Joel chapter 3 a little book that is perhaps the most under studied book in the Bible and yet critical for a prophecy now the after chapter 1 and and and setting the stage with this locust invasion and so on in chapter 2 we had all just a list of the events that would be forthcoming the Gentile invasion Armageddon the destruction of the invaders the repentance of Judah the response of yoniyahav a and the effusion then of the Holy Spirit this passage that gets so misunderstood because it's alluded to by Peter in Acts chapter 2 but it's not a fulfillment yet it's just the beginning of that kind of giving of the Spirit and then verses 30 to 32 the return and establishing the kingdom and that's where we closed last time the last two topics that undertake here is the judgment of the nation's that follows and the full Kingdom blessing which will be our topics tonight and so it's it's chapter three in our English Bible it's chapter four in the Hebrew Bible that's a subtlety in the Hebrew Bible the passage we're looking it will be chapters chapter four 21 verses but no prophet of the Old Testament has more important revelation of the end times especially than Joel in this third chapter we've had a lot in chapter 2 but chapter 3 is the wrap-up the day of the Lord of course is the period of time that pervades this early book the book of Joel and it's the period of time from the tribulation the great tribulation that Jesus himself labeled the last three and a half years of the 70th week of daniel is labeled by the Lord Himself as the period of the Great Tribulation from the Great Tribulation to the passing away of the heavens and the earth is what the scripture calls the day of the Lord the day of man he's had his day and the result of that is the Great Tribulation and that mess and it would if if it wasn't for the intervention by the return of the Lord Himself all flesh would be saved that would be destroyed and and the key passages from last time ssam to zechariah 12 and 14 little of course Matthew 25 don't confuse the premillennial judgment of the sheep and the goats with the great white throne judgment that occurs at the end of the thousand years study both of them they're very distinct and distinctly different but the judgment the Gentiles is the subject of our first 17 verses here in chapter 3 and this follows Israel's national salvation and then now God will turn to the Gentiles and verse 8 1 2 8 is the judgment the Gentiles and 9 to 13 the beginning and the end of Armageddon so let's take a look at this do I'll be dealing with the time for the where the Gentiles in which he's pouring out his wrath and for Israel it's a restitution to glory and blessing and let's look at Israel from the time of Joel 2 today just in summary form the diaspora Jew he endured the torture of the Spanish Inquisition the stench of the European ghettos the sword of the Russian pogroms the heel of Nazi annihilation Israel was warned of these if they were to be disobedient I find that Leviticus 26 deuteronomy 4 and 28 and in fact jeremiah calls that the time of Jacob's Jacob's trouble Jeremiah 30 verse 7 and Zechariah 14:2 and so Israel is warned of these things well let's jump in and see what Joel says he sees for behold in those days and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem notice that phrase in those days and in that time many many prophets subsequent to Joel will say in that time referring to the time the Joel is defined as the the the day of the Lord the regather enough Israel is a prerequisite of the end times that's what's so significant about the time in which we live we've seen Israel really nation and a regather is taking place a prelude to all of this but this 2/3 of the population are going to be killed and Zechariah 13:8 it makes that point and I read that scripture on the radio and was labeled as an anti-semite by the Jewish anti-defamation league no I just read what Zechariah said that two out of three are going to be killed in this final period half of Jerusalem will be taken captive and that's all in Zechariah 12 rock use a carafe 14 verse 2 Zechariah 12 13 and 14 has a lot to say about the end times you want to always accompany your study of these passages with the parallel passages to get a full perspective 2nd verse God says I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land now this term valley of jehoshaphat is a much discussed term this is the only place it appears so there's a lot of scholastic guesswork going on here it's an untranslated word which means Yahweh judges or yo-ho svet judges and it's the only mention in the scripture in the targa miss rendered the plain of division so see it may be an idiomatic term rather than a specific identifiable geographic place it may be idiomatic not literal in the minds of many and zechariah 12 and 14 would tend to support that kind of perspective the valley of jehoshaphat there are some that believe it's that baraka Valley West of Toccoa east of the road to Hebron that's where God defeated the ammonites the Moabites and the on behalf of Jehoshaphat king of Judah so that's why they think of it as the valley of Jehoshaphat so if you identify it with the king by that name that could be a possibility in 2nd chronicles 20 there are others that believe it's a label of the applied to the Kedron Valley that Valley just to the east of Jerusalem that lies between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives and that's a tradition that goes all the way back to Eusebius this time 4th century and and so this is also the view that's favored by Arnall fuckton bomb and I respect him so profoundly as a Hebrew scholar so that's not to be dismissed but it's not necessarily near Jerusalem despite because of a number of other passages some even suggest it relates to Mount Carmel Zechariah mentions the opening a very large Valley when the Lord's feet touched Mount of Olives this perhaps is a a more defendable view because we do know there's going to be huge topological changes when the Lord his feet touch the Mount of Olives it's going to they're going to it's going to split into this is going to be a huge valley that might be the valley that then is used for the judgment here these are all speculations and it's an unresolved area but in