Joel chapter 3

vs 11

I'm guessing that this is referring to the valley of judgment, where they should all assemble?

I mean, hey, if God's going to come and kick your ass anyway, may as well go out fighting.

vs 12

Well, this verse answered those questions. Yay me.

God's not even worried about every nation coming at once. He could snuff them out with a thought of clicking his fingers.

vs 13

So here it is not a harvest of righteousness, and the wine is not wine of good tastiness. It is a harvest and a wine of wrath and judgment on the amount of wickedness that God finds in the nations. You might think, "Well, are the nations really that wicked?" But remember, they have decided that the best course of action for their nations is to raise up armies to try and fight God.

Well, if nothing else, there's a great harvest of stupidity. (To be fair, God commanded it, so they didn't really have much choice)

vs 14

Apart from being somewhat poetic, I suppose this is making the (I would say reasonably obvious) observation that if the armies of the world have united to face down God himself, there there's not much left of this timeline.

vs 15

Sounds pretty end-timesy to me.

vs 16

Only God's people are safe in this time. Everyone else gets the business end of God - the roaring, angry side. This is the two-faced nature of God - saviour and judge. I think this only further shows that Joel is not written to show that judgment is coming on Israel, but that God is God over Israel, and their response should be to ask God for things when stuff goes wrong (ie locusts) because he'll look after them even in the biggest disaster ever.

After all, the nations aren't really reading this prophecy at this point.

vs 17

Note the timing - once God has destroyed the armies of the nations, then Israel will no longer be invaded by foreigners. So if you're reading this as a geographic thing (rather than an eschatological end timesy thing) then I'm thinking you'll be looking for rocket attacks and suicide bombers are going to stop at some point in time.

vs 18

Just ignore for the moment that God has slaughtered entire nations of people. For his people, it sounds like a very nice place. Heavenly, you might say. Well, that's what I would say. I mean, as nice as it is to have mountains worth of wine, I'm not drinking wine that dripped off a mountain. Not unless you have a really fine sieve.

vs 19

So now we spare a look over our shoulders at the lands of the foreign devils. It's not pretty. The reason for their destruction is made plain - for attacking God's people. You get what you get, I suppose.

vs 20

Well, that has been true so far - just not always by Jews.

vs 21

Punishment is the comfort of the people of Israel at this time. I'm guessing that, what with the punishment being on the nations, and the promises that they won't invade any more, that there was a problem with them invading in the first place. Was it immediate to Joel's time, and hence this letter? Or do locusts just remind the people of invasion, and they needed some comfort?

Well, God here is reminding them that the Day of the Lord will be a hell of a lot worse than locust plagues, and it will be chiefly aimed at the gentiles. So yay Israel!

But of course this has greater relevance for us too. The judgment will not chiefly be aimed at Christians. We're saved from it to a degree. But we shouldn't cheer that the enemies of God are being punished at the last day, because they're just like us. God's real enemies are ignorance, disobedience, rebellion and death. He will get rid of those. If you're clining to them, then you'll go with them. Because God punishes those who need punishing.