Yesterday I implied that Joel 3:23 and the gathering of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 are not one common event.

Also included in that post was an excerpt from a parable. When Jesus Christ tells us “the Kingdom of heaven is like” it is a truth within a relatable story.

What is the difference between a parable and a prophecy?

A parable is a tale we can relate to in terms of human experience.

Prophecies relate to future events we expect or that have already happened in a past we were not present to experience.

The difference is experience.

Deuteronomy 1:13 Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads. (a parable)

Judges 3:1 Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. (a prophecy)

We read the Word that is full of experiences we have had and experiences we will have and yet we often do not “see” them as one or the other.

We can learn from the mistakes of others which is a parable or we can ignore the warnings and experience them for ourselves and render them as prophecies. It is the same Word, one experienced and one that has not happened yet.

If we take care to learn the meaning of the scriptures in terms of experience, perhaps we can avoid the terrible mistakes that others have made and avoid the consequences.

This is why teaching our children well is so important. They were all innocent until they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and found themselves naked and afraid.

Saying don’t without explaining why should be avoided.

God told Adam that in the day he ate of that tree he would die without explaining what death meant.

Hence the first example of a Father saying “You are dead to me.” Ouch?

Joel 3:9-16 English Standard Version

9 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

Most prophecies are connected to other prophecies.

Yesterday I quoted Joel 3:13 without context.

Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Matthew 13:40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Verse 12 implies that the nations that stir themselves against the Lord shall be gathered to the Valley of Judgement. Matthew 13:41 says; The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; which does not say what happens to those left behind. Then in 43 Jesus said Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

My use of Joel 3:13 could ignited a hope in some for this event; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

If this were true then Matthew 13:43 “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” would not be true. Therefore those two prophecies are not connected by one common event. They are two separate events.