Chapter 3

The first principle of introduction to the third chapter of Joel is:

The doctrine of the seven judgements

1. The first judgement is the cross — 2 Corinthians 5:21. On the cross our sins were poured out upon Christ and judged. Wherever there is a reference to the blood of Christ in the New Testament it is referring to spiritual death, not to physical death.

2. The second judgement is the principle of rebound in phase two — 1 John 1:9. When a believer in phase two commits a sin he simply confesses that sin. That sin has already been judged so he is citing the case. He simply confesses that sin and God is faithful and just to forgive him that sin and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness. This is a self judgement — 1 Corinthians 11:31.

3. The third judgement takes place after the Rapture of the Church and is the evaluation of the believer’s production. The filling of the Holy Spirit in phase two produces divine good. The control of the old sin nature produces human good. All human good is judged, there is no place for human good in the plan of God, there is no place for human good in eternity, and therefore the believer is separated from his human good and that is a judgement.

Judgements numbers four and five occur at the second advent.

4. The judgement of the Tribulational Gentiles.

5. The judgement of the Tribulational Jew.

6. Judgement number 6 is at the end of the Millennium — the judgement of all fallen angels.

7. Judgement number seven, the last judgement, also at the end of the Millennium — all unbelievers are resurrected, judged and cast into the lake of fire.

Those are the seven major judgements of history since the cross. There are of course many other types of judgements but they are the seven major ones.

Actually the judgement we are going to study in Joel chapter three has to do with the baptism of fire, or judgements number four and five. So the next item on the agenda of introduction:

The doctrine of the baptism of fire

1. There are seven baptisms in scripture, four are dry and three are wet. All dry baptisms are categorised as real baptisms. That is, an actual identification.

a. The baptism of Moses. The children of Israel were identified with Moses and Moses was identified with the Lord as they went through the Red Sea — 1 Corinthians 10:2.

b. The baptism of the cup in Matthew 20:22. That is the cross — our sins were identified with Christ on the cross.

c. The baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer is entered into union with Christ at the point of salvation.

d. The baptism if fire which occurs at the second advent. It is the second advent judgement that begins a new civilization.

There are also three wet baptisms or water baptisms. Whenever water is used in a baptism it is a ritual type baptism:

e. The baptism of John. The water in his baptism represented the kingdom of God regenerate — Old Testament. The people at the end of the Age of Israel who were converted under John were baptised to indicate they were in a new kingdom, a kingdom of regenerate.

f. A baptism performed by John but was unique. So we can call it the unique baptism because it was the baptism of Jesus Christ. It had nothing to do with regeneration, Christ did not have to be saved. In this case the water represented the will of God the Father for the Son in the incarnation. When Jesus Christ entered the water He was identifying Himself with the Father’s will, it was His public declaration, He was willing to have this occur.

g. Church Age water baptism. The water represents union with Christ. The believer is identified with Christ in His death, which means therefore, down with human good. When he comes back up into the air he identified with the air, and that is current positional truth, he is in union with Christ as Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and that means up with divine good. So water baptism in the Church Age means down with human good and up with divine good. In other words, it is a production concept.

2. There are three passages of scripture which specifically state the baptism of fire — Matthew 3:11-12; Luke 3:17,17; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.

3. There is an analogy to the baptism of fire. It is found in Matthew chapter 24:36-41. There is a direct analogy between the days of Noah and the day of the second advent. To anticipate, in the days of Noah unbelievers were removed from the earth (by water) and a new civilization began with believers only. At the second advent there will be the same situation. All of the people of the Tribulation will be divided. The unbelievers will go off and the believers will begin the Millennium. This is not a passage about the Rapture, it is a passage about the second advent of Jesus Christ.

4. There are a number of parables on the baptism of fire — they have nothing to do with the Church Age, as most parables do not.

a. The wheat and the tares — Matthew 13:24-30; b. The good and the bad fish — Matthew 13:47-50; c. The good man of the house — Matthew 24:42-44; d. The good and bad servants — Matthew 24:45-51; e. The ten virgins — Matthew 25:1-13; f. The parable of the talents — Matthew 25:14-30. These have nothing to do with the Church Age.

