Wednesday 01/26/22
Series: Thru the Bible
Message – Joel, prophet to Judah
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:31:56 — 154.8MB)
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Joel, prophet to Judah
The Book & Time of Joel
It is difficult to date this book since the only mentionings of events are events which could have happened at many times in Israel’s past. However, the fact that no specific king is mentioned is a little telling and superficially points to a time early in the reign of Joash, King of Judah which I will explain later.
The mentioning of places like Phoenicia, Philistia, Egypt and Edom, without mentioning major players in the later years of Israel prior to Christ such as Assyria and Babylon is telling. These other countries were prominent during the early 9th century, all of which conspires together to suggest an early date for Joel.
The message of Joel
At the time of this prophecy, Judah had been hit with swarms of Locusts followed by a devastating drought.
Joel 1:1-20,
“(1) The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: (2) Hear this, you elders; listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
(3) Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation.
(4) What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
(5) Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you wine drinkers, because of the sweet wine, for it has been taken from your mouth.
(6) For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness. (7) It has devastated My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away; its branches have turned white.”
The New English Translation notes has this to offer about the description of such a nation.
“…its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity.
(8) Grieve like a young woman dressed in sackcloth, mourning for the husband of her youth.
(9) Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, who are ministers of the LORD, mourn.
(10) The fields are destroyed; the land grieves; indeed, the grain is destroyed; the new wine is dried up; and the olive oil fails.
(11) Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
(12) The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the date palm, and the apple–all the trees of the orchard–have withered. Indeed, human joy has dried up.
(13) Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, because grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
(14) Announce a sacred fast; proclaim an assembly!
Gather the elders and all the residents of the land at the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.”
This was an invitation to act upon the conditions of the prayer of Solomon which God agreed to in 2Chron. 6&7.
“(15) Woe because of that day! For the Day of the LORD is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty.
(16) Hasn’t the food been cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
(17) The seeds lie shriveled in their casings. The storehouses are in ruin, and the granaries are broken down, because the grain has withered away.
(18) How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander in confusion since they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
(19) I call to You, LORD, for fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have devoured all the trees of the countryside. (20) Even the wild animals cry out to You, for the river beds are dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.”
Joel 2:1-32,
“(1) Blow the horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain!
Though this may have simply been a poetic way of indicating God’s prophetic word to Judah through Joel, it is perhaps an indication that the temple was still in use at this time – that the priests and people had not altogether forsaken it or let it fall entirely into disuse.
Numbers 10 speaks of two silver trumpets which were to be made for the purposes of assembling Israel and directing the flow of the tribes as they travel.
Separate sounds were made for assembling the people and for an alarm for the deployment of the camps. The alarm was used during the wilderness wanderings to direct the flow of the encampments around the tabernacle as they broke camp to move on. Sometimes this was used as an alarm for war.
The passage reads like this,
Numbers 10:1-10, “(1) The LORD spoke to Moses: (2) “Make two trumpets of silver; you are to make them from a single hammered piece. You will use them for assembling the community and for directing the traveling of the camps. (3) When they blow them both, all the community must come to you to the entrance of the tent of meeting. (4) “But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you. (5) When you blow an alarm, then the camps that are located on the east side must begin to travel. (6) And when you blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that are located on the south side must begin to travel. An alarm must be sounded for their journeys. (7) But when you assemble the community, you must blow, but you must not sound an alarm.
(8) The sons of Aaron, the priests, must blow the trumpets; and they will be to you for an eternal ordinance throughout your generations. (9) If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes you, then you must sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. (10) “Also in the time when you rejoice, such as on your appointed festivals or at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may become a memorial for you before your God: I am the LORD your God.”
Joel 2…
Let all the residents of the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; in fact, it is near– (2) a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and dense overcast, like the dawn spreading over the mountains; a great and strong people appears, such as never existed in ages past and never will again in all the generations to come.”
Sadly this is one of the difficulties with language & culture. The words “such as never existed in ages past and never will again in all the generations to come.” A more accurate rendering of these verses is this – “It is a huge and powerful army – there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!” The idea is not literally that nothing on this scale will ever happen again, but that it will be a long time before something like this ever happens again. Literal translation would read “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”
Commentators are divided on what this refers to, but I believe there are aspects of it which have a very strong appeal to the future Babylonian exile which was at this point, FAR in Judah’s future. If this is to be understood as an actual army, Babylon simply seems like the only possible candidate for this “great army” Judah ever really encounters which besieges its cities.
