"The major prophets give you the broad-brush outlines and then the minor prophets go back and pick up specific little details and so you'll see how Joel will alert you to some things that, when you get to the next book, Amos picks up on them. They're linking their way through these things, filling in the skeleton, as it were, with information.
"In chapter three of Joel are a couple of really fascinating things that are going to happen to these Gentiles. When it says God's going to plead with the nations, it's Him saying, 'I'm going to take you out here and I'm going to teach you a lesson about what you did,' " explains Richard Jordan.
[1] For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
[2] 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.
"The Gentiles have scattered God's people among the nations and 'parted my land.' That's something God specifically told Israel was not to be done.
[3] And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
"They just sold Israel into slavery. God says, 'You took my people and sold them cheap.'
[4] Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompence me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
[5] Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
"Notice He's saying, 'This land is mine and you took this stuff out that belonged to me. I'm the Lord; I own this stuff and you guys act like you do.' I love that when He says, 'And what have you to do with me?'
"He's saying, 'Who do you think you are anyway, dude?' It's like when kids say, 'You talking to me?' They're not asking a question; that's a challenge.
"It's fascinating He uses the word 'Palestine' in verse 4, because Palestine was not called that at this time in history when Joel was written in 800 B.C.
"It got that name in 135 AD when the Romans, who hated the Jews so badly that when they finally rid them from the land, they named the land after the Jews' enemies, the Philistines. Palestine was really a name for the Philistines, Israel's vaunted enemy.
"This is a prophecy about the future and it's one of those places where your Bible looks into the future with the right terminology, but you need to remember that the original people called Palestinians were Jews.
Verse 6: [6] The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
"Grecians is another term that's kind of strange. Eight hundred years before Christ Greece was not a world power. In fact, there were no world powers like this. The Babylonian empire doesn't come on the scene until 606 BC.
"Joel was writing somewhere along about 750-800 BC, so 150 years at least before Babylon, Joel is talking about the Greeks. Greeks existed then but they weren't a world power like this to carry people all over the planet.
"The reason for that is this passage is not talking about the historical past; it's a prophecy about what's going to happen to Israel in the last days.
"When verse 6 says they've sold Israel to the Grecians that they might be removed far from their borders, it's a fascinating thing about how the Greeks play into the issues in the last times. Really, the Grecians here in Joel is a prophetic reference to the last days.
"Obviously, involved in the scattering of Israel in the 70th Week of Daniel and the persecution of Israel under the Antichrist, Greece is involved.
"In Daniel's image, those two legs are identified in Daniel 10 and 11 as the king of the north and the king of the south. The most helpful passage in this is Daniel 8; it tells you about where the Antichrist comes from.
*****
"The culture of the western world is founded on the Greeks. All the great philosophers that have driven western thinking all come out of Greece and when the Romans took over, all they did was just adopt--Rome has always simply assimilated the good stuff (and some of the bad stuff) that was already there.
"In the day that Paul lived, Greek was still the predominant language; that's why the New Testament was written in Greek. It was still the language of the world.
"That will help you to understand Romans 1:16: [16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
"Paul knew the difference if you look back at verse 14: [14] I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
"Look at the last part of verse 13--'even as among other Gentiles.'
"Paul understands that he's talking to Gentiles, but when he says what he says, he talks about Greeks. You begin to say, 'Well, why did he do it that way?'
Galatians 3:28: [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
"You know when he says that he's talking about Gentiles, but it says 'Greek.' What these verses are telling you is that when God looks at the Gentiles, who are they? They're still that third kingdom that's still going. It's going to be the power behind the world until the Antichrist.
"In the mind of Paul, who is in control of the Gentile world is the point. It's not every little podunk nation down here; it's the force, the prince that was behind Grecia.
*****
"Notice there's a relationship between the angelic creation and the power structure on the earth. Just like there's a government on the earth, there's a government in the heavens. What you learn is there is a corresponding connection between who's running things up there and who's running things down here.
Daniel 10: [20] Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
[21] But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
"Persia's going to fall and then the prince of Greece is going to come up and Michael says, 'I'm going to go up and fight that battle and then that's going to be reflected down on the earth.'
"In God's mind, He says Greece is going to be divided into four sections. Out of one of those sections is where the Antichrist is going to come and the Greek empire will last until over there. So, in essence, who's running the world from here to there? Greece.
"It doesn't matter what you call it, what's going on BEHIND the scenes that actually runs what's going on IN the scenes is what matters.
"Paul recognized that what's really going on among the Gentiles today is not just all these Gentile nations willy-nilly running the world. It's that that thing which God said was happening and going to be there is STILL there.
"That's why the Antichrist, his country of origin is Greece, not Rome. That's why you don't have to worry about Germany and Russia and all that kind of stuff. Where he comes from is the Middle East and he's going to come from one of the divisions of the Greek empire. He's identified as part of the king of the north.
Daniel 8:9: [9] And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
"That 'little horn' turns out to be, in the passage, the Antichrist. In verses 8-9 you skip from the history before Christ all the way to the last day.
Verse 23: [23] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
"That's the Antichrist. He comes from one of the four divisions of the Greek empire. Interesting enough, it says 'in the latter time of their kingdom.' What kingdom are you told in Daniel is going to last all the way to the Antichrist?
"It's interesting in Revelation 2, he tells that church, 'Satan's seat is where you are.' All seven of those churches are in Turkey. So, where the Antichrist's going to originate his power, his structure--he's the king of the north. It's still Greece, that's the point."
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