any case the nations are going to be judged for their conduct during the Great Tribulation and that's the strange sheep and goat judgment that's described in Matthew when you study the sheep and goat judgment to be essentially there's three people there's a sheep and goat and they're separated in terms of how they treated the the people that the Lord calls my brethren and and in view of the the focus of the Great Tribulation that's taken to be of course Israel and because remember our King of Kings is Jewish he's a Jewish King and fine burger also points out little donations realize how they incur the wrath of God when they lay violent hands upon his heritage and the plant of his choosing which of course is Israel whenever we mess around in the Middle East in our foreign policy we run the risk of poking our finger in the eye of God and there's a very personal relationship between the Lord and the people he calls my people he just says that three times the army of Hosea 2 and so on the Gentiles partition his land you keep hearing about that all the time the audacity of the UM the audacity of our president administration that they would encourage the participation and the partition of of that land which the Lord has set aside for Israel and he talks about the Lord's partitioning and the institution of the year jubilee in Leviticus 25 the Lord apportioned each tribe their Ajala or their portion the Gentiles crime is their dividing it up for themselves that's exactly what's going on and it's not succeeding they're not getting agreement and I think they have no grasp but how directly offensive this is to the God of the Bible verse 3 and they have cast lots for my people they have given a boy for a harlot and a soul a girl for a wine that they might drink those are common across cities during wartime and then of course is dealt with all through the scriptures especially know Obadiah and zechariah 14 and so on it's interesting how Josephus records and is War of the Jews and also an antiquities and it's also recorded in first and second Maccabees the Romans chose the tallest and most beautiful and reserve them for the triumph triumph the triumphal entry for them when they took them to Rome as for the rest of the multitude they were that were above 17 years old he put them into bonds and sent them to the Egyptian mines those that were under 17 of age were sold for slaves so that was the Roman resolution of all these things let's get to verse 4 yeah and what have ye to do with me o tyre and sidon and all the coasts of Palestine well you remember me at recompense and if you recompense me swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head whoa tyre and sidon this is an area that we know today as Lebanon and its course controlled by the Hezbollah as an enemy of Israel and term Palestine is actually a translation of Philistia if that's the term for the Palestina if you will is what we know is if listed in in modern terms that's the Gaza Strip which of course it today is controlled by the Hamas we've got the Hezbollah to the north you got the Hamas to the south west of Israel see the lands of the Phoenicians and Philistines were given to Israel as an inheritance in Joshua 13 and but Israel was instructed to drive these people from the land but they failed to do so that's in judges 1 and elsewhere it's interesting that Israel's failure to follow through then still to this day hunts them and they've been a thorn in the side of Israel ever since God told him what they do and they didn't follow directions the Philistines were ward against Israel from Samson days samhsa's day until the days of joel the last record invasion was against King George MO and his family and and only Joe has the youngest son survived we talked about that last time second chronicles 21 and it's God saying what are you to me you know what do we have in common all the grievances committed upon God's people he considers as done to himself our God is indeed Jewish that sounds strange to many ears but that's the essence of what God is proclaiming here you understand that in God's eyes it's Israel and all the nations they don't he doesn't regard Israel as one of the nations we tend of course to think of a whole list of nations and it was one of them not in God's eyes there's Israel his focus is chosen people through whom he entered human humankind and to in order to provide our for our salvation and restoration so he treats Israel separately and then there's the nations those guys all through the scripture he says what have you got what have you got in common with me well how about you and me what do we have in common with him or do we really have a perspective that's consistent with the way God sees things or his priorities our priorities whoo first by because you've taken my silver and my gold and a carried into your temples of my goodly present things my is there three times taking my silver my gold so forth and just like in Hosea two and Haggai also in Haggai two those treasures went to Babylon the Persians gave them back but they are presently in the Vatican in Rome the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have V sold unto the Grecians that she might remove them far from their border Ezekiel 27 highlights the trade relationship between Phoenicia and Greece Yahveh enemy but in the Bible Greece misuk and to Baal Turkey as we would think of it Greece had acquired 1 million three hundred and thirty thousand slaves is been said that ten thousand slaves per day were sold at Delos this is all prohibited by the brotherly covenant between Solomon and tires King Hiram that's ancient history tyre got its destruction took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years to besieged tyre and he completely destroyed and still enslaved his people a remnant of tyre escaped to a small island off shore for two hundred and forty years they survived until Alexander the Great made history by building his famous causeway out to it from the mainland in 332 BC so there's a lot about tyre that was predicted in the Bible that history has confirmed that's a whole study in its own encourage you to undertake Ezekiel's prophecy was fulfilled is equal 27 it was rebuilt Matthew 15 acts 21 but was ultimately destroyed by the Muslims in 1291 Sidon is a sister city and in felicity also suffered the same fate as tyre the so behold I will raise them up out of the place where the II have sold them and will return your recompense upon your own head and the Jews was destroyed and sold into slavery by Alexander the Great and he says I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah and they shall sell them to the Sabian's to a people far off for the Lord hath spoken it so there's a reversal of the role of Phoenicians and Felicity's who had sold Judah and Jerusalem to the sabians and so and what and who are the sabians well generally regarded as sheba Southwest Arabia near Yemen in effect some also point out the better ones came from Abraham and cateura those are all related and you can study those in Jeremiah 6 in Ezekiel 27 and 38 and so on now one of the questions that some scholars figure that the all this talk about Felicity and Phoenicia may prefigure Israel's enemies collectively and they see that eopns and Moab and Isaiah 25 and also the whole stories about Edom in the book of Obadiah that may be a very defendable academic view I personally don't think so I personally think that God means what he says and they're very precisely they're you being used denotative Li not connotative Li here but that's just one person's opinion anyway at that time God's people will gain ascendancy over their foes and that's the key part of this whole passage anyway Isaiah 41 and you go you can look up the passages especially the passages no bataya Micah seven and so on Phoenicia remember is equivalent to Lebanon and maybe even referring to Syria felicity of course is a term for the Philistines that came from Crete from crease and and and are they tried to invade Egypt couldn't make it so they settled on the west coast there and in of Israel and that's the Gaza Strip today of course Joel chapter 3 verses 4 to 8 is viewed by some as a peak episode that is emphasized by what they call rhetorical underlining there are high heightened vividness there's a there's a stylistic emphasis that the scholars will point to there it concentrates on specific participants in a courtroom like atmosphere in other words God is talking to them not about them and that's one reason I think he's being specific I don't tend to use those regards those labels connotative Lee some scholars do and they may turn out to be right the term vengeance is all through here and that's a negative notion in Western thought but it's a major theme that runs throughout Scripture Psalm 137 does the Curry and it's the controlling idea in Obadiah and nahan in the New Testament we see it in Revelation 6:9 210 the Justice of God demands that injustice of many nations toward each other be redressed however while vengeance is theme vengeance belongs to God we're not to take it in their own hands that's not only Deuteronomy 32 it's Romans 12 and so on remember all through this that the apple of his eye is an identified group it's called Israel and so Joel continues proclaiming this among the Gentiles prepare war wake up the mighty men let all the men of war draw near let them come up prepare war that means the term actually means sanctify a war declare a holy war Wow it's a dare it's a call to arms and we find the same kind of expressions in Obadiah one and the Haggai to the same proclamation is in revelation 16 the Antichrist is going to be responsible for gathering these armies together in the valley of Jezreel then we know where that is that's that's what Megiddo overlooks and calling for a war against the Jews and that's what we typically call the Armageddon campaign the Antichrist will be the one precipitating all that and of course it will be unsuccessful and so this all parallels the summoning of the people so many of the people of Judah to the temple same kind of language is being used the destruction of the locust in Chapter one led to a general call to come for fasting a prayer and when he did the Lord relented and healed the land there's a parallel here the Judeans came together for repentance and are delivered the nation's now come for war with God and they are destroyed and it's a ward of the finish this are we gettin it's a war to the finish and it's all echoed by the way and some chime - what's anticipated why do the heathen rage an imagined the main thing they take up arms against the Lord and against his anointed saying well let they just cast their cords from among us and that it Psalm 2 is a foundational piece here ok let's continue here do all three feet your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears and let the weak say I am strong that's in the exact opposite as it's usually quoted for an Isaiah 2 verse 4 and McMichael for 3 were there there to turn your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks in other words take your warfare weapons and convert them to useful things for peace time that's that's the joyous quote of all of that no this is the inverse of that beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears see hosea is talking you know you know Isaiah 2 he's talking about what happens after God's kingdom set up that's when they convert their swords to plowshares and so forth joel is talking about what they do prior to god's setting up his kingdom he says and it's it's it's it let the weak say I am strong it's not a necessity it's just enthused Yasim that is being embraced here in them in the passage let the weak say I am strong it's a dare it's a dare assemble yourselves and come all you heathen gather yourselves together around about whether caused thy mighty ones to come down o Lord thy mighty ones that's the term for warriors apparently refers to the angelic hosts who will assist God in this judgment compare that with Psalm 103 verse 20 SEC our ayah 14 five and other passages these are the same warriors we saw in verse nine there also again I call your attention some to first few verses my bet is on his who wears your bed let the heathen be awakened and come up to the valley of Josaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about there's that term value hozeva some people equate it with Megiddo or their I will sit down to judge all nations I don't see it that way I think that I think that value does realize were