Joel 3:13, “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.”
In this chapter, Joel deals with the Judgments of God upon the wicked and disobedient. He addresses specifically God’s judgment upon the Gentile world for their treatment of Israel. Also, he addresses in a more general sense God’s judgment upon all wickedness and disobedience.
Joel 3:2, “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” Here Joel identifies a specific place of God’s judgment, the valley of Jehoshaphat (which means “Yahweh judges”). It is probable that his reference is to the campaign of Armageddon which he addresses in detail in verses 9-17. In verse 13 he describes the harvest of the wicked and their resulting end in the same way one would describe the harvest of grapes used to fill the wine presses. The wicked are a harvest ripe for judgment. This is an ominous prophecy portraying the inescapable wages of the wicked.
As I think of the dreadful future of lost mankind, my heart is heavy with the task of reaching them with the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to the present human condition. All men must hear the message of redemption and freedom in Christ. Jesus left the responsibility of delivering this message to the Church. The Body of Christ is commissioned to carry the message into all the world.
The lives of lost humanity are in our hands. Who will speak light in the midst of such gross darkness? Who will offer deliverance to these miserable souls? Who will go for Christ? Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Let us go for the Harvest Of The Wicked!
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