One of my students emailed me the other day with a couple links and a lot of concern over the recent conflict in Egypt. She was trying to put together a conversation about the goings-on there and found herself flummoxed by much of what she encountered on the internet. While the national news may have moved on to Libya Egypt remains in a state of turmoil and has become a target for Biblicists out to show connections between modern events and Old Testament prophecy. My student was concerned that much of what she read didn’t seem to jive with our in-class discussions of prophetic literature. Unfortunately, she did not know how to go about evaluating the often forceful arguments of these older scholars backed by big degrees and even bigger churches. So, though this may be a week late, please allow me a rejoinder. Someone needs to do it.
The conversation has largely focused on Joel 3:19, where the prophet speaks “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the people of Judah.” Many have pointed to this text as proof that Egypt’s current political unrest is in fact the wrath of God finally coming down on a nation of Israel-haters. Let’s look at that claim a little more closely.
Joel, like nearly all of the prophetic books, consists of a collection of speeches recorded from throughout the life of the prophet. These speeches were given at different times and in different places to different audiences. Rarely are we told the when, where, and why, so we must make our inferences from the text itself. The first part of Joel consists of a lengthy lament and call for deliverance from famine. Judah has lost her bounty and has become a laughingstock among the nations. Chapter three consists of four oracles spoken later about God’s response to his people’s suffering. These four speeches are directed against Judah’s enemies and pronounce judgment against them. But why?
Prophets in the Old Testament were not, as many suspect, primarily interested in predicting the distant future. Their audience was not concerned about events a thousand years from now nearly so much as they were about the events of their own lifetimes. They wanted to know that their children would be protected, not their twelve-times-great grandchildren. Given that, it’s strange to see so much prophecy devoted to other nations. Joel wasn’t speaking to Egyptians but Israelites. Why devote so much time to other nations when it’s folks in Jerusalem that need the word?
The first of oracle in chapter three is general. Joel is speaking to people just returned from exile to find Jerusalem, the holy dwelling of God with his people, in ruin. He proclaims punishment against all the unnamed enemies of Israel in general, in the metaphorical valley of Jehoshaphat (“God’s judgment”). The second oracle speaks specifically against the Philistines and the people of Tyre and Sidon, traditional enemies of Israel, and says that they tried to “pay back” Israel’s God but will instead be paid back themselves. The focus is on YHWH, the Lord, and his sovereignty. He alone judges, he alone pays back, and all nations must respect his law alone.
The third oracle returns to judgment against Israel’s enemies in general. Here again the oracle speaks about the nations but the message is for the grief-stricken people of Israel. YHWH promises to be their refuge, to dwell with and love them, and to supply for all their needs. The present may be bleak but the future is bright!
Finally we come to the last oracle and the threat to Egypt and Edom. Egypt had been Israel’s enemy for generations. The Egyptians shed innocent blood when they killed Josiah, Israel’s greatest king since David, and went to war against Israel countless other times. Edom is the new enemy, the current bane of the people, having joined in with Babylon in the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. It’s worth noting that Judah was not innocent when attacked and exiled. They brought judgment upon themselves and Edom and Babylon were tools doing YHWH’s work. Still, Joel says, they will be punished nonetheless.
The crux of the judgment question comes down to the jurisdiction of God’s law. It is not limited to his people. Whether bound by the rule of the covenant or by the creator-creature relationship all people must answer to the Lord. Egypt, Edom, Philistia, Tyre and Sidon and countless unnamed others, God rules them all. He is sovereign. All the earth is his. It is on this basis that God’s people can rejoice in the positive message at the heart of these oracles: salvation.
The hallmark of a salvation oracle is dramatic reversals. Mountains are laid low while valleys are raised up. All that is fundamentally broken in the earth is fixed and shalom, YHWH’s lasting peace, can finally come. Those who once oppressed Israel and laughed at her suffering will face the same plague and desolation they mocked and God’s people will enjoy plenty. Israel is secure and her sorrow turned to dancing.
So how does this line up with events in the modern nation-state of Egypt? Joel sees famine and drought in her future; has the Nile dried up? Joel’s concern is Israel’s security. Is Egypt, of all the nations in the Middle East, the one most scary to a modern Jerusalem? Or God’s people in general? Is democratization punishment at all?
Trick questions. The point of Joel’s oracles isn’t any of this! His speech culminates not in verse 19 and its condemnation of Egypt and Edom but in verse 20 and its promise of security for God’s people. YHWH is not, first and foremost, in the revenge business. “The Lord dwells in Zion,” his home among his people, and that presence is the lasting message of Joel. The promise of a restored temple meant the restoration of that presence. That promise, that hope, was fulfilled permanently when, as John writes, the Word tabernacled among us in the incarnation. The temple is moot; God dwells wherever his people are, whether in Jerusalem, Cairo or Portland. Joel’s prophecy of renewed security came to Israel in the second temple era just as it came permanently to all people with the coming of his Son. Glory be to God!
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