JOEL 3
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 "Prince of Rosh" stands out as the Extortioner and Spoiler of Israel "in the latter days." Where the Roman Eagles stood in "the last days, " there the Russian Eagles will stand in "the latter days"-within and around Jerusalem, "the city of the Great King."
Then, the Greek and Roman nations gathered against her to battle under the Russo-Greek Cross, will besiege the city, and take it for a spoil; and the houses shall be rifled, and the women ravished; and half its population shall go forth to bondage. See Zech. 14:1, 2; Ezek. 38:10-12.
When the Prince of Rosh shall have filled up the measure of his iniquity, his power will stand before the world as the Nimrod, or Babylonish, dominion-"the Old Serpent, " or Constantinopolitan Leviathan between the Seas-unwittingly prepared for combat with the Woman's Seed, Messiah and his brethren, at the head of the Israelitish armies of the living God.
The Brazen-Clawed Feet of the Fourth Beast will then have been formed; and have stamped the residue of the nations foredoomed to the judgment in Jehoshaphat; and its paws will rest heavily and fiercely upon Jerusalem, the widowed city.
"The escutcheon of Rome will be yet more ensanguined with Israel's blood, when the Prince of Rosh at the head of its legions, shall stand up against the Prince of princes to be broken without aid.
Our friend errs in predicting the hereafter from present appearances. These are delusive. They are merely the portentous elements of contrary results. The Frog-power is neither the Dragon, the Beast, the False Prophet, nor the Prince of Rosh; but the excitant of events that will react upon it to its overthrow, and the overshadowing of the nations of the four beasts by the Russo-Assyrian dynasty of "the Kingdom of Men."
Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Oct 1855
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 recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
Cp Obadiah, Psalm 83, 2 Chron 20
Clearly what they're being told is that the recompense of God shall be on the coast of Palestina, in recompense for some evil that they have given to God, and presumably God's judgments can only be outworked in fulfilment of Joel 3 verse 4, if there are Palestinians in Palestina, on whom the recompense can be visited. Otherwise, there's no basis for the fulfilment of the prophecy at the time of the end.
Notice how it's the coasts of Palestina. And Tyre and Zidon again, up the coast, the coastal cities of Lebanon, we've got the smell of the sea here somewhere! And that smell of the sea is in these verses and that significance of that seaside air, will become apparent by and by as our story about Palestina unfolds.
Notes from an address by Bro Roger Lewis
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
It may by some be thought strange that I should wish success to Russia, the most barbarous of "the powers that be." I will not stay here to discuss the relative barbarism of the Gentile Horns. They are all of them Sin-powers, and as such entitled to no sympathy from the servants of Christ.
The ground upon which I wish success, yea, speedy success, to Russia, is, the full assurance that Christ will not "appear to them that look for him" until Russia leads the nations of the Babylonian world against Jerusalem to battle. Before Russia can do this, she must become a mishmar, or imperial protector, to the iron and brass powers.
The success of Russia in establishing this Protectorate is devoutly to be desired, as an event eminently proximate to the end. We rejoice in Russia's success as we are gratified with the amputation of a friend's limb for the saving of his life.
The world is to be blessed in Abraham and his seed, the Christ. This will be "life from the dead;" but the world cannot attain to this life until "the vine of the earth," with its ripe grapes, is amputated from the body politic of nations, and cast into the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God.
The binding of Europe by Russia to its imperial rule is the preparation for this event. Success, then, to Russia; for the sooner her work is accomplished, the sooner will she fall; and the nations be delivered from the wretched governments which blaspheme God and destroy the people.
Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, September, 1854
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
It will be in place here to remark, that "these plagues," as they are fitly termed in [Rev 20: 9], will be terribly operative in the destroying of the body of the beast, and in the binding of the dragon, and casting of him into the abyss (Dan. vii. 11). They will be swamped in "a fiery stream," and "be given to the burning flame." This is apocalyptically styled, "a Lake of Fire burning with sulphur" (xix. 20). The territory upon which the beast and false prophet dominion exist, will be turned into a lake of fire by this sulphur-burning machinery of war. The saints will be in that lake, "executing the judgment written," in tormenting with fire and sulphur the worshippers of the beast (xiv. 10).
Fire, sulphur, and smoke, in these places, symbolize the same agent as they do in the second woe [6th Trumpet]. The governments are not casting great guns, and storing up munitions of war in vain. They are preparing them blindly for their own destruction. Their arsenals will fall into the hands of the Lamb and his people, who will plunge incessant fire upon their enemies, the smoke of whose torment will ascend, until their power shall be totally and finally destroyed.
From thenceforth, war will be no more for a thousand years.
Eureka 9.4.9
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
Yehoshaphat, in Hebrew, signifies the judgment of Yah. Joel also styles the glen, the Valley of Threshing:
"Multitudes, multitudes," says he, "in the Valley of Threshing: for the Day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of Threshing".
Apocalyptically, the same locality is styled ARMAGEDDON
"And he gathered them together in a place called Hebraistically, Armageddon".
Yahweh gathered them together without their perceiving the Hand that led them on to the slaughter -"I will," saith he,
"gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle".
Various derivations have been given of this mystical name; for such it is, inasmuch as there is no such name of a place in the land of Israel. Micah says,
"Yahweh shall gather many nations as sheaves into the floor, that the Daughter of Zion may arise and thresh them" (ch. 4:11-13).
The floor of threshing of which they are to be made the chaff (Dan. 2:35) is this Valley of Jehoshaphat. Under this aspect of things, they are a heap of sheaves, upon the threshingfloor; and this idea is represented by the word, Armah, the first two syllables of the name: the third indicates where this heap is to be, namely, in the gai valley; and the last syllable, for what purpose the heap is there, namely, for duwn judgment - Armagaidon, which in a Greek dress, is, Armageddon.
