The Sun and Moon Prophecies and Chain of Events, Part 4 of 9

Part 3 covered Jeremiah 4 and Joel 2:1-11.

Both of those tied what happens in the heavens to a chain of bigger events around them, events that would be impossible to miss and impossible to leave out of the record, and the record does not have them.

In Part 4 we keep doing the same thing. Read the passage in full, list the chain of events in the order the text gives them, then check history and see if that chain ever happened.

Part 4 has Joel 2:28-32, the back half of Joel 2, and Joel 3, the whole chapter. Part 3 stopped at Joel 2:11, so this part opens where that reading broke off, at Joel 2:28, and then reads Joel 3 from the first verse to the last.

No teachers, no doctrines from outside. Just the Bible, and the historical record.

1. Joel 2:28-32

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."

"Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit."

"And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke."

"The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes."

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

"For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls."

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh
2. Sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will dream dreams, and young men will see visions
3. Even on the male and female servants, God will pour out His Spirit in those days
4. God will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke
5. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes
6. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
7. In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, and among the survivors will be those whom the Lord calls

This section picks up right after the army of Joel 2:1-11. Joel 2 does not end with that army. It goes on to what comes afterward: God pouring out His Spirit on all flesh, on sons and daughters, on old men and young men, and even on servants.

Then the signs widen again, from people to the heavens and the earth. Blood and fire and columns of smoke on the earth, and over it the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood, and all of it set before the great and awesome day of the Lord, not after it. The section ends at Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, with escape and survivors there.

The place named here is Mount Zion and Jerusalem, the same city whose record Part 3 checked. That record is long and detailed. It has sieges, burnings, exiles, and returns in it. What it does not have is this chain.

No year in Jerusalem's history is recorded with wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood, all standing together before a day the text calls the great and awesome day of the Lord. The passage sets the signs before that day, so the chain stands or falls as one piece.

These verses are quoted again later in Scripture, by Peter in Acts 2, and this series reads that passage in full in Part 7.

2. Joel 3

"For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,"

"I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat."

"And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,"

"and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it."

"What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily."

"For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples."

"You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border."

"Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head."

"I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken."

"Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men."

"Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up."

"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”"

"Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there."

"Bring down your warriors, O Lord."

"Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations."

"Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe."

"Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great."

"Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!"

"For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."

"The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining."

"The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake."

"But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel."

"So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain."

"And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it."

"And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim."

"Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land."

"But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations."

"I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion."

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. When God restores the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, He will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and enter into judgment with them there
2. The judgment is for what they did to His people and His heritage Israel: they scattered them among the nations, divided up His land, cast lots for His people, traded a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine
3. Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia are named: they took God's silver and gold and carried His rich treasures into their temples, and sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks to remove them far from their own border, and God will return their payment on their own head swiftly and speedily
4. God will stir up the sold people from the place they were sold to, and the sellers' own sons and daughters will be sold into the hand of the people of Judah, who will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away
5. The call goes out among the nations: consecrate for war, stir up the mighty men, and let all the men of war draw near and come up
6. Plowshares are beaten into swords and pruning hooks into spears, and the weak say, "I am a warrior"
7. All the surrounding nations hurry and gather, and the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where God sits to judge all the surrounding nations
8. The sickle goes in because the harvest is ripe, and the winepress is trodden because it is full and their evil is great
9. Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of decision, and the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision
10. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining
11. The Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake, while He is a refuge and a stronghold to His people
12. Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it, and Judah's mountains shall drip sweet wine, its hills flow with milk, and all its streambeds flow with water, with a fountain coming forth from the house of the Lord
13. Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness for the violence done to the people of Judah, but Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations, and God will avenge their blood

Joel 3 opens with the nations gathered, not by their own plan but brought down by God to one valley for judgment. The charges are named first: His people scattered among the nations, His land divided up, and children traded and sold away.

Then named peoples are spoken to directly, Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia, before the call to war goes out to every nation around. The chapter ends with the heavens darkened over the valley, God's voice roaring from Zion, and Judah watered and inhabited forever while Egypt and Edom lie desolate.

Start with the valley itself. The name Valley of Jehoshaphat is found only in this chapter, in verses 2 and 12, and nowhere else in the Bible or in any record from those times. The name means "the Lord judges." Only centuries later, from the fourth century AD on, did people begin pointing to the Kidron Valley, the deep valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and calling it by this name. No record from any age tells of all the nations being gathered into a valley by Jerusalem to be judged there, under a darkened sun and moon.

Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician port cities on the coast north of Israel, rich from sea trade, and slave trading was part of that trade. Their real history is a long grinding down by bigger empires. Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years, about 585 to 573 BC, and took its mainland town. Alexander the Great finished the island city in 332 BC, building a stone causeway out to it through the sea. Sidon was beaten down by the same empires in turn. None of that happened at a gathering in a valley by Jerusalem, and none of it came with the heavens going dark.

Philistia was the Philistine country on the coast south of Judah, cities like Gaza and Ashkelon. Babylon ended it. The Babylonian Chronicle records Nebuchadnezzar taking Ashkelon in the winter of 604 BC, carrying off its king, and leaving the city a heap of ruins, and the burned layer from that destruction is still found in the ground there. After Babylon's campaigns the Philistines fade out of the record as a people. That is a real judgment on a real place, and it is still not Joel 3, where Philistia is spoken to as a people still standing, still holding God's silver and gold, facing a gathering that has not happened.

Egypt and Edom stand at the end of the chapter. Egypt was conquered again and again, by Assyria in 671 BC, by Persia in 525 BC, by Alexander in 332 BC, and by Rome in 30 BC, but it was never left an empty desolation. It stayed a lived-in land of farms and cities under every conqueror, and it is full of people today. Edom's fall was covered in Part 2: it faded under Babylon, its people moved west into the hills south of Judah as Idumea, and after Rome's wars the Edomites disappear from the record altogether. Neither record holds a day when Egypt and Edom lay desolate together over the blood of Judah while every nation stood gathered in one valley.

And Jerusalem itself, the city this whole chapter circles, was destroyed in 586 BC and again in AD 70, and came back both times as a lived-in city. Strangers have passed through it in every century since, the armies of one empire after another. The chapter says a day is coming when strangers will never again pass through it. That day is not in the record either.

That is two more chains. Joel 2 ends with the Spirit poured out on all flesh, and the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord, and no day in Zion's history holds that chain. Joel 3 gathers every nation into one valley under a darkened sun and moon, and no year in the record holds that gathering.

And one fact stands over the whole series so far. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in AD 70, and no temple has stood in the city since that day. The house of the Lord that Joel 3 sees a fountain flowing out of is not standing in Jerusalem today.

Part 5 picks up at Amos 8 and Matthew 24, and the chains keep going from there, until the last part lines them all up together.