the assembled are going against Jerusalem but in any case there are scholars that equate that with Megiddo come again it was a real place sits on a tell or a hill about 70 feet high now as a result of being the site of 20 different cities over a 3,000 year period and it's on the southwest end of the Carmel mountain range born in borders on the Jezreel Valley and you look across that value seen as on the other side or turning around if you when Jesus was a boy in Nazareth he could look out on that valley and see Megiddo on the other side 22 miles wide at that point and it's the crossroads of the middle east north and south to trade routes meet there at the king's highway and via Morris the Egyptians the Persians the Crusaders the druce's the Turks and Arabs have fought there deborah and barak defeated the Canaanites there in judges four or five Gideon defeated the Midianites there in judges seven as I allude there in second Kings nine Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt there in second Kings and also there's passes that relate to eat him and Judah holy court the harvest there's also alluded to in Revelation 14 put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the presses full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great these agricultural idioms reading for a form of judgment but these idioms changed from war to harvest here we see a harvest flavor to these idioms that occurs all through the prophetic passages the commands are in the plural implying they're given to the Warriors that we've heard alluded to in verse 11 the agricultural imagery is unmistakable the locusts and the draught prevented any harvesting renewed harvest of plain now after repentance for the nation's harvest time means that they are ripe for judgment wickedness is great there the the sin of the amorite is full if you remember the Genesis 1516 passage this is the word of a sickle occurs all through the book of Revelation 14 19 and so on ripe blood will splash to the horses bridles that's apparently like five feet high and for over 200 miles 176 miles precisely is the distance from Megiddo to Basra and you go through these passages in Zechariah 14:12 is a passage that some people feel describes a neutron bomb and it seems to and yet it might be something just by profit what's going on here throughout the scriptures reaping is of a similar or metaphor for salvation thus the reaping results in the salvation of the sheep Gentiles and it's also found in Revelation 14 the treading results in the destruction of the anti-semites this treading taking place just outside the walls of Jerusalem is also described in Revelation 14 in the later passage the the the the reaping described in verses 14 and 16 in Revelation 14 the treading is rescript in verses 17 to 20 and that there's a a a issue of denotation here that may be very different than it's commonly thought of this judgement of the Gentiles is described in Joe of course is the very same judgment that described in Matthew 25 the judgment of the sheep and the goats and let's continue verse 14 multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision now here's another term that occurs here multitudes come on it means making a loud noise or trauma like crowds on crowds as perhaps a good translation and this might be a scenario of Daniel 11 it might be something else it's it was drawn by demonic spirits that's what Revelation 16 would suggest in any case what we're seeing here may be Satan's final shot but this this valley of decision thing is widely misunderstood it may it's often the you that phrase is used in terms of the believer making a decision it's the Lord's time to decide not theirs he's decided to this is the enough sanaa in other words and her haces decision it means sharpen or cut it render a judgment is really what is implied here and the word thrashing winnowing and separation are equivalent terms used in Isaiah 41 and elsewhere and and even in Ruth 3 we have the thrashing for seen there idiomatic of the Tribulation Period a lot of word play going on in here the noun can also mean that which is dugout or excavated like a moat in Daniel 9:25 and thus a deep valley in fulfillment of Genesis 12 first three verses perhaps the Sun and the moon shall be darkened and the stars shall withdraw their shining very frequently used idiom you know these cosmic signs that accompany the locusts back in Chapter one are now on a more Universal scale we find the same expression used in Matthew 24 by the Lord Himself in verse 29 there mark 13 verses 24 and 25 and it's the same kind of thing we hear about in Revelation 6 verses 12 through 13 this judgment is to be stingers from that is held before the white throne which is at the end of a thousand years don't get those confused and many people do know verse 16 the Lord also shall roar out of his eyen and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake and that the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel and the Lion of the tribe of Judah the Lord will roar out of Zion and we get this the Lion of the tribe of Judah idiom used in Revelation chapter 5 verse 5 the earthquake follows it shakes the entire earth and its foundations and even sets the heavens tottering apparently so shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain then shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through her any more this is echo of Zechariah 12:10 for thousands of years the Jews have heard the tramping of foreign boots through their holy city Babylonians Greeks Romans Arabs Crusaders the UN what have you and so this is a very welcome sound no more foreigners now let's talk the difference between foreigners and strangers the Tsar has a stronger meaning than stranger for gara are always welcome because israelites for strangers in egypt Jer is a friendly stranger the Tsar is a foreigner it's a stronger meaningless stranger a stranger could participate in the blessings of the Sabbath and so forth in contrast to foreigners who sought to rest the land from God's people and enjoy its benefits for themselves so the foreigners is a an adversarial term and it's even possible for Israelites themselves to become aliens Zoram within their own nation by following after pagan cults then