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Joel 2:28-32 (JDV)
Joel 2:28 After this I will pour out my Breath on everyone with skin;1 then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.
Joel 2:29 I will even pour out my Breath on the male and female slaves in those days.
Joel 2:30 I will display wonders in the sky and on the land: blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of Yahveh comes.
Joel 2:32 Then everyone who calls on the name of Yahveh will be saved, because there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as Yahveh promised, among the survivors Yahveh calls.
everyone with skin
Joel is describing the great revival movement which began in Jerusalem among a group of Jews in the 1st century of the common era. The event which coincided with the celebration of Jewish Pentecost led to a new inclusiveness. The powerful creative life giving Breath of Almighty God was no longer just to come upon a few faithful men. He was poured out on everyone with skin. The rescue this outpouring signified was to reach the sons and daughters of Judaism (crossing gender barriers), spill over to the male and female slaves (crossing social barriers), and then spill out onto the Gentiles (crossing ethnic barriers). The miracles which accompanied this amazing event would continue to mark this new thing God was doing.
It hasn’t always been easy for us Christians to figure that out. We are still prone to show favoritism to one ethnic group, one age group, or one social status, or one sex. It grieves our God when we do that. He wants to reach everyone with skin, and he has no problem animating and empowering Jews and Gentiles, young and old, professionals and manual laborers, men and women.
Lord, purge us of the traditionalism that wants to dominate people whom you have liberated and empowered.
1בָּשָׂר
