Joel 3:17, commentary and pictures

So shall God's people know Him as the Lord their God dwelling in Zion His holy mountain, His presence and rule made known there as their refuge and vindication, and then Jerusalem shall be holy with no strangers passing through or entering her any more. Zion is His habitation, the heavenly Mount Zion and heavenly Jerusalem where His temple and throne are, from which He roars and utters His voice in judgment while heaven and earth shake. It belongs to the imminent day of judgment when after judging the gathered nations the Lord is a refuge to His people and delivers them, fulfilled at the beginning of the day of the Lord before the resurrection of the just and the thousand years in the gathering and deliverance of His people and the outpouring of His Spirit on the living saints, and again when His voice is heard from heaven to deliver them after the third angel's message has closed in the time of trouble. Joel 3:9-17 foretells an inevitable general clash of nations in the last days when the harvest is ripe, when war, strife, persecution and desolation continue rather than lasting peace, the mighty roused and plowshares beaten into swords, which human arbitration can delay but never prevent until sin is wiped out and God's everlasting kingdom replaces the nations. After the utter destruction of the wicked at the end of the day of the Lord, which is the second death after the thousand years, Jerusalem is the New Jerusalem located on the earth and safely inhabited, holy with God dwelling in Zion and only saints, the righteous written in the Lamb's book of life, dwelling there.

Words and Setting

So shall God's people come to know him as the Lord their God dwelling in Zion, his holy mountain, his judgment and deliverance making known his presence and rule there as their refuge and vindication. After he judges the gathered nations and stands as a refuge for his people, that knowledge belongs to the time when the judgment day is imminent, and it marks the vindication of his righteousness and the ending of his people's captivity with deliverance following the judgment of the nations. What he declares about the conflict of the last days is that he will make his presence and rule known in Zion, and the prophecy is applied to the final conflict of nations when awakened heathenism gathers for battle just before the second advent.

Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through or enter it any more. That holiness and freedom from strangers passing through comes when the Lord dwells in Zion, identified as the heavenly Jerusalem, and his voice goes forth from there in judgment upon the gathered nations with the shaking of heaven and earth. Zion is therefore the habitation of God, the heavenly Mount Zion where his temple and throne are, from which he roars out of Zion and Jerusalem while heaven and earth shake.

The word belongs to Joel's prophecy of the last days, concerning the last day, the shaking of the earth, and the Lord's coming to judgment. It was given about eight hundred years before Christ, older than the prophecies of Amos and Hosea, using only local illustrations and local conditions as types of the calamities that precede the great day of Jehovah and of the war and trouble that close earth's history. Joel denounces sin and calls the nation to decisive repentance, with earnest entreaties to God's people calling them to fasting and prayer to avert calamity, and his account of the future of God's people extends to the final consummation. It gives the setting for the destiny of the chosen people, with precious spiritual lessons to be gleaned, and its meaning and message are found in Christ as the central light shedding illuminating rays through all Scripture unto wisdom to salvation and eternal life because it testifies of him. The mountains of earth in towering grandeur display his power and, as sources of the rivers, point to him as the source of the river of life and salvation, turning the mind to that dwelling in Zion his holy mountain and to Jerusalem restored as holy.

Judgment and Deliverance

Joel 3:17 belongs to the time when the day of judgment is imminent, after the Lord has judged the gathered nations and become a refuge to His people and delivered them, when they shall know Him as their God dwelling in Zion, His holy mountain. Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem and the heavenly Mount Zion, and His voice goes forth from that dwelling in the day of wrath, accompanied by the shaking of heaven and earth before the second advent. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through or enter it any more, and this closing of the chapter stands with Armageddon and the second coming of Christ and with what the Lord says about the conflict of the last days.