5. The mechanics of the baptism of fire. For the Tribulational Jews the mechanics are described in Ezekiel 20:32-38. For the Gentiles — Matthew 25:31-46. But you have to remember something: the word “nations” in Matthew 25:31-46 really means Gentiles, it does not mean nations. Also there is Joel 3:11-13. In other words, Joel three in part deals with the baptism of fire at the second advent.

The basis for the restoration of Israel

In 70 AD the Jews came under the 5th cycle of discipline for the last time. It will be terminated at the second advent of Christ, and at that time Israel will be restored. The fact that there are Jews back in the land today does not change in any way the fact of the 5th cycle of discipline. This was predicted. But a few Jews in the land does not mean a thing. The Jews are scattered all over the world and they will continue to be scattered until the second advent. At the second advent the Jews will be restored to the land. This is why we have the Church Age, because the Jews are out. In the Old Testament the Jews were the nation responsible for the Word of God and responsible for its dissemination. But now that the Jews are out the Church has taken its place. And whereas the Jews were made up of one nationality the Church is made up of anyone anywhere who, when they believe in Christ, are entered into union with Him. The Church is made up of all who are in union with Christ. This is a spiritual nation, custodians of the Word and responsible for its dissemination.

In the restoration of Israel those who are restored are born again Jews — Romans 9:6-14. This passage teaches that the true Israel of the restoration is based on those who are born again. Romans 9:6 says: “All Israel is not Israel.”

Jesus Christ is the founder of the Jewish race and that is why Jesus Christ is often called in the Old Testament “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” .From this point on Jacob had twelve sons, and anyone who has the genes of these twelve sons is a racial Jew. But a racial Jew is not a regenerate Jew. This was simply the foundation of the Jewish race. It was founded upon regeneration but after you get to the fourth generation and you get to the twelve patriarchs, from then on it is strictly a matter of race and genes. But a racial Jew is not a saved Jew, he has to be born again.

The basis for this restoration is found in four unconditional covenants, no strings attached: the Abrahamic, the Palestinian, the Davidic, the New Covenant to Israel. The Abrahamic is first stated in Genesis 12:1-3; 13:15,16; 22:15-18. The Palestinian covenant is mentioned in Genesis 15:18; Numbers 34:1-12; Deuteronomy 30:1-9; Joshua 1:3,4. The Davidic covenant is found in 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Psalm 89:20-37 — David will have a son who will reign forever. The New covenant to Israel — Jeremiah 31:31ff, and it is quoted in Hebrews chapter 8:8-13. All of these unconditional covenants have somewhere in the covenant an eternal life clause. And this eternal life clause says in effect that only those Jews who have eternal life are going to get into these covenants. Racial Jews do not get into these covenants. These covenants are not fulfilled until the second advent and only the regenerate Jews will get into them.

Israel’s future depends upon the second advent of Christ and Israel has no future until their dispensation is completed. The dispensation of Israel is divided into three parts — the patriarchs, from Abraham to Moses; the period of the law, from Moses to Christ. And then the Jewish Age is interrupted for an indefinite period of time. But God still owes the Jews seven years, so when the Church is removed time begins for the Jews, and they have a shortened seven years and then the Jewish Age comes to its conclusion with the second advent of Christ. At that point the fifth cycle of discipline is over, the four unconditional covenants are fulfilled, and the Millennial dispensation begins. And since a dispensation begins with believers only, all unbelievers are eliminated.

In Joel 3:1-8 we have the agenda of the second advent of Christ.

Verse 1 — the restoration of Israel: “in those days” refers to the days immediately following the second advent of Jesus Christ; “at that time” refers to the early days of the Millennium. It means at that time and at no other time, so it is a specific time. This is the only time then when the wheat and the tares are separated or when the baptism of fire actually occurs. This is the only time when the 5th cycle of discipline is terminated and when a new civilization begins and when the unbelievers must be removed and the Jews must be restored.

“I shall bring again” — this means to restore. “I shall restore the captivity of Judah.” The captivity of Judah refers to the 5th cycle of discipline which is now brought to its conclusion, its termination point. The 5th cycle of discipline for Israel is described in Leviticus 26:27ff; Deuteronomy 28:49-64.

