in the book of Joel. If you want to turn now, you can in the ESV Study Bible, it's on page 1258. Pew Bible, it's 760. It's only three chapters, it's kind of easy to pass up between Hosea and Amos. You can probably set your Bibles down, because I'm gonna do something a little bit different tonight. Maybe right, maybe wrong, I don't know, but this is where I'm being led. Probably a few months ago, I was doing just some personal study. and considering repentance and reconciliation and what that meant and looking for some good biblical resources for that. And I came across Joel, it was a short book and I really fell in love with the book of Joel. It's an easy book to read, it's only three chapters, I think 74 verses, something like that. But Joel has a lot to speak about regarding repentance and reconciliation. So that was a big help at the time I was counseling somebody through some issues. And we talked about Joel. It was helpful. So I thought I'd study the book some more. Tonight we're going to do simply an overview of the Book of Joel. Hopefully over the course of the next year, if I can do this maybe once a quarter, we will address each chapter of the Book of Joel. And I'm looking forward to that. I did not know much about Joel. When I walked in, Lynn said, I don't know anything about Joel. Didn't know much about when the period of Joel was, much about Joel as a prophet. And there's probably a good reason for that. It's because we don't know a lot about Joel or when Joel was written. Joel, or Yol, as Hebrew would say, means the Lord is God. That E-L, God, in his name. The Lord is God. That's what his name means. Let me just read verse one. Joel 1, verse one. The word of the Lord came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. The son of Pethahuel, we don't know anything about his father either. At the time that book was written, his father may have been well known to the people. It may have meant something to them. We've kind of lost that over time. We don't know much about Joel. We know less about his father. I think there are over 14 references to the name Joel in scripture, but none of them can be attributed to the Joel of this book. We're not given any other information about who Joel was. Let's compare that to Ezekiel. Let me read from Ezekiel chapter one, one to three. In Ezekiel, not only gives us an idea of who he was, he's very specific about when this was written. Ezekiel one, in the 13th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, As I was among the exiles by the Chabar Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the priest, the son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chabar Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. So the Book of Ezekiel is very different in introducing us to the prophet and to the time. We don't have that luxury with the Book of Joel. It's kind of one of the things that fascinates me about the Book of Joel. Scholars debate about when the Book of Joel was written. Some would say 9th century BC all the way to 4th century BC. That's a period of 500 years. We really don't know. We know Joel addresses the Southern Kingdom. He talks about Jerusalem. He talks about Judah. John Calvin, I think, summarizes it best when we're talking about dating the book of Joel. Calvin says, but as there is no certainty, it is better to leave the time in which he taught undecided. And as we shall see, this is of no great importance. One of the main points I wanna bring out tonight as we introduce the Book of Joel is, I don't know whether it's the author's intention or not, but one of the messages is that the person, the messenger, is not as important as the message. And that's gonna be one of our themes this evening. It's a message of God calling his people back to him to repentance and restoration of promised blessings and of promised judgments. The book opens up with a chapter describing a plague of locusts, and there's debate among scholars. Is this really locusts? Is this an army? Chapter two goes into a discussion about what could be described as an army. There's debate about that. Is that just another imagery of the locus? Is this actually an army? There's some confusion about that. But the message is God calls his people to repentance. And whether it's locus, whether it's an army, we need to recognize that God is in control of all creation. God is in control of armies. God is in control of all things, and he uses those things to discipline his people. Hebrews chapter 12, verses five through six. And if you've forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. So part of the message of Joel is that chastisement of that discipline that God applies to our lives and applies to the lives of the people that Joel was speaking to. As I was reading through Joel and trying to summarize it, because we spent so much time in John, and John has become one of my favorite all-time books, I saw so many parallels with John 15, when Jesus describes us, he is the vine and we are the branches. There's so many parallels between that, we're gonna get to that in a little bit, and the book of Joel. In the book of Joel, there are over 27 phrases or sayings that have parallels to other Old Testament books. In the New Testament, most notably, Acts chapter two, verse 16 through 21. These are some of Peter's first words recorded on the day of Pentecost. Let me read that to you. Acts chapter two, 16 through 21. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. One other notable reference to Joel is in Romans chapter 10 verse 13. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There are days I really love my job, there are days I don't. I am blessed with the opportunity to speak with a variety of people. As I was studying and preparing for this, I was able to speak with a friend of mine, a Jewish man, Orthodox. I call him a mensch. In Yiddish, mensch means wise person, teacher. We've had many conversations before. If I'm passing in the hallway in the building that he lives in, he always stops me and we get caught up on things. But I asked him, Ivan, what do you know about the Book of Joel? And he kind of smiled at me and he said, well, he's a great prophet, he's a good teacher. He said, I'm not so sure. He said, why don't you hand me one of those books on the shelf? And he pointed the book out and he sat down and he flipped through it and he said, well, there's not much in here. He said, come back in a couple of days, I'll have an answer for you. Came back in a few days and he said, couldn't find anything, which surprised me. He knew he was a minor prophet He did not find anything in his study books, his commentaries about the book of Joel. And then I thought about it and I don't know, possibly because Joel clearly calls for the repentance of the Jewish people and the consequences for their lack of repentance. I have someone else that I really want to talk to was a prisoner in Auschwitz, another learned man, another mensch. And I want to get his opinion of Joel and how somebody that would be under that kind of duress to be in a prison camp that he and his father were the only ones that got out. He still travels around Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh and does lectures on the Holocaust and a very interesting man, a wonderful resource. This past week, I also had the opportunity to spend some time in the Hill District. and had a conversation with a man and a woman there. I noticed some literature on the bookshelves and took the opportunity and started a conversation. She apparently has a master's degree in theology. I think she's in her 70s. She went to some school in, I believe she said it was Arizona, I don't know. And I asked her, well, what do you know about the Book of Joel? and I felt like I stepped into a trap. She was a Pentecostal and she latched right on to Joel and exactly the verses that we read in Acts about prophesying and men seeing visions and dreams and she went on and on about this and started to prophesy about what I was doing there and it got a little bit weird. But she was excited to talk about the book of Joel. I think one of her mistakes are she looks at those promises from Joel that Peter quotes, and she sees those as the benefit of the Holy Spirit. Things that she can reach for, things that she used to justify her teaching and her prophesying. She reached out for those promises that were given to Joel so long ago. But I think what we see differently is we see the whole picture. We see that it's just not the promise of the Spirit, it's Christ. Christ fulfilling the gospel, Christ fulfilling that prophecy. The prophecies and the dreams and the visions that were given to Joel, they're pictures that are blurry. They're not clear. Even today, when you talk to somebody in a church like that and somebody prophesies or somebody has a dream, everybody wants to know, what does it mean? What does it mean? Because it's not clear. We need to remember, we have the clear picture. We have the good news of the gospel. We have that prophecy fulfilled in Christ. I heard an analogy. Early this week, I'll put my difference on it, 25 years ago or so when cell phones came out, do you remember the first cell phones? They were about the size of a brick and they had an antenna with a cord that went to a box about the size of a child's lunchbox. So picture this, if 25 years ago I told my son Josh, who was young at the time, hey Josh, When you're 25 years old, I'm going to buy you a cell phone." And he looks at that cell phone and, all right, okay. Twenty-five years later, today, where's my cell phone? I don't think he expects me to hand him this box with a cord and an antenna, right? He's going to want an iPhone 10 or something like that. He's not going to say to me, hey, you didn't give me that brick with an antenna on it, because now there's something better. I'm still fulfilling that promise to him. I'm still giving him that cell phone, but there's something much better, much clearer. I think that's the analogy we can use with what this woman's interpretation of Joel was. Let's get back to the main message. The message is more important. Then the messenger. A few weeks ago, Aaron talked about the conversion of Charles Spurgeon. I don't know if you remember that. As a 15-year-old boy, he was traveling on Sunday to church in a snowstorm, and it was so bad that he couldn't make it to the church he intended to go to. He ducked into the smaller church, and because of the snow, the pastor didn't show up, and there was some man in the pulpit preaching from the word of God, and he couldn't go further than the verses. But he pointed out Spurgeon, and I think the words were something like, young man, you don't look comfortable. He challenged Spurgeon, and Spurgeon attributes that moment as a conversion in his life. It wasn't the message, or it wasn't the messenger, it was the message. John Bunyan, the man who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, This is a short account of his conversion. This morning as I went through Bedford, intending upon my calling, it was my lot that I should pass one of the streets that are Nye and High Street. There sat three poor women in the sun, and as they talked in the doorway, I heard some of their speech. I drew nigh to listen, but alas, to a such talk as I never dreamed of ever before. They spoke of new birth, of how God had worked in their hearts to show them their lost state, of how they were once under the curse of God for their guilt and iniquity. And then they spoke comfortably of the loving kindness of God in giving his dear son to die for them. and how they had been led to trust Christ and found in him peace and rest for their souls. Methought this is what I want much, yet how to obtain it I knew not. He heard women talking and his heart was changed. There's also an account of Augustine. At some point in his life, going through a great period of distress and crying out to God, to relieve him of this, to make things clear to him. And his story was he heard a child in a neighbor's house crying out, take up and read, take up and read. And he took that to heart, that was the message. It wasn't the messenger. We are not important, it is the Spirit of God who saves through the gospel. Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Isn't it a comfort knowing that when we share the gospel, it is not up to us to say exactly the right words? What a comfort it is, knowing that if we are obedient and we are sharing the gospel, as best as we can know, that God will use that. It was Jewish custom in the day of Jesus, as it is even today, when teaching to refer to great teachers. When somebody was explaining scripture, they would always talk about how a great teacher taught about that scripture. Matthew 7, verse 28 and 29. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes did. He taught with authority. He taught from the word of God. He didn't reference a great teacher. And that was something out of the ordinary for the Jews at that time. And they still do the same today. Sunday, early afternoon, Pam and I spent a few hours at my parents' house. They were having a cousin of mine over for the Steeler game. I haven't watched much of the Steelers this year. We went over to spend some time with them. I hadn't seen them for a while. We didn't stay long. After a few hours, Pam and I went to, actually, to Peter Dorfler's small group. They meet at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And that was a worthwhile time. But my cousin, who isn't very religious at all, I think she belongs to a Methodist church, knows that my dad is Catholic. My dad often tries to witness to her. And she asked a question, what's the difference between Catholics and Presbyterians. She asked us where we were going. We said we're going to a church plant. She didn't know what that was, and she wanted to know what the difference was between a Catholic and a Presbyterian. And I watched as my dad kind of just held his breath, and I said, well, I said, you know, there's a number of things. One of the things is how you're justified, how you're made right in the eyes of God, I said. One of the main things is that as a Catholic, they would hold that the church has supreme authority. And as a Presbyterian, we would say that scripture has supreme authority. I thought about that and as a Catholic, I don't know how you can reconcile their doctrine that their supreme authority is the church and scripture. You can't have both as supreme authority. It doesn't work like that, especially when there are contradictions. When the church teaches that Mary was born without sin, when the church teaches it's sinful to eat meat on Friday, that contradicts what scripture says. So when push comes to shove, ultimately, they're gonna call their supreme authority the church. And the more I thought about that, after I've just said, it's not really important what we say or how we say it, it probably is. And I probably, the next time I would make that comment, I would say it a little bit differently. Not that just our supreme authority is scripture, I think I would say our supreme authority is God. God speaks to us through scripture. God is the supreme authority. That's why we hold scripture at that level, because it is the word of God. The message is more important than the man. We need to be careful when we are witnessing to others that we use the word of God, that we use scripture as much as we can instead of the words of men. As Calvinists, we should be able to teach Calvinism without ever mentioning the name John Calvin. It's biblical, we should be able to do that. I know there are some settings I go to, especially with a younger crowd and you have somebody that may attend a different denomination. Sometimes the last thing I ever wanna bring up is Calvin because right away they're gonna shut you off. And I think at times we are guilty of that. There's something called a caged stage of Calvinism. Have you ever heard of that? I've seen it, I've experienced it a little bit. Caged stage of Calvinism. I think it was Michael Horton who came up with the term. When a Christian who has studied scripture all of a sudden realizes Calvinism is true, it's almost such an eye-opener. It's such a life-changing experience that they tend to get overly aggressive and just push Calvinism and push election. And because it's all of a sudden scripture becomes so clear. They have a frame of reference that everything in scripture fits with. They get overly excited about it and they put some people off when they do that. Most of you know the late Dr. John Gershner and can appreciate his personality. If you haven't heard him, Google or YouTube John Gershner's eulogy of R.C. Sproul. I don't know if anybody's heard that or not. He, if you know John MacArthur, if you know Dr. John Gershner, he references Dr. Gershner. I guess early in his ministry through R.C. Sproul, he had some meetings with Dr. Gershner and Dr. Gershner flat out came out and told him that he would be a heretic someday. It's really funny to listen to his account of it in R.C.' 's eulogy. Some of you may know that Dr. Gershner was I think an associate pastor or an assistant pastor at Trinity where Jared is the pastor. So there are a lot of Gershnerites among the congregation at Trinity. And there's a story of a man in the congregation who, over an extended period of time, debated Dr. Gershner about a few points of theology. And I've heard what some of the points were, and they were minute. They were not things that you would live and die for. But they were points that he felt worthy of debating with Dr. Gershner. And that would probably be a wearisome task, because Dr. Gerstner was not short of any ammunition. But on one point, he finally said to Dr. Gerstner, okay, okay, you said it, I believe it. And in true Dr. Gerstner form, he barked back at him, don't you know that's idolatry? And he has a point. If you can't believe something, if you can't back it by Scripture, don't back it by what John Gerstner said. Don't back it by what Calvin says. Back it by Scripture. It's the message, not the messenger. So what else can we learn from Joel? Again, we can learn that God disciplines those that he loves. In the book of Joel, he disciplines the people with a plague of locusts. And as I've been reading about that, that's been fascinating. I know Ryan asked me about what my interpretation of that was. Was it locusts? Was it an army? And I'm going to lean towards locusts and not an army. And hopefully we'll get into that in the future. I told you there were parallels to John 15. Let me read John 15 too. