The promises in Joel 2:18-27

Joel 2:28 says that:

And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.

And this was clearly fulfilled as per Acts 2:16 & 17. This words start with “and afterward” meaning that the prophecies preceding this one should have been fulfilled before this one. Our meditation is based on this thought so that we may check if these promises have been fulfilled in our lives.

God has promised a lot of fortunes in these verses and clearly these signs or fruits of victory in a spiritual sense and not materialistic as the history does not show any signs of victory before Christ’s glorious victory at the cross.

     1.       Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

This is the first promise that God the father has changed His view on us. He does not look at us as sinners but as prospective heirs.

     2.       Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen

The words grain, new wine and oil (some as corn, wine and oil) can be seen in a lot of places in the bible. Ex: Deut 11:14, Nehemiah 13:5 and many others.

We should note here in Joel that the Lord says “I am sending you corn, wine and oil”.

We can see that the people of God were a reproach because of their lack of corn, wine and oil. (lack of food basically). On satisfaction, we turn from being an object of scorn to an object of blessing and inspiration. I would personally say that the corn, wine and oil point at

     a.       Corn: The life of Christ which gave us a perfect example of how we should live and what we miss in our lives. A first step towards repentance, the solid food of understanding.

     b.      Wine: The death and resurrection of Christ which gave us forgiveness, the refreshment.

     c.       Oil: The Holy Spirit who gives us strength and abundance of Holiness.

These three together gave us the opportunity to transform ourselves to the likeness of God.

We should really check if this has happened to us. Are we being looked up as reproaches among non-believers or as “light of the world” as Jesus expects us. Our happiness and full satisfaction should be visible to others. Have we received the food that God has given to complete this transformation?

     3.       I will drive the northern army far from you pushing it into parched and barren land.

This is an important sign in our lives. Is the enemy very close enough to consume us in every opportunity? Are we in a state of falling in every little temptation? Or is the enemy in a barren land where he has nothing to graze upon in our lives? We may not be present in this mature state. But are we getting far from the enemy every year? Are we progressing towards holiness?

The enemy may be seen powerful from east to west. But it should not have the capabilities in come anywhere near the south. The enemy’s failures will cause him to develop a stench which is the results we see now. Examples are: Bribery, corruption, rapes, churches being destroyed, missionaries tortured and abduction of Christian women, the actions of IS and plenty more. These actions would remain as stench far away from our personal Christian being.

Sometimes Christian lives become pathetic that they are part of this stench. Satan has succeeded into creating an illusion that just by baptism and other rituals we will be successful Christians. But no, we should feel the failure of Satan in our lives that he develops a stench.

     4.       I will send you autumn and spring rains in abundance

We should feel the receipt of His grace so that faith and love grows and nourishes well. (1 Timothy 1:14). There is no deficit in His grace, but is there anything that stops us so that our love towards Christ and one another does not grow well or our faith is not fed well? We should have love and faith in abundance with us.

     5.       O wild animals, the open pastures are becoming green.

Our life becomes so flourishing with love and faith that our neighbours and dependents feed and understand the Lord from our lives. There should be abundance of righteousness that is the fruit of salvation. There will be fruits everywhere and in every area of our lives. Our work lives, our family, everywhere.

     6.       I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten...

This is another interesting thing that every blessing we have lost because of our and our forefather’s sins, we are entitled to earn them back. This is essentially the status of mankind in the garden of Eden. Everything God has taken from us. Here, we should note that God calls “Cutting Locusts” in some versions or “Chewing locusts” in a few versions as “My own army” but not the rest. When God is angry at our transgressions, He sometimes sends His army to cut our blessings and then the swarming, crawling, consuming locusts which are not from God come and consume or destroy them. God gives or repays all our losses here.

Interestingly, we can see that God mentions His own army in the list of those of the enemies. This shows the importance God gives to us, His children.

     7.       You will praise the name of the Lord.

We will truly praise the name of the Lord who has given us all these blessings. These praises will not be present due to any inspiration from other friends or fellow Christians, but out of gratitude to the Lord who has made us stand up in front of everybody else as successful over comers. We would attain a state where there is no shame at all.

Conclusion:

We should also acknowledge that our previous state was shameful. The devil and the world around us were mocking us because of our failures. Now, when Christ arrived to our lives, we stand up as successful men or women.

Only on receipt of these signs and wonders, we go next to a state of prophesying, dreaming and getting visions. Those are really good. But first, we need to experience all these signs of success to ensure that we are really saved.