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Joel 3:17-18 What did Joel see? - Day 315

Joel ends his short prophecy with a description of the glorious future of Judah.  Exile is just around the corner, but Joel sees far into the future.  Makes me wonder, what is going to change in Judah to bring about this glorious future?  After all, Judah has been unsuccessful over their 344 year history at remaining faithful to God.  They are going to go into exile.  How is that going to make them any more faithful?  If they weren't faithful with Jerusalem and the temple, how is being in a foreign land and no temple going to help them?

Isn't it interesting that Peter quotes an earlier section of Joel in Acts 2 as the explanation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost?  The fulfilment is not in the return from exile and a restored Judah but beginning of the church. signaled by the disciples changed from cowering in the upper room to bold witnesses for Christ.  

Another example of how challenging it is to understand prophecy.  If Peter can say "this is that", i.e. what you are seeing today is what Joel was talking about over 600 years ago, maybe he was speaking in terms that would make Judah long for the day he described without really understanding what it was they were going to experience.  So the answers to me earlier questions is God is going to change things, not the people of Judah.

What a great God we serve, who knows the end from the beginning and showed the prophets glimpses of this blessed future.

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