Here is a kingdom and worship which is universal "all that dwell on the earth". It will

being "peace and safety" and a standard of living that can only be described as luxurious.

War will have ceased. Swords will have been beaten into plowshares, so that at the end

when war is again "prepared" or as the word is literally "sanctified" (Joel 3: 9 margin),

the nations of the earth who have lived in this pre-millennial travesty of the Truth, will

have to start all over again to "beat" their "plowshares into swords". The reference in

Joel 3: to the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3: 12) turns us back to a typical incident in

Israel's history as recorded in II Chron. 20:  Moab, Ammon and others came against

Jehoshaphat to battle. Jehoshaphat, all Judah with their little ones, their wives and their

children, stood before the Lord in prayer. In answer to their petition a message was sent

to them:

There was no need to fight in that battle; all that the people had to do was to set

themselves or take their stations. "Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord"

(verse 17).

Jehoshaphat, like David, Solomon and the best of men, was in himself a failure (see

II Chron. 20: 31-37) but the type still holds. Just as Edom said concerning Jerusalem

"Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof" (Psa. 137: 7), so will the nations at

the time of the end. Indeed, almost identical words have been reported in the Press

recently. The presence of Israel in the Devil's millennium will prove a great disturbance

to the false peace that for the time obtains and so all nations will be gathered against

Jerusalem to battle. As in the day of Jehoshaphat, so they will gather again. "Then shall

the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.

And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives" (Zech. 14: 3, 4). It is this

way upon Jerusalem and Israel that necessitates beating plowshares back again to swords,

and which ends with the judgment of all the heathen in the "valley of decision". In that

day "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the

violence against the children of Judah . . . . . but Judah shall DWELL FOR EVER, and

Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not

cleansed: even I the Lord that dwelleth in Zion" (Joel 3: 18-21 margin). Here is proof

that at the self same time that Israel are restored (Joel 3: 1) the nations will be gathered

unto this valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3: 2), that at the self same time when Judah and

Jerusalem are safe for ever, Egypt shall be desolation. Yet after all this, Isaiah declares

that: