There can be no question about these words being addressed to Jerusalem—the literal city—the boundaries being so clearly marked in verse 10, as to prevent the possibility of mistake. Neither can there be any doubt about them relating to a time still future in the history of the City.

There is a peculiarity in verses 1, 2. They speak of an assault upon Jerusalem, not mentioned so far as I am aware, in any other part of the Scripture. It is no doubt referred to, but I believe there is no direct mention of it elsewhere. This attack will be a successful one; for it says "the city shall he taken . . . and one half of it shall go into captivity." This capture will almost immediately precede that final blow which the nations around it will seek to deal, with the object of blotting it out from existence altogether (Ps. 83); which object will be defeated by the sudden appearance of the Lord in glory! Verse 1 refers to circumstances earlier in point of time than those detailed in chapter 12, though, after verse 4, they coincide. This is according to a rule very generally observed in Scripture. The end is first announced, and then, if enquiry be excited as to the steps leading to that end, the enquiry is answered by the supply of fresh details in retracing the subject. This rule is constantly observed in the Book of the Revelation; e.g. chapters 13 and 17. The former speaks of Antichrist in power over the ten nations of the Roman earth, the latter retraces to his first rising into that power.

We learn from Zechariah 14:2, that God will Himself gather the nations of whom chapter 12 speaks: and He will allow them at first to take the city and triumph over it. But it will be their last triumph just before being crushed for ever! There will be but a brief interval before the Lord returns in glory, to deliver Jerusalem and to destroy its enemies (v. 3)! Those mighty nations will have been gathered to Armageddon by Satan, as we learn in Revelation 16:16; to which chapter we turn. "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared." The Euphrates will be a mighty river in that day. The countries round it will not then as now, he sunk in degradation; they are all to rise again and be the greatest, the mightiest in the whole world; the very center and basis of Antichrist’s glory!

The Euphrates always represents the concentrated evil greatness of unregenerate man, and is contrasted with the "waters of Siloah" which are connected with Jerusalem and which represent the softly flowing waters of God’s Truth. Men refuse those waters—"what blessing will the waters of God’s Truth bring to them?"—and they choose instead the waters of the river strong and mighty—denoting earthly greatness and earthly strength—and they will rejoice in them more and more.

The time is still future for the revival of those eastern countries contiguous to the Euphrates, though probably it is very near at hand. In the day however of which Revelation 16 speaks, "the waters of the Euphrates will he dried up, in order that the way of the kings from the east be prepared"—those barbarous Asiatic tribes which have always been a terror to Europe—and which God will then allow to overspread and to destroy Babylon. These are the kings referred to in Jeremiah 51:27-33. "Prepare ye, etc." For that purpose those Asiatic tribes are now being prepared; but God will hold them in reserve and not allow them to overrun the western countries till that day of which Jeremiah speaks. Then He will command them to rise against Assyria—the chief basis of Antichrist’s power—and by drying up the Euphrates He will "prepare the way" for them! Antichrist is constantly called in Scripture "the Assyrian," because in Assyria the chief capital of his kingdom Babylon will be situated: and it will be in order to crush those mighty hordes from Asia, that the vast gathering at Armageddon will take place.

There is no "battle" of Armageddon as is sometimes wrongly said. The "battle" will take place in "the valley of Jehoshaphat," just outside the walls of Jerusalem but it will be to Armageddon, that, assisted by devils, he will call together all the nations of his vast kingdom—the ten nations of the Roman world—to aid him in crushing these barbarous tribes. See Revelation 16:12-16.

The same Greek word is used in Luke 2:1, indicating all that district around the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea (i.e. sea in the middle of the earth), which will at the end be divided into ten kingdoms. They will be the kings of the most civilized nations of the earth who will he gathered to that vast meeting place Armageddon—the hill of Megiddo—called by the Romans Legio, i.e., the place of troops, and so marked on the modern map; but "in the Hebrew tongue called Armageddon." It is a place contiguous to Carmel, very near to Acre. All those mighty hosts will gather there, but it will not be the place of their destruction.

