NOTES for Joe 3:1-11
The prophet speaks of the recompense for sin that awaits the Gentiles, and it seems that his prophetic words apply not only to the cities of Tyre and Sidon, where the cults denounced on the pages of the Bible flourished, but also to everyone willing to lead a pagan way of life. This is easily possible: it is not even necessary to worship idols; one may formally acknowledge that the biblical faith is right. But deeds incompatible with the principles we proclaim will expose us. Whenever we place at the center of our concerns something that should have its own proper place—whether material cares or our own person—or whenever we begin to see people solely as a means of achieving something, we immediately become like the pagans of slaveholding antiquity. Our familiar, “normal” aspirations thereby turn out to be rebellion against God and a trampling of His commandments. But “God is not mocked” (Gal 6:7).