31 Dec. The LORD promises to pour out his Spirit
“Though I sent my great army against you – those swarming locusts and hopping locusts, the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts that ate your crops – I will pay you back for those years of trouble. Then you will have plenty to eat and be full.”
“You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has done miracles for you. My people will never again be shamed. Then you will know that I am among the people of Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other God. My people will never be shamed again.”
“After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. At that time I will pour out my Spirit also on male slaves and female slaves.”
“I will show miracles in the sky and on the earth: blood, fire and thick smoke. The sun will become dark, the moon red as blood, before the overwhelming and terrible day of the LORD comes.”
“Then anyone who calls on the LORD will be saved, because on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be people who will be saved, just as the LORD has said. Those left alive after the day of punishment are the people whom the LORD called.”
(Joel 2:25-32)
In our final passage exploring the message of the Old Testament prophets, Joel declared that the LORD would restore the land of Israel before the ‘Day of the LORD’ arrived: “After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions... The sun will become dark, the moon red as blood, before the overwhelming and terrible day of the LORD comes.” (Joel 2:28)
In the New Testament, Luke, writing in the ‘Acts of the Apostles’, tells us that this prophesy was fulfilled when Jesus’s followers were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost – 28th May 30AD (see Acts 2:1-4).
When accused by the crowds of being drunk with wine, Peter explained, “These people are not drunk, as you think; it is only nine o’clock in the morning! But Joel the prophet wrote about what is happening here today: ‘God says: In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people…’” (Acts 2:15-17, quoting Joel 2:28).
In Chapter 3, Joel went on to state that the LORD promised to restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem and would judge all the nations for their treatment of God’s people: "I will gather all the nations together and bring them down into the Valley Where the LORD Judges. There I will judge them, because those nations scattered my own people Israel and forced them to live in other nations." (Joel 3:2)
Joel concluded his prophesy by saying that after the Day of Judgement, the LORD would live on Mt Zion: “Jerusalem will be a holy place, and strangers will never even go through it again… A fountain will flow from the Temple of the LORD and give water to the valley of acacia trees.” (Joel 3:17-18)
In the New Testament, this passage is reflected in John’s vision of the New Jerusalem after the Day of Judgement: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. It was shining like crystal and was flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb…” (Revelation 22:1)
The photo (by Yang Cao) shows the lunar eclipse ‘Blood Red Moon’ over Montreal, Canada, on 27th September 2015.
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