The object they will have in thus gathering, will be with united force to seek to crush those vast Asiatic tribes which will have threatened them again and again, and which will then be preparing to pour down with overwhelming force upon the civilized nations of the Roman earth! It will be a struggle of civilization against barbarism. Babylon, the center of their commerce, and the source of their wealth, will be threatened with destruction! If that be ruined, every one of the other countries will be involved in the ruin! So every heart will be occupied and will tremble; little prepared to expect the Lord who will then soon be revealed in His glory! That is why verse 15 "Behold I come as a thief," etc. is so strangely sudden in its introduction into the midst of the account of the gathering of the nations to that great battle. Every heart will be trembling throughout the kingdoms spoken of. The interests of every one of those kingdoms will be involved in the struggle about to take place between civilization and barbarism; and what will they care about anything that may be taking place at Jerusalem? That will not affect their interests—those vast interests which will at that moment be at stake! Rivers of blood are at this moment (1877) flowing in the East, but who realizes or takes more than a passing interest in it? It is distant and does not affect ourselves.

There was a time when the interest of this country was aroused; but then the danger threatened our own shores! Well I remember the time of Napoleon and his wars, and the terror and anxiety that filled every heart, though I was but a boy at the time. The French fleet appeared in the distance, and there was nothing but God’s mercy to prevent it landing on our shores: and when it becomes a question as to whether civilization or barbarism will triumph, every heart throughout all these countries will quail, and there will be no time for anything not immediately affecting themselves. Hence that special warning "Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with . . . the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares as a snare."

Jerusalem will have revolted at this time from Antichrist! The two witnesses will have been in that city, calling down judgments and plagues, not only on Jerusalem and the land of Israel, but upon Antichrist and the nations! They will have prophesied "three years and a half clothed in sackcloth." This will be a literal fact remember; the details prevent our doubting it. The locality where they will act and prophesy is named in Revelation 11:8—"the city where our Lord was crucified." So, there is no question about it being in Jerusalem where they will work the miracles of Moses and Elijah over again, "smiting the earth with plagues as often as they will." It will probably be through their instrumentality that all the judgments recorded in the Revelation will be poured out; and no one will have power to hurt or to lay hands upon them; for "if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies:" just you remember, as fire from Heaven at the call of Elijah devoured those who were sent to take him (1 Kings 1)! If any man will hurt them, they must in this manner be killed! They will be miraculously protected by God "till they have finished their testimony." Antichrist will be greatly irritated at this—they will be the only persons who can defy his power—but a time will come when they shall have "finished their testimony," and that will probably be the time of the attack upon Jerusalem described in Zechariah 14:1, 2: and also probably the same period as Revelation 11:7-10; "when the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and shall kill them," and then "take halt the city into captivity."

He will have turned his mighty hosts aside from the purpose for which be had gathered them at Armageddon to quell the revolt in Jerusalem first, which will then form a kind of metropolitan center, where all the nations will be gathered. Thus it is, that "they of the peoples and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." Verse 11-13 (see Ps. 79).

"The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly. The seventh angel sounded, and there were heard great voices in heaven, saying ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingsdom of our Lord and of His Christ!’" In that interval the scene in Daniel 7:9-14 takes place, when the Son of Man is solemnly invested with "the kingdoms of this world." This scene will take place in Heaven: and it will be first announced there by angelic hosts, singing "We give Thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power," etc., and immediately after, the Lord will come forth as described in Revelation 19 "crowned with many diadems, as King of kings and Lord of lords." Then, after raising His sleeping saints and changing His living ones—angels having removed professors—the tares, He will call His saints to meet Him in the air, to return with Him when He comes to enforce His claim; and "His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives!"

All these links are easily traceable in the Scriptures; and then will come the hour for Israel’s deliverance from those who will be preparing to "swallow them up" (Ps.124). The hosts under Antichrist, having turned aside from their purpose of advancing against the barbarous tribes that are threatening Babylon to quell the revolt in Jerusalem, will have succeeded in capturing the city and killing the witnesses; and, flushed with pride and triumph at this, they will say "before we advance to meet our Asiatic foes, we will utterly crush and blot out from existence this city and people that have so troubled us with their revolt and with the torments brought on us by the two men whom we have now overcome!" But, when they reach that point, God will interfere! He will say "They are Mine! Jerusalem is My City: Israel is My people." "Then will the Lord go forth and fight against those nations"(Zech. 14:3). "As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also, He will deliver; passing over, He will preserve it!" (Isa. 31:5). [NB. This determination is at the instigation of Israel’s kinsmen, the Edomites, Moabites, Arabians, etc. See Ps. 83.]

