John,
Perhaps my memory is incorrect, but I was thinking you questioned if this prophecy from Joel was used correctly by Peter in Acts 2.
Using Joel’s voice, God promised that He would “pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28). But when this prophecy was fulfilled, the promised Spirit is called the holy Ghost (Acts 2:4). To confirm this, Peter says in verse 16, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
Wendell
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Yes, Wendell. Peter thought that Jesus would return any day, and so he was expecting the things Joel prophesied about would happen immediately.
This is the entire prophecy from Joel 2:28–32a, which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost: “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. And I will also pour out my Spirit on the slaves in those days, both male and female, and I will give signs in heaven and on the earth: blood, and fire, and mushrooming columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon, to blood before the great and fearful day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
Obviously, those things did not all happen. Were they supposed to happen, but Israel’s disobedience caused Joel’s prophecy to fail? Perhaps. We cannot say. But it is obvious that Peter expected to see in his time the moon to turn to blood and the sun to be blackened.
There was certainly an outpouring of the Spirit on Israel in Peter’s time, but the prophet Joel was foretelling of the outpouring of the Spirit on Israel which is coming at the end of this age.
Pastor John