Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Matthew 22:23 - the danger of not knowing Scripture - Day 193

Yesterday's passage was not very theological.  Today's is very theological.  I have only scratched the surface, but hope this encourages us to question ourselves about "knowledge of Scripture and the power of God". Blessings  Jeff This is a fascinating dialogue between Sadducees and Jesus.  So let's interrogate the passage. What distinguishes the Sadducees from other Jewish doctrinal positions?  They deny that there is a resurrection.  They are absolutely committed to this doctrine. How does their commitment shape their thought and questions? Even though they don't believe in the resurrection, they formulate a question focused on showing the absurdity of the resurrection.  They are not pointing to a passage of scripture that supports them, but asking a hypothetical question to make resurrection look silly. What is the purpose of the "Levirate marriage"? Deuteronomy 5:5-8.  First this is not a violation of the 7th commandment (adultery).  Brothers wer
Post a Comment
Read more