It seems that my post on Joel 2:28 was pretty controversial. Joel 2:28 says, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."
Women and children prophesying, along with old men, and guys so young that they still have to pay through the nose for auto insurance?
Non-Christians would be pretty psyched about this -- except for the "old men" part; old folks aren't respected anymore, and they certainly aren't considered hip.
Old folks aren't treated any better in the Christian world. Oddly enough, it's Christians who are most infuriated by a literal reading of Joel 2:28. The most enlightened of these will tell you, in the course of their objections to Joel 2:28, that "every one has a role to play."
They're right.
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish," Paul writes in Ephesians 5:25-27. (Emphasis mine)
Paul goes on in Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Emphasis mine)
Husbands and fathers have a lot to do.
Paul talks more about this in I Corinthians 14:34-35, writing, "the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church." (Emphasis mine)
Like I said, lots to do.
Mind you, this does not exclude women from the receipt and use of the Holy Spirit's gifts. In Acts 21: 8-9, Paul tells us about a man with whom he stayed, "On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied." Female prophets are also described in Luke 2:36-38 and II Chronicles 34:22-28. There's Miriam, the sister of Moses, in Exodus 15:20. Then, of course, there's Joel 2:28-29.
All Paul is saying is that women should not speak in church -- not the building, but the group of people. In I Corinthians 14:40, he adds, "But all things should be done decently and in order."
What happens when we go out of order?
God punishes us, right?
Hosea 4:14-15 says, "I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
Translation? If you've been put in charge, and you're blowing it off, don't be surprised if everyone under you goes wild. And don't even think of going before the altar and acting like you're all buddy-buddy with God when you let this kind of garbage go on.
When you're not doing your job, sin will flourish, and God hates sin more than anything in the world. He hates it so much that if He has to use it to get you to stop sinning, He'll do it.
God is absolute love, absolute goodness, absolute kindness, absolute mercy, absolute perfection. Can you imagine, then, how much it grieves Him to have to use the polar opposite of everything He is to get your attention?
How it must have grieved the God of perfect compassion and perfect dignity to command Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot for three years.
How it must have grieved the Lord of perfect love to command Hosea to marry and have children by a prostitute.
God wants to show us mercy for all we've done, and He wants that to result in a relationship of deep intimacy. Imagine how it must have grieved Him to command Hosea to name his daughter "No Mercy" and his youngest son "Not My People".
Remember, this is the God who said, in Mark 9:42, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." How deeply it must have grieved Him to tell the virgin Mary, a child herself, that she must conceive a child out of wedlock.
Worst of all, imagine how deeply it grieved Him to inflict on that Child the shame that Paul describes in II Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Imagine how horrible it must have been for God to ignore His own Son's cry from the cross, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
Imagine how those people felt -- human beings, just like you -- having to commit those sins. Imagine having to live with those sins day in and day out -- whispered about, laughed at, scorned, judged, despised, rejected, and hated by people like you.
All because you couldn't be bothered to play your part.
Here's Ralph Stanley with Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs, singing "Cry From the Cross".
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