they become foreigners in the negative sense God hates wickedness in all its forms they caught the holy city but not until God dwells in the midst sakurai 14 makes that emphasis but k9 the canaanites it's also term for merchants and the Canaanite merchants will be excluded as he is from the temple precincts and we don't see foreigners in the public office there either but I won't start on that right now Messianic Kingdom is going to be a land well watered huh there'll be a special Millennial river we get that also the last part of a number 18 and when you read Ezekiel the last nine chapters of Ezekiel especially this comes up in Ezekiel chapter 47 12 verses about there's going to be a river that comes out of the temple flows through some splits in two directions and it's all described there surprisingly detailed there'll be a desolation of Egypt and Edom which of course is southern Jordan but maybe much more than that I'll come to that in a minute the desolation of Egypt is limited to only 40 years by the way the first 40 years of the missing a kingdom but Edom will be desolate throughout the thousand years of mine and kingdom and that's Ana's equal twenty nine I want to talk a little more about that it's interesting Egypt civilized the world and it is desolate for 40 years but then it has some good things coming Edom is a very special situation that I want to talk more about but in any case verse 20 of this passage will Israel live in security Israel experienced a national salvation verse 21 that's the climax of the chapter but let's take a look at verse 18 so come to pass in that day that the mountains will 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 the valley of shittim is on the east side of the Jordan River Wow let's see that that River is going to flow in both directions it's going to flow to the east and the West now these blessings will exceed the splendour of David and Solomon in terms of borders you can find those borders in Genesis 15 verse 38 when you speak of the West Bank you can ask the person which River did you have in mind because it's not the Jordan it's the bow through euphrates big deal and there's a 34 square mile section set aside for the priests the Levites the temple that's all diagram for you in our commentary on ezekiel 48 and so you wanted to get to that the Mount of Olives uh Quran tells us will be split like the Arab uh like a big fault through there the rift from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea Wow is there is that the rift of Burma and this is going to be the site of the fourth temple the the Millennial temple the one that we believe was described in the last nine chapters of Ezekiel and that's where his throne will be it's not just a tent we used the term temple but it's also going to be a palace and the floor plan is laid out in detail it's worth your study the chicano departed from the temple back in the zekiel ten and so on it will now descend through the east gate according to Ezekiel 43 people ask why are there sacrifices all these sacrifices are talked about for the same reason we had sacrifices in the Old Testament they were not that no one was none of those sacrifices paid for their sins it was just a memorial in anticipation of the payment that was made at the cross and so they were memorials in advance in the Old Testament and they'll be Morial memorials after the fact in the New Testament this is all described in the Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 9 especially verse 12 see none of the Old Testament were for efficacious they were representative they were prophetic as the point and so you want to read the Epistle of Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 which goes into all of that and so these in the future are also soon-to-be memorial or an instructive and now the covenant with Israel includes promises regarding the land Jacobs blessings for Judah and so forth that's all in Genesis 49 among other places and the water from the house in Jerusalem is in Ezekiel 47 as I've mentioned it's also alluded to in is in zechariah 14:8 the feast of tabernacles will be worshiped globally Zachary will discover that all the nations will observe the feast of tabernacles will also discover that the you know that look even makes them the book in the gospel Luke we have mentioned the church leadership over the Gentile cities we know the Apostles will the Twelve Apostles will rule over the twelve crimes that's in both Matthew 19 Luke 22 and the word shoot him is a hebrew term for acacia trees and the same term for the burning bush the tabernacle and so forth so the valley of shittim maybe just a an allusion to do these goings on it so it's on the border between Moab and Israel beyond the Jordan it's the last place that Israel camped east of the Jordan before entering the land of Canaan it's known for his dryness but now it's going to be well watered as the point he's making here the curse is lifted for every creature on the planet Earth except for the serpent by the way that's an interesting twist you may want to get to Egypt shall be a desolation okay that's what we've been talking about now we have another thing and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah because they have shed innocent blood in their land and that's by way of contrast to the previous verse so Egypt let's talk about it first jet from Jacobs descent into Goshen until today Egypt has cast a long shadow over Israel's history Pharaoh Necco killed King Josiah at Megiddo invaded Judah he proved to be a false ally in Isaiah 36 and so on Egypt will be downtrodden and subdued by the Antichrist Dan tells us yet she will experience restoration five major cities will speak the language of Canaan and be committed to the Lord of Hosts Isaiah 19 deals with that Egypt will recalled my people get that Egypt will be called by people Assyria the work of my hands while Israel has declared the inheritance of the Lord in Isaiah 19 he paints a very positive picture for both Egypt and Assyria the two initial empires in the region Assyria was first a Jim lake later later Egypt we a desolation Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah because they have shed innocent blood in their land now I want to switch you notice we've talked