Devotional Thoughts: Your sons and daughters will prophesy

Joel 2:28-32 is on the screen in front of me.

To recap, previously, there was the vivid descriptions of the locusts and the damage they leave in their wake. This was followed by calls to repentance. In the passage before this one, we see how the Lord answers and restores what the locusts have eaten.

What happens next?

And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Isn't this a beautiful sight?

We think of prophesy as people predicting the future like a fortune teller. There is some of that but mostly it is about speaking for God.

God is not silent. As part of restoration after repentance, God will pour the Spirit on people such that even though they are of the younger generation, they will speak for God. Additionally, it mentions that both sexes will participate in this outworking of the Spirit. The blessing is then repeated saying both young and old will have visions and dreams. The blessing is repeated again, in this case re-iterating that men and women are mentioned as equal recipients of the Spirit's power.

Look at the structure:
A' Pour out Spirit on all people
B' Sons and daughters will prophecy
C' Old dream dreams
C" Young see visions
B" both men and women
A" Pour out Spirit in those days

That is how poetry often works: saying the same thing in a slightly different way to reinforce the main idea - pouring out the Spirit.

As a brief tangent, in Christianity, there has been a long running controversy on what the role of women should be in the church. Many volumes of books have been written and many presentation given. I've read a few of the discussions on the subject and have had dialogs with people on both sides of the issue. Perhaps, I'll share my perspective on some other occasion. However, I will mention that this passage is often cited by those who support a larger role for women in the church.

Repentance, restoration, pouring out of the Spirit ... what next?

I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

The astronomical signs are frightening. Literal or figurative?

Don't know. Certainly, when the locusts filled up the sky it seemed quite literal to the people. I'm sure to people who have lived near where a volcano blows up and the air is filled with stuff, it looks like this. Probably even people who have lived near a major brush fire, have seen something like this. In any case, the feeling evoked is that the end of the world as we know it is at hand. Literal or figurative, either way, the Day of the LORD looms.

Interestingly, four out of five occurrence of the phrase "Day of the LORD" is in the future tense in Joel. You can run the search too!

Joel 1:15, the day of the LORD is near
Joel 2:1, the day of the LORD is coming
Joel 2:11, day of the LORD is great
Joel 2:31, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD
Joel 3:14, the day of the LORD is near

The day indeed will be dreadful. But there is still hope.

And everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the LORD has said,
among the survivors
whom the LORD calls.

God's hammer of justice will ultimately fall but not before God exhausts every possible attempt to achieve reconciliation. God's biggest intervention for this purpose is the sending of Jesus.

With this in mind, Peter in his sermon in Acts 2:14-21 cited large portions of this passage in Joel.

Peter probably saw the times he lived in as the years that the locusts had eaten. Jesus came to restore the people. After the restoration, the Spirit is poured out.

Lord, thank you that there is still time. The dreadful day of the LORD remains to come. Until then, the Spirit is being poured out and people speak out for God bringing hope. God help me to confess my sin and repent and ask you for restoration and then ask you for the Spirit to help me speak for you so others will have hope. Looking around the world today it seems so bleak. In places on this planet, the locusts have done their damage. In the lives of too many people there is just ashes. But you remain ready, willing, longing, reaching to restore. God help me to be one of your instruments in that great quest. Amen.