Describes the Condition of To-Day
By T.
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land. And they have cast lots for My people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.” Joel 3: 1-3. THE foregoing is taken from one of the little books of prophecy, a book which shows all the way through it that the prophet is viewing and describing scenes that are to occur in the last days of earth’s history. For instance, the fifteenth verse of the first chapter says: “The day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come;” and again, the first verse of the second chapter reads: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;” and verses thirty and thirty-one of this second chapter tell us: “I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come;” and then, in the third chapter, verses twelve to fourteen, we have this added statement: “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” Comment on the foregoing is not necessary to show that the prophet is viewing the “day of the Lord” and the scenes of the judgment. The book of Joel as a whole is a vivid story of the calamities and distresses that will mark the last generation of this earth before the coming of the Lord. In the midst of this graphic account of last day scenes, observe again what is said, in the verses quoted at the head of these paragraphs, of the selling of a boy for a harlot, and of the girl that is sold for wine. How clearly do these words of divine inspiration tell of the sad and awful fact that we have reached the very time when the Sodomite is selling the boy for unspeakable vileness and when the “whiteslaver” is capturing and selling the girl. At least 60,000 girls are bought and sold in this country alone each year for the white slave trade. The awful traffic has become one of the great international issues. In the light of the facts who can say that the prophets do not foretell accurately?