about Egypt now we're talking about Edom and Edom deserves special study this is all this is I want to talk about the olam Abad the everlasting hatred this is the the Edom brings two four here a bitterness a hate that started in the womb it's a continuing enigma to this very day the everlasting hatred started in the womb and now continues to drive events throughout our entire world even today the judgment against this protagonist is mentioned more in the Old Testament books than against any other foreign nation so we want to pay attention here and yet very few observers can point to who it represents today I want to challenge you that to understand who is Edom in contemporary terms because it's such a central figure in the biblical text let's go back to justice 25 these are generations of Isaac Abraham's son Isaac we've got eyes a member got Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah DeLaughter wife the daughter of ful the Syrian of paddan-aram and the sister to Laban the Syrian and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebecca his wife conceived and the children more than one two of them the children struggled together within her and she said if it be so why am i thus she went to inquire of the Lord the Lord said under two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the younger and wonder days were to be delivered behold there were twins in her womb the first came out red all over like a hairy garment and they called his name he saw and after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob and Isaac was threescore years old when she bared them and the boys grew and Esau was a cunning hunter a man of the field Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents Isaac loved Esau because he didn't eat of his venison but Rebekah loved Jacob now when you get to the book of Romans Paul comments on this in chapter 9 this is for the children not being yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth he was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger and as is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Wow so let's go back here to Genesis 25 and Jacob sawed pottage and Esau came from the field and was faintly saw said to Jacob feed me I pray thee with the same red pottage for I'm faint therefore was his name called Edom and Jacob said sell me this day by birthright he said behold I'm an appointed I what profit shall this birthright do to me Jacob said swear to me this day and he sware unto him and he sold his birthright unto Jacob then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he didn't eat and drink and rose up and went his way thus here's the point Esau despised his birthright that's the key point here the covenant covenant Sarah over Hagar Isaac over Ishmael Jacob over Esau that's all emphasized in the book of Genesis deserves very careful study you look at the descendants of Abraham under Sara of course he had Isaac under Hagar you as Ishmael and Ishmael will also have 12 sons and then later cateura and he has six sons there that become the the people that we associate with the Saudi Arabia and the better ones and so forth the point is under Isaac we have two then the twins Esau and Jacob and Esau deliberately to offend his parents Mary's contrary to their wishes a daughter of Ishmael of the Israelites thus the that's in Genesis 26 the descendants of Esau get coal mingled with the descendants of Ishmael and Zimmern both Hagar and cateura they all get a commingle because they they weren't called to stay separate it's important issue here so Edom really means red the name comes from Esau meaning red it's the name of the land occupied by Esau's descendants formerly the land of Seir here at Mount serious also an expression there it stretched from what is honoured in the Gulf of Aqaba extended to both sides of the Arab and the Great Depression connecting the Dead Sea to the Red Sea now Esau had already occupied Edom when jacob returns from her on and there's a big reunion and all that and they would seem to have buried the hatchet but not really Edom refused israel's passage by the king's highway when they're in the wilderness wanderings he forces and Edom forces him to go around he wouldn't get let him go through and that's a that's a big deal when the king of Edom refused to allow the children to pass through his land on the way to Canaan they detoured around the country because of his show of force and because God ordered them to do so rather than wage war they weren't supposed to wage war because they were brothers that Brotherhood is going to confuse the Romans we'll get to that in a minute so a little summary of Old Testament history is was forbidden to abhor the eat of my brother in Deuteronomy Balaam predicted the conquest of Edom in numbers 24 Joshua's alot of the territory of Judah up to the borders of Edom but did not encroach on their lands in Joshua 15 200 years later King Saul was fighting the David though finally conquers Edom and puts Garrison's throughout the land Solomon built the port vision gamer so the story isn't over yet though enjoy Hoss effects time joined the ammonites and Moabites in a raid on Judah but the allies felt if I it sounds like today - under joram even Edom rebelled but he could not reduce them to subjection heat him had a respite for about 40 years Amazon later in inve invaded Edom slew 10,000 in the valley of salt captured sale of their capital and sent 10,000 more to their deaths by casting them from the top of Silla whose I am a messiah successor restored the port at alive but under a has when Judah was being attacked by a Pekka and risen the invaded Judah carried off campus all through the history eita mites are on the advert adversaries or helping their adversaries and Judah never then it from that point on never regained we recovered eat them but we get to a very key point in history the destruction of Jerusalem time is 586 BC that places Jerusalem itself the event is the destruction by the Babylonian armies their surrounding them we see the angry soldiers as they wrecked the walls and they slay the people and burn the city but we see something else we see a group of neighbouring citizens as they stand on the other side and encourage the Babylonians to ruin the city raise