“Beat your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.’” (v. 10)

Read that again.

Because that is not what you heard in Sunday School.

You were probably taught a very similar verse, from Isaiah: “They will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isa. 2:4).

But Joel 3:10 says the exact opposite thing.

Sure looks like a contradiction in the Bible, doesn’t it?

And yet….

When Isaiah prophesied, the word he was given in the Spirit pointed to the eventual settled peace, which comes in Christ. He is the One who affords an everlasting unity, even among peoples from all the nations, and He does so with grace for all who would turn to Him.

But Joel’s day is not that day. It’s related, close. But Joel is given a word about a day that comes before the settled end. Joel tells of a time when judgment comes and must come, a time when the people of God should expect conflict, and a time when they will have to stand with their Christ and for their Christ amidst the raging of the nations.

Have you thought about the fact that you will need to arm yourself—with truth, with conviction, with the Word—for the day before the Day?

This isn’t a contradiction. It’s just another point on the timeline—and one we ought not overlook.

— Tyler