Joel 3 Devotional

Shelter When Heaven Trembles

“The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.”Joel 3:16 (BSB)

Joel 3 is a courtroom scene on a world scale. God gathers the nations into the Valley of Jehoshaphat to judge them for scattering his people and dividing his land (3:2). The charges are specific. They cast lots for his people, traded a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine (3:3), and sold the people of Judah far from their homeland (3:6). Children the nations treated as cheap goods, God counts as his own, and he takes their mistreatment as an attack on himself (3:4-5).

The nations are mockingly told to beat their plowshares into swords and come (3:9-12), but the harvest is ripe and their wickedness is great (3:13). The LORD roars from Zion, and heaven and earth tremble. Yet the same voice that shakes the earth is a refuge and stronghold for his people (3:16). The book ends with the promise that the LORD dwells in Zion (3:17-21). No injustice escapes his notice, and no one who belongs to him is left without shelter.

To think about: Where do you need to trust that God sees injustice, and where do you need to run to him as your refuge?