The reason why the text states, that the place, or valley, is "Hebraistically" called, is to give us to understand in what country the place is situated - in the country to wit, the native language of which is the Hebrew tongue.
Eureka 16.11.4.0.
16 Yahweh also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the [Gentile] heavens and the earth shall shake: but Yahweh will be the hope <shelter> of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
that is, the Gentile heavens and earth; for the declaration is offset with the comforting assurance that, in the midst of this shaking,
"the Lord will be the shelter of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel."
He will not shake them, but "the powers of the heavens" that oppress them. "So," says Joel, that is, by the Lord uttering his voice from Jerusalem in the midst of this shaking of the nations...
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 Yahweh, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
Among the things pertaining to "the glory that should follow," Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah, saw living waters flowing out from Jerusalem. Ezekiel saw the exact locality of the fountain from which they issued. It was, he says, at the south side of the altar, and from under it they came. From thence they made their way under the threshold of the front, or east, gate of the temple.
They continued their outflow eastward; and were measured by the angel from the brink 4,000 cubits, or four separate measurements, representative of a square. He was informed that after a certain distance the streams flowed in two channels; one towards the Dead Sea, into which it is discharged with healing effect upon its waters; so that it teems with finny tribes, as the fish of the great sea; while the other half of the stream flows into the hinder, or Mediterranean Sea.
These things are all stated with such geographical and practical particularity as to make it evident that these healing waters are as literally rivers of water as the Hudson or the Thames. We can see how that Jerusalem can become the centre of navigation and commerce, as well as the metropolis and capital of the world.
By the waters flowing between the rent divisions of the Mount of Olives (Zech. xiv. 4) into the Jordan, and with it into the Dead Sea, and thence by an old channel into the Red Sea, a water communication will be established with Hindostan, China, Australia, California, and the islands and shores of the Pacific generally; and by the branch flowing into the Mediterranean, with Europe and the north and south Atlantic coasts of North and South America.
This gives Jerusalem a position highly favourable for a geographical centre of government and religion; and for the easy access of Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, Americans and Europeans, when they shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh Tz'vaoth, to be instructed in his ways, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.-Isai. ii. 3; Zech. xiv. 16.
But the Eternal Power has a higher and grander purpose to be accomplished than that of geographical changes in the physique of Palestine, and filling the Dead Sea with fish. It is evident that more is signified in what was revealed to Ezekiel than this. The waters he saw came out of a holy place inaccessible to flesh and blood, and had healing properties. There must therefore be flowing with them a stream of healing power.
Pour all waters of the Hudson and the Amazon into the Dead Sea, and they would not heal it any more than the Jordan has been able to heal it, though emptying itself therein, ever since the days of Lot. Hence, the waters Ezekiel saw must be regarded in the light of the visible containing the invisible, whose existence is discerned by the supernatural and unwonted effects attributed to the visible stream. In other words, there is deep spiritual significance underlying all that Ezekiel saw, which was apocalyptically exhibited to John in the present chapter.
Ezekiel saw and described the temple, which Zechariah says, far off peoples shall come and build (chap. vi. 15); and Isaiah testifies shall be called a house of prayer for all the people, and upon the altar of which, the rams of Nebaioh shall find acceptance-chap. lvi. 7; lx. 7.
This is a temple in Jerusalem, as literal and visible as Solomon's, when she becomes the residence of the Great King, and the capital of his dominion. But in the New and Holy Jerusalem
"John saw no temple therein; because Yahweh Elohim, all powerful, and the lamb are the temple of it."
The Eternal Spirit embodied in the saints are the temple in the highest sense; and the Most Holy Priesthood the seed of Zadok, who minister unto the Invisible Deity in the House of Prayer for all people.
Ezekiel saw the Dead Sea in two states-without any living soul in it; and afterwards teeming with life of every kind. John saw the same thing in its spiritual significance-the sea of nations dead in trespasses and sins; and the same sea full of nations walking in the light of the New Jerusalem. Ezekiel saw that it was the stream effluent from under the altar that gave life and health to the Dead Sea; and John saw that it was the stream issuing from the throne that gave to the leaves of the tree the power of imparting health and life to the world.
The pure transparent stream of water of life issuing from the throne of the Deity is his almighty power, or spirit, by which he creates, regenerates, makes glorious, and subdues all things to himself.
"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation; a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; but there the glorious Yahweh will be to us a place of rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby"-Isai. xxxiii. 20, 21.
In this the place, the rivers, and the streams, stand for Yahweh and his power.
That the water of life represents the spirit in all its relations and effects, is evident from the words of Jesus in Jno. vii. 37, 39:
"if any man thirst" saith he, "let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his body shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he, "adds John, of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for holy spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified."
A stream of this pure, transparent water of life was poured out upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost. That, however, though great and marvellous in its effects, was only the earnest of what is yet to follow. It anointed them with knowledge, wisdom, and power; but it left them as it found them, subject to disease, sorrow, pain, and death.
Now people have so much holy spirit in them as they have of the words and ideas of the deity understood, affectionately, believed, and obeyed-Jno. vi. 63. But, when the time of the great pentecostian outflow of holy spirit shall arrive, the assembled multitude of the approved convened before the judgment seat of Christ, will be filled, and covered over, and thoroughly saturated in all the atoms of their substance, with the flood of downpouring spirit from unapproachable light; whereby they will be changed, and all that is in them of earthiness and morality "swallowed up of life".
Henceforth, the pure, transparent stream of living water is distributed through them as its channel to mankind, until the knowledge of Yahweh the fountain of living waters, shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.-Isai. xlv. 8.
Bro Thomas
Reprinted TC 11/1887