Joel 3:4-8 - Are you repaying me?

3:4-6

Tyre, Sidon and Philistia are now addressed. This is part of what causes confusion over the dating of the prophecy. If it has a later date then why are not Assyria or Babylon mentioned, but some of the prophecy seems to pertain better to a post Babylonian conquest time. However, the later date is still possible. While Assyria and then Babylon were the primary conquerors, other lesser nations were involved from time to time, and sought to take advantage of Israel’s troubles. If we read the whole Bible and the prophets we see that there is a long record of discord between Israel and these three nations.These nations took riches from the temple, and they would have to pay a heavy price for doing this.They also sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem. If we look back to the Nazi era, there were of course primary instigators and culprits in the genocide of the Jews, but they were not the only nation to be involved. Other nations will also have to give an account.

3:7,8

So how will God deal with Tyre, Sidon and Philistia? He will bring the Jews back from the places they were exiled to. They would suffer the same fate as they inflicted on others. The significance of the mention of the Sabeans is that it means they would be sold off to South Arabia, and it is even possible that they would then be sent even further afield, possibly to India. Now, these verses also make us wonder, for it could seem that God is condoning slavery. However, the first thing we should do is to look at the message that God is giving, and that is that Tyre, Sidon and Philistia would suffer punishment for their sins. Again, to bring this more up to date. The Nazi’s did many terrible things, they then suffered equally terrible things at the hands of the Soviet armies. The lesson above all lessons that we should learn is that there is a price to pay for evil, it will not go unpunished.