THE GREAT DAY OF THE LORD The prophet Joel set forth from the talk about the divine chastisement to the talk about the great day of the Lord; during which God will be glorified through breaking down the pride of the nations, and honoring His children who responded to His fatherly chastisement; presenting them with eternal gifts. 1- Judging the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat 1 - 8 2- The Lord will be a shelter to His people 9 – 17 3- The eternal gifts of God 18 – 21 1. JUDGING THE NATIONS IN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT: In order for the repentance to become active in the life of the church, and in that of every member in her, we are committed to anticipate the day of the Lord as being near at hand; … To see in it the present chastisements, although bitter and sorrowful, yet they are of benefit for our edification; … To see the appearance of the Lord for the sake of our eternal salvation, and for the punishment of the wicked; … And those falling under chastisement to see that their glory is soon to come; and the reproach of the devil actually realized. The prophet says: “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land. They have cast lots for My people, Have given a boy in exchange for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink’” (Joel 3: 1-3) The judgment will take place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which means in Hebrew ‘The Valley of Jehovah who judges or condemns’, or ‘The Valley of Judgment’ … The location of this valley is not accurately known; But men of the fourth century believed that it is the ‘Valley of Cedron’, east of Jerusalem, facing the mount of Olives to the west; While others believe that it is the ‘Valley of Goz’, north of Jerusalem; Or the ‘Valley of Rababah’ south of the city. Why did He choose the ‘Valley of Jehoshaphat’ for judgment? a- It was chosen for the sake of its symbolic meaning; As it is Jehovah Himself who is the Judge; on account of that He searches the heart and the mind. b- Being a valley close to Jerusalem, it is a convenient location where all would be gathered, For God to judge the wicked according to their works; and to enter, together with His children, into the High Jerusalem, whose glory, the wicked would be denied to see. The judgment would not be in Jerusalem, where nothing unclean or defiled would enter; As it is where God dwells together with His saints (Revelation 21: 3). c- The Valley of Jehoshaphat reminds us of what happened to the nations that attacked Judah (2 Chronicles 20), whom the Lord destroyed at the same location where they gathered together to attack His children; As though the criminal has to be judged in the same place where he committed his crime. The promise of the Lord to king Jehoshaphat and his people, who cried out to him with humility and fasting: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s … Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord…. So when Judah came to a place 51 overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth, no one had escaped” (2 Chronicles 20: 24). Yes, our adversaries may indeed be a multitude, and, according to the apostle Paul: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6: 12). Yet we enjoy a power against the devil and his hosts – that of the cross, that would destroy their evil: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Coloassians 2: 15). That is the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where Christ was outside the camp, outside Jerusalem, destroying the evil enemy by His cross, to bring us back to His eternal Kingdom! It is a judgment realized by the cross; whose activity would endure in the life of everyone who unites with the Crucified, until he encounters the Lord face to face on His great day of judgment. That is why the apostle Paul provokes us, saying: “Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Hebrew 13: 14). It is a call to go forth to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, outside Jerusalem, bearing the cross of the Lord, to see with our own eyes the defeat of the devil and his works being realized every day in our life; setting forth to our everlasting city. Let us then go forth to the Valley of Jehoshaphat to see the Lord judging for our sake against the devil and his seductions and threats; In order to get in touch with what the prophet Isaiah has proclaimed, saying: “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the sake of Zion” ; “For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come” (Isaiah 63: 4). That day of vengeance has come and has actually been realized when the Lord was lifted on the cross, drawing Zion up with Him out of Hades, destroying the powers of evil underneath His feet. That day wuld endure all our life, as long as the sacrifice of the cross was not corrupted, nor overcome by Hades. And once the plan of the Lord is consummated toward all the elect, He will appear to us face to face; while the devil will also appear, yet bound in the pit. In this chapter, God demonstrated His great day in three aspects: (1) Glorifying the name of God, that was insulted by the nations through attacking His children; saying: “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain” (17). On the day of judgment, God will be glorified, who saved His children from the captivity of the devil, proclaiming His eternal dwelling in their midst; According to the words of St. John: “I heard a loud voice from heaven saying: ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21: 3). (2) Submitting the pride of nations; according to the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!” (Isaiah 10: 15). Because the nations that God used to chasten His people, thought that they were greater than Him who allowed them to chasten; and because they boasted and felt haughty against God the Truth; Once the goal behind using them was realized, God 52 would pay them back for their evil deeds: “For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head” (Obadiah 15). That is why the day of the Lord was called: ‘a day of