Thursday, August 12, 2004
Dormition Fast Martyrs Photios & Anikytos of Nicomedia
Kellia: Joel 3:9-21 Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 Gospel: St. Matthew 24:13-28
Joel 3:9-21 RSV, especially vs.
12: "Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will
sit to judge all the nations round about." In Joel 2:28-3:8, the focus of the Prophet's Divine
message shifted from a local devastation and recovery experienced by the people of Judah to
worldwide judgment - a great gathering of all peoples in "the valley of Jehoshaphat" before the
Lord (Joel 3:2). Jehoshaphat means "the Lord judges." Now, in the final verses of Joel, God
proclaims His last dread Judgment and also His final restoration of His People. Observe that
God's final Judgment and His glorious Restoration stand in marked contrast to each other.
In judgment God treads the grapes in His wrath, "for their wickedness is great" and that "the vats
overflow" with their evil doings (vs. 13); "but," at the same time, "the Lord is a refuge to His
people, a stronghold to the people of Israel" (vs. 16). God commands all the peoples who have
been at war with Him as well as His People, the Church, to "prepare war, stir 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 a warrior.' Hasten and come, all you nations
round about, gather yourselves there" in the valley where the Lord judges (vss. 9-11).
Still, the Lord assures those who are His own, that He will remain as the sole "refuge to His
people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. So you shall know that I Am the Lord your God,
Who dwell in Zion, My holy mountain" (vss. 16,17). Make no mistake: the Lord "is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand" (Ps. 94:7 LXX). Therefore, in
the shocks and trials of those last days, the Lord will be the only secure refuge to which the
Faithful will be able to cling, for the tribulation shall be such as "has not been since the beginning
of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Mt. 24:21). In fact, the Lord Jesus tells us that
"unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved" (Mt. 24:22).
Next, because of the great wickedness that has been perpetrated against the Church, "the violence
done to the people of Judah," to the children of the Kingdom of God, "because they have shed
innocent blood in their land" (Joel 3:19), the Lord will "avenge their blood, and...will not clear
the guilty" (Joel 3:21). God's Saints will be justified and "Jerusalem," that is, the Church, "shall
be holy and strangers shall never again pass through it" (vs. 17). The blood of the martyrs will be
reckoned to those who tortured and killed them. "Therefore," the Lord counsels us, "you also be
ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Mt. 24:44).
The great worldly kingdoms, including the enemies of the ancient People of God, nations such as
Egypt and Edom, as well as all oppressors of the Church through the ages, "shall become a
desolation...a desolate wilderness, for the violence done" to the People of God (Joel 3:19). In
contrast, the Lord promises that "in that day" of Judgment against the enemies of God, the Saints
will receive the opposite: "the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the
house of the Lord and water the valley of Shittim" (Joel 3:18). The living Fountain of water,
Jesus, shall accomplish a glorious, eternal restoration. "Judah" - God's eternal Kingdom - "shall
be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem," the Church, "to all generations" (Joel 3:20).
Beloved of the Life-giving and Saving Christ, His grace of restoration hath risen for us, as the
Prophet promised. Let us not come to the valley of Jehoshaphat as His enemies, but even now
repent and be cleansed at the Fountain Who is our only refuge and our true salvation.
O Christ our God, glorified in Thy Saints, in Thy mercy, save us by their beseechings!