Heathen, Assemble Yourselves and Come Joel 3:11

Joel the prophet wrote, “Proclaim this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:” and they were to “Beat” their “plowshares into swords, and” their “pruninghooks into spears”. He also told the “weak” to “say, I am strong.”, and in chapter three and verse eleven of his prophesy, Joel called the “heathen” nations to “assemble” themselves where we read:

Assemble yourselves, and come, all you heathen, and gather yourselves together round about:

thither cause your mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

The verse begins, “Assemble yourselves, and come, all you heathen,...” Joel began with the phrase, “Assemble yourselves” which means “gather together, hasten, come to help and lend aid”, “and come” or “go in, enter, attain and be enumerated”, “all you heathen” which refers to “people and nations usually of non-Hebrew people”. The LORD continued to call upon the “heathen” nations to “gather together quickly” as they were to prepare for war against Him.

The verse goes on to say, “...and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause your mighty ones to come down, O LORD.” Joel continued, “and gather yourselves together” or “assemble, collect, heap and resort” “round about” which means “circuit, a circle, compassed and on every side”: “thither cause your mighty ones” or “strong, brave and mighty men” “to come down” which means “descend, penetrate, descend, press down and stretched”, “O LORD” which refers to “Yehovah or Jehovah who is the existing One and the proper name for the one true God.” The LORD called these enemies to “assemble” themselves from everywhere around the people of Judah.

When we consider these words of Joel, we begin to understand how adamant the LORD was about “gathering together” those who opposed Judah. He called upon them to bring their “heathen” armies together to ready for battle, and oh what a battle they would obtain. The LORD God is serious about those who come against His people, and we can only imagine how He will be toward those who come against His Son Jesus Christ. May we all be aware of the position of our God when it comes to His people.

Next time Joel declares, “let the heathen be awakened”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.