Joel 3:16

"And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but Jehovah will be a refuge unto his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.

The figure of the Lord roaring out of Zion and Jerusalem is a reminder of "how" the Lord does his roaring, namely, through his word, which traditionally, and even in the instance of the gospel, comes not from Rome, Salt Lake City, Boston, or Moscow, but from Jerusalem! The shaking of the heavens and the earth show that the figure of the final judgment is still being used. The author of Hebrews specifically equated the shaking of the earth with its "removal" (Hebrews 12:26-28) at the time of the great judgment. (See my Commentary on Hebrews, pp. 334-336.)

"Jehovah will be a refuge to his people ... a stronghold to the children of Israel ..." There is no reference here to the fleshly members of Abraham's descendants; it is the spiritual remnant, the genuine children of Abraham, the spiritual Israel which is meant. Note also, that their refuge and stronghold will not be a fortress in Jerusalem, but God himself, namely, as recipients of his blessings under the new covenant "in Christ." Those commentaries which explain this in fanciful terms of how the "Jews were victorious over their cruel foes under Antiochus,"[26] and envision this as a prophecy that God will come to Jerusalem and protect and promote Israel in the physical and secular sense have failed to see the eternal and worldwide proportions of this great passage in its truly spiritual sense.