Joel 3:1-5

The valley of Jehoshaphat -- Joel 3:1-5: God promised that at the end of the captivity that He would make Judah and Jerusalem prosperous again. Judah was the name that identified the two tribe Southern Kingdom and Jerusalem was its capital city. They were the last of the Jews to go into captivity and now it was time for God to bring them out. God will bring His people out of captivity and He will also bring the nations that scatter His people into the Valley of Judgment or the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Those that oppressed God's people would now face their own judgment.

God's people were treated horribly by these nations. They cast lots or gambled to see who would get God's people. The people of Judah were treated as mere personal property by these godless people. They would sell a boy or a girl to pay for their prostitute and wine. Tyre and Sidon were two cities that had a part in mistreating God's people. God told them that even if they thought they could make matters right with some temporal gift they were very wrong. He said their worthless sacrifices would be rejected. It is bad enough to steal from other people but the nations had stolen the precious things from God's land and God's Temple and used them in idolatrous worship. Now they face the consequences of their sins.