Joel 2: 28-32
This is what Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost, when God fulfilled the first part of this prophecy. He had to go through the rest of what is still future, to get to the first part of verse 32.
Joel has just talked about how God rescued them from the locust plague, vindicating them by restoring the normal climate of regular rains, because they humbled themselves before the Lord.
Now he is looking at the future again, when the end times come.
(28) "It will come about after this
Peter quoted after this as "in the last days" (in Acts 2: 17).
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
(29) "Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Peter said that the different languages the people heard on the Day of Pentecost was because the world has just entered into the End Times, when God had said that He would pour out My Spirit on all mankind, rather than on just individual persons for a particular job.
Joel said, and Peter repeated, that God's Spirit would come on every kind of person from all nations, both men and women, old and young, slave and free. This was the beginning of the End Times, the Last Days.
This particular time period started on the Day of Pentecost and will go to the Second Coming. We are now in the Last Days, and God is pouring out His Spirit on people everywhere in the world, in every nation, every language, every tribe and family.
(30) "I will display wonders in the sky and on the Earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
(31) "The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
Joel says that just before the Day of the Lord, when the Lord actually comes, during the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation that immediately precede His Glorious Appearing, that there will be climactic and astrological "signs and wonders" to herald His coming.
(32) "And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord
Will be delivered;
Peter quoted to here to announce to his audience that the time has now come, that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone, no matter who he or she is, no matter where they are or what they've done; if they would humbly turn to the Lord away from whatever else has been their focus, and realize how much He loves them, they can be delivered from their addictions, saved from the power sin has had over them, and be washed clean of all the filth they have been mired in.
That day is right now. Jesus has come to be our Lamb of God, to sacrifice Himself on His altar, the Cross, to fulfill the law of the personal sacrifice (Leviticus 1) for each one of us individually.
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls."
And Joel tells us that the Jews who are alive and living in Judah and Jerusalem on that Day who survive all the persecution and warfare (Zechariah 13: 8-9 says that only a third will survive), "will look on Me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12: 10), and all Israel will be saved (Romans 11: 26), realizing that He really is their Messiah who died for them and rose again, and be brought into the Kingdom alive in their flesh bodies to repopulate the world.
When King Jesus bursts through the clouds with His army of Holy Ones (saints and angels) into the atmosphere on His way to the Mount of Olives, "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1: 7) of everyone in the world alive at that moment.
Then "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south." (Zechariah 14: 4). Through this new valley, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have been surrounded by the armies of the rest of the world, will run, escaping that certain doom. The Hero will arrive onstage at the last minute, when we all thought it was too late!
Joel is filling in some of these details, as the part of the picture God had him relate. It is up to us to look at all the varied parts of the story God gave us, and put it all together, connecting the dots, and filling in the spaces, all under the direction and leading of God's Holy Spirit in us, that Joel said would come.
O my Father, You are amazing! You have planned out the whole human story, before You ever created Time and made us to be in it. You created our Earth just for us to live here, and put in it everything we would need while we're here. And You told us everything we need to know and put into practice in our lives here with one another, and how to get along. And how to return to our Maker by following Your rules and precepts and laws.
Then You sent Your own Son, who you had appointed and anointed to be our Lord before You even started to create, to come and be one of us to fulfill all the Law and Prophets that explained what He would accomplish here. He came here to be with us so that He could make us fit to come and be with Him where You are.
So Father, our human story is just the beginning of our whole story! In Your wisdom You created the Earth and its environment, the Universe. And You planned out how everything would come about and be and go. You made it, and You will dispose of it when You are finished with its whole story. Then You will continue to create and make as many worlds and universes that You want to make.
We are Yours. And You are our God. And You have made us to be Your own children, royal princes and princesses, to rule with You in Christ's authority, as He rules in Your authority as our Lord. And as such, we will be Your kings and queens to govern all of Your future Kingdom realms!
O Father, You have so much wonderful compassion and graciousness and power and justice and wealth and bounty! Father, You will accomplish all of Your will, You will judge every evil that rebels against Your order, and You will reward everyone who turns to You and calls upon the Lord for mercy and forgiveness.
My Father, please send out all of Your children to broadcast to every living being how great You are, and how much You love us all, every one of us! Father, please, let every single person in the whole world understand what a wonderful, gracious, generous gift You are offering them all, so that every one of them will have a fully informed and free decision to choose, before their minds are captured by the enemy and they no longer have a free choice!
Because every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will have to confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the Lawgiver, our Savior and Redeemer, the sovereign King over all Mankind and all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, to whom He will present it all, perfected, for ever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