Verse 2 — “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat.” Gathering all nations refers to the Gentiles, so in the Tribulation which is the greatest period of evangelism the world will ever know we will have Gentiles — two types: those who are saved and those who are unsaved. There will be Jews, two types: unsaved and saved. So we are going to gather in this case all Gentiles for the baptism of fire. The saved Gentiles will go into the Millennium, the unsaved Gentiles will be cast out, as per the baptism of fire concept.

“I will bring them” — hiphil stem, “I will cause them to come down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.” Jehoshaphat means “the Lord Judges.” This is the valley of the Lord’s judgement and it is going to be reformed as a result of the second advent earthquake which will spilt the Mount of Olives — described in Zechariah 14:4-6. In this valley there will be a court and all Gentiles will be judged. “I will plead” is literally, “I will judge” — “concerning my people and my heritage, Israel” — “my heritage” refers to the born again of Israel. This means that the Tribulation is the worst period of anti-Semitism the world will ever know — Revelation 12:1-10, and the basis for removing the unbelievers will be their expression of rejection of Christ through anti-Semitism; “whom (the Jews) they have scattered” — the Gentiles who were unbelievers have scattered. This means to scatter and to persecute. It is a piel stem, it is intense, intense persecution; “and parted my land for spoil” — they have actually divided the land for spoil, which is again strong anti-Semitism.

This passage is further amplified by Matthew chapter 25:31-46, where you have sheep and goats. The sheep and goats are divided by attitude toward “my brethren” — the 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation. The goats are unbelievers, they rejected their message. The sheep are believers, they accepted the message.

Verse 3 — we see something the Romans did when the Jews went into the 5th cycle of discipline, and this is extended into the Tribulation. “And they (The Romans of 70 AD) have cast lots for my people.” The Romans took the 97,000 survivors from the siege of Jerusalem and gambled for them — “and have given a boy for an harlot.” There was a lot of homosexuality in the ancient world and a lot of the survivors were little boys and they were very much in demand to be trained for homosexual practices; “and they sold a girl for wine” — a glass of wine, literally — “that they might drink it.” In other words, the person who had charge of the slaves just simply had a whole chain gang for these girls who he would sell for a glass of wine. There were plenty of customers to purchase Jewish girls for one drink of wine. This indicates the terrible situation which existed at the beginning of the 5th cycle of discipline. Luke 21 is the amplification of this particular section.

In the first three verses of Joel chapter three it should be noticed that we have a disaster. The disaster in mentioned in verse three. But in verses one and two, before the disaster is mentioned, we have the promise of the restoration. The restoration of the captivity in Jerusalem and Judah means this. In 70 AD the terrible events of Joel 3:3 occur. The restoration occurs at the second advent, so chronologically the restoration occurs before the second advent. But Biblically the restoration of the second advent is mentioned first because God wants all believers to understand that no matter how great the national catastrophe His grace and His divine operating assets are personally available to the individual. God’s grace is for a disaster condition, but the principle is that God will provide for the believer now.

Verses 4-8 is a parenthesis in order to set up an historical parallelism to a prophecy. The prophecy we have been studying is the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD when the Jews go out under the 5th cycle of discipline. Joel is trying to portray something of the conditions which will exist under the 5th cycle of discipline. He is trying to relate these things to the horrible things which are described in Leviticus 26 for this discipline. Consequently he must set up something historical, something that people can use by which they will identify with the horrors of the 5th cycle of discipline. Therefore he is going to set up something that happened recently just before his time. He is going to draw a parallel from the recent history where the people faced a catastrophe. The catastrophe which he is going to use is one that occurred when the Arabians and the Philistines made a raid into Judah and Jerusalem. They captured a very large number of people and they sold them into slavery to the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians took them across the water and sold them to the Greeks. This is a tragedy that people remember and consequently this is used to illustrate now what will happen when the 5th cycle of discipline occurs and what will happen again at the second advent.

