Joel 3:18
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
In that day the mountains yield sweet juice, the hills run with milk, all the streams of Judah run full with water, and a fountain goes out from the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim. The new wine so promised is fresh-pressed, sweet and unfermented fruit of the vine, with no decay or intoxicating power in it. The fountain is a perennial stream from God's throne on Mount Zion that divides to water the earth and restore the watering of Eden. It belongs to Joel's prophecy of the last days, when the nations are gathered for war and the earth is shaken at the Lord's coming to judgment and the second coming of Christ. After that judgment comes millennial blessing and life in the Father's kingdom, when Jerusalem is holy and living waters flow from the New Jerusalem set on the earth after the thousand years.
Words and Promise
The promise is of abundant blessing, with mountains yielding sweet new wine, hills flowing with milk, all the streams of Judah running with water, and a fountain coming forth from the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim. Its language is poetic, picturing the richness of the land when the ravages of war have ceased. The mountains yielding sweet wine and the hills flowing with milk portray that restored plenty.
The new wine is fresh-pressed juice of grape or other fruit, sweet and without intoxicating quality. It is unfermented wine just expressed from the cluster, the fruit of the vine and not the fruit of decay and decomposition, created to make glad the heart and having a blessing in it. The passage describes the abundance and life-giving blessings of the Lord's kingdom and the state of the Father's kingdom. It points to the future hope when Christ will drink the fruit of the vine new with His disciples and people.
There is no death, decay, or foul decomposing there, and therefore no fermented alcoholic wine, no alcoholic controversy, no deadly healing art, no drunkards and no drunkards' graves. The fountain is a future divine system of irrigation, a perennial fountain from God's throne on Mount Zion dividing into streams to water the earth. It restores the abundant watering of Eden.
The valley of Shittim belongs to the setting of the Lord's coming and the journey into the heavenly Canaan. The water flowing through it is connected with the outpouring of God's Spirit, including the latter rain promised to God's people as they await Christ's return. Its meaning and message are found in Christ, who holds together all Scripture and sheds light through it as the culmination of God's historical revelation. It widens the horizon and supplies precious spiritual lessons, testifying of Christ as a fount of knowledge and wisdom to make wise unto salvation and give eternal life.
The passage points beyond the nation's repentance to the final consummation. It reveals God's purpose in His people's experiences and describes their future.
Prophetic Time and Fulfillment
Joel's prophecy belongs to the last days, given about eight hundred years before Christ and older than the prophecies of Amos and Hosea. Its local pictures of land and water are illustrations pointing to the calamities that precede the great day of Jehovah and to the time of war and trouble that closes earth's history. It holds earnest entreaties to God's people calling them to fasting and prayer to avert calamity. It is part of the prophecy about the last day when the earth is shaken and the Lord comes to judgment.
It belongs to a prophecy pointing to the days now lived in, calling the nations to prepare for war and bringing the world to a decisive point involving multitudes, followed by the great day of judgment. The prophecy finds remarkable fulfillment in the present state of the nations and shows the day of the Lord approaching. This comes while watchmen sleep and religious teachers misapply facts with visions of peace. It stands in Joel's foretelling of latter-day strife, unrest, and preparation for war that grows into world-wide war and then the coming of the King of Kings, when He whose right it is shall reign because men have demonstrated their utter unworthiness to rule.
The spirit of war is the spirit of the devil, and the strife and war preparation foretold are aroused and nourished by miracle-working spirits of demons going to the kings of the earth to prepare them for Armageddon. In the meantime the gospel of peace built on God's righteousness in Jesus Christ still goes to the nations, giving a peace not as the world gives. The chapter is prophetic evidence that the church's backsliding and union with the world will be followed by growing political power, renewed union of church and state, and persecution, and that these conditions show the last days have come and Christ's return is near. It shows that the last days will bring persecution of those who obey God, as the Sunday-sabbath movement reaches its end.
It is connected with the battle at Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which takes place under the last plague, immediately before Christ comes. It belongs to a prophecy about the Lord's coming judgment, not the peaceful conditions of the day of Pentecost. Joel's call to prepare for war contradicts the claim that the nations would beat weapons into tools and learn war no more, exposing smooth preaching of peace while war and trouble are coming and the Lord forsakes His people. Joel 3 closes the prophetic scene with Armageddon and the second coming of Christ, and this verse belongs to that concluding scene.
It presents the time after the judgment as a vivid picture of millennial blessing in which Jerusalem is holy and the mountains and hills abound with new wine and milk, so that judgment is followed by the millennium. It is evidence that living waters flow from the New Jerusalem, from the throne of God, after the thousand years, when the city is located on earth and safely inhabited by the righteous.