it raise it i means burn it down they're calling - the little children against the stones and wipe out the jews is what they're singing now when you get to some 137 you a little shocked unless you know the background because the psalmist there says remember a lord that children of Edom in the day of jerusalem who said raise it raise it even to the foundation thereof o daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed happy shall he be that reward of V as thou has preserved us she happy shall he be the taketh and Dash's vine little ones against the stones and that's the way the psalm ends if that's all you know you wonder what honor what kind of Psalm is that and it's really an echo of retribution for the way they were treated during the Babylonian captivity or interesting so raise it make bears with the really means well there's something that's very misleading and I want to correct you most of you have in your Bible maps you know where Jerusalem is in Hebron and the south and again and all that we have up in the north just east of the Sea of Galilee we have the the heights of Bashan God today we call it the Golan Heights below that we have the amorite s-- then we have moab and then you have Edom and the amorite smo ab and eat them on all your maps and so therefore most people think that Edom refers to that area of geography because they don't know their history of subsequent I'll come to that in that region of course is Petra and of course that is very prominent in the end times but to the east-southeast of Edom are the Nabataeans these came out of Saudi Arabia and the Nabataeans migrate out of Arabia and they drove the westward and the directly west of Edom were established roots of passage the land to the west was much more prosperous and resourceful the land of Edom which was on fertile deserts and very dry jagged mountains and what-have-you and so the land also was in the hands of a family association because he saw with Jacob if you will so the land was being vacated because the Jews are being exported to captivity so we've got the are being pressured by the Nabataeans to move so they do move and they move into the area let me show you so men the Nabataeans are pushing Edom to the west to the west is really are really good land so the established themselves south of Jerusalem and take over Hebron and that becomes a region that will show on Roman maps as the nation of idioma that's the Greek term for the many people don't realize that Edom had a country not the one that shows on your map but subsequently over here in better more fertile ground called edu Mya now see the babylon captivity might seized on the Amalekite era tori so that the idiom anime came to mean in a region between the arab and the mediterranean have Ron nineteen miles south of Jerusalem was their new frontier in fact made it their capital it's about thirty four hundred feet above sea level so unlike Jerusalem it was left intact as prime real estate Jerusalem was being destroyed by the Babylonians the were free to take over have run under the Greek Empire they under the abuses of Antiochus Epiphanes there was a rebellion under the Maccabees and they threw off the yoke of the Greek Empire that ushers in a period of time called the Hasmoneans so it's after the Old Testament period it's before the New Testament period there's a period there of the Hasmoneans have bran remained under Edomite control until Judea smack investor we took the city under Jewish control at about 164 BC thirty-eight years later in 126 BC they had to be reconquered and they were by a Jewish army under the Prince and high priest by the name of John her canis he was he was he was the the top leader during that period of the Hasmoneans but something occurs that most people don't notice or pay attention to when John her canis re conquers have bran and the an idiom a ax he forces them the to either die flee or convert to Judaism so we all we know a lot about how Jews were forced to convert to Christianity under the Spanish like Elena in Spanish Inquisition all that what many people don't realize is that when the Jews were in control of that area they forced the who theoretically were their brothers to into Judaism under penalty of death that's in first Maccabees and it's also detailed by Josephus I'm mentioning that because you won't understand subsequent history and I you understand that the were forced to become forced into Judaism key point to remember about 47 BC now Julius Caesar promotes idiom and Antipater as the procurator of Judea Samaria and Galilee by 47 BC after pumping on they got control of the area so they appoint someone that they think is Jewish in charge because to them idiom an Jewish there it's a family scorable say so they an idiom an to the Roman mind as perfect as an acceptable Jew so to speak so they important Antipater as procurator over Judea Samaria and Galilee and by telling you 10 years later the Romans named Herod the son of Antipater as king over Israel as his mother by the way it was Nabataean the idiom ian's it is idiom an is just that's a Greek term for Edomite had five centuries of prior history in Israel by the time that Jesus makes his appearance the everlasting hatred is still upper the struggle between Esau and Jacob runs all through the Bible the Herod's of the New Testament were to a non Jew there looked like a part Jew but to the Jews they hated the into mites and he might say to the Jews one of the Herod's killed the Jewish babies in his attempt to destroy Christ in Matthew to another Herod murdered John the Baptist another one killed James the brother of John and the struggle between the Israelis and the Arabs today is but a continuation of this same battle that started in Genesis 25 there's more to it than that at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD there was civil turmoil among the zealots the demands the Orthodox Jews even among themselves are fighting 20,000 of idiom Ayin infantry slaughtered many of the Orthodox Jews that's not a surprise many fought with the Jews against the Romans that is a surprise many were killed sold into slavery or enjoined among the 40,000 set free buses by Caesar 40,000 was set free by Caesar interesting so now yet we have when you get to about 135 BC