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"I will sell your sons and your daughters"

Text: Joel 3:8

THE ENEMY NATIONS

The enemy nations in this particular context were Tyre and Sidon. They were very closely knit. They are often referred together. They are called by some to be “twin cities”. They were the expert sea-faring nations. One of the wicked things they did was to sell the children of Israel. The LORD gave to them a stern word of warning.

“I will sell your sons and daughters
Into the hand of the people of Judah,
And they will sell them to Sabeans,
To a people far off;
For the LORD has spoken.”
Joel 3:8

1. “I will sell your sons and daughters”

a) Tyre and Sidon had no qualms about selling the children of Israel/ Judah.

b) The Lord would recompense them with the same coin.

i) They would be defeated in war one day.

ii) Their children would be sold as spoils of war.

iii) They would then understand the depth of pain they had inflicted on those who had lost their children through slavery.

2. “Into the hand of the people of Judah”

a) Tyre and Sidon would not have been able to anticipate this change of circumstances.

b) They had thought that Judah would never rise again.

c) They were wrong.

d) The sons and daughters of Tyre and Sidon would be sold to Judah.

3. “And they will sell them to Sabeans, to a people far off”

a) The Sabeans were mentioned in Job 1:15.

i) They were known as raiders.

ii) They killed and pillaged.

b) Judah would sell the children of Tyre and Sidon to the Sabeans.

c) The Sabeans were also traders and they would in turn sell these children to lands afar off.

4. “For the LORD has spoken”

a) This was a solemn decree of the LORD.

b) Those who had sown evil, would reap what they had sown.

c) Without children, the future of Tyre and Sidon would be very bleak indeed!

d) This word of prophecy against the twin cities would be fulfilled according to this word proclaimed by the prophet Joel.