Prophecy VIII

 One thing that cannot be overstated, which also baffles the agnostics and atheists who study Scripture from a purely intellectual standpoint, is the interconnectedness of a book that spans and covers over 4000 years of human history, written by approximately 40 human authors, over a span of 1500 years. It is something they cannot explain because they refuse to allow for the possibility of divine inspiration, or that God had a hand in the authorship of this divine text, if not literally putting quill to parchment, then guiding the hands of those who did.

From the first book to the last, the Bible is a prophetic book. When the Holy Spirit descended in the upper room, it didn’t blindside those present; it was not a surprise, nor did they question what they had experienced, because it was the genesis of the fulfillment of what they knew had been prophesied by the prophet Joel, and reiterated by Jesus Himself when He promised that He would not leave them orphans, but would pray to the Father to give them another Helper.

John 14:15-18, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

Those gathered in the upper room, about 120 people, may not have known the specifics of how or when this would happen, but they believed it would. They were commanded not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, and rather than debate and go back and forth as to how this would happen, or what the signs would be, they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.

No further insight was offered, no timeline was given; roughly ten days had passed since Jesus had ascended, yet they were all still there in fellowship, in prayer, because they understood a fundamental truth that few today understand: when God promises a thing, He will bring it to pass in His time, in His way, and for His purpose.

It is also worth noting that the promise of the Helper was not presented as some stopgap, but as something permanent. In Christ’s own words, the Helper the Father would send would abide not for a season, or for an allotted time, but forever.  

Contextually, depending on which expert you ask, at least 400 years passed between when the book of Joel was written and when the events of the day of Pentecost took place, and at most 900. It’s a big window, but let’s be generous and err on the side of caution. Almost half a millennium passed between the prophecy itself and the beginning of its fulfillment.

We know that this was the beginning of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy because Peter himself harkened back to it when addressing the people of Judea and all who dwelt in Jerusalem, as some were amazed and marveled at hearing their native tongues spoken to them by Galileans while others mocked them, saying they were full of new wine.

As is the case with those who use Scripture to confirm their bias, rather than approach it with a sincere desire for understanding, more often than not what Joel writes is never presented in its full context, because it would undermine the presupposition of those insisting that what was no longer is, and was to be for a limited time and within a limited context.

Joel 2:28-32, “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.”

Contrary to popular belief, Joel’s prophecy contains more than a foretelling of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. While Pentecost marked the beginning of its fulfillment, it was by no means the end. Since we, as men and women, are tethered to linear time, it’s difficult to wrap our minds around the idea that within the span of a handful of sentences, Joel prophesied something that would stretch beyond a singular event and into a millennia-long fulfillment.

God is outside of time. He knows the end from the beginning, and to Him a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. While the day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit marked the beginning of Joel’s prophecy being fulfilled, we have yet to see its fulfillment in its entirety. After God promised that He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, wherein sons and daughters would prophesy, the old men would dream dreams, and the young men would see visions, he also goes on to prophesy about the sun being turned into darkness, the moon into blood, all these things serving as mile markers on mankind’s way to the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Although, in hindsight, the promise that what was once reserved for a handful of individuals throughout history known as prophets would be granted to a far broader swath of servants, both young and old, men and women, menservants and maidservants, seems inconsequential, when factoring in the historical context of when this prophecy was recorded, it would have been earth-shattering.

Given that the Old Testament covers roughly 4,000 years of history, from Genesis to Malachi, the number of those called to be prophets of God throughout this time was minuscule. Suddenly, here’s Joel prophesying that the day would come when sons and daughters would prophesy, old men would dream dreams, and young men would see visions. What was once exclusive and rarely witnessed would be broadened to the point that it would become, if not commonplace, exponentially more frequent.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.