Joel 2:28-32 - Homilies By D. Thomas

The gospel age.

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," etc. Peter quotes this passage, but not with literal accuracy. Divine inspiration secures not uniformity of phraseology, but uniformity in facts and principles. We are authorized in regarding the passage as pointing to the gospel age; or, as Peter says, to the last days. The days of the Messiah are indeed the last days of the world. The passage teaches four things in relation to these last days: this gospel age as connected—

I. WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT . "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Flesh here stands for humanity. Under the gospel dispensation, the influence of the Spirit would be:

1 . Universal , not limited to sex. "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." Not limited to age. "Your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams." The redemptive influences of the gospel are like the rolling atmosphere and the shining sun—universal in their aspect.

2 . Illuminating. It would bring the light of God's thoughts upon the soul. They "saw visions and dreamed dreams and prophesied." That is, men under its influence would receive and reflect God's eternal truths.

II. WITH PRODIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS . "I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke." These words may perhaps be properly regarded as a highly poetic representation of that revolution in governments, Churches, and all other human institutions which would inevitably follow the working out of the Divine ideas and spiritual influences of these last days ( Isaiah 13:10 ; Isaiah 34:4 ). WhenChristianity enters with all its renovating power the individual soul, what a revolution! What wonders in heaven, what signs on earth, what blood, fire, and vapour of smoke! It is so also when it enters a community; then it shakes the heavens and the earth of social and political life.

III. WITH A TERRIBLE DAY . Peter calls it a notable day. The primary reference in all probability is to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. It was indeed a terrible day. But there is another terrible day still before us, a day of which the destruction of Jerusalem is but a faint shadow and type—the day of general judgment—the day when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. What a day will that day be—"day of judgment, day of wonders," etc.!

IV. WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF SALVATION TO ALL . "Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered;" or, as Peter has it, "shall be saved"—saved from the thraldom, the guilt, the damnation, of sin. "Whosoever"—thank God for this "whosoever"!—D.T.