Internal Prophecy Loop Thingy

I suppose for centuries the faithful followed the words of Joel, but what did his words mean? Young men seeing visions? Men AND WOMEN prophesying? And the words of King David ... a body not decaying? What's up with that??

Baffled, the faithful kept these words from generation to generation, even though it seemed like a fool's musing. I can just see scribes copying page after page, never really understanding the ink on their papyrus.

We do know that Jesus explained the prophecies to Peter and the other disciples. But, did they "get" it? From what we know of these 12 students, they always choked on anything "meaty,"  asking what seemed like silly questions. Jesus didn't laugh. He interacted with them on their level.

In Acts 2, we have a break-away from the novice learner on the part of Peter. The prophecy and the scriptures are explained very articulately. This man of the sea was only a little while earlier more interested in fishing.

In fact, Peter is really the LEAST LIKELY of any of the remaining disciples to step forward and speak to the crowd. It took guts and if I recall from the nights of Jesus' capture and trial, Peter had been a bit of a wimp. Too ashamed and frightened, he didn't want to be beaten or jailed.

In Acts 2 this is a different man.

In fact, this is one of those rare instances in scripture where old prophecies are in a time warp of sorts.

Peter cites David and Joel. Before today, no one knew what these guys were talking about.

Is Peter prophesying too? Isn't he talking about the PAST few months? What about future generations? I think this is an internal-external, transcendental prophecy loop thingy.

A rare one.

Imagine being able to sit at the feet of the prophets and get their "first hand" impression of what it was like to write down these words THOUSANDS of years ago!

Joel, did it ever seem real... like it was actually going to happen??

King David, did you hesitate to understand what you were writing? Didn't it seem like odd words flowing from your quill?

Peter, what did it feel like to step up to the microphone at the podium? Did you know what you were going to say?

The wonder of it! Oh, I can't wait to ask about this one.

Created over 1 year ago