The one thing which doesn’t seem to corroborate this is that exile is never specifically mentioned. This MAY BE because such talk was too soon, since God was giving Judah literally generations to repent before that invasion, or perhaps the sins which would eventuate in their exile had not yet been committed OR perhaps it was an invasion which was evaded through Judah’s repentance and therefore it never happened.
However, if we are right regarding the time period and Joel is actually prophesying just prior to Joash’s reign, then it is possible that whoever this “nation” is, whether a real country or another plague – it was averted due to Judah’s repentance.
King Joash was a bit of a follower, but at the beginning of his reign this worked well, for it was Jehoiada the high priest who was both his uncle and spiritual mentor. So when Joash took the throne from Athalia at 6 years of age, he was tender and open to aid and suggestion. 2Kings 12:2 says, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.”
2Chron. 23:16-21 tells us that Joash began his reign on a good footing. It says,
“(16) Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the king, and the people that they would be the LORD’s people. (17) So all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They broke its altars and images into pieces and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars.”
Now we don’t know at what age Joash’s heart was influenced to turn to evil, but we know he was still pursuing the restoration of the temple at the age of 23 so it was a good while into his reign and almost certainly following the death of his Uncle Jehoiada the high priest that his heart turned away from following the Lord.
If all of this is truly when this prophecy happened and it was avoided by means of Joash’s reign, then it is also quite possible that Jehoiada’s move to dethrone Athalia at that time and not prior, may have been hastened by this prophetic word from Joel and it may also be why no “King” is mentioned in this prophecy for none existed – the throne had been seized by a woman.
All of this being said, it still “sounds” a lot like the attack of the Babylonians before Judah was carried away into exile.
Joel 2…
“(3) A fire destroys in front of them, and behind them a flame devours. The land in front of them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland; there is no escape from them.
(4) Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like war horses. (5) They bound on the tops of the mountains. Their sound is like the sound of chariots, like the sound of fiery flames consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for war.
(6) Nations writhe in horror before them; all faces turn pale. (7) They attack as warriors attack; they scale walls as men of war do. Each goes on his own path, and they do not change their course.
(8) They do not push each other; each man proceeds on his own path. They dodge the missiles, never stopping.
(9) They storm the city; they run on the wall; they climb into the houses; they enter through the windows like thieves.
(10) The earth quakes before them; the sky shakes. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars cease their shining.
(11) The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. His camp is very large; Those who carry out His command are powerful. Indeed, the Day of the LORD is terrible and dreadful–who can endure it?”
For years in my youth, I always misinterpreted this passage which I was destined to do because I viewed ALL scripture through a New Covenant lens and that is a profound mistake.
It seems unnatural for us as Christians to see the “ungodly” as “God’s army”. We are used to thinking of God’s army as His family – the body of Christ. So to read passages where God is using a pagan army to bring judgment on His people seems odd enough, but then to call that pagan army, “God’s army” seems entirely out of place…but it is not!
By the words, “God’s army” (assuming it is in reference to an actual army of men) it does not imply deliberate submission to God and alliance with Him, but rather that whether knowingly or unknowingly they had God’s permission, power and command to lay siege to Judah. They were nothing more than pawns in God’s hand, executing His will.
Guzik says, “When the plague of locusts and the drought devastated Judah, you might have thought that Joel would encourage the people. He might have said, “Hang in there! Things are bad, but they will get better. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” Instead Joel said, “You think that was bad? Worse is to come if we don’t repent.”.
I will entertain one more possibility and that is that this “army” was actually another, future invasion of locusts the proportions of which were such that the former plague was paled by what was potentially coming.
A Dr. Shaw, who saw locusts in Barbary in 1724 and 1725, described them like this: –
“I never observed the mantes, bald locusts, to be gregarious. But the locusts, properly so called, which are so frequently mentioned by sacred as well as profane writers, are sometimes so beyond expression.
Those which I saw in 1724 and 1725 were much bigger than our common grasshopper; and had brown spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow.
