Joel 3:2, commentary and pictures

God will bring all nations down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which means the valley of Jehovah's judgment, to contend with and judge them there for scattering His people Israel and dividing His land. This gathering is the universal last-day battle of Armageddon, the battle of the great day of God Almighty, taking place around Jerusalem at the beginning of the day of the Lord just before Christ comes. It comes under the sixth plague during the last plagues, when spirits of devils work miracles to gather the kings of the whole world after grace has closed. There God pleads by terrible judgment with fire and sword, hail, the shaking of heaven and earth, and the seven last plagues, cutting off the wicked while He delivers His people from captivity and brings in millennial peace. It is a prophecy of warning to prepare for Christ's second coming, for these scenes of wrath, trouble, and deliverance are just before us and escape must now be secured in Jesus.

Name and Place

The name Jehoshaphat means Jehovah's judgment or judgment of Jehovah, and the valley of Jehoshaphat is the valley of Jehovah's judgment where God gathers the nations to plead with them for His people. The word for valley means a spacious valley, and the name is a general designation for the judgment scene rather than necessarily a narrow ravine such as the Kidron. It signifies the Lord's judgment rather than a literal gathering place, since it is too small to literally hold all the nations.

The gathering is brought down to Jerusalem and territory adjacent to it, with the valley near Jerusalem as the central point of the great slaughter where God pours out wrath in terrible destruction. The center of contention is in the Holy Land where the battle of Armageddon takes place, described as the storm center in Palestine for the final clash of nations near the day of the Lord. It is hemmed in by the mountains of the Armageddon range, with mighty armies gathering on the Plain of Esdraelon, and old Jerusalem stands as the city near which the winepress of God's wrath is trodden.

The name recalls King Jehoshaphat's victory over a great host of enemies in the wilderness near Tekoah recorded in 2 Chronicles 20, following whose pattern God will deal with the enemies of His church in the latter days. Joel alone mentions this valley in the Bible, and a Jewish burying-ground lies there with tradition placing the tombs of King Jehoshaphat, Absalom, and Zechariah in it. It is associated with Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, as a valley of punishment, and is cited alongside the destruction of Sennacherib's army while other destructions take place elsewhere.

Occasion and Charge

God will gather all nations and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there plead and contend with them and judge them concerning His people and heritage Israel and their inheritance. That valley is the place of the judgment scenes that precede the day of the Lord and belong to the prophecy of the last days and the scenes of the day of the Lord and judgment, whose name means judgment of Jehovah. It is the place of God's pending controversy with the nations gathered for judgment, and of the general judgment when each person faces the Maker over character and eternal destiny, associated with the end of the times of the Gentiles.

The charge on which He gathers them is that they scattered God's people and heritage Israel among the nations and parted and divided His land, and for this He gathers them to Jerusalem to judge and punish the wicked. This gathering at Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of Jehovah's judgment, is a decisive battle and judgment near the day of the Lord and before Christ's second coming and the end of the world, a literal judgment before the millennium associated with the Lord's coming and cosmic signs and followed by millennial peace. The valley signifies the Lord's judgment rather than a literal gathering place narrow enough to hold them, since it is too small for all the nations. It belongs to the last-day judgment when the nations prepare for war and God brings His people from captivity into deliverance, after the latter rain and the outpouring of the Spirit when the remnant is delivered at the beginning of the great and terrible day of the Lord.

This takes place in the time when the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem is restored and brought back. It is at the beginning of the day of the Lord before the resurrection of the just, when at the battle of the great day many of literal Israel are gathered and delivered in Jerusalem while God's people in every nation are also delivered and receive His Spirit, and afterward at Christ's second coming are redeemed from their nations with the righteous dead. That gathering is the same end-time assembly of the nations under the sixth plague, leading to the battle against the Lord and His judgment of the nations. The day of the Lord has already commenced when this applies, but its effects in the plagues and the last battle fall in a short period immediately preceding the coming of Christ, under the plagues in the day of the Lord, and not in the present.

Foretold Final Gathering

The gathering of all nations is the decisive universal war, battle and judgment of the last day, taking place near the day of the Lord and before Christ's second coming and the end of the world, when multitudes are brought to a decisive crisis followed by the great judgment day. It is Armageddon and the battle of the great day of God Almighty, set in the valley of Jehoshaphat at Jerusalem, where God gathers the nations over their scattering of His people and dividing of their land and there judges them. At the close of earth's history every nation will be drawn there in a universal war whose center of contention is in the Holy Land, involving every nation on earth at the second coming of Christ, now not far ahead and right at hand when it is reached. In its last phases it will be a religious war, and Joel 3 closes its scene with Armageddon and the second coming of Christ.