Verse 4 — “Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? (Not Palestine).” “What have ye to do with me” is literally, “What have you done to me?” This is a reference to an historical event, recorded in 2 Chronicles 21:16,17. It occurred in the reign of Jehoram, just a few years before Joel prophesied. Joel prophesied in the days of Joash, around 839-800 BC. This event occurred around 845 BC, so it was in the memory of the generation to whom Joel was ministering and it was still fresh in their minds. This sets up an analogy to the terrible conditions which will exist as a result of the fall of Jerusalem. Remember once again that when the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD finally occurred all believers had removed themselves because they had not only accepted Christ as saviour but they had also learned some doctrine from Luke chapter 21. Therefore they were long gone and they were protected from this situation. Tyre and Sidon are mentioned here because they are the capitals of the whole Phoenician city state system. The “coasts of Palestine” again are literally from the Hebrew the region of Philistia. “Will ye render me a recompense?” is literally, “Do you inflict evil on me? … “speedily I will return evildoing on your head” .Why?

Verse 5 describes the indictment against them. “Goodly and pleasant things” are the various articles of furniture and things that were used in connection with the temple.

Verse 6 — “The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the Grecians, that you might remove them far off from their own land” .They were sold into slavery. The Greeks were the most famous homosexual nation in the ancient world, a very degenerate people, and the children were sold, usually the boys because they were sold to be trained as catamites for homosexual purposes.

Verse 7 — “Behold I will raise them out of the place where ye have sold them and I will return your recompense on your own head.” This is actually what is going to happen to Tyre and Sidon. Alexander the Great had a tremendous respect for the Jews, and when he returned to the Middle East and when he returned to conquer the Persian empire, he used these Jews, bringing them along with him. No one else in history had ever even come close to conquering Tyre which was an island city. It was a tremendous island fortress with walls forty of fifty feet high. The Phoenicans had one of the finest navies in the world and they were simply impossible to conquer but Alexander succeeded in doing what no one else had done. He built one of the great engineering feats of the ancient world which enabled him to assault the walls of Tyre and conquer the walls of the city. When he went in there was a tremendous fight inside the walls and, as a result, only 30,000 of the Phoenicians inside the city survived out of about 150-200,000. And these were turned over to the Jewish administrators who came with Alexander and they were sold to the Arabians. But this is merely a passing illustration. God is going to handle the situation. The Phoenicians have done a terrible thing, they are guilty of a type of anti-Semitism which cannot be ignored and God, of course, would take care of it.

Verse 8 — “I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans” — the people who lived on the southern tip of Arabia, the people of Sheba — “to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it.” End parenthesis. The parenthesis simply reminds the people that a horrible thing that happened in the past is in some respects analogous, though not as intensive, as the terrible siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Beginning in verse 9 we continue the prophecy, the second advent judgement of the Gentiles — verses 9-16.

Verse 9 — First of all the Gentiles, the people who have been anti-Semitic, are going to be judged. But before they are judged this second advent judgement is preceded by a fantastic campaign — “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles”.

“Proclaim ye” is simply a way of calling people to arms, alerting them that there is going to be a necessity for fighting. Until the second advent of Christ national entities are maintained by force of arms. The preservation of our freedoms in this country follows the pattern of any other nation, we have to fight enemies from without in order to maintain the freedoms which exist on the inside.

There are four factors involved in this campaign of the future, as in any campaign in the past. First of all there is preparation, and this is given in the piel imperative, “prepare ye.” This means that the young men must be trained for military activity. The Hebrew word means to take a young man who was strong and who has the mental attitude and everything that was necessary — but he was still raw material — and to convert him into a military man. This conversion involves a tremendous amount of activity. There must be training no matter how good the material is. You can’t take raw material and throw it into some kind of a military formation and say: “Now fight for your country” .It doesn’t work that way.

“wake up the mighty men” connotes the concept of mobilization. And, finally, coming up is a hiphil stem which indicates invasion. So they have preparation, training, mobilization, and invasion. Preparation means that someone has to sit down and work out how it could be done, and then there is the actual military training itself. Then, in time of emergency, these people are properly prepared, they are mobilized, and then there is invasion. All of these things are described in a period 800 years before Christ. The principle is the same today: if you want to maintain the freedom of national a entity, these are involved — preparation, training, mobilization and invasion.

Verse 10 — “beat your plowshares into swords.” There must be a changeover of the economy for an emergency. The economy which has been manufacturing plowshares now must convert them into weapons. You cannot remove a nation’s defenses and continue to maintain any kind of freedom from outside interference.