Their first appearance was toward the latter end of March, the wind having been for some time south. In the middle of April their numbers were so vastly increased that, in the heat of the day, they formed themselves into large and numerous swarms; flew in the air like a succession of clouds; and, as the prophet Joel expresses it, (Joe_2:10) they darkened the sun.
When the wind blew briskly, so that these swarms were crowded by others, or thrown one upon another, we had a lively idea of that comparison of the psalmist, (Psalm 109:23), of being ‘tossed up and down as the locust.’
In the month of May, when the ovaries of those insects were ripe and turgid, each of these swarms began gradually to disappear; and retired into the Mettijiah, and other adjacent plains, where they deposited their eggs.
These were no sooner hatched in June, than each of these broods collected itself into a compact body of a furlong [1/8th of a mile] or more in square; and, marching immediately forward in the direction of the sea, they let nothing escape them; eating up every thing that was green and juicy, not only the lesser kinds of vegetables, but the vine likewise; the fig tree, the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, Joel 1:12; in doing which they kept their ranks like men of war; climbing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way.
Nay, they entered into our very houses and bedchambers, like so many thieves. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water; or else they heaped up in them heath, stubble, and such like combustible matter, which were severally set on fire upon the approach of the locusts. But this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms succeeding one another; while the front was regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close, that a retreat was altogether impossible. A day or two after one of these broods was in motion, others were already hatched to march and glean after them; gnawing off the very bark, and the young branches, of such trees as had before escaped with the loss only of their fruit and foliage. So justly have they been compared by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:3) to a great army; who further observes, that ‘the land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness.’
“Having lived near a month in this manner (like a μυριοστομον ξιφος, or sword with ten thousand edges, to which they have been compared), upon the ruin and destruction of every vegetable substance which came in their way, they arrived at their full growth, and threw old their nympha state by casting their outward skin.
To prepare themselves for this change, they clung by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of a stone; and immediately, by using an undulating motion, their heads would first break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation was performed in seven or eight minutes, after which they lay for a short time in a torpid and seemingly languishing condition; but as soon ad the sun and air had hardened their wings, by drying up the moisture which remained upon them, after casting their sloughs, they reassumed their former voracity, with an addition both of strength and agility. Yet they did not continue long in this state before they were entirely dispersed, as their parents were before, after they had laid their eggs; and as the direction of the marches and flights of them both was always to the northward, and not having strength, as they have sometimes had, to reach the opposite shores of Italy France, or Spain, it is probable they perished in the sea, a grave which, according to these people, they have in common with other winged creatures.” – Travels, 4to. edition pp. 187, 188.
Joel 2…
Repent now and you may just avert this judgment
“(12) Even now–this is the LORD’s declaration–turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. (13) Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.
(14) Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, so you can offer grain and wine to the LORD your God.
(15) Blow the horn in Zion! Announce a sacred fast; proclaim an assembly. (16) Gather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom, and the bride her honeymoon chamber.
(17) Let the priests, the LORD’s ministers, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say:
“Have pity on Your people, LORD, and do not make Your inheritance a disgrace, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?'”
This next section speaks as if Judah had already repented and that MIGHT be, but not necessarily. Of course, one thing that has to be remembered when reading a book is that the events it mentions, unless predictive in nature, have to have already occurred or it could not be recorded.
Without question the warning of Joel comes after the initial locusts and drought had already hit the land as the beginning chapter says, but his prophecy regards all that might happen unless Judah repents.
If in fact they did repent, then upon recording the events Joel could naturally go from God’s warning right on to God’s mercy with nothing in between because these events had already transpired.
It is also possible that this is nothing more than literary device, where God is set forth as taking pity on His people after having repented as a means of demonstrating to Judah that God would in fact relent of the evil and take up a heart of jealousy for His people if they would but just change their hearts and turn to Him.
Grammatically speaking
The verbs of Joel 2:18 can be explained as an extension of the so-called prophetic perfect. If this is true that a future fulfillment is here being described in the past tense as a rhetorical device lending certainty to the fulfillment. But this lacks adequate precedent and is very unlikely from a syntactical standpoint.
