Joel 3:18 - Meaning and Application

These promises, with which this prophecy ends, are partly fulfilled now in the kingdom of grace, in the comfort and holiness of all faithful subjects of that kingdom. But they will be fully fulfilled in the kingdom of glory. As far as the Jewish church was concerned, we do not know of any event that fully matched the broad reach of these promises. Any peace and prosperity they enjoyed, even if described in very strong language, were only shadows of better things kept for us. God planned that they, in their best state, should not be made perfect apart from us.

The first promise is that the enemies of the church will be defeated and brought low (Joel 3:19). Egypt, the old enemy of Israel, and Edom, which had a deep and lasting hatred for Israel through Esau, will become a ruin, a barren wilderness, fit for no one to live in. They have become the people under God's curse, as the Idumeans were (Isaiah 34:5). No nation is so strong or wealthy that it can shield itself from God’s judgment.

Why does God oppose these powerful kingdoms? Because of the violence they showed to the children of Judah, and the harm they did to them (Ezekiel 25:3, 8, 12, 15; 26:2). They shed the innocent blood of Jews who fled to them for safety or passed through their land while escaping. The blood of God's people is precious to him, and not one drop of it will be ignored. In the last day, this earth, which has been filled with violence against God's people, will be made a ruin when it and everything in it are burned up. Sooner or later, the oppressors and persecutors of God's Israel will be brought down and laid in the dust, and in the end they will be brought down and laid in the flames.

The second promise is that the church will be made very happy. It is truly happy already in its spiritual blessings, even while it is still fighting in this world, but it will be far happier when it becomes victorious. Three things are promised here: purity, plenty, and lasting peace.

Purity comes first in thought, even if it is mentioned last here as the reason for the others (Joel 3:21). God says, “I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed,” meaning their bloody and terrible sins, especially the shedding of innocent blood. He will wash away the filth and guilt they brought on themselves by sin, which made them unfit for fellowship with God and made them hateful to his holiness and exposed to his justice. This cleansing comes in the fountain opened for sin (Zechariah 13:1). What the sacrifices and washings of the ceremonial law could not cleanse, the blood of Christ will cleanse. Or, if we take this as speaking of the happiness of the future life, it means the saints will be cleansed from all the corruptions from which they were not fully cleansed by ordinances or providences in this world. There will be no trace of sin left in them there.

That is so because the Lord dwells in Zion, and he dwells with his church, and even more gloriously with the church in heaven. Holiness fits his house forever, so where he dwells there must be, and will be, perfect holiness. Though the church’s refining and reforming work moves slowly, and we still have to complain that something in us is not yet cleansed, a day is coming when everything wrong will be put right. The church will be all fair, with no spot and no stain in her. We must wait for that day.

Plenty is the next promise, and it is placed first here because it stands opposite the judgment threatened in the earlier chapters (Joel 3:18). The streams of this plenty overflow the land and make it rich: the mountains will drip with new wine and the hills will flow with milk. This means great abundance of fitting provision, for both the weak and the strong. It points to rich vineyards and fruitful fields, and also to abundant cattle in the pastures so that they are full of milk. To make the grain fields fruitful, the rivers of Judah will flow with water, and the land will be like Eden, well watered and richly blessed (Psalm 65:9).

Yet this seems to point mainly to spiritual blessing. The grace and comfort of the new covenant are compared to wine and milk (Isaiah 55:1), and the Spirit is compared to rivers of living water (John 7:38). These gifts are far more abundant under the New Testament than they were under the Old. When believers receive grace after grace from Christ’s fullness, when they are enriched with lasting comfort and filled with joy and peace as they believe, then the mountains drip new wine and the hills flow with milk. “Drink, yes, drink deeply, O beloved!” When the Spirit of grace is poured out in abundance, the rivers of Judah flow with water and make glad not only the city of our God, but the whole land (Psalm 46:4).

The source of this plenty is the house of God, from which the streams begin, like the waters of the sanctuary (Ezekiel 47:1) that flowed out from under the temple threshold, and like the river of life that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). The psalmist says of Zion, “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7). Even if the first part of the verse is understood as speaking of earthly blessings, this fountain from the house of the Lord should still be taken as God’s grace, which we need all the more when we have outward blessings, so that we do not misuse them. Christ himself is the fountain. His merit and grace cleanse us, refresh us, and make us fruitful.

This fountain waters the valley of Shittim, which was far from the temple at Jerusalem, across the Jordan, and was a dry, barren valley. That shows that gospel grace, flowing from Christ, will reach far, even to the Gentile world and the most distant places, and will make fruitful those who had long lain like a barren wilderness. This grace is overflowing and always flowing. We may keep drawing from it, and yet never fear that it will run dry. It comes from the house of the Lord above, from his temple in heaven. From there comes all the good we now taste in its streams, and there we hope soon to drink, and to drink forever, at the fountain itself.

The third promise is lasting peace, and it crowns all the rest (Joel 3:20). Judah will dwell forever, when Egypt and Edom have become a desolation, and Jerusalem will continue from generation to generation. This is a precious promise. It means, first, that the church of Christ will remain in the world until the end of time. As one generation of professing Christians passes away, another will rise up, and Christ’s throne will endure forever. The gates of hell will not overcome it.

All the living members of that church, that is, the people of Judah and Jerusalem, meaning the inhabitants of that city and land, will be firmly settled in their joy for endless ages. This new Jerusalem will continue from one generation to the next, because it is a city with lasting foundations, not built by human hands, but eternal in heaven.