"I will no more make you a reproach among the nations" (Joel 2:19). "And my people shall never again be put to shame" (Joel 2:26, 27). "And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it" (Joel 3:17). "But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations" (Joel 3:20).

There is something so comforting in these words. Do you see it? "No more," "never again," "forever." These expressions suggest time without end — a permanent condition, an eternal state. Later, in the book of Revelation, we find similar expressions: "death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain" (Revelation 21:4); "No longer will there be anything accursed" (Revelation 22:3); "night will be no more... and they will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 22:5).

God gave Joel a prophecy of the Day of the Lord. Admittedly, it is a day of severe and final judgment, but it is also the immediate prelude to the establishment of God's eternal kingdom, even a new heaven and a new earth. The glory of this kingdom is that God will ensure its continuity without any possibility of human failure. This kingdom is the answer to Solomon's despairing observation that everything "under the sun" is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 14). When things are only temporary, they have no enduring worth and so are ultimately meaningless; but God's promise is eternal life, and so God makes the meaningless meaningful by an eternal hope. We know this hope embodied in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son," that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life (John 3:16).

Friends, is this not the encouragement we give one another when we are anxious about our lives? We remind each other to keep an eternal perspective. When we see things with an eternal perspective, we realize that nothing temporal can thwart our hope for long. The saying "This too shall pass" is not in the Bible, but it is biblical. We find its meaning in passages like this: our present troubles are small and will not last long, yet they produce a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever; so we do not look at the troubles we can see now, but fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen, for the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (a paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 4:17–18, NLT).

Let us then pray to God, who gives us an eternal hope and frees us from the weight of temporal concerns (cf. Philippians 4:6–7). Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who bore the cross and its shame so that He might share His eternal glory with us who trust in Him (Hebrews 12:2–3). Let us run the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1), fulfilling every good work God prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), making the best use of every opportunity to know and live out God's will (Ephesians 5:15–17).

AI-Expanded Reflection

Joel's "never again" promises come after one of the book's great turning points. In 2:12–14, God calls the people to return with all their heart, and in 2:18 the tone changes: "Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people." Everything that follows — restored harvests, the outpouring of the Spirit, the defeat of enemies — flows from that act of divine compassion. Joel 2:25 contains one of the tenderest promises in the prophets: "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten."

The comment's pairing of Joel's "never again" with Revelation 21–22 is apt; Revelation deliberately gathers the prophets' promises into its final vision. On the phrase "forever" in such promises, see the note at #2193 on the Hebrew olam, whose length depends on its subject; when God promises His eternal kingdom, the New Testament leaves no doubt that the promise is without end (Luke 1:33). The comment's point about eternal perspective reflects Paul's reasoning exactly: present troubles are "light" and "momentary" not because they are small in themselves, but because of what they are compared with — "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

"Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger," abounding in steadfast love, and relenting over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him? (a paraphrase of Joel 2:13–14).

There is a call here to return to the Lord — that is, to turn from their sinful ways: their idolatry, immorality, injustice, disregard for God's Law, and failure to trust Him.

The basis for acceptance is God's character: gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting over disaster.

God does not have to forgive. He does not have to hold back His judgment. But He may. He may because of that side of His character marked by compassion and faithfulness to His promise of blessing.

The best thing Israel can do is not to try its very best to find a way out for itself. It is not to mount its best defense against the approaching enemy. And it is certainly not to resign itself to its fate and keep sinning.

No, the best thing for Israel is to turn back to the Lord with broken and contrite hearts. Knowing that God is against them, the best thing they can do is humble themselves and hope for God's compassion, forgiveness, and healing.

Friends, can we not take this to heart as well? If we find ourselves in sin and know that God is not pleased, isn't it best for us to humble ourselves and pray for His forgiveness, healing, and restoration? This is the instruction I find in John's letter: if we confess our sins, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" and cleanse us (1 John 1:9).

And let us be quick about it. Let us not fester in our sins or be more concerned with covering our tracks than with finding healing from God. Getting our affairs in order does not make right what is wrong; receiving God's forgiveness, healing, and restoration does.

