be the sheep who inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (v34).  Those who did not will be the goats to whom He says, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v41).  Scripture is consistent about the basis of this judgment.  This is the way faith will be expressed in the time of tribulation.