The Valley of Decision

Joel 2:28-32; 3:14
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

A popular song of the 70’s by the Steve Miller Band has a line in it that I think is a word with which I want to begin this morning. “Time keeps on slippin,’ slippin,’ slippin’ into the future.”  With every tick of the clock we advance into the unknown.  One can plan for the future but one cannot know the future.  However, a phenomena is recorded throughout the Bible which records glimpses into the unknowable future of man.  This phenomenon is known to us as prophecy.  The prophets of old were called by God to be proclaimers of his message to a particular people during a certain time at a definite place.  While preaching his message the forth telling of the prophet would often carry with it fore telling…….a predicting of the future events.

Our passage before us is one of those particular prophecies which contains the revelation of events which was to take place in the future.  Most Bible scholars, I believe, interpret this passage correctly as being fulfilled at the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2.

               One of the more popular dates suggested as being the time of the origin of this book known to us as Joel is the 9^th century B.C.  So, if we consider the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 as the beginning of the fulfillment of this passage, it is quite a miracle indeed.