In reading this chicken scratch I can't really gather or remember much of what I had written or what we talked about. I'm probably too tired to think really hard about these comparisons. The few things that pop out to me in re-reading this was to note that Peter was saying that we are in the last days (an important theme that seems to stick out in the Acts version of Joel), and that we are living in the time of God's fulfillment of his promises.
I can also try to figure out the greater context by looking into Joel 2, to see what it is talking about and how Peter wants to use Joel to show that Scripture is being fulfilled on that Pentecost day in Acts. My study Bible basically outlines it in the following way¹:
- 2:1-11 - The locust plague, and act of God
- 2:12-17 - A call to repent
- 2:18-27 - An oracle of salvation
- 2:28-32 - The faithful are delivered
So what I'm reading seems to be a theme that's common: there's this plague, and this plague is God's judgment. But repent and sanctify yourselves so that the plague will be averted and you will be spared. God will make your lands fruitful and he'll keep the invading armies away. You will be vindicated and God will deliver you.
Peter, then, is referring to this last section (of the faithful being delivered). NT Wright here uses an illustration of people who are going on a long trip. They have this destination, but it takes a long time to get there, and there are a lot of snags on the way. Maybe they go on detours, and they have to find their way back to the correct road. Despite it all, after this long and tiring trip, the people have finally reached what was promised to them.
What did that mean, 'the last days'? It was a general term for the time to come, the time when promises would be fulfilled. The story would arrive at its climax, the journey would reach its destination, and so all sorts of new things would start to happen... we've arrived! The journey's over! Here are the signs of the destination! Time to have a fresh look around and see where we are!²
As we know, the journey doesn't necessarily end when we reach our destination (it certainly doesn't end here). Once they're there, they have to settle in and explore and do the next thing.
I'm pretty tired, and I can't think of any continuation of what I just wrote above. Maybe I'll come back later to continue it. Maybe not. In the meantime, I wanted to note that the other thing that stuck out to me (related to what was read yesterday) about this coming together of people (speaking in other native tongues) was this other representation about the universality of God's work. It's not just for the selected few, or the elite, or the especially gifted. Says Wright:
God's spirit has been poured out upon a lot of people all at once. There is no discrimination between slaves and free, male and female, young and old. They are all marked out, side by side, as a nucleus of God's true people...
This work of God is wonderfully inclusive, because there is no category of people which is left out: both genders, all ages, all social classes. But it is wonderfully focused, because it happens to all 'who call on the name of the Lord' (verse 21). Here, once more, 'the Lord,' which in Joel meant Israel's God, YHWH, now seems to mean Jesus himself. And with this Luke introduces as vital and complex theme in his work: 'salvation.' All who call on the Lord's name will be saved.³
Anyways, I feel like there's no huge and profound thoughts tonight. Nevertheless, I did what I aimed to do. I read the Bible, and I thought about it, even if not very well.
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(1) The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. Michael Coogan, ed. Oxford (2007): 1298-9 Hebrew Bible.
(2) Wright, NT. Acts for Everyone: Part I. Westminster John Knox Press (2008): 32.
(3) Ibid, 34.
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