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it might bear more fruit. I don't know what it feels like to be a vine, but I'm sure pruning is not a comfortable thing. It's a painful thing. The discipline of God in our lives is a painful thing. I see that parallel. Joel speaks of the day of the Lord, a day that turmoil would come upon the people at God's will and for God's purpose, that his people would repent. His message was of repentance. His message was the message of John the Baptist. What was his message in the wilderness to the people? Repent. And at the time, there was no true repentance in the empty works of Judaism. Wasn't that the message of Martin Luther and the Reformation? Because of the indulgences, there was no true Christian repentance. Christian repentance is a matter of the heart. It's not about putting a coin in the box. That's what Luther preached. Christ preached repentance too, as did Joel. God will judge those who do not call on his name. Joel refers to this later in the book as a valley of decision. John 15, verse six. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. God will restore fellowship with his people. That's also a message in Joel. John 15, verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, verse 11, that my joy might be in you and that your joy may be full. Joel also teaches us who will be saved. Chapter two, verse 32. Joel clearly says whom the Lord calls. We would say, speaking of election, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, not just the Jew or the Gentile, the young or the old, male or female, sons or daughters, male or female servants, all flesh. Tonight, as we started this overview of Joel, as I said, I hope to do a few more lessons specific about the discipline we see in Joel, specific about Christian repentance, judgment, and restoration. I'm gonna do this a little backwards. I said, I'm gonna read the book of Joel. And as I do that, I want you to listen for a couple things. I want you to listen for those verses that we're familiar with. Listen for things we've heard before. There's a few twists on a few verses, but in this short book of three chapters, there's a lot in there that we're gonna be familiar with. I also want you to listen for those overall themes. Repentance, restoration, judgment, Let's hear the words of Joel. The word of the Lord came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Hear this you elders, give ear all inhabitants of the land. Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children to another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten. And what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number. Its teeth are lion's teeth. and it has fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it down. Their branches are made white, like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed. The wine dries up, the oil languishes. Be ashamed, oh tillers of the soil, whale, oh vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine dries up, the fig tree languishes. pomegranate, and palm, and apple, and all the trees of the field were dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man. Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests. Wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate. The granaries are tore down because the grain is dried up, how the beast grown. The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them, even the flocks of sheep suffer. To you, O Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness and flame has burned all the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for you, because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like blackness, there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people. Their like has never been seen before, nor will they again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them and behind them, a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them. But behind them, a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses, they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains. like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them, peoples are in anguish. All faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his own way. They do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another. Each march is in his path. They burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the house as they enter through the windows like a thief. The earthquakes before them and heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great. He who executes his word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it? Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him. a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the minister of the Lord, weep and say, spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the people, where is their God? Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and he had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied. and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner far from you and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the Eastern Sea, his rear guard into the Western Sea. The stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Fear not, you beasts of the fields, for the pastures of the wilderness are green, The tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine give their full yield. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication. He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain as before. The threshing floor shall be full of grain. The vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord, your God, and there is no one else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. and I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land and 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. What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken. Proclaim this among the nations. Consecrate for war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plow shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am a warrior. Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord. Let the nations stir themselves up, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, where I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall become a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness. for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion. Thank you for allowing me to do that. Let's pray.