Joel 2:28-3:3

You may have remembered that Joel 2:28-32a was quoted by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21).  Here in Joel you are seeing the passage in its initial context.  Afterward (i.e. after the deliverance from the northern army) or as Peter said it, in the last days (Acts 2:17), God would pour out His Spirit on Israel.  The time that this happens is also the time (in those days and at that time) when God will judge the nations (review from yesterday’s post the purposes of the day of the LORD).  Today we would say: the judgment of the nations has not happened; and yet Peter seems to say that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has happened.  How are we to understand this?

·        Let us first observe that Peter preached and quoted this passage to Israel.  His words were directed to men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem and men of Israel and all the house of Israel (Acts 2:14,22,36).  

·        Likewise note that what Peter promised, at the end of the sermon, was the outpouring of the Spirit, a promise that he rightly noted was to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:39).  Those afar off is not a reference to Gentiles but to the Jews of the dispersion.  

·        Peter was doing what Joel did as well as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and other prophets: he was announcing the New Covenant.  But unlike all those other prophets, Peter was offering this covenant, not saying that the day would come when this would happen.  That day had come for Israel.  And sure enough, all who did as Peter said (repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins) received the Holy Spirit.

·        But notice as well that parts of this prophecy were not fulfilled that day nor in the time period covered by the book of Acts.  Outside of a few instances the prophesying of sons and daughters and visions and dreams among the young and old men did not happen.  The wonders in the sky did not occur, even before the terrible day of the LORD in 70AD when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans.  

How do we understand this?  Peter offered to the Jewish nation the New Covenant.  It could be done because the Messiah had made it a reality by His death and resurrection.  But the nation still did not accept it as a nation; the nation was not yet saved.  Some within the nation called on the name of the LORD and were saved, and of this Paul speaks clearly in Romans 11.  They are the remnant of grace that exists within the Body of Christ.

And what about the Gentiles?  The prophets had promised that the New Covenant would come to the Gentiles through Israel as well (e.g. Isa. 55).  And again, Paul in Rom. 11 explains this.  Israel’s rejection results in the nation being set aside temporarily and it opens the door for the nations in a special way.  But the day will come when the entirety of the prophecy will be fulfilled, literally, for the salvation of the nation.  Remember: God is faithful.  The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).

We conclude that, again, we see how the prophets of the Old Testament did not fully comprehend what was now beginning to become clearer in the days of Peter.  For Israel the judgment of the nations and the Kingdom of Messiah was to come immediately after the Pentecost experience.  Joel did not understand the mystery of the Church and the parenthesis of time between the suffering of the Messiah and the glory of the Messiah (1 Peter 1:10-12).  

Do not let anyone, neither men nor angels or anyone, fool you into thinking that God will not fulfill every detail of every prophetic announcement of those who spoke the word of the LORD.  God keeps and will keep His word!