The Book of Joel – Chapter 3:17-21

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The Book of Joel – Chapter 3:17-21

[Study Aired October 19th 24]

 

In last week’s study, we reasserted that God’s word is the foundation and conclusion of all things. In our past lives in Babylon, we engaged in every conceivable Epicurean pleasure, both physically and doctrinally, with the wealth represented as mammon, meaning money, that our self-righteousness always lavishly afforded.

The concept of Mammon, which signifies money and wealth, represents our work, both good and evil. If I am unable to recognise that the Creator of all things is responsible for my bad work, then I will not be trusted with good work. If I fail to give God credit for my evil works, then He will not entrust me with greater responsibilities. If I cannot attribute my unrighteous mammon (evil works) to God as their creator, then I will not receive the righteous mammon (good works). We cannot serve two masters – God must give us the ability, by His will, to choose between righteous mammon and unrighteous mammon. We will either love one or despise the other.

Luk 16:9  And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

By juxtaposing good with evil, we can discern the truth. As a former friend of Epicurean delights in Babylon, an Elect of God is given the unique ability to see both the dark and light of a subject, filtered through the immutable truth of Christ’s word. This contrast enlightens us and helps us discern the truth.

Judah, the Priests of God, effectively robbed Israel of her representative ‘spiritual’ wealth by not righteously and, in season, preaching the word of God.

What compensation can we possibly give our Creator in return for him choosing us? Plumb nothing! He requires our espousal dues quite the opposite of what Old Israel gave her mouldy best. The fruit Christ requires is the spiritual fruit from the womb of his Wife, her single-eyed heartfelt focus on Him!

1Co 9:18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. (NKJV)

However, Paul was also clearly teaching the Corinthians that other Churches were paying his wages.

2Co 11:7 Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? 
2Co 11:8  I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you (NKJV)

The word that Paul uses in 2 Cor 11:8 for “wages” is the same Greek word used in Luk 3:14.

Luk 3:14 Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” [G3800] (NKJV)

G3800
– Original: ὀψώνιον
– Transliteration: Opsonion
– Phonetic: op-so’-nee-on
– Definition:
1. a soldier’s pay, allowance 
a. that part of the soldier’s support given in place of pay [i.e. rations our food, particularly spiritual food] and the money in which he is paid 
2. metaph. wages: hire or pay of sin

Wages are what we earn for doing work for others. It is wrong and sinful not to pay someone who works for us. We all know this from our physical lives. We all go to work and expect to get paid for what we do. God’s ministers are no different. However, as Paul explains, he preaches the gospel free of charge so as not to abuse this authority and hinder babes in Christ from coming to the truth. James is quite bold towards the rich in his admonition and doles out some harsh words to those who conscionably pay wages and don’t do it.

Jas 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
Jas 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Jas 5:3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Jas 5:4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Jas 5:5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. (NKJV). (Abridged from other Elders all speaking the same thing who likewise think it not stealing ~ how can a Christ steal from himself?).

In light of this, God asks: What will be our answer to him, our “recompense,” our compensation to him unwittingly to us, spiritually seen in one of the two resurrections? Well, the following verses in Matthew 22, and particularly verse 12, prophecy us as dumbstruck to Christ for our requital, our payment to him. We, the created at the hands of the supreme creator, have nothing personally or by our works that can ever “recompense” Him!

Jer 2:23  How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley [for our cause, the Vally of Jehoshaphat], know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; 
Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind [of every Grecian/Epecurean] at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month [equal to the men of Sodom-like unrestrained passion to know the Angels of the Lord’s new doctrines] they shall find her.

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man [you and I – hopefully not] which had not on a wedding garment: 
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them [the tares] is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world [at your preordained timely death]; and the reapers are the angels [Christ’s Christs {plural}].
Mat 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels [His Christs], and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

It is the only “few [who] are chosen” who are to be the Elect, the Bride of Christ, who will be first to “shine forth as the sun.” So, we had better “hear” while it is yet called “today” and know who was addressing us. We, like our good friend, Job, ostentatiously have many Epicurean words and doctrines in this life to express, but to listen closely to that ‘still small voice’ of God is often far from us.

Job 32:17  I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion.
Job 32:18  For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. [scarcely]
Job 32:19  Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.
Job 32:20  I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.
Job 32:21  Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.
Job 32:22  For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.

Significations of Joel 3:17 – 21:

Consequently,

Joe 3:17  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. 

That is to say, your corruptible flesh assuredly contains NOTHING of any worth to me! That all will come to know the glory of God. Thus, no strangers will ever pass through her since the old corruptible Jerusalem of the flesh is gone, trodden down, first under the feet of his Elect, and thoroughly in the Lake of Fire by every man since Adam to the end of the One Thousand Year reign under the rod of iron.

Rev 21:21  And the twelve gates [of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Lord’s Wife]  were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Rev 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it [As are a husband and wife one in each other].
Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 
Rev 21:24  And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Rev 21:25  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
Rev 21:26  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Joe 3:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. 

Notice that the water of Christ’s word gives life to the valley of Shittim from whence the dense and beautifully grained hardwood of the acacia tree, known as Shittim wood, was used in the Temple of God.

Rev 22:1  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3  And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
Rev 22:4  And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
Rev 22:5  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Our former Babylonian selves used to trumpet to each other and any poor, deluded soul who would innocently listen that the New Jerusalem would physically replace the one being destroyed this very day in the Middle East, together with her worldwide collective of Jews who say that they are Jews and are not. That Mount of Olives and Jerusalem would cleave in two, and the entire world would come to Christ through the physical Jews and the river of water flowing out of it to water the hungry world devoid of knowing Christ. That strong delusion, in part, comes from outwardly believing the following verses in Zechariah:

Zec 14:3  Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zec 14:4  And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Zec 14:5  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
Zec 14:6  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
Zec 14:7  But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
Zec 14:8  And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
Zec 14:9  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. 

Accordingly, the Epicurean ideologies of Egypt, Tyre, Greece, Sodom, and Old Jerusalem, all represented as Babylon, and her lying doctrines that promised tremendous physical wealth and AI knowledge integrated with the human mind will be violently ground to powder. The spiritual children of Judah, the ‘Lord’s Christs’ will in Him, take vengeance upon their Joeseph-like brothers and sisters, who spilt spiritual blood represented by them magically twisting their husband’s word to substantiate their Sodom-like lusts.

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

Joe 3:19  Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 

Jer 25:11  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer 25:12  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13  And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
Rev 18:14  And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
Rev 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Joe 3:20  But Judah [meaning, first, the Lord’s Elect, and following, the world] shall dwell for ever, and [the New Heavenly…] Jerusalem from generation to generation. 
Joe 3:21  For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion. 

The cleansing of the world’s blood is upon their timely death at the end of the One Thousand Year Rule.

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 
Heb 9:23  It was, therefore, necessary that the patterns of things [We are the pattern, the fleshy representation of God being recreated in his image] in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Rev 21:1  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea [no more flesh]
Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of 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 shall be with them, and be their God.

“… for the LORD dwelleth in Zion”, the Heavenly Jerusalem, his wife, and she, in Him as one with their children, the world collectively in the Father forever more.

Amen.