I am daily reminded of my own sinfulness, for I can confess with Paul that when I seek to obey God's law, the ugliest and vilest sinful inclination is right there with me (cf. Romans 7:14–20). I will declare, as he did, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24–25).

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Why? Because of the very next chapter: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

Because of the Lord's great faithfulness in keeping His promise of forgiveness and cleansing, we are not condemned. Praise God! Today I wrap this promise around me like the warmest security blanket. I wield it like the most impregnable shield. I cling to it as if dangling from a precipice at the edge of the world.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Joel's call to return comes in the aftermath of a devastating locust plague, which the prophet treats as a warning of "the day of the Lord" (1:15; 2:1–11). His summons is urgent but deeply personal: "Return to me with all your heart," with fasting, weeping, and mourning; "rend your hearts and not your garments" (2:12–13). Tearing one's clothes was a traditional sign of grief; God asked for the reality behind the ritual — a broken heart. And the "Who knows?" of 2:14 is not doubt about God's character but humility before His freedom: repentance does not obligate God, but it throws itself on His known mercy.

What follows in Joel is among the most generous promises in the Old Testament. God promises to restore "the years that the swarming locust has eaten" (2:25), and then: "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" (2:28) — the passage Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16–21). The chapter ends with "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (2:32), which Paul quotes to proclaim salvation for Jew and Gentile alike (Romans 10:13). The comment's joy in Romans 8:1 is the fulfillment of Joel's hope: those who return to God find not only forgiveness but the gift of His Spirit.

It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered (Joel 2:28–32).

In Acts 2:16–21 the apostle Peter refers to this prophecy as finding some kind of realization on the day of Pentecost. He also interprets the events described by Joel as events of "the last days". But when you look at Luke's description of the miraculous events of Pentecost, there seems to be a disconnect between what he describes and what Joel prophesied. The only point in common seems to be mention of the Holy Spirit.

This has led many commentators to suggest that Peter was citing Joel not to show complete fulfillment at the day of Pentecost but a partial or beginning of fulfillment. After all, only the disciples had the Spirit come upon them so that they were able to speak with other tongues, that is, in languages that they had not learned. Yet, the prophecy says that the Spirit would fall upon all flesh.

What is more, there is no mention in Acts of blood, fire, and columns of smoke, where the sun would be darkened and the moon turned to blood. However, Joel's prophecy does find great parallel with the sixth seal in the prophecy of the Book of Revelation:

I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places (Revelation 6:12–14).

Could it be that Peter was describing the inauguration of "the last days"? In other words, Acts 2 was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel regarding the Last Days. Joel's message was one of repentance in view of imminent judgment in his day, but it appears that he also spoke of a future day of ultimate judgment and salvation.

It is of this future time that Peter said had begun with Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for those whom God would call to Himself:

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:38–39).

Peter declared that the prophecy of Joel had begun with the advent of the church and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Spirit was given and visions and prophecies were prevalent in the apostolic church; however, none of the latter prophecies of Joel were yet fulfilled. What is more, even the manifestations of the Holy Spirit were limited and appear to have ceased with the apostolic age.

There is then a future fulfillment for the prophecy of Joel. The "last days" that were inaugurated at Pentecost were not completed in the apostolic age. There will come a future time when the latter signs of Joel will be fulfilled. I believe these latter signs will be fulfilled in the Day of the Lord, as described in detail in the Book of Revelation. I believe that we will not be a part of that judgment if that judgment were to happen in our day, because the Bible says that believers will be raptured into heaven and escape the day of God's wrath (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18).

Now, Peter did not know when the actual end would come, for Jesus said that no one would know this. As far as he knew, it could have happened immediately following Pentecost. Paul did not know either. Thus, these apostles wrote with imminent judgment and restoration in view. As we interpret their words, we must keep this in mind. Just as the sudden outpouring of the Spirit with signs and wonders during the days of Jesus and the apostles, there will come an awesome manifestation of God's judgment with fire, blood, and smoke on earth and in the heavens in the Day of the Lord.