This should also indicate a principle: all of the talk of disarmament is not going to lead to disarmament, it is simply going to leave us defenseless and helpless because other nations throughout the world will continue manufacturing weapons and teaching their people how to use them, right down to the second advent: “And there will be", said Jesus, “wars and rumours of wars until I come.”

“let the weak say, I am strong” — it really means “let the weak think.” How can a person who is weak think in terms of being strong? Because a weak person learns something. Take a boy who is not sure of himself and put him in military training. If he comes through he will be sure of himself. He may say when he goes in: “I am weak.” But once he comes out he will never say it again. What makes the difference? What gave him his confidence? Training, training, discipline, training. That makes the difference.

Verses 11-13: the judgement

Verse 11 — The nations who were so eager to wipe out the Jews at the end of the Tribulation are judged immediately after the second advent of Jesus Christ. The mobilization described in the previous verses also motivated some anti-Semitism. This mobilization refers primarily to the king of the north, the king of the south, the kings of the east. They also receive a fantastic judgement, along with all unbelieving Gentiles in the Tribulation. So we have the assembly called for these people.

“Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye Gentiles, and gather yourselves together round about; there cause the mighty ones to come down, O Lord” .This is a prayer. The mighty ones simply means the trained soldiers who have come through and caused trouble.

Verse 12 — “Let the Gentiles be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat (where this judgement occurs).” The mechanics of this judgement are found in Matthew chapter 25:31-43. They are very simple, we have the sheep and the goats. The goats are those who went on negative volition toward the cross. The sheep are those Gentile believers of the Tribulation who went on positive volition toward the cross. They are divided because the believers are going into the Millennium and form the population for the perfect environment of the 1000 years of the reign of Christ. The unbelievers are going to be removed in order to give this its proper thrust at the beginning of the civilization. All civilizations begin with believers only. There will be perfect environment during this civilization, eventually a population explosion in which there will be unbelievers.

“I will judge” — Jehoshaphat means “the Lord judges,” and the Lord Jesus Christ actually judges “all the heathen round about.”

Verse 13 — this judgement involves their removal. “Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe (the end of the Tribulation when we have a maximum thrust of anti-Semitism — “come, get down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great” — the word “great” means it reaches saturation.

Verse 14 — “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision.” This simply describes the situation up to the second advent. The multitudes in the valley of decision are the people on the earth when the Rapture of the Church occurs. Then we have the second advent of Christ. For seven years we have a maximum evangelistic thrust. We have 144,000 evangelists preaching throughout the world, we have their converts witnessing, we have Moses and Elijah with a television program in Jerusalem, and at the end we have the angels evangelizing. So we have maximum world evangelism and this means multitudes face decisions.

“Multitudes “ means the Jews were evangelized. The second use of the word “multitudes” means the Gentiles were evangelized. The “valley of decision” means the human race is facing the decision: what to do about the Lord Jesus Christ. And the climax of this particular situation is the judgement in the valley of Jehoshaphat where all of the unbelievers are weeded out and cast into fire.

“the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” — the valley of decision means that this is the end of the line. Whatever decision you have on that day, and you have not accepted Christ up to then, then you are cast out into fire and reserved for judgement which will come.

The day between the Millennium and the Tribulation, the day of the second advent, is a very unusual day. It is described with regard to conditions.

Verse 15 — “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” This is the unusual darkness that accompanies the second advent. Twice in the human race this abnormal darkness has existed. The first time was at the cross, during the last three hours when the sins of the world were poured out upon Christ and judged. At that particular time when these sins were being judged and darkness covered the earth, no one saw Jesus Christ bearing our sins. At the second advent the earth will be covered with darkness. This darkness does several things. First of all it protects Jewish believers who are resisting the king of the north in the siege of Jerusalem. It also protects Jews who are in Edom, Moab, and Ammon. They are hiding up in the mountains and the kings of the east, the oriental block, is moving in on them and they are protected by this darkness. So it is a day when everything stands still, when darkness protects the believers. And the second purpose of the darkness is to announce the coming of Christ to the entire world for Christ, the Light of the world, will be the only light that day.

There are many passages which describe the coming of Christ in terms of the brightness of His glory — Revelation 1:7; Isaiah 13:9,10; Ezekiel 32:7,8; Joel 2:10,11; Amos 5:18; Zechariah 14:6; Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25,27; Revelation 6:12. There are many passages that describe the arrival of the Judge. He comes in a time when there is darkness covering all of the earth.