The final battle of God's judgment is to be fought at Jerusalem in the Valley of Jehoshaphat adjacent to the city, about fifty miles south of Armageddon, where the threefold confederacy gathers within the domain of the Turk. The nations influenced by apostate Protestantism led by the United States, by the papacy led by the ten kingdoms of Europe, and by paganism led by the nations of the East, including awakened heathenism, gather for war against the Turk and even lay siege to Jerusalem to no avail. Jerusalem and the surrounding country bear the brunt of the nations' final attack just before Christ comes, in the great battle at Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat during the last plague. The Turk shall come to his end with none to help him, and in the hour of the nations' apparent victory God shall smite them in the Armageddon conflict, so their triumph is brief. When Christ comes from heaven His people are delivered and those engaged in the battle are destroyed, and Jerusalem is then holy with no strangers passing through it.

The prophecy is fulfilled at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just and the thousand years, in the gathering and deliverance of God's people and the outpouring of His Spirit on the living saints. At that time many literal Israelites are delivered in Jerusalem during the battle of the great day of the Lord, while God's people in every nation are also delivered. The righteous are later redeemed at Christ's second appearing, with the awful and utter destruction of all nations, armies, kings and kingdoms taking place as far onward as the voice of God where the battle of the great day begins.

The verse also marks a yet future deliverance when the voice of God is heard from heaven to deliver His people after the third angel's message has closed, in the time of trouble. Then a most powerful work of the Holy Spirit shall come upon God's servants to qualify them. Their deliverance follows the judgment of the nations, ending their captivity and vindicating God's righteousness as He dwells in Zion as His people's God, with Jerusalem holy and no stranger passing through it.

War, Peace, and Consummation

The prophecy describes the true condition of the world before sin and sinners are removed in judgment, in which war, strife, persecution and desolation continue rather than lasting peace among nations. Wars cease only when sin is wiped out and God's everlasting kingdom replaces the nations.

Joel 3:9-17 foretells an inevitable general clash of nations in the last days when the harvest is ripe. The universal preparation for war and the universal lust for war and desire for supremacy can end in nothing but war, and human arbitration can delay it but never prevent it. In that time the proclamation among the Gentiles is to prepare war, wake up the mighty men, and beat plowshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears, the reverse of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks and learning war no more. This stands as a corrective to applying the peace conditions of Isaiah 2:2-4 to the present throughout the world. The prophecy belongs to coming war and trouble in the last days, not to the day of Pentecost, and stands opposite the popular saying that out of Zion shall go forth the law with peace when swords are beaten into plowshares. Preaching smooth peaceful things and visions of coming peace when war and trouble are coming misapplies prophecy and the facts by those who ignore prophecy, while watchmen sleep and the alarm is feebly sounded and the terrible day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, pressing the question of who is on the Lord's side and causing the Lord to forsake His people.

The prophecy points to the days now present and calls for preparation for war, describing the world's decisive state before the great judgment day. It is fulfilled before the eyes in wars and preparations for war, with agricultural tools turned into weapons and the mighty roused for battle as signs that the harvest is ripe and the end is near. It foretells worldwide war followed by the coming of the King of Kings. These signs in the political world and events in nature herald Christ's second advent and are fulfilling with intensity in the present age. They describe the nations' condition in the time of the seventh trumpet, visible in the present day.

The nations are getting angry and preparing for war at this time because the saving truths proclaimed for the last few years have ripened the tares for the sickle, and Joel's mustering of the nations for battle describes that ripening and the conflict now commenced. The battle is between the beast or Antichristian power and the Lamb, involving worship of the beast, his mark, and the number of his name, 666. Those who would escape the things coming on the earth and stand when the Son of man appears must hear the last warning message of Revelation 14:9-12. The prophecy also shows the last days and the persecution of those who do God's will as the outcome of the Sunday-sabbath movement.

After the utter destruction of the wicked at the end of the day of the Lord, which is the second death after the thousand years, Jerusalem is the New Jerusalem located on the earth and safely inhabited, holy with God dwelling in Zion. Then no strangers, Canaanites, uncircumcised, or wicked pass through or dwell there any more, but only saints, the righteous written in the Lamb's book of life. Jerusalem's holiness belongs to the final scene on earth after the wicked have met their doom in the second death, when God's cleansing judgments are complete and the surviving house of Israel has passed through the cleansing and is beyond the second death's power. The prophecy describes actual events on earth, and the following image of abundant wine and milk makes this a vivid picture showing that judgment is followed by the millennium.