CRITICAL NOTES.
Joel 3:15-17.] Dreadful commotions will happen before that day. Out of Zion Jehovah will destroy his enemies, protect his people, and purify his sanctuary.
HOMILETICS
THE UNPROFANED CITY.—Joel 3:17
The scenes which now follow lie beyond the bounds of time. To the trembling universe and the terrors of judgment there succeeds “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” God will dwell with his people. Zion will become a holy mount, a sanctuary no more profaned by alien and unrighteous feet. As a description of heaven, the text sets forth:—
I. Its distinguished glory. “I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion.”
1. It is the residence of God. God dwelt with man in Eden; but sin drove man from God’s presence. The tabernacle and the temple were the house of God; but the symbols of the one and the glory of the other have departed. These were only figures of the true residence. Heaven is “the palace of the great King,” the pavilion of his splendour, and the place where his honour dwelleth. The Elysian fields of Paganism, and the Paradise of Mohammedanism, were cold and revolting; but “glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.”
2. It is the permanent residence of God. “God dwelling in Zion.” “Permanency adds bliss to bliss,” says the poet. Fellowship with God on earth is short, and often interrupted. In heaven he will dwell for ever with his people. It is this which makes heaven itself. What would be all its glory and company without the presence of God? Could the angels and the harps be a substitute for him? O blissful thought, to be “for ever with the Lord,” in the “city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
Come, join our wing, and we will guide the flight,
To mysteries of everlasting bliss,
The tree and fount of bliss, the eternal throne,
And presence-chamber of the King of kings.
II. Its happy citizens. “So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God.”
1. They are enriched. God is their portion. In heaven there will be access to the most holy, and residence with the most dignified society. Patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, will be there, but the presence of Christ will be “unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” Your God, as much your own as if possessed by none besides, filling all with gladness, and fully possessed and enjoyed by each. “Thou art my portion, O Lord.”
2. They are intelligent. God is known to be their God. He is not simply with them, but known, seen to be with them. It is a personal, experimental, pre-eminent, and perfect knowledge. We know but little here, and that superficially. “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” In heaven the mental powers will be glorified, study will be a delight, and knowledge will be acquired in direct converse with the objects of knowledge. We shall know by experience, by sight, face to face, what we only believe now. “We see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know as also I am known.”
3. They are holy. The place is God’s “holy mount,” and none can enter it but those who are holy. Only those who awake in his likeness will behold his face in righteousness. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Heaven would be hell to the alienated heart, the unrenewed sinner; but “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” To see God and be like him is the earnest desire of God’s people. This desire will be gratified in his “holy mount.” And if the glad smile of a friend begets joy in the heart, how will the light of God’s countenance quicken souls in heaven to a sense of his love! As the light of the sun transcribes its joyous image upon one who contemplates it, so the holiness which beams from the presence of God will purify those upon whom it shines. “One sight of his glorious majesty,” says one, “presently subdues and works the soul to a full subjection. One sight of his purity makes it pure. One sight of his loveliness turns it into love.” The saints thus become assimilated to God, whom they perpetually love and adore. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
III. Its eternal security. “And there shall no strangers pass through her any more.” Mount Zion, literally and spiritually, was a place of beauty and stability. “And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.”
1. No foe to fear. There will be no enemy to encounter. Death and hell will be overcome. Its possessors will never be subdued and taken captive. “The wicked shall no more pass through thee” (Nahum 1:15). “In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.”
2. Nothing to defile. Profane nations and ungodly men can never enter. There is nothing in heavenly blessedness compared to its moral and holy character. There will be nothing to defile, or capable of being defiled. Not an act, word, or look will be contaminated by evil. “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
3. Nothing to corrupt nor decay. The locust and caterpillar will not destroy. The worm will not devour the heart of ripening fruit. “The sun shall not smite by day, nor the moon by night.” On earth, everything is subject to vicissitude and decay; but the joys of heaven are abiding and secure. “Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” This inheritance will never wear and waste under the gnawing influence of time, nor be destroyed by the constant friction of disturbing forces. It is “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Many take the words as a description of Zion in the millennium. The metropolis of a converted world.
1. Its grandeur. God will dwell there.
2. Its sanctity. “Then shall Jerusalem be holy.”
3. Its security.
4. Its perpetuity. It will be the scene of delightful privileges and blessings. It will be invested with absolute and inviolable safety. It will possess renown and empire throughout the whole world.
This heavenly city, where Christ’s throne is, is called Zion, because there all the expectations which the O. T. saints connected with the earthly Zion will be fulfilled, and because, also, there everything which the Jews associated with the shadowy picture of the earthly Zion is for ever perfected in a glorious actualization. From thence God’s gracious kingdom, in all directions, is supplied, preserved, sanctified, and built up by blessings and gifts. For this reason that place is called, in the Epistle to the Galatians, Jerusalem, which is above and free, the mother of all his believing children, the true and eternal metropolis of Christendom [Harbaugh].
The words prove—
1. That interest in God is the ground of encouragement to the Church. 2. That interest in God is sweetened by God’s gracious presence with his people.
3. That interest in God is confirmed by experimental knowledge. “They shall know” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
4. That interest in God is evidenced by holy life. Sanctification is the fruit and end of God’s presence (Psalms 93:5).