CRITICAL NOTES.
Joel 3:9.] A call to war (Ezekiel 38:7). Prepare] Lit. sanctify, for heathen war began with religious ceremonies (Jeremiah 6:4; 1 Samuel 7:8-9). Wake up] Arouse the heroes from sleep; forge tools of peaceful agriculture into weapons, and the weakest must be a hero.
Joel 3:11. Assemble] Hasten, quickly as possible meet together.
Joel 3:12. Wakened] Not now to war with God and his people, but to be judged (Isaiah 2:4; Psalms 110:6).
HOMILETICS
THE HOLY WAR.—Joel 3:9-12
God is now about to execute the sentence, and all nations are summoned together. At God’s command, yet of their own accord, they assemble in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to receive righteous retribution.
I. The solemn preparation. “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles.” The combatants are mighty, and the results will be decisive. Every preparation is needful for this moral warfare.
1. This warfare is moral. “Prepare, i.e. sanctify, war.” It is a holy war, a crusade between good and evil. Not like those in which the pilgrims of Europe sought to rescue the holy sepulchre from the hands of infidel Turks. God’s people and God’s enemies are in battle-array. Moral powers and evil principles are engaged in mortal contest; the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light are striving for dominion. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
2. This warfare is close. “Let all the men of war draw near.” The armies are not spectators, nor do they stand afar off, daring and defying one another, like Israel and the Philistines did (1 Samuel 17:3), and the Turks and the Christians in the reign of Baldwin II., king of Jerusalem. They “come up” into close quarters, and fight for life. The enemy is bold, comes up into the very presence of God, and insults his people. We must not hesitate nor fear. “Into the ranks of the enemy,” cried a general, on the field of battle. Stand still, and you are overcome; fight, and you conquer. “Quit yourselves like men, and fight.”
3. This warfare is urgent. “Assemble yourselves and come.” The nations must hasten and come speedily. All “round about” must gather themselves together, and draw closer and closer in the contest. Christian life is urgent and important. The gospel demands immediate and earnest decision for God. There must be no delay. Judgment delays not. “Now is the accepted time.”
4. This warfare demands sacrifice. “Beat your ploughshares into swords,” &c. The tools of peaceful agriculture must be forged into weapons of war, the reverse of the time when instruments of war will be turned into implements of agriculture (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3). All was unsettled; the means of subsistence and the care of health were to give way to war. In spiritual warfare, ease and pleasure, sin and the world, must be given up. All must be equipped. The aim is not temporary; it requires a weapon and strength to use it. “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.” God has provided a complete armour in which he must fight, and by which alone he can triumph. The self-willed, who fight in their own way, and with their own weapons, will never conquer. “Put on, therefore, the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand.”
II. The mighty hosts. “Come, all ye heathen.” “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision.”
1. A universal gathering. “All nations.” Not simply all the heathens, but all nations of the world are concerned in this warfare, and will stand before the throne of God at last. All the generations of men, innumerable angels will appear before the Great Judge. Our Lord directs our attention to this very thought of Joel. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels, with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations.”
2. An imposing gathering. “Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near.” Heroes, men of valour and experience, will be there, and, like Homer’s gods, engaged in the conflict. The Great God who calls it, the solemn purpose for which it is called, and the method of dealing with it, will make that assembly most awful. The Judge will be clothed in majesty and terror. Angels and millions of the human race will stand before the great tribunal. The splendour of the great white throne will eclipse the sun.
No sun had e’er dawned on
So fearful a day,
No trumpet had marshalled
So dread an array.
3. An enthusiastic gathering. The whole nations are seized with warlike enthusiasm, and rise from slumber at the summons. Even “the weak” one must “say, I am strong.” None, however apparently unfit, was to be spared, and none left behind. Inspired with ardour, and drawn by numbers, they gather “to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14; Revelation 20:8).
III. The great defeat. Ostensibly the nations assemble to destroy God’s people, but are overcome themselves. God sits upon the throne to judge “the heathen round about.” The conflict is instigated by the very parties whose doom is settled for ever.
1. Their resistance was in vain. Let the mighty men “wake up” to gather their resources and strengthen their ranks, all is futile. Men may resolve, and eagerly undertake opposition to God, but they will be disappointed. “The heathen rage,” but their rage displays their folly. God is omnipotent, and can overcome the mightiest hero. “The people imagine a vain thing,” for “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”
2. Their overthrow was great. There was not mere failure, but terrible disaster. God’s mighty ones came down, the powers of nature robed themselves in opposition, the sentence was passed, and execution followed. The purpose was defeated, and those who mustered for victory were overthrown with disgrace. Popery has hastened its downfall, by trying to break the power of Protestantism. The French were crushed in their efforts to destroy the political influence of Germany. Those who fight against God, despite imperial strength, will be broken in pieces. The ruin of sinners will be eternal if God shall smite them. “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.” (Isaiah 8:9.)
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Joel 3:9-12. Here, as in other respects, the predictions and promises are but partially fulfilled in the literal Israel. Their real accomplishment, their awful completion, will be when Zion’s King comes in glory and majesty, with a rod of iron, to dash in pieces the great antichristian confederacy of kings and peoples, and to take possession of his long-promised and dearly-bought inheritance. The signs of the times seem to indicate that the coming of the Lord draws nigh.