Seeing more than the title, dreaming
Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18]
I was interested in today's Bible text, the book of Joel. This prophet Joel is also talking about God's thorough judgment on Israel and salvation after that judgment, so he uses the prophecy scheme of judgment and salvation, but he is a son and daughter on the Day of Salvation. It is because they tell a special story of prophesying, young people seeing visions and old people dreaming dreams. The heavens and the earth shook, the sun and the moon lost their light, and the God who judged them with a disaster that could not even see a single grain of grain to eat, now compensates for all the damage and promises a bountiful harvest of five grains and the lush greenery of all Now, the Spirit of God will be poured out; sons and daughters will prophesy, the old will dream dreams, and the young will see visions.
Of course, the prophecy of Joel also has eschatological ideas. He was also a prophet who saw the new generation radically. However, as mentioned earlier, I would like to think about the peculiarity of the prophecies of this prophet Joel, that is, the meaning of the ideal phenomenon occurring in the last days. In general, I think that Joel is showing a peculiar phenomenon compared to the demand for strict repentance in the eschatological ideology. Of course, Joel does not ask for repentance, but requires a fairly intense repentance.
‘Even now, sincerely repent, says the Lord. It is no exception in fasting, weeping, and mourning, while weeping the common pleas of the prophets: “Return to Me, tear your garments, not your hearts,” and “Return to the Lord your God.” However, I would like to invite you to think about the dreams and visions that Joel saw and what dreams we should have in this age by being faithful to the text verse we read today.
‘A shoot will grow from the stem of Jesse, and a branch will grow from its root and bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord descends upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and the reverence of the Lord, descends upon him, and he takes pleasure in the fear of the Lord. He does not judge only on what he sees, nor does he judge only on what he hears. He judges the poor with justice, and he justifies the oppressed in the world. His words become a club against the cruel, and his sentences put the wicked to death. He binds his waist with justice, and with sincerity he girdles his body. Then the wolf lives with the lamb, the leopard lays down with the goat, the calf, the lion cub, and the fat beast graze together, and a young child leads them. A cow and a bear become friends, their cubs lie down together, and a lion eats grass like a cow A suckling child plays with a viper's lifesaver, and a red-haired child enters the viper's den There is no harm or destruction of one another everywhere on My Holy Mountain. For the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as water fills the sea.’
This text, which is titled 'World of Peace', truly tells the shape of the world that the Messiah will come and reign. This text, which occupies one of Handel's 'Messiah' songs and is sung, is really a picture of the world we all dream of, see in visions, and prophesy.
The core of this utopia is a world of coexistence and coexistence. Dreaming of 'a world where the poor and the oppressed are justly judged with justice and the politics of justice and sincerity are implemented, a world where all living things coexist and achieve peace with each other, without harm and destruction, and full of the knowledge of the Lord' They see visions and prophesy.