“I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel.” Joel 3:2
The Day of Judgment has special reference to the way the nations have treated God’s people, Israel. Great evils were done against God’s people in the Old Testament and since. All that has been done will one day be brought to account.
Particular charges are laid out here. For example, they “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” (3:3). Today we would call this “human trafficking.” It was happening in Old Testament times and it is still happening today.
Sometimes we wonder if there can ever be justice in the world. The answer in Scripture is “Yes.” God will bring justice. On that day, he will gather all people, and he will enter into judgment against all sins. The evils God will bring to judgment are many, “for their evil is great” (3:13).
We may have forgotten about the half million people who were slaughtered in Rwanda between April and July of 1994, nearly half of whom were children. But none of them is forgotten by God. Not one of the 1.6 million killed in Cambodia between 1975 and 1978 is forgotten. None of the 6 million Jewish people exterminated in the 1930s and 1940s is forgotten. And none of the 20 million purged in Russia in the time of Stalin, which is less than half of the number of abortions in the United States since 1973—over 50 million—is forgotten.
How does God’s judgment alter your understanding of injustice in the world?