you've got Bar Kochba has a big he has about 200,000 men at his command and he recaptured Jerusalem and had a whole rebellion against the Romans Bar Kokhba the Bar Kokhba revolt Emperor Hadrian called Legion after Legion to crush the Jewish insurgents over five hundred and eighty thousand lost their lives and Hadrian purpose to stamp out Jewish nationalism entirely traditions such as circumcision the Sabbath reading the Torah was forbidden under penalty of death he was serious about it now what they wanted to do is name the land under a as in terms of the Jews worst enemy well the Romans had two choices in their mind idiom a awaz their enemy and Philistia was their other enemy the Philistines and idiom AO though in the Jewish mind remembering that while many of them fought against Jews some fought with the Jews in the recent unpleasantness so they look at idiom and as a near Jew is the point so when they look for a name for the land they pick Philistia because that was something they could ascend the interviews were viewed as practitioners of Judaism not a not as great an enemy as where the felicities and so there are many today to this day who claim to be Jews but or not and the book of Revelation in chapter 2 verse 9 and chapter 3 verse 9 makes mention Jesus makes mention of those who say they are Jews and are not but are actually of the synagogue of satan' Wow we need to understand who the are we look at maps up until 135 ad after the Bar Kokhba revolt they still displayed idiom an and after the Romans chose to name the land pallet Philistia in fact the Palestina in the Latin idiom air disappears from future in history the later known as idiom anne's became assimilated into the palestinians of today among other places many of the more powerful families intermingle with the greeks and then the romans as as the power moves on when you get to zekiel chapters 25 through 32 he deals with the judgment on the nation's Ammon Moab Edom Philistia tyre sidon Egypt are the seven all of them are Muslims but the one about which the Bible says the most is Edom judgment against it the judgment against Edom is mentioned in more Old Testament books than is against any other net for nation and Isaiah 11 and 34 and 63 jeremiah 9:25 49 so on Ezekiel 25 and 35 Amos 1 ray Amos 9 back Amos 9 is quoted by James in acts 15 Obadiah the whole book is focusing on the judgment against Edom and I encourage you when you study that to get even more serious about really understanding the background of Edom and perhaps most usefully find out who you believe are to this day Malachi 1 for me of course joel 3:19 that's what introduced this little insert was verse 19 Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah because they have shed innocent blood in their land that's all about even let's continue the overs 20 but Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation and that's all through the scripture Paul makes the big thing of that in Romans 11 and so on when God establishes Kingdom none will ever destroy it so it also promised in Daniel 7 at that time the Lord Jesus Christ will sit on his throne to fulfill the promise to David of an everlasting dynasty and that too is also all through the scriptures his rule is going to be global his rule is going to be absolute that's what the rod of iron idiom deals with it'll be right and just you know be characterized by holiness and universal peace praise God for I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed for the Lord dwelleth in Zion so the Lord is actually going to wipe away the blood guilt of the nation's in their persecution of God's people and that's the term there to be free from the oath or obligation after and after I have judged the nation's I will be free from my obligation concerning the blood of Judah in other words that whole that promise will be fulfilled the or Dave Ave or Yahweh or however you want to pronounce it dwells in Zion the eternal covenant between Israel and the Lord all detailed in Revelation chapter 21 so okay we've gone through all this what do we do now what is what's up to us to do well number one just watching wait but be spiritually ready because the turbulence is on our horizon a lot of this is going to start unfolding before us we need won't understand it let's you know your Bible so you what you want to do is watching would be spiritually ready Jesus and Luke 19 said occupy until I come he will call his servants to give an account you say you're saved praise God you'll be given asked to give an accounting of your fruit-bearing he will call his service to give an account you can't earn your salvation Jesus paid for that he that such that yours the situation of your sin isn't a done deal it was nailed on a cross two thousand years ago but your response to that will be something you'll give a count to so what you want to do is exploit every spiritual opportunity it's required of stewards to be faithful it's interesting that every day that goes by that Jesus doesn't gather his church yet is another day for you and me that for us to be able to improve our report cards that's really what it's all about so for your next session we've done we look as the spirit leads you undertake what he where he leads you but you might consider to continue studying the Minor Prophets we list them in a slightly different order we can scratch off Joel we just gone through that we've got Hosea and Amos to the northern kingdom and the parallels between the Northern Kingdom and America are astonishing Nineveh of course is the the pagan nation that repented and got an extra century a very important study to do if you're gonna focus on the southern kingdom which is the centerpiece of course Joel we've done Micah's Zephaniah Habakkuk our key ones Obadiah really is the class I'd classify in that area but it's really focuses on the judgment coming on Edom and of course after the exile returned to the land we have Haggai Zechariah Malachi you might want to get those twelve under your belt and understand them there's small little bite-size pieces can contrast to what we call the major prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel major only the sense that they're bigger but with that lets you and I close Stanford a closing word of Prayer
