How did God use the prophet Joel?

Automatic Transcript Generated:

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Vaso is asking, how did God use the prophet Joel?

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All right, vaso. Great question. Joel is one of these prophets that gets overlooked, but he’s actually a really profound prophet. People think his writing style is really profound, really poetic, and remarkably, nobody knows exactly when Joel was around, like what time period. And there’s a really great article on Bibless.org, Sharon, why we believe he was around in the 7th century BC, round the time of King Josiah.

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But there’s at least three different opinions where a lot of people think different things. But how was he used? Now, this applies for all prophets, or just about all prophets. This is Amos three seven, and in it God says, and ran from the NIV again here, intentionally. I like this one better for this verse.

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Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. God does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. And this is an important part about God’s transparency. He tells us ahead of time, this is what I’m going to do so that we could be prepared. We have an idea of what God is doing, and then he does it.

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And it also gets a chance to really know God is God. Right? Because he is, because he predicted it, then it happens. So Joel played a role in providing us some very important prophecies. One of the most famous ones that actually came to fruition, that the Bible, I should say documents came to fruition.

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This one we see in Acts two, starting at verse twelve. And the background, this is Day of Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit is just descended on the people in that room, the apostles and other people, and they’re seeing miracles happening, like speaking in tongues, and people are thinking, oh wow, are these guys drunk. So let’s pick up at verse twelve. He says, so they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean?

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Others mock, saying they’re full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, man of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. These are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

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So he’s quoting Joel here your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men’s servants, and on my May servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and in the signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, and 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. Peter reads this.

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He’s quoting Joel and he’s saying, hey guys, what you’re seeing right now with the Holy Spirit being out poured out, this was predicted by Joel here in this verse. Now, you may have noticed, though, in this verse that a lot of those things Peter quotes we don’t think necessarily have come to pass. I mean, maybe there was the sun turning to darkness when Christ was on the cross, but what about the blood and fire, the moon to blood, all these great things? And the verse ends with in the great and awesome day of the Lord. This verse actually also applies to really Christ second coming.

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And a lot of things around that area we see era we see in Joel two, verse one very clearly talks about blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound and alarm in my holy mountain, all the inhabitants of the land trumble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand. Joel gives a lot of descriptions, a lot of warnings and things to look forward to when it comes to Christ’s return. So that was another way God used Joel, really to give us insights, all of us, all of humanity for all time idea of what is going to happen in the last days with Christ coming. And to clarify again a little bit about what’s going on, did Peter mess up? Did he misinterpret what Joel was saying on the verses I read?

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And the answer is no. Peter did do his right. There’s actually two outpourings of the Holy Spirit, and Joel’s prophecy covered both. And we see in Joel two at verse 23, he talks about the former and latter ring. I’ll read that verse now.

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It says, be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully, and he will cause the rain to come down for you. The former rain and the ladder rain in the first month. And so in Israel’s time, they had to rely on rain for the crops. They didn’t have deep wells pull out and feed the crops that way like we do today. And so God would send them rain early on to the early rain that would then germinate the seeds and start the crops.

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And then God a few months later would send the latter rain that would then ripen the crops and have a real nice harvest at the end. And this becomes a perfect illusion for how Christ will use the Holy Spirit outpours it on to the early Christian church to get it going. And then there’s going to be the outpouring at the very end, which will ripen God’s people just before Christ returns. Amazing prophecy thereby joel. And thanks for asking.

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Thank you.

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