It seems better to take the verbs in the normal past tense of the preterite. This would require a vantage point for the prophet at some time after the people had responded favorably to the Lord’s call for repentance and after the Lord had shown compassion and forgiveness toward his people, but before the full realization of God’s promises to restore productivity to the land.
In other words, it appears from the verbs of vv. Joel 2:18-19 that at the time of Joel’s writing this book the events of successive waves of locust invasion and conditions of drought had almost run their course and the people had now begun to turn to the Lord.
Joel 2…
“(18) Then the LORD became jealous for His land and spared His people. (19) The LORD answered His people: Look, I am about to send you grain, new wine, and olive oil. You will be satiated with them, and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations.
(20) I will drive the northerner far from you and banish him to a dry and desolate land, his front ranks into the Dead Sea, and his rear guard into the Mediterranean Sea.
His stench will rise; yes, his rotten smell will rise, for he has done catastrophic things.
(21) Don’t be afraid, land; rejoice and be glad, for the LORD has done great things.
(22) Don’t be afraid, wild animals, for the wilderness pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and grapevine yield their riches.”
This is again a prophecy with a dual fulfillment. Judah was being warned by God of impending judgment which, if repented of, would result in God restoring all that the former locusts and drought had destroyed. This was also going to be promised regarding the return of the people of Judah from their Babylonian exile many years from now, but its ultimate fulfillment is spiritual when God would give them new hearts, a New Covenant, a new and permanent right standing with God and rain down His Spirit upon regenerated man.
Joel 2…
“(23) Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the LORD your God, because He gives you the autumn rain for your vindication. He sends showers for you, both autumn and spring rain as before.
(24) The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
(25) I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust ate, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust–My great army that I sent against you.
(26) You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied. You will praise the name of Yahweh your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you. My people will never again be put to shame.”
This reference which occurs frequently in Old Testament prophetic literature of God’s people never again knowing shame is the spiritual reality of the Christian. Shame is always connected with nakedness in scripture and God’s people are considered naked and exposed to their enemies when the glory of God’s presence lifted from them. Under the New Covenant, we are not only covered with God’s glory, but we are vessels and objects of His glory as well.
As we take on the Divine nature of Christ in us, we pass from glory to glory by the inward working of the Holy Spirit.
As such, we will NEVER know shame again! In fact, the only shame the world can try to place on us actually brings more glory according to Peter,
1Peter 4:13-14, “(13) But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. (14) If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you.”
Joel 2…
“(27) You will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.
No doubt you will recognize these next words as having been spoken by Peter on the day of Pentecost as is recorded in Acts 2 which we will read when we close tonight.
“(28) After this I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.
(29) I will even pour out My Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.
(30) I will display wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and columns of smoke. (31) The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awe-inspiring Day of the LORD comes.
(32) Then everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the LORD promised, among the survivors the LORD calls.”
Now Joel breaks into a prophetic description of the future fulfillment of the Day of the Lord and where Israel fits into this picture. Again, the time of the Gentiles is skipped over entirely – maintaining Israel as the center theme of the prophecy.
The multiple fulfillments of this passage include, at very least, both Judah’s return from Babylonian exile and greater Israel’s return from their Assyrian/Babylonian exile.
Also mentioned here is the judgment of Tyre, Sidon and Philistia.
Sidon yielded to Alexander the Great‘s power during the conquest of Phoenicia in 332 BC and, like the rest of the fractured Phoenician civilization, was eventually absorbed by Rome and, finally, taken by the Arab Muslims in the 7th century AD.
The Siege of Tyre was waged by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon between 586 and 573 BC. The Book of Ezekiel prophesied that the city would fall to Babylon.
The Philistines were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon in the 6th century BC.
However, this also refers to the time of Israel’s invitation to return to God under the New Covenant and the spiritual prosperity they will enjoy who enter into Messiah’s rest by faith.
Joel 3:1-21,
“(1) Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, (2) I will gather all the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will enter into judgment with them there because of My people, My inheritance Israel.
The nations have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided up My land. (3) They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.
(4) And also: Tyre, Sidon, and all the territories of Philistia–what are you to Me?
Are you paying Me back or trying to get even with Me? I will quickly bring retribution on your heads. (5) For you took My silver and gold and carried My finest treasures to your temples. (6) You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks to remove them far from their own territory.