What is more, just as the early signs were limited in time (visions, prophecies, etc.), the latter signs would also be limited in time.

Friends, the enduring promises of Scripture for us are not in the signs (i.e. miraculous gifts of tongues, prophecy, healings, etc.) but in the promises of God regarding our salvation and the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of our salvation. This is our hope. This is our message. This is our motivation to trust and obey God.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Peter’s use of Joel in Acts 2 is stronger than a loose comparison. He identifies the event before his hearers with the prophetic promise, then explains it through Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation (Acts 2:16–21,32–36). The risen Christ pours out the Spirit. Pentecost therefore belongs to the fulfillment of God’s saving purpose, not merely to an unusual episode that happens to resemble an older prediction. At the same time, the fullness of the prophetic horizon extends beyond everything narrated on that one day.

Joel’s language about all flesh must be read through the pairs that explain it: sons and daughters, old and young, male and female servants (Joel 2:28–29). The emphasis includes the crossing of age, sex, and social-status boundaries. It need not mean that every individual on earth receives the Spirit simultaneously. Acts develops that widened reach through Samaritans, Gentiles, and others who receive the same gift (Acts 8:14–17; 10:44–48; 19:1–7). The promise is not confined to a privileged prophetic class or a single ethnic gathering.

The cosmic signs raise a further interpretive question. Some readers connect them with the crucifixion and the judgment surrounding the decisive coming of Christ; others emphasize future visible upheaval at the final day of the Lord. The darkened sun in the passion narratives and the imagery of Revelation show why the discussion cannot be settled solely by asking whether every image is reported in Acts 2. Prophetic language can hold together divine intervention, judgment, and salvation across a larger horizon. The author’s inaugurated-fulfillment reading takes that tension seriously, while his detailed future sequence remains an interpretation.

The same care is needed with the gifts of the Spirit. Pentecost’s place in redemptive history does not by itself settle whether particular gifts continued after the apostles. Cessationists appeal to the foundational role of apostles and prophets; continuationists appeal to the church’s instructions concerning gifts and their place until Christ’s return (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 12–14). Both must account for the actual passages. The permanence of the Spirit’s saving presence is a shared conviction, even where the interpretation of particular manifestations differs.

Likewise, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 primarily comforts grieving believers concerning those who have died. It promises resurrection and gathering to the Lord but does not explicitly identify the gathering as occurring before a tribulation period. The following chapter speaks of rescue from wrath while urging sobriety, mutual encouragement, and faithful living (1 Thessalonians 5:1–11). A particular rapture chronology requires a broader argument than the reference supplied in the original.

The practical center should remain Peter’s summons: repent, receive what God gives in Christ, and enter the life formed by that promise. Acts 2:42–47 shows the resulting community devoted to teaching, fellowship, prayer, and material care. Eschatological hope becomes visible in an ordinary shared life. Confidence about the future should deepen patient obedience now, rather than making speculative timetables or dramatic experiences the measure of whether the Spirit is truly present.

How should Joel 2 be read? Verse 25 describes destruction (likely by the Babylonians); verse 26, restoration (perhaps corresponding to the second Temple); verse 27, a promise never again to be put to shame; verses 30–31, signs connected to the end of the age (later referenced in Acts 2); and then verse 32: everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved, since on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, among the survivors whom the LORD calls (a paraphrase of Joel 2:32). Read strictly along a single timeline, the promise of "no more shame" in verse 27 seems to need extending indefinitely beyond this present age, since between verses 27 and 30 the Temple was actually destroyed and the Jewish people displaced and shamed. Is there another way to read this? Verse 32 also raises a question: if those in Zion — meaning a place of safety during the coming troubles — include both "the elect" and other "survivors," does that mean Zion can't simply refer to heaven? That pushes me toward considering something other than a single, sudden end of the age — perhaps a more gradual unfolding, though I'm honestly still working this out.