destruction’: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty”(Isaiah 13: 6). It also called ‘A day of vengeance’: “For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, A day of vengeance, That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood” (Jeremiah 46: 10). It is also called ‘A day of anger’: “Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you” (Zephaniah 2: 2). (3) The consummation of the liberation of the people of God, who for long have fallen in bondage, and became the laughingstock of the nations. He says: “When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem” (1); He is the One who allows for us to fall under chastisement, even to bondage; Then if we willingly receive it, He would send us help to set us free; like He did when He sent Moses to Pharaoh, to say to him: “Let my son go, that he may worship Me” (Exodus 4: 23). God looked to find His sons and daughters sold to the Greeks; giving a boy in exchange for a harlot; and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink (3; 6). How hard it is for God to see His heritage, His own, His portion, and His treasure, scattered cheaply by the enemy! That is why He sets forth to liberate them, saying to the enemy: “Swiftly and speedily I shall return your retaliation upon your own head; Because you have taken My silver and My gold, And have carried into your temples My prized possessions. Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, you have sold to the Greeks, that you may remove them far from the borders … I will sell your sons and daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; For the Lord has spoken” (Joel 3: 4-8) What are the silver, the gold, or the prized possessions, carried by the enemy into their temples, but the precious souls of God’s sons and daughters, counted in His eyes as His treasure; taken by the enemy to the account of a foreign adversary temple; which is that of the love of the world, and the enjoyment of the defiled carnal pleasures?! God’s children were sold to strangers, to become slaves to several sins, as though under the authority of Pharaoh and his men. But the Lord all the time confirms His work of salvation by the cross for the sake of the souls of His servants, saying: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed , the whole earth is Mine, but you shall be for Me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 19: 4-6). It was also said: “The Lord’s own portion was His people, Jacob His allotted share” (Deuteronomy 32: 9). He works to the account of His people, His portion, to liberate them completely, to make out of them a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwell (2 Peter 3: 10-13); and on which no enemy can anymore come. We have received from God His silver; namely, His living word “purified seven times” (Psalm 12: 6), and His gold; namely, the heavenly feature; And were given the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the good treasures, which we should never bring except into the temple of the Lord, but walk faithfully in what He granted us, to enjoy more after enjoying the repentance. Bearing the good treasures of the Lord into evil temples, is like when someone uses the features of love granted to him by God in the lusts of his body; 53 Or when he misuses the love of others for him, because of his spiritual or religious knowledge in a way other than that of God. Finally, What does God means by saying: “I will sell your sons and daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sebeans?” (8). He probably means by that what happened in the days of the ‘Maccabees’ who overcame the enemies; Or He means the judgment of the world by the saints; according to the words said by the apostle: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6: 2); Denied the glory, the wicked will be judged by the saints who gained the eternal freedom through their true repentance in the Lord. 2. THE LORD WILL BE A SHELTER TO HIS PEOPLE: After declaring the great day of the Lord, in which God will be glorified through the liberation of His children from the authority of evil, he proclaims that the secret of the conquest is not in man himself, but in God who is his shelter. He starts by ridiculing the nations that leaned upon themselves, and upon their possibilities, then reveals their weakness before God who supports His children, granting them the conquest; … Mockingly, He says: “Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say: ‘I am strong’” (Joel 3: 9, 10) They are fighting with all their energies, calling on all their mighty men, and dedicating all their possibilities; Yet they will only destroy themselves; according to the words of the prophet: “Be shattered, O You people, and be broken in pieces! … Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing, Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us” (Isaiah 8: 9, 10). Mockingly he tells them: “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong’” (10). Satan has, for a long time assumed that he is an unbeatable hero, until he entered into battle with the Lord Himself on the cross, when he finally realized how helplessly weak he actually is! Several fathers believe that the Lord’s words, saying: “Let the weak say: ‘I am strong’”, are addressed to every believer, who sees himself as weak, to make him say “I am strong!” in the Lord, my shelter. And as father ‘Serinos’ says: [Listen to what the King (the Lord) Himself says, calling the mighty men to the spiritual war against sin; saying to them: “Let the weak say: ‘I am strong’, and the one, who suffers: ‘I am a wrestler’”; … As no one fights in the Lord’s battle, but the weak; … For, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9)1. If we are weak before Satan; By the Lord, we are strong and heroes! And as St. John Chrysostom wrote to his friend, the fallen monk, saying: [If Satan has the ability to cast you, from such a mighty height, and an exalted virtue, down to the farthest limits of evil; How much more would be the Lord’s ability, not only to lift you up back to your original confidence; But to make you far better than you used to be?!]