CRITICAL NOTES.]
Joel 2:28-32. Afterward] These outward things are only a type of spiritual gifts, a prospect of richer blessings; and a grander dispensation is held out, a dispensation remarkable for the Holy Spirit, as its sign and substance. This gift shall be poured out in copious and refreshing showers upon all flesh, Jew and Gentile (Acts 10:44; Acts 11:17), upon servants and handmaids, the most degraded and despised (Acts 2:18). As the result, sons and daughters shall prophesy; dreams to the old and visions to the young; all shall know Divine things clearly.
Joel 2:30-31.] These manifestations, full of joy to believers, will be menacing to unbelievers. This day of the Lord will be attended by convulsions on earth, prognostications in heaven; to God’s children, to all who call upon him, it will be a day of redemption; but these will be a remnant only. Seek to belong to it (Acts 2:40).
HOMILETICS
THE NEW DISPENSATION.—Joel 2:28-32
By a natural transition the prophet rises from the temporal to the spiritual, from showers of rain to the outpouring of the Spirit. One blessing “first” (Joel 2:23), then “afterward” (Joel 2:28) a second and greater blessing. The words have special reference to the new dispensation, the dispensation of the Spirit. There are three distinct features connected together: the outpouring of the Spirit, the judgment upon the ungodly world, and the salvation of a faithful few.
I. The outpouring of the Spirit. “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” The outward blessings were typical of extraordinary spiritual blessings. Joel felt the need of spiritual influence, and believed that it would bring true enlightenment. We have not only a supernatural prediction, but a gleam of his own pure spiritual life.
1. The extent of the communications. “Upon all flesh.” It was not to be confined within the narrow bounds of Judea, not limited to one, but extended to all races. It was to be given to the pious and to those deemed incapable of spiritual life.
(1) Without distinction of sex. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Not only parents, but children would receive this gift. Four sisters in one family were prophetesses (Acts 21:9) The young are capable of Divine teaching, and God has promised to continue his presence and propagate his word from one generation to another. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.”
(2) Without distinction of age. “Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” God adapts his grace to the condition of men. The inexperienced and the infirm; extremes in life may possess it.
(3) Without distinction of rank. “And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids.” This was something unexpected and had never been seen before. “Even the slaves,” bondsmen and bondswomen, are to share in the gift. The lowest are exalted, and the gospel breaks the fetters of slavery. “Prophecy,” said the Jews, “doth not reside except on the wise, and mighty, and rich;” but the poor have the gospel preached unto them. In Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one.”
2. The form of the communications. “Shall prophesy, dream dreams, and see visions.” These were the three modes by which God revealed his will to men in the O. T. days (Numbers 12:6). They are physical rather than spiritual; do not necessarily involve renovation of moral nature, but are made the symbols of fuller manifestation of miraculous gifts to some, and the outpouring of the Spirit to all. Yet taking into account the effects of this outpouring, we have reason to find a spiritual meaning. The Spirit would burst through every barrier and quicken the energies of life in all classes. Men would have the power to see and apply the truth of God to the facts of human life, past, present, and future. Spiritual light would not be confined to a select few. Dreams and visions should be given to others, and the mysteries of salvation be proclaimed to all nations. By these gifts the Church is founded, the ministry taught, and the Scriptures expounded in all ages. “Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”
II. The dreadful judgment. Judgment is connected with the outpouring of the Spirit. When God comes in the majesty of his power heaven and earth quakes. “Each revelation of God prepares the way for another,” says an author, “until that last revelation of his love and of his wrath in the great day.” “I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth.”
1. In the earth. “Blood and fire, and pillars of smoke.” Blood and fire were manifest in the plagues of Egypt, and smoke ascended like the smoke of a smelting-furnace in the descent of Jehovah on Sinai (Exodus 19:18). Pillars of cloud roll up from burning towns in times of war (Isaiah 9:17).
2. In the heavens. “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.” The darkening and extinction of the lights of heaven are often mentioned as harbingers of approaching judgment (Isaiah 13:10; Jeremiah 4:23; Ezekiel 32:1-8; Matthew 24:29). The language may be figurative to a certain extent; but strange phenomena in the physical creation have been observed to precede great catastrophes of the moral world. In the judgment on Jerusalem, Josephus tells of physical prodigies, massacres and conflagrations. Humboldt cites cases of remarkable obscuration of the sun, in very eventful years. But whether we understand the words naturally or symbolically, they teach that the judgment day does not come without warning.
1. Foreseen by God’s people. These signs have no terror for them. They call upon God, and find in Him that refuge of which Mount Zion was only a type.
2. Heeded by the penitent. For among those who do not pray to God, some shall be called from their sins to find peace and security in him. “The remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
3. Neglected by the ungodly. Understood and improved by right-minded persons; unheeded and often despised by enemies of God. Thus there is a gradual process of separation among men, a ripening for “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” “Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Joel 2:29. Pour out my Spirit. Pour out like a rain-fall, or water-fall. The Spirit was not entirely wanting in the nation before this; but the prediction indicates—
1. A greater measure. Not merely drop by drop, but pour out in greater abundance.
2. A wider extent. Not confined to members of the covenant nation, but upon “all flesh.” This a great contrast to Genesis 6:3. “This word ‘flesh’ (bâsâr), as contrasted with ‘the spirit,’ denotes human nature so sunk in bondage to its lower elements as to be incapable of spiritual life. But according to Joel, even this impenetrable ‘flesh’ is to be penetrated by the Divine Spirit; even the ‘natural man’ is to be transformed into ‘a spiritual man;’ even the incorrigible are to be recovered to obedience” [Cox].
