Joel’s prophecy of the Holy Spirit precedes his prophecy of the great and terrible day of the Lord. We must not overlook this sequence of the last days and that both the Holy Spirit and the “day of the Lord” are events of the last days.
We have already shown that the “last days” refer to the last days of the Jewish age, which was the first century. It was the age that was present during the New Testament writings, and the work of the Apostles of Christ in particular. They only knew of two ages – the present age and the age to come. Since the age to come has no end, we are not left to wonder which of the two has “last days.” It was the culminating age of fulfillment. The law and the prophets pointed to these days. The entire scheme of redemption was completed at this time. The gospel was preached to every creature under heaven (cf. Col. 1:23), and Satan, who had the power of death and hades, had been defeated and bound for the duration of Jesus Christ’s millennial reign with his saints.
The aim and purpose of this section is to “rightly divide” the intended duration of the gift(s) of the Holy Spirit. To do this, we will pull the previous blogs together. We have emphasized that the Scriptures are letters written to people that lived in the first century with their own peculiar world and culture. As a result, we must understand that, while they were written for us, they were not written to us. Looking at the Bible through these glasses, we are reading about an age that was predicted as early as the days of Adam and Eve and fulfilled in the first century. In the “fullness of time,” God sent his son, born of a woman and under the law in order to redeem Israel from the law” (Gal. 4:4). During that time, the leadership was in the hands of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12), all of whom were guided by the Holy Spirit, who was promised to come in the last days (Joel 2:28). The significance of this conclusion is that the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send after ascending to heaven, was working through them in the transition from the old Jerusalem of the old age to the new Jerusalem of the new age. Jesus’ return marked the completion of the old, and the work of the Holy Spirit through those gifted by His power. We will summarize the events of those days, all of which are directly connected to the “last days” of the age in which they lived.