The gathering belongs not to the present but to a short period immediately preceding Christ's coming, in the time when Judah and Jerusalem's captivity is brought back, in the day of the Lord during the last plagues and under the sixth plague or vial, with the great battle at Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat during the last plague when great hail falls on the wicked who continue to blaspheme God. It is the same end-time assembly under the sixth plague leading to battle against the Lord and His judgment of the nations, accomplished by spirits of devils working miracles that go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them, with Christ coming as a thief only after the sixth vial is poured out. It is effected not by God's good angels but by Satan's evil angels working miracles after the day of grace has passed as his final desperate struggle before he is bound, yet in God's providence serving the execution of judgment, arousing latter-day strife, unrest and worldwide preparation for the great war of Armageddon, followed by the coming of the King of Kings to reign because men have proved utterly unworthy to rule. Present workings of those spirits are only preparatory work, for fulfillment begins when the spirits are prepared under the sixth plague to act their predicted part of gathering the kings and their armies, and the frog-like signs and wonders prepare earth's inhabitants for that gathering and destruction.

Joel 3, with Joel 3:9-10, describes an unprecedented latter-day mobilization and preparation for war before the nations' final struggle, with an international announcement calling the nations to prepare for war to which every nation great and small responds, the awakening of mighty men, and the turning of plowshares into swords in the closing years of the gospel age just before the final conflict. Its fulfillment is seen in the days in which we live, for the third chapter compared with the present state of the nations reveals a remarkable fulfillment signaling that the harvest is ripe, the end is near, and the day of the Lord approaches. The gathering of all nations in these times comes through literal latter-day strife, unrest and war preparation instigated by the devil and nourished by demons, and through the buildup of modern engines of destruction leading on to Armageddon and the destruction of the world: the wireless torpedo directed for six miles, thoroughly mined harbors, invisible fortresses with 12- or 14-inch guns sighted with deadly accuracy, ever-increasing battleships, gas-engine ships less exposed and more powerful with bigger guns able to meet six Dreadnoughts, and partially submersible ships with only guns above water. Armageddon embraces all nations and will break over the whole world with the sudden rapidity demonstrated by the great European war, amid unmistakable political signs.

The final conflict bears on Jerusalem and the surrounding country and territory adjacent to it, where God's judgment falls on the gathered nations, with Jerusalem and the surrounding country bearing the brunt of a final attack by the nations just before Christ comes and the nations gathering near Jerusalem for the great war of God. The bringing down into the valley of Jehoshaphat is that military gathering near the close of God's wrath upon a disobedient world while the plagues do their work, when the kings of the East and of the West marshal their armies upon the ancient battlefields of Palestine, though the political or apparent occasion for the assembling is not told. Mighty armies gather on the Plain of Esdraelon with the kings of the earth leading their forces, in a great plain in Syria and Palestine along the eastern Mediterranean where adherents of Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism meet. The final battle is linked to the nations' siege of Jerusalem in their campaign against the Turk, when the Turk driven from Europe establishes his capital there, with a brief apparent victory before God smites them.

Judgment and Deliverance

God's pleading in the valley is his judgment by fire and sword with many slain. Jehoshaphat means judgment of Jehovah, and the valley is a general designation for that judgment scene rather than a narrow ravine such as the Kidron, the word for valley meaning a spacious valley whose setting is a great plain in Syria and Palestine along the eastern Mediterranean. The same place is called the valley of decision, or excision, where God's enemies meet their determined doom, standing there as multitudes, multitudes when assembled for war with plowshares turned into swords and pruning-hooks into spears. When they are gathered the Lord utters his voice from Jerusalem so that the heavens and the earth shake. The battle of the great day of God Almighty there is the treading of the winepress of the wrath of God, with old Jerusalem as the city near which the winepress is trodden.

That gathering and judgment belong to the final conflict near the close of God's wrath upon a disobedient world while the plagues are doing their work, when the kings of the East and of the West marshal their armies upon the ancient battlefields of Palestine, and the great battle at Jerusalem in the valley falls during the last plague as part of the day of the Lord. Great hail then falls on the wicked who continue to blaspheme God. The Lord's weapons are the consequences of sinners' own deeds, including the seven last plagues.