In those days. This special truth connected with one special time, concerning which he knows little. The prophets sought diligently to know this time (1 Peter 1:10). Apostles evidently studied the prophet Joel; but how reluctant was Peter to learn, and how astonished beyond degree that God would pour out his Spirit upon the Gentiles. “It needed,” says one, “an express revelation and direct command before he could be persuaded that all flesh meant more than Jewish flesh. So, often all our lives through, we have words in our mouths, and read and hear them, and yet their true, full meaning never strikes us. The truth is familiar to us, it is daily confessed and repeated by rote, but has never reached our hearts; then perhaps at length something wakens us up, and henceforward the truth is a living reality, influencing and moulding our lives” (Joel 2:30-31). Physical phenomena serve—
1. To awaken men’s minds from lethargy. They quicken attention and put them into attitudes of fear and expectation. Thus they urge repentance, and provide space for it to those who are induced to profit by them.
2. To prepare God’s people for approaching trouble. They stimulate prayer, hope, and effort. In deliverance from Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:22); in the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:29); and before the final judgment, God displays signs and wonders to the joy of his people and the terror of his enemies.
Joel 2:31. The terrible day.
1. Great in its nature. The last day. The end of time and the beginning of eternity.
2. Great in its design. To give to all their due. Great things will be done. Men judged, angels ranked, and all accounts settled.
3. Great in its bearings. Great to believers, terrible to unbelievers. Men separated and sent to their own place.
Call upon the name of the Lord. “Implies right faith to call upon him as he is; right trust in him, leaning upon him; right devotion, calling upon him as he has appointed; right life, ourselves who call upon him being, or becoming, by his grace what he wills” [Pusey].
Joel 2:28-31. The gospel dispensation is characterized—
1. By spirituality.
2. By liberty.
3. By power.
4. By expansiveness [Pulpit Analyst].
Shall be saved.
1. The danger. The word delivered means safety by escape. “Those who should be saved,” i.e. those who were escaping from perils imminent and terrible (Acts 2:47). The condition of the Church is often desperate; but that of the sinner is more desperate.
2. The Saviour. “The Lord.” None other than Jesus. “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12; Acts 2:36).
3. The encouragement.
(1) Whosoever, Jew or Gentile. “Thank God for that whosoever,” said an aged person, “for it includes me.”
(2) As the Lord hath said. God has promised to save all that call upon him (Romans 10:13).
4. The result. Those who are delivered are only a “remnant,” a part of the whole. History and Scripture confirm these words. In the flood and destruction of the cities of the plain; in the entrance into Canaan and the return from captivity; in the first preaching of the gospel and the destruction of Jerusalem, a remnant only was saved. One is tempted to ask with the disciples, “Are there few to be saved?” but the answer is, that has nothing to do with you. “Strive ye.”
The remnant saved. I. The blessing given. Salvation. Not merely promised, but actually given and cheerfully enjoyed, not in word, but in deed. Human beings redeemed and human nature renewed. II. The source from whence it comes. “In mount Zion and in Jerusalem,” i.e. from God himself who dwelt and was worshipped in these places. The Church is the place of safety, and where God may be most easily found. III. The method by which it is secured.
1. God calls men to him.
2. Men call upon God in prayer. One description is a counterpart of the other; both go together, one is the human, and the other the Divine side of salvation. Deliverance depends not upon the worshippers alone, but upon God also. Those only are saved whom God calls to himself, and who call upon or choose him to be their God. It is all of grace. God must first call by his grace; then we obey his call, and call upon him; and he has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.” God accounts our salvation his own glory. “The promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joel 2:28-32. So large a promise naturally awakens inquiry. We ask, “When was it or will it be fulfilled?” Joel expected and saw a fulfilment of it in his day. The people saw God in the ordinances of the sanctuary, but not in the fields and laws of Nature. The beneficent order of Nature was interrupted. This was taken as a judgment, and led to repentance and recognition of God. Were not the same conditions repeated in St Peter’s time with the like results? The Jews came up to the temple to worship, but failed to see “God manifest in the flesh.” Judgment came upon them. They awoke to a consciousness of their sin, repented, and turned unto the Lord. The Spirit came down upon them, and this new accession of life was a judgment to the men of that generation, trying what manner of spirit they were of, revealing the evil spirit by which they were animated, who opposed themselves to the power and grace of God. None the less may we say, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” in every new crisis of the religious life, in a man, in the race, or in the world. In all ages the same sequence recurs—sin, judgment, repentance, a new spirit, and in this new spirit a new test and criterion to which men are brought, and by which they are either approved or condemned [Samuel Cox].