Joel 2:28 - Meaning and Application

The promises of grain, wine, and oil in the earlier verses would be welcome to a land laid waste. But we are taught here not to rest in those things. God has better gifts in store, and these verses point to them, both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory, along with the happiness of true believers in both.

Here we are told how the kingdom of grace will begin, through a rich outpouring of the Spirit, (Joel 2:28, 29). We are not left guessing about this promise, because the apostle Peter gave its clear meaning and use. He said that when the Spirit was poured out on the apostles at Pentecost, that was the very thing Joel had spoken of (Acts 2:1 and following, Joel 2:16, 17). That was the gift of the Spirit promised here, and we should not look for another one any more than we look for another fulfillment of the Messiah’s promise.

The blessing itself is the pouring out of God’s Spirit, with his gifts, grace, and comforts, which the blessed Spirit gives. In the Old Testament, we often read of the Spirit of the Lord coming in small measures on judges and prophets for special tasks. But now the Spirit will be poured out abundantly, like a full stream, as was promised for gospel times, "I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants" (Isaiah 44:3). The time is set as afterward, after the earlier promises are fulfilled. Peter explains this as the last days, the days of the Messiah, when God would give his final public revelation of his will and grace in the closing days of the Jewish church, just before its fall.

The reach of this blessing is broad. The Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, not only on Jews, but on Gentiles too. In Christ there is no difference between Jew and Greek (Romans 10:11, 12). Up to that point, divine revelation had been mostly confined to the seed of Abraham, and only those in the land of Israel had the spirit of prophecy. But in the last days, all flesh will see the glory of God and come to worship before him (Isaiah 40:5, Isaiah 66:23). The Jews understood this as meaning all flesh in the land of Israel. Peter himself did not fully see the Gentiles included until the Holy Spirit came on Cornelius and his friends, who were Gentiles (Acts 10:44, 45). That was only a continuation of the same gift given at Pentecost.

The Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, that is, on those whose hearts have become soft and ready to receive the Spirit’s work. It also means on people from many kinds of life, since the gifts of the Spirit will not be so rare or limited as before. Some of every kind will share in them.

First, some of both sexes will receive the Spirit. "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy." We read of four sisters in one family who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9). Not only parents, but children, will be filled with the Spirit, which shows that this gift would continue for some generations in the church.

Second, some of every age will receive him. "Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions." God will reveal himself by dreams and visions to both young and old. The old, though past their strength, and the young, though still lacking experience, will both receive divine light.

Third, even those of the lowest rank and condition will receive this blessing, even servants and maidservants. Jewish teachers said prophecy belonged only to the wise, brave, and rich, not to the poor or sorrowful. But in Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free (Galatians 3:28). Many were called while still servants (1 Corinthians 7:21), and that was no barrier to receiving the Holy Spirit.

The result of this blessing is that they will prophesy. They will receive fresh knowledge of divine things, not for themselves alone, but for the good of the church. They will explain Scripture and speak of secret, distant, and future things that reason and natural ability could never discover. By these extraordinary gifts, the Christian church was first founded and established, and the Scriptures were written and the ministry set in place. Through the Spirit’s ordinary work and influence, the church was afterward to be kept up and strengthened.

Here also we are shown how the kingdom of glory will begin, through a universal change in nature (Joel 2:30, 31). The outpouring of the Spirit will be a great comfort to the righteous. But let the unrighteous hear this and tremble. A great and terrible day of the Lord is coming, and it will be announced by wonders in heaven and earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood.

Some think, and Dr. Pocock in particular, that this will be fully completed at the last judgment, at the end of time. Before that final day, these signs may appear in their literal form, though they were already partly fulfilled in Christ’s death, which is called the judgment of this world, when the earth shook and the sun was darkened, and it was truly a great and terrible day. They were also more fully fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a type and picture of the final judgment. Before that ruin came, there were many startling signs, along with the shaking of states and kingdoms shown in the figurative language of the sun being darkened and the moon turned to blood. Our Savior spoke of wars, rumors of wars, and distress among the nations as the beginning of these sorrows (Matthew 24:6, 7).

Before the last judgment there will indeed be wonders in heaven and earth, the breaking apart of both without a figure. God’s judgments on a sinful world, and the repeated destruction of wicked kingdoms by fire and sword, are like warnings and signs of the final judgment to come. Those on whom the Spirit is poured out will see and foretell that great and terrible day of the Lord, and they will explain the wonders in heaven and earth that come before it. As the prophets testified about Christ’s first coming, so they testify about his second coming too (Revelation 10:7).

Then we are shown the safety and happiness of all true believers at both the first and second coming of Jesus Christ (Joel 2:32). This is spoken of particular people, since the New Testament gives more attention to persons than to kingdoms and nations, more than the Old Testament does. We should note here that a salvation has been worked out.

Though the day of the Lord will be great and terrible, there will still be deliverance in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem from the fear of it. This is the day of the Lord, the day of his judgment, when he knows how to separate the precious from the worthless. In the everlasting gospel, which went out from Zion, and in the church of the firstborn, pictured by Mount Zion, and in the Jerusalem that is above, there is deliverance. God has opened a way to escape the coming wrath.

Christ is not only the Savior, but also the salvation itself. He is salvation to the ends of the earth. This deliverance was stored up for us in the covenant of grace, that is, God’s saving agreement with his people, and it fulfills the promises made to the fathers. There will be deliverance, just as the Lord said. See (Luke 1:72). This gives comfort and hope to sinners. No matter how great the danger is in their case, there is deliverance for them if they are not to blame for refusing it. If we want to share in this deliverance, we must come to the gospel, to Zion, to God’s Jerusalem.

There is also a remnant who have a share in this salvation, and for whom this deliverance is worked out. It is in that remnant, that is, among them, that the deliverance is found, or in their souls and spirits. There are the first signs and sure proof of it. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” They are called a remnant because they are only a few compared with the many who are left to perish. They are a small remnant, yet a chosen one, a remnant according to God’s gracious choosing.

Here we are told who will be delivered in the great day. First, those who sincerely call on God: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” will be delivered, whether Jew or Gentile, as the apostle explains in (Romans 10:13), where he sets this down as a main rule of the gospel by which we must all be judged. This calling on God includes knowing him, trusting him, desiring him, and depending on him. It also includes, as proof that all this is sincere, careful obedience to him. Without that, saying “Lord, Lord” will do us no good. The praying remnant will be the saved remnant. It will make the ruin of those who perish even worse, because they could have been saved on such simple terms.

Second, those whom God calls effectively, that is, powerfully and savingly, will be delivered. The deliverance is certain for the remnant whom the Lord calls, not only with the outward call of the gospel, which reaches many who are not chosen, but with a special call into fellowship with Jesus Christ, whom the Lord appoints or prepares, as the Chaldee puts it. Peter uses this same wording in (Acts 2:39). Only those who are now called out of sin to God, from self to Christ, and from earthly things to heavenly things, will be delivered in the great day.