This is described in Joel 3:9-17, where the word heathen should be read Gentiles throughout, as in verse 9. It does not refer to the "heathen" in the sense in which we use the word, but to the most civilized nations in the world; nations that are to be destroyed by the Lord when He comes, except such as be of tender age. They are worse than "heathen" who have never known the Truth, for they will have heard and rejected it! They will have apostatized from the Truth; "withdrawn unto perdition" and will meet their doom when the Lord comes; whereas, the dark "heathen" nations will be spared in that day.

"Prepare war; beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears:" exactly the reverse you see of the time spoken of in Isaiah 2, when swords will be beaten into ploughshares; for then men are to "learn war no more." "Thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord (v. 11)," i.e., "saints and angels summoned to meet Him, and to come with Him to the battle of the great day of the Lord God Almighty." "Let the Gentiles come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the Gentiles round about!" (v. 12).

The "valley of Jehoshaphat" is a large valley under the walls of Jerusalem. The Arabs still believe it to be the place of the final judgment on the nations. Pliny Smith records being shown a stone pillar here, upon which they said their Prophet would sit to judge the world. The poor ignorant Arabs retain what Christians with their Bibles have lost! Facts too, so plainly revealed in their Bibles; facts, so all important in the world’s history; facts which Christ is waiting for and which angels are waiting for! All heaven is interested in them, and we unmindful of it all; ignorant even that these facts are to take place!

What are we doing with our Bibles? Just picking out certain verses which seem to us to be appropriate to ourselves, but having no idea as to what its teachings are as a whole; how all centers round and points to the hour when the great results of Redemption are to be brought in! Those "results" are not brought in yet, but they will be when the time comes of which we are speaking. The "Redemption price" has been paid, and souls are saved: but the "Redemption of appropriation"—the "appropriation of the purchased possession"—has not yet taken place.

No wonder the Church is described as all slumbering—the wise and foolish alike—while waiting for the Bridegroom! But you remember the words used about slumber in Isaiah 29, "The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep; and hath closed your eyes . . . And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed . . . . for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish," etc.

But to return to Joel 3:13-16. No comment is needed on these verses. The words are as plain and unmistakable as those regarding Pharaoh at the Red Sea, which indeed was only a fore-shadowing of that which will take place again when the sickle is put in and the earth reaped. We read in Revelation 14:18-20, of the result of the putting in of that sickle; and of a river of blood proceeding from the winepress in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which will be as deep as the horse bridles for two hundred miles! This will be the scene that day will witness, when the feet of Christ shall again "stand upon the Mount of Olives!"

Joel 2 and Isaiah 10:28-32 give a description of the way in which those mighty hosts will march upon Jerusalem; when suddenly, the Lord will descend upon the Mount of Olives (v. 11), and it shall cleave in the midst (Zech. 14:4); and then, as we read in Isaiah 30:30, "the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard; and through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down . . . For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared!"

There are many parts of Scripture—some of the Psalms e.g.—which can never be rightly understood unless we bring the light of these things to bear upon them. Psalm 29 is a remarkable instance of this, and many others speak of that yet future hour, which can have no intelligent meaning to us, unless read in the light of these revealed truths. See especially Psalm 76. "There (in Judah) brake He the arrows of the bow," etc. All those things will be finally broken there, so that they never rise again. "Thou" (i.e. Zion) "art more glorious than the mountains of prey:" those Gentile nations which made thee a prey! "The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep . . .at Thy rebuke O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep! Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven, the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment!"

Now, how can we understand those words it we refuse to throw upon them the light of other prophetic details? And, on the contrary, what a power and majesty is given to the words, when we regard them as future historic verities!