Joel Predicts

(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JJo3xnJx2b6m3r4deZF8n)

“What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.” (Acts 2:16)

Peter the Pentecost Preacher (the original Pentecostal Preacher??) gets right to the Point. No need to try to attribute this extraordinary language-ability behavior to hidden talent simply exposed by alcohol-induced removal of inhibition. Instead, (and this will disappoint those who had it figured out), the prophet Joel predicted centuries before that God would distribute His Holy Spirit in amazing ways and with powerful evidence.

Peter quotes Joel’s prediction that God said he would pour out His Spirit upon all people. The verb “pour out” is an apt description of what they were witnessing. Think of a liquid dumped out on a surface, running everywhere and making a mess. “Quick, honey, grab some paper towels!” What they were experiencing was the Holy Spirit in their midst in an uncontained fashion. When I think of liquid, I think of something needing a container (and science defines a liquid by its ability to take shape against the walls of a container). Here, the Spirit is not contained. The Spirit’s presence overflows and saturates everything.

The ability to prophesy is mentioned twice by Joel as evidence of the Spirit’s presence. Prophesying was a taking over of the human speech function. I will go out on a limb and say that the world had never until now experienced this particular version of God-initiated speech act. Whatever happened at the Tower of Babel seemed to be marked by speech confusion. On Pentecost, the wonderful works of God was the consistent content noted in the multi-language symphony of speech. Prophecy is not human-initiated. Neither was what happened at Pentecost.

Then, Joel mentions “wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.” Interestingly, fire is mentioned. Does he use this to connect with the fire-signs on the heads of the apostles? Possibly. There are other bits that Joel mentions that do not seem to have reached fulfillment at this time. These include darkened sun and blood red moon, but nonetheless, Peter quotes that as part of the context of Joel’s prediction that extraordinary wonders would take place “before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.” In other words, the ushering in of that Great Day would be accompanied by Holy Spirit-initiated human speech and by remarkable signs of nature. Peter makes it clear that what they were all experiencing was right in sync with a centuries-old prediction.

Joel’s conclusion then hits at the heart of the matter: “But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” While they could all stand in awe at the speech miracles and the natural signs they were seeing, Peter reminds the audience that this all has a purpose well beyond Shock and Awe, Flash or Wow! God is orchestrating this for the purpose of drawing people to Himself so that He can rescue them from sin and give them life. Peter makes it clear that this is not performance for the sake of entertainment, but it is Performance on this Pentecost with a Purpose: God is mightily at work to rescue those who need Him.

“Father, thank you for showing us that the events of Pentecost were not an unplanned surprise to you, but that they fit perfectly with your eternal plan.”