. [ If Satan has cast us down to the ground; It is up to us to stand up, and to keep ourselves from falling again; So as not to add to his conquests on us, more of our own doing2]. Therefore, I wish we do not become terrified before the devil, even when he appears as a multitude of strong adversaries; For he is utterly weak before God who 1 Cassian: Conf 7: 5. .38 ، 2 رسالة إلى ساقط یائس، 1964 ، ص 7 54 dwells in us; according to the words of the prophet: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for his people, And the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3: 14-16) If the nations have become like a sun, a moon, or even like stars in the world, Yet, before God – the Sun of Righteousness – they will grow dark, and will diminish their false brightness! The Lord Himself will stand as a Lion coming from the tribe of Judah, to protect His children, and to shelter them in His stronghold; He will roar on the sin, will make it shake, and will keep it from dwelling in your soul (the heaven), or in your body (the earth). St. (Mar) Ephram the Syrian speaking to us about God as our shelter, says: [Let God be your Shelter … If His providence does not forsake you, nothing will harm you. Do not fear the enemies who may fiercely charge against you; As God will keep your soul, and will turn the harmful things into things of benefit1]. The sign of conquest in the Lord, is that, while we resort to Him as a stronghold for our souls, He proclaims Himself in us, And would never allow a stranger to reign in Jerusalem, His holy mountain; … “No alien shall ever pass through her again” (17). 3. THE ETERNAL GIFTS OF GOD: Our conquest by the Lord will be proclaimed by His dwelling alone in us; reigning on our hearts; and not allowing an alien to pass through His kingdom … The land and its fullness will become for God and His Messiah; … This divine presence will proclaim itself through the abundance of fruits that appear in us, and the fountains of the Spirit that flow within us. “And it will come to pass in that day, That the mountains shall drip with new wine, The hills shall flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord, and water the valley of Acacias (Wadi Shittim)” (Joel 3: 18) What are these mountains, hills, fountains, and the house of the Lord, but the sides of the victorious church, where the Lord dwells, the Grantor of conquest, who makes out of His children: Mountains holy for Him, that drip with new wine for the mature; … Living hills that flow with milk for the infants; … Fountains that would never dry up, to which everyone would resort; … And a house of the Lord that brings gladness to the heavenly creatures?! By the new wine, He probably also refers to the Holy Spirit, Who would make the soul drunk with the love of God, and fill her with eternal joy. The mountains refer to the laborers in the vine of the Lord; For the mature, this divine Spirit would be as a spiritual wine that brings them joy; … For the infants, as milk that feed and support them; … And for every creature that thirsts to it, would be as living water that quenches its thirst. The Lord Christ Himself says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 37, 38). . 1 ارشادات ونصائح للقدیس مار اف ا رم السریاني، 19 55 By the fountain that flows from the house of the Lord, to water the Valley of Acacia, or the Valley of Shittim, He refers to the fountain of baptism seen by the prophet Ezekiel, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar; that waters many trees on one side and the other; healing waters; in which a great multitude of fish live (Ezekiel 47). … It is the fountain of baptism that flows on the barren and fruitless Valley of Acacia, where nothing but Acacia trees used to grow …; Baptism would transform it into a fertile valley where all kinds of fruitful trees grow! … That is the river which flowed with its four branches over the nations in every direction of the world, where God would set His living paradise, In place of the barren Valley of Acacia, or wadi Shittim, which starts north-west of Jerusalem, and goes down to the east of the city, separating it from the Mount of Olives, then goes further down toward the south-east toward the Dead Sea; where the Valley of Fire, (or Wadi-el-Nar) is today. Anyway, the prophet Joel ends his prophecy by proclaiming the abundance of God’s work in His church, not only on the positive aspect of flowing wine, milk, and living water; But also on the negative aspect, of destroying the works of the old man, symbolized here by Egypt (the love of the world) that captivates man; Like Pharaoh who put the people of God in bondage; And by Edom (the love of blood shedding and oppression) … He prepares His church for the great day of the Lord, to join Him in His eternal glory. In this chapter, the prophet Joel presents to us the following divine blessings: The enemies will be driven away, and will end up in perdition (1-15). Jerusalem will be saved (16, 17). The land will be blessed (18). Judah will be renewed (19 – 21). This is the work of God in us, He will destroy the enemy underneath our feet; Will save our inner Jerusalem, His holy temple; Will bless our land; namely our body; And will proclaim the kingdom of the One who comes out of the tribe of Judah in our depths. 56 AN INSPIRATION FROM THE BOOK OF JOEL 3 YOUR DAY IS THE DAY OF FREEDOM You allowed for Your people to be chastised. You allowed them to be captivated to Babylon. But You soon punished the violent and fierce Babylon. You turned Your day into a day of freedom and joy. Judge, O Lord, my sin that captivated me into humility. But, my soul, beloved to You, Set her free by Your right hand. I confess that I have corrupted Your gifts to me. I turned all my energies, emotions, and my possibilities to evil. Sanctify my life. Renew my depths. Bring all my energies back to Your kingdom. I confess to You that I am a captive to sin. I am weak, I am despised. But by You I shall become strong. By Your cross, I shall break the chains of the enemy, and set myself free. The day of Your crucifixion is the day of proclamation of my freedom.
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