(A later follow-up, added some time afterward, to answer my own question): Looking at this again, I think verses 25–27 point to the earlier destruction by Assyria, followed by restoration and a promise against further shame — not necessarily describing our own future glorification, but simply that the earlier sin and disgrace would be forgotten. Verses 28–29 are the signs fulfilled in Acts 2. As for verse 32, one modern translation's use of "refugees" made it initially sound to me like unbelievers might be mixed in among the saints, but reading it in another translation, I now read it more as believers being found even among a broader group of survivors who aren't necessarily all believers — consistent with how Acts 2:20 treats these signs as fulfilled specifically on that day.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The genuinely open-ended, self-correcting nature of this comment — revisiting and revising its own earlier interpretation months later — is worth highlighting as a healthy model for handling a passage like Joel 2, which sits at the center of real, ongoing disagreement among careful readers about how Old Testament near-term and far-term fulfillments relate to each other, and about the broader shape of end-times events (a debate touching different millennial and eschatological frameworks that faithful Christians continue to hold in good faith). Rather than settling on a confident reading and defending it regardless of new consideration, this comment models exactly the kind of patient, willing-to-be-wrong study that a genuinely difficult prophetic text deserves — treating uncertainty as an invitation to keep studying rather than a problem to paper over with false confidence.

We read in Joel 2:12–13: even now, declares the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning; rend your heart and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God, since He's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and He relents from sending disaster (a paraphrase of Joel 2:12–13). The phrase "rend your heart, and not your garments" echoes Samuel's words that to obey is better than sacrifice (a reference to 1 Samuel 15:22), and David's prayer in Psalm 51, that God doesn't desire mere sacrifice or delight in burnt offerings, but a broken spirit and a broken, contrite heart, which He won't despise (a paraphrase of Psalm 51:16–17). What's the common thread in these repeated expressions? They all point to attitude and inward posture. God wants people who trust and obey Him from the heart, humbly. Since Joel's language pictures the Great Tribulation described in Revelation, his message carries weight not only for the Old Testament generation he addressed, but for believers today as well — both Old and New Testament believers look ahead to God's final judgment. So how should we live, given that coming reality? Joel teaches heartfelt devotion to God. Why does he mention fasting, weeping, and mourning? Because he recognizes people's ongoing sinfulness, even believers, who constantly wrestle with their sinful nature. There's a kind of irony in Jesus's Beatitudes, where He says things like "blessed are those who mourn" (a reference to Matthew 5:4) — "blessed" often carries the sense of "happy," and mourning usually implies unhappiness, so Jesus is essentially saying "happy are those who are unhappy." That sounds strange until you realize He's describing people with kingdom-minded priorities. Paul writes that believers in this life groan, eagerly awaiting release from their sinful bodies (a reference to Romans 8:23), and James gives similar instruction: draw near to God and He'll draw near to you; cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, grieve, mourn, and weep; let your laughter turn to mourning and your joy to gloom; humble yourselves before the Lord, and He'll lift you up (a paraphrase of James 4:8–10). So while we talk about "happy Christians," let's understand that a Christian's happiness doesn't come primarily from this present life's experiences, but from the life to come. In this life, the normal Christian experience is genuinely marked by a certain sorrow — not sorrow over losing a job, money, or an argument, but sorrow over personal sin and living in a sinful world. As we seek to trust and obey God, "rending our hearts" means a healthy, likely persistent sorrow over sin becomes part of our present reality.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The apparent paradox this comment highlights in the Beatitudes — happiness described as belonging to the mourning — is worth extending with a distinction between two kinds of sorrow Scripture treats very differently: sorrow that leads nowhere, and sorrow that produces genuine change. Paul makes this distinction explicit elsewhere, contrasting "godly sorrow," which produces repentance leading to life, with worldly sorrow, which produces only death (2 Corinthians 7:10). That's likely the key to how mourning and blessedness can coexist without contradiction in Jesus's teaching: the sorrow being blessed isn't sorrow for its own sake, but sorrow specifically oriented toward God and toward genuine change, which is why it can carry real hope and even happiness within it, unlike sorrow that simply dwells in itself with nowhere to go.