And I will give wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke
On the day of Pentecost the crowd heard their own languages spoken. Peter explained it from the prophet Joel. But his quotation runs past the gift of the Spirit into wonders in the sky and signs on the earth. Nothing like blood, fire and smoke happened in Jerusalem that morning. So was Peter saying Joel's words had already come true?
Peter's wording is careful. He names the character of what was happening, not its completion. (The quotations below come from an older translation than the ESV.)
Notice the point he presses: the wonder in front of them in Jerusalem was, after all, one their own prophets should have prepared them for. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." He does not say it was the fulfilment of the prophecy. Theologians have said so, but the Spirit of God has not. The apostle only says, "This is that which was spoken." That was its character. How much of it was to happen then is another question.
The New Testament has a set phrase for announcing that a prophecy has come true. Here it is missing.
Many passages in the New Testament use the phrase "that it might be fulfilled." That phrase is missing where Joel's prophecy is used in Acts chapter 2. Instead we read that Peter said, "But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel." There is a great difference between this word and an out-and-out declaration that the passage was fulfilled. Peter's words point out that something like what happened on the day of Pentecost had been foretold by Joel. But they do not claim that Joel's prophecy was fulfilled there and then.
Acts later reports "wonders and signs" done by the apostles. Those were not the ones Joel described.
Plainly, the wonders in heaven above and the signs in the earth have not even yet come to pass (Acts 2:19). Verse 43 tells us that "many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles." But those were not the ones Joel foretold: "blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke," the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood. God did pour out His Spirit in Jerusalem as He had promised, so to that extent the prophecy came partly true.
These signs have a purpose. They come before the judgment, and God works the same way with us now.
God will make a striking outward display of His power before the judgment falls. He always sends a witness ahead of the event itself. He does not strike before He warns. He deals with us the same way every day… These wonders are bound to catch people's minds and attention, but they will not take them to heart. Deluded, and hardened under God's judgment, they will turn a deaf ear to it all. So the great and terrible day of the Lord will overtake them like a thief.
Joel ties the outpouring to the nation's repentance. Commentators differ over whether history has already given a small first instalment of the signs.
When they repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on them and on all people. Peter quoted this in Acts 2:16-21, but the nation did not repent; only a remnant turned to the Lord. There will also be signs in the heavens and on the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord. According to the historians, there were some such signs before the destruction of Jerusalem. So this passage, quoted in Acts 2, may have had a partial fulfilment then, though it still waits to be fully proved true in a future day.
Alongside the promise of the Spirit, something less obvious reached that crowd.
It was less prominent, but still clearly there: the Spirit of God had brought home to them the reality of judgment… All nature would shake before its Judge, and that judgment was close at hand.
Notice what the signs are timed against. They belong to the day of the Lord, not to Christ's coming for His people.
This hope may come true this very night. There is nothing at all to wait for… And, blessed be His name, when He does come for us, He will not come with terror, wrath and judgment. He will not come with blackness and darkness and storm. Those things belong to "the day of the Lord," as the apostle Peter tells the Jews plainly in his first great sermon.
- Wording. Peter says "this is that," not "this fulfils that." The New Testament's usual phrase for fulfilment is missing.
- Portion. God did pour out His Spirit, so part of Joel came true. The wonders and signs of this verse have not happened yet.
- Warning. These signs are God's testimony sent ahead of judgment — He does not strike before He warns.
- Deafness. People will see the warning and still ignore it, so the day will overtake them like a thief.
- Hope. Blood, fire and smoke belong to the day of the Lord. Christ's coming for His people is different, and there is nothing left to wait for.
the sun shall be changed to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and gloriously appearing day of [the] Lord come.
Peter explains a morning of wind, fire and foreign languages in Jerusalem by quoting the prophet Joel. Yet Joel's darkened sun and blood-red moon did not appear that day, which raises two questions: was the prophecy finished at Pentecost, and what is "the day of the Lord" these signs come before?
Peter introduced the whole quotation in verse 16 with the words "this is that." One writer weighs what those words claim:
It is strange that all these commentators use the word "fulfillment" for this prophecy. They say Peter called the day of Pentecost the fulfillment of what Joel wrote. But the Holy Spirit did not use the word "fulfillment" at all. He avoided such a statement on purpose. Many passages in the New Testament use the phrase "that it might be fulfilled." Peter does not use it here. Instead he says, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." … Peter's words point out that Joel had predicted something like what took place on the day of Pentecost. They do not claim that Joel's prophecy was fulfilled there and then. … The outpouring of the Holy Spirit had taken place, but not in the full sense given in Joel's prophecy. He came for a special purpose, the formation of the Church, and for this purpose He is still on earth.
Nothing in the sky changed that morning. One writer marks off the part of Joel that was left for later:
The verses he quotes (Joel 2:28-32) were not completely fulfilled when God poured out His Spirit at Pentecost. Verses 19 and 20 at least will be fulfilled only at the time of the tribulation period. Yet his words "this is that" show that God was doing an unusually striking work, in line with that prophecy. Such partial fulfilments are not unusual in Scripture.
The word "before" carries the verse. One writer draws a rule from that order and applies it to daily life:
God will show His power in a remarkable, visible way before He carries out the judgment. God always sends a testimony before the thing itself. He does not strike before He warns. He deals with us the same way every day. What Christian feels God's discipline before the Spirit of God has warned him? … He gives us the chance, if one may say so, to set ourselves morally right; and if we do not take the lesson, then the sorrow comes. So it is here too. These wonders are bound to catch people's minds and attention, but they will not truly heed them. … They will turn a deaf ear to it all, and so the great and terrible day of the Lord will overtake them like a thief.
Peter's hearers already knew this phrase from their own Scriptures. One writer sums up what it means wherever it appears:
On the day of Pentecost Peter speaks of "the day of the Lord, the great and magnificent day." … In all these passages, and in 1 Thessalonians 5, the phrase points to sudden and overwhelming judgments on the wicked. Those judgments open the way for Christ to set up His kingdom on earth by power.
Commentators differ on how to read the sun and moon here. Some take the language as a picture of authority collapsing:
Signs in the sun. These probably stand for the darkening and change of those in supreme authority over the earth in the last days.
Another writer takes the same words at face value:
In Joel the sun is darkened and the moon turned to blood before the day comes. I take it that if the sea in the appointed area literally becomes like the blood of a dead man, then the moon is literally turned into blood too. But then that is before the great and terrible day of the Lord in Joel.
Some read these signs as events believers must wait through. One writer asks what the word "before" actually points to:
Christ may come for His people tonight. Nothing stands in the way. … And when He does come for us, He will not come with terror, wrath, and judgment. He will not come with blackness and darkness and storm. Those things belong to "the day of the Lord," as Peter tells the Jews in his first great sermon on the day of Pentecost … "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before" — what? Before the coming of the Lord for His people? No; but before "the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day."
- Sample, not completion. Peter says "this is that," not "this fulfils that." Pentecost matched Joel's words but did not use them up.
- Still future. Nothing in the sky changed that morning. The darkened sun and blood-red moon belong to the tribulation still ahead.
- Before, always before. God sends a warning ahead of the blow. He never strikes first — not in world judgment, and not in His daily dealings with us.
- A day of judgment. "The day of the Lord" means sudden, sweeping judgment on the wicked that opens Christ's kingdom on earth.
- A different expectation. These terrors come before that day, not before the Lord's coming for His people. Nothing has to happen first.