Though the valley near Jerusalem is the central point of the great slaughter where God pours upon the gathered nations the fierceness of his wrath in terrible destruction, the slain of the Lord in that battle lie from one end of the earth to the other. The gathering happens at the voice of God where the battle of the great day begins, at the second appearing of Christ for utter destruction. At that coming all nations are involved and cut off, at the same time as the destruction of the kings and kingdoms that arose from divided Rome when Christ as the stone smites the image on the feet, in the complete breaking and consuming of all earthly kingdoms, leaving the earth desolate with no inhabitants.

While the nations gather for the war of the great day, God brings his people from captivity into deliverance, following the pattern of his deliverance in Jehoshaphat's time. The judgment belongs to the day of the Lord, is associated with the Lord's coming and cosmic signs, and is followed by a picture of millennial peace; it is a literal judgment before the millennium. At the battle of the great day of the Lord, many of literal Israel are gathered and delivered in Jerusalem, while God's people in every nation are also delivered and receive his Spirit following the latter rain and outpouring of the Spirit; afterward, at Christ's second coming, they are redeemed from their nations with the righteous dead. The events concerning ancient Israel also express principles with universal application, and after this end-time affray war will cease and God's faithful people will be gathered home.

The gathering is when Christ takes his judgment throne and appears to execute judgment at his advent and coming to judge and punish his foes when the earth is shaken. This judgment is part of the events surrounding the coming of the Lord and reveals the difference between those who serve God and those who do not. Those who hold it teach that after men have proved utterly unworthy to rule the world, the King of Kings comes to reign, an end signaled by worldwide preparation for war.

Links to Other Prophecies

The gathering into the valley of Jehoshaphat is the same battle as the gathering of all nations against Jerusalem when the city is taken and the Lord goes forth to fight, and the same gathering under the sixth plague to Armageddon. It belongs to the day of the Lord, is associated with the Lord's coming and cosmic signs spoken of in Matthew and Luke, and is followed by a picture of millennial peace, a literal judgment before the millennium. When assembled the nations stand as multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, meaning cutting, summoned to prepare war and to turn plowshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears, and in connection with their gathering the Lord utters His voice from Jerusalem so that the heavens and the earth shake. It points to the beginning of the final scenes of earth's history and is grouped with prophecies about the gathering of nations for conflict, connected with the events described in Ezekiel 39:4-5, 17-20 as the same matters.

The judgment around Jerusalem may be Armageddon before Christ's return, the final judgment after the thousand years, or both, and in either case the wicked face God's judgment. Israel in this pleading is God's heritage, His portion and inheritance, with Jacob's heritage and Canaan as a type of soul-rest and eternal rest.

The valley, whose name means judgment of Jehovah, is the place of the great day of the Lord's judgment and is associated with the end of the times of the Gentiles. It is associated with the general judgment, when each person faces the Maker over character and eternal destiny. The prophecy's last-days predictions use local conditions as illustrations of calamities that precede the great day of Jehovah and the final time of war and trouble.

Warning and Application

Joel 3 is a prophecy of warning and reform messages with worldwide application, given to prepare people for Christ's second coming. Its third chapter is to be compared with the present state of the nations, whose condition reveals a remarkable fulfillment of that prophecy and signals that the day of the Lord approaches. It foretells in the last days the nations' judgment and the nearness of Christ's coming. It is identified as a prophecy of signs in the political world that precede the second advent, whose political signs are fulfilling in the present age with unmistakable force.

Its last-days predictions use local conditions as illustrations of calamities that precede the great day of Jehovah and the final time of war and trouble. It shows that the last-days crisis will bring persecution against those who do God's will. This applies to the end of the Sunday-sabbath movement and the church's union with the world.

The bringing of the nations down into the valley of Jehoshaphat is the assembling of the nations for Armageddon near the close of God's wrath upon a disobedient world while the plagues are doing their work, when the kings of the East and of the West marshal their armies upon the ancient battle fields of Palestine. God's pleading with them there is His judgment by fire and sword with many slain, though the political or apparent occasion for the assembling is not told. These scenes of Armageddon, God's wrath, the second coming, and the day of trouble such as never was are just before us. Escape must be secured before the millennium and before that day begins by now making Jesus a personal Friend and mighty Deliverer.

The verse concerns the actual gathering of the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, where God pleads for His people and heritage Israel because they have been scattered and His land divided. This event belongs to the day of the Lord and involves the cutting off of people in the valley. It is not a present-day call to make a decision.