There is a third reason for this last day being in darkness. Here are people in darkness who have heard the gospel at least four times and now they have 24 hours where they can see nothing. In darkness they are eventually forced to think. When people are in darkness they find themselves without a contact with others whereby the can have normal contact, and so darkness encourages people to think. And they are going to think about what they have heard from the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, from the witness of their converts, from Moses and Elijah, from the angels who evangelize just before the second advent. They have heard the gospel many times and they are given 24 hours of total darkness in which they can think. And, at the end of that time, there will be those who are still on negative signals and they are the ones involved in the baptism of fire.

Every passage which deals with this phenomenon, the darkness which covers the earth, deals with it with a different emphasis. We have seen the passage in Zechariah 14, the passage in Joel chapter 2, which emphasize the protection of the Jews. Other passages, like Isaiah passages, emphasise the tremendous divine protection of the Jews up in the mountains who are believers. So there are many different things emphasised. Here the emphasis is: we have multitudes in the valley of decision. They have had the entire Tribulation, now this is their last day to decide. After that day there will be no more chance. So the entire population of the world has a 24-hour period to make a decision, and in order to help them to focus their attention on an issue, to help them to concentrate, they are given total darkness of a supernatural type. It is a darkness in which there is no light at all.

Verse 16 — “The Lord also shall roar” — the cry of a soldier when he is slaying his enemy, a victorious cry; “out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” The uttering of His voice here is described in Revelation 19:15 as the voice that slays the armies besieging Jerusalem. “The earth shall shake” — Zechariah 14:5 — another means of protecting those born again Jews in Jerusalem.

Verses 17-21 — the Millennial restoration of the Jews

Verse 17 — “So shall ye know.” The greatest virtue in the believer’s life is knowledge of doctrine. It is true in the Church Age; it is true in the Tribulation; it is true during that day of darkness while unbelievers are thinking about the gospel and are coming to a decision, positive or negative. What are believers doing? Believers know doctrine; they know that during this 24 hours when they are sitting in darkness: 1. that they are protected by that darkness, so they relax; 2. they know that Jesus Christ is coming. They know that immediately after He comes there will be perfect environment on the earth for a period of a thousand years and they know that they, in human bodies, as believers, are going into the Millennium and they are going to have a ball! This is the last day, those people are thinking, that I will ever sit in darkness; this is the last day that I will ever know anything about pressure or sadness or sorrow or misery or frustration or difficulty. This is the day the Lord is coming and when He comes I am going to be here with Him for the next one thousand years and it is going to be the longest party in history!

“that I am the Lord” — what are the believers thinking in darkness going to think about. First of all they are going to think about the Lord — occupation with Christ. Doctrine in the frontal lobe, sitting in darkness, leads to occupation with Christ; “your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers passing through her any more” — this means no more invasions.

Verse 18 — they know that He is going to restore. There will be great prosperity for them. “And it shall come to pass, in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine” — an idiom for great prosperity; “and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord” — from the temple; “and shall water the Valley of the Acacias.” This describes the perfect environment of the Millennium in terms of prosperity.

Verse 19 — then they are also thinking in terms of their enemies of the past, and they will be removed: “Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Israel” .In other words, in the past Egypt was antagonistic toward the Jews, in the past Edom was antagonistic toward the Jews, in fact the last persecutors of the Jews before they went into the 5th cycle in 70 AD. So the enemies of Israel from one end of Jewish history to the other end before they went out in the 5th cycle. In other words, these believers are faith-resting it because they have turned these enemies over to the Lord, which tells us that the thinking of verse 19 is the relaxed mental attitude under fantastic pressure. Revelation chapter 12 actually describes the pressure these Jews are under. Satan himself inspires people against them. And even though he does they know that they are out from under that pressure, they have faith-rested it, they have recognised the principle: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

Verses 20-21 they think in terms of the future prosperity.

Verse 20 — “But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation” — they are thinking in terms of generations and population explosions.

Verse 21 — “And I will cleanse their blood” — literally, I will avenge their blood; “which I have not avenged.” In other words, the Lord will handle all the details. They have no problems about those who put the pressure on them — “for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”