How far can you see?

When I consider the Prophets I am amazed to consider the circumstances that birthed the writings that we observe as inspired and God-breathed words.

I consider the words of Isaiah and its beautiful prophetic picture of Christ. Beyond the current backsliding of the People of God, he could see a Revival spring forth. Not swayed by current circumstances, the touch of God and his inspiration opened the window into the future and they gloried in the glimpse of God’s purpose.

In particular, I consider the writing of the book of Joel. The setting of Joel is this.

“Judah, the setting for the book, is devastated by a vast horde of locusts. This invasion of locusts destroys everything; the fields of grain, the vineyards, the gardens, and the trees.”

And he prophesies.

” Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. ….”

They were left with tears, pain, regret, and fear. In this Environment Joel begins to prophesy.
” Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
….. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. …..and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:”

Joel found a place of Prophesying in a world of trouble.

Joel could see beyond,

beyond the famine of the now.
beyond the 400 years of silence.
beyond the Birth of Christ.
beyond Christ’s betrayal.
beyond his Death.
beyond his Burial.
beyond his Resurrection.

God Gave him a close-up view of the miraculous. In a time of famine, he looked into the New Testament and saw Pentecost. Peter stood up on that fateful day. A Day we celebrate as Pentecostals. They Had Received the Holy Ghost.

They had spoke with tongues. With Stammering lip and another tongue…

The great wall of separation that was erected @ Babel… man could once again speak the Language of God.

Holy Utterance was given.. The Comforter had Come. The Holy Spirit Gift had been given.

It was this day that Joel saw.

Peter told them….

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words:

For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

Joel could see a little farther.

LIFT UP YOUR EYES.

Gen 13:14-17
(14) And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
(15) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Notice what Abraham Did.

Gen 13:18
(1 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

Abraham Built an Altar in his Vision. A place of promise became his place of prayer.