(7) Look, I am about to rouse them up from the place where you sold them; I will bring retribution on your heads. (8) I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation, for the LORD has spoken.
(9) Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for holy war; rouse the warriors; let all the men of war advance and attack!
(10) Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say: I am a warrior.
(11) Come quickly, all you surrounding nations; gather yourselves. Bring down Your warriors there, LORD. (12) Let the nations be roused and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the surrounding nations.
(13) Swing the sickle because the harvest is ripe. Come and trample the grapes because the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because the wickedness of the nations is great.
(14) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
(15) The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will cease their shining. (16) The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will shake.
But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the Israelites. (17) Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, Who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will never overrun it again.
(18) In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk.
All the streams of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will issue from the LORD’s house, watering the Valley of Acacias.
(19) Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah in whose land they shed innocent blood.
(20) But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (21) I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, for the LORD dwells in Zion.”
John Trapp, an English Anglican Bible commentator detailed the horrors that befell the ten Emperors of the Roman Empire that persecuted Christians:
- Nero lost 30,000 of his subjects by pestilence, had his armies utterly defeated in Britain, suffered a revolution in Armenia, and was so hated by the senators of Rome that they forced him to kill himself
- Domitian was butchered by his own soldiers
- Trajan died of a foul disease
- Severus died miserably on a military campaign in Britain
- Maximus was cut in pieces, together with his own son
- Decius died as an exile in a far country
- Valerian was whipped to death by the King of Persia who captured him
- Aurelian was killed by his own soldiers
- Dioclesian poisoned himself
- Maximum hanged himself
Though it may not seem timely from the perspective of the saints while we are in flesh, God always exacts judgment on those who persecute His people.
Now I want to read the passage in Acts 2 which was the fulfillment of the former and later rain God would send in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:1-41,
“(1) Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. (2) Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting.(3) And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them.
(4) All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
(5) Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. (6) When this sound occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
(7) Completely baffled, they said, “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? (8) And how is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language? (9) Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, (10) Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, (11) both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!”
(12) All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
(13) But others jeered at the speakers, saying, “They are drunk on new wine!”
(14) But Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed them:
“You men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this and listen carefully to what I say. (15) In spite of what you think, these men are not drunk, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. (16) But this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel:
(17) ‘And in the last days it will be,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. (18) Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. (19) And I will perform wonders in the sky above and miraculous signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke. (20) The sun will be changed to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. (21) And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
(22) “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through Him, just as you yourselves know – (23) this man, Who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing Him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles.
(24) But God raised Him up, having released Him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held in its power.
(25) For David says about Him, ‘I saw the Lord always in front of me, for He is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. (26) Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my body also will live in hope, (27) because you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor permit your Holy One to experience decay. (28) You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of joy with your presence.’
(29) “Brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our forefather David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
(30) So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, (31) David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay.
(32) This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it.
(33) So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out what you both see and hear.
(34) For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand (35) until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
(36) Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.”
(37) Now when they heard this, they were acutely distressed and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What should we do, brothers?”
(38) Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(39) For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
(40) With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!”
(41) So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.”
…and thus began the church age, 2,000 years ago on the day we call pentecost, but which up until that time had been called the Feast of Weeks.
You may remember how in the wilderness God spoke to Moses and told him to tell Israel that ONCE they have settled in the promised land they were to observe The Feast of Firstfruits which of course they could not observe until they had settled in the Promised Land and had their first harvest of barley. This feast was a rehearsal for the day when the first fruits harvest of souls under the New Covenant would take place immediately following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The disciples and the women who followed Jesus were the first born again believers and thereby represented the first fruits. Following this feast was the Feast of Weeks.
For this festival, they were to count 50 days from the Feast of Firstfruits (or 7 sabbaths) at the end of the wheat harvest and then celebrate the bringing in of the new grain offering for the Lord.
We have the advantage of knowing part of what this was “rehearsing” due to the day of Pentecost to which this feast corresponds.
Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for POWER from on High.
God had set up Israel to be largely in Jerusalem in mass on this day so that when His Spirit was poured out, they would all be present. Some claim that Josephus notes that the Feast of Weeks that year was particularly well represented by Israelites, estimating the numbers in excess of 100,000 but I was not able to confirm this.
Blessings!
