Joel 2

I have heard it said recently that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts, chapter 2 was the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32. This is, of course, not true.

Yes, we received a down-payment of the outpouring on the day of Pentecost, but 120 disciples speaking in tongues was not the Spirit being poured out on all flesh, there were no dreams and visions, there were no signs in the heavens, the moon didn’t turn to blood, etc.  This was a foreshadowing, a guarantee of the coming outpouring that would usher in the return of the Lord.

That is what is missing in the preaching of those who wish to explain away the prophecies found in the book of Joel.  The eschatological move of the Holy Spirit to send forth the witness and provoke the Jews to jealousy.  When Peter got up and preached on that day (Acts 2:14-38) he was motivated by what Jesus had already told them:

“…this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Mt. 24:14)

“…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The disciples were about preaching the good news to all the nations and having the Kingdom restored to Israel. (Acts 1:6)  They were not content with good preaching and seeing great numbers join their church.  They were about ushering the return of the Lord.  To make this point, Peter quotes the escatological prophecy of Joel:

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.  And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.  And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:  Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.  And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.  For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the remnant whom the LORD calls.” (Joel 2:28-32)

The vast majority of this prophecy did not happen in Acts 2 but still many teachers would like to make the point that what happened on the day of Pentecost fulfilled this prophecy, therefore making this very significant passage in Joel irrelevant for us today.

Fortunately this is not the case.  The “fulfillment” we see in Acts 2 is actually a foreshadowing of what is yet to come.  That is a common feature of prophecy:  The combining of two separate events into one prophecy.  This point is illustrated by looking at distant mountains through a telescope so that separate peaks seem attached.  From far away they seem to be linked, but once you reach the mountain you realize that the other peak is still miles away.  Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks is a great example of this. (Dan. 9:24-27) This prophecy was describing God’s plan for Israel from the time of Daniel to Jesus’ Second Coming.  The first sixty-nine weeks (483 years) was the amount of time until Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (during His first coming).  The last week is still yet to come and will be fulfilled just before Jesus’ Second Coming.

So we see that eschatological prophecy requires more than surface level exegesis.  Would we expect anything different from a God who delights in hiding things just enough for us to be excited when we find them? (Proverbs 25:2)  

So we come to the point of this rambling; the outpouring of the Holy Spirit described in Joel 2:28-32, quoted in Acts 2:17-21 to validate the move of God on the day of Pentecost was a down-payment of what the church is going to experience in those final years before Jesus returns.  In fact, the majority of that prophesy is describing the tribulation.  More specifically, he prophesies about the sixth seal in verses 30 and 31.

Peter knew this reality – if you remember, the disciples had comprehension of the Scriptures (Luke 24:45) so they were pretty solid doctrinally.  He knew that they had one mission – to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth and usher in the return of Jesus.  That is why he quoted Joel’s prophesy.  Not because what was happening literally fulfilled everything that Joel was referring to, but because Peter knew that what Joel prophesied pointed to the “great and awesome Day of the Lord” (the 2nd Coming).  Peter was in essance saying, “We are in a transitional generation.  The Lord is requiring a different response from His people now and He is releasing the work of the Holy Spirit to confirm this.  But, there is coming a time soon, that Jesus will come back to this planet and He will do the same thing He is doing now, but on a much greater scale.”

Why will the end time outpouring of the Holy Spirit be on a greater scale?  Because we are going to need it to be.  The Tribulation will be the greatest shaking this world has ever seen.  But thankfully, we have a God who is very kind and we just happen to be His favorite ones.  Take heart, Jesus is coming back.  And He has given us time to search out the treasures of His heart in order to prepare us for that Day.  Maybe we should start with the book of Joel.

 

:)

 

David