Joel and Jesus
Have you ever heard of the connection between the Old Testament Prophet Joel and Matthew’s infancy narrative?
In Joel 2, there’s a picture of the coming of the Day of the Lord as a day of trembling and darkness, but also a day of repentance.
“…I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29)
What does this have to do with the nativity?
Mary and Joseph are the principal recipients of this outpouring prophesied by Joel.
-By the Spirit Mary conceived the Christ-child (Mt 1:18).
-In a dream Joseph was encouraged by the Lord to be not afraid to take Mary as his wife (Mt. 1:20).
Indeed, it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32)...And we shall call his name Jesus, for he will save us from our sins (Mt. 1:21).
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I’ve always appreciated promise-fulfillment motifs in the Bible.
Salvation history is a track-record of God’s promises kept, every one of them.
Promise-fulfillment in Scripture is wonderful. But it’s wonderful not simply because of its literary and poetic intrigue, but rather because of its life-changing power.
In other words, the wonder of the Incarnation - and of Joel’s prophecy fulfilled in Christ - is God keeps His promises by coming near.
Not as an idea and a distant hope, but as a person and a present Savior. That He is Emmanuel (God with us) requires that we answer the question: are we with Him?
His nearness demands a response.
Do we allow Him to be life-changing in us?
He cannot work repentance in us unless and until, in the depths our hearts, we surrender our egos to Him, every day.
While the day of the Lord dawned in Bethlehem’s stable, it breaks again, quietly and insistently, every time a heart turns back to Him.
May it break in us today.
God’s peace,
Ted
Here’s what I’m reading this week
In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton dismantles the modern myth of human progress and presents Christianity not as one religion among many, but as the fulfillment of the deepest longings of mankind. With wit, paradox, and prophetic clarity, Chesterton argues that humanity is both wildly unique and perpetually lost - and that history’s turning point came not in the rise of empires, but in a cave in Bethlehem.
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