Change of Heart
And it shall happen afterward: I will pour My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your elders shall dream dreams, your young men see visions. And even upon male slaves and slavegirls in those days will I pour My Spirit. Joel 3:1-2 Robert Alter
Pour – The Hebrew verb šāpak is commonly used in its metaphorical and religious sense of only one thing: wrath! Over and over again the Bible describes God’s punishing engineering of life with the verb šāpak. Just hearing the sound would be enough to make you quake in fear. What horror is God going to bring next? Paleo Hebrew paints the picture: Sheen – the teeth that consume and destroy, Pey – the spoken word, and Kaf – to cover or to open. Obey and šāpak bring a word that opens the giving palm. Disobey and šāpak closes the fist, destroying your life. When Joel uses this verb, you might expect the listeners anticipated another round of trials:
In the category of metaphoric uses, that of the outpouring of God’s wrath is most frequent. Thus in Isa 42:25 God is depicted as pouring out on Israel the heat of his anger. The symbolism is certainly obvious but nonetheless intensely sobering, and underlies the imagery of the bowls or vials of wrath in Revelation. The expression “pour out your harlotries on every passer-by” (Ezk 16:15; 23:8) describes Is-rael’s promiscuous idolatry. Pouring out one’s heart or soul is an expression still commonly used and well understood.[1]
But Joel takes a word about woe and turns it into blessing. Suddenly šāpak is about all the grace God is going to deliver. All that anticipation of calamity is overturned. The same verb has a new meaning. God is good—to me! God was always good, of course, but in His holy goodness I felt the hand of judgment, the rod of discipline, and the scourge of hardship. Now everything has changed. I can dream dreams (after all, I’m old) without fear. My children can envision visions of calling and purpose. The whole of creation proclaims the favor of the Lord. Šāpak is no longer a term to fear. It’s a word to embrace. “[Now šāpak] is the wonderful promise of the outpouring of the Spirit of God on his people, a lavish and blessed provision on God’s part of his Spirit of grace which will bring about a startling change in men’s hearts, lives and condition (Joel 2:28–29 [H 3:1–2]; Zech 12:10; Ezk 39:29).”[2]
Peter’s application of Joel’s prophecy is set in the framework of the blessing of šāpak. God comes with an open hand. Rejoice! Of course, as we have learned, there are expectations. The proclamation of Joel’s words have a context. We’re supposed to make it happen for others. It took Peter ten years to learn how to apply Joel’s words to his own life—and Peter had first-hand experience with the role model. You and I are separated from the exemplar by about twenty centuries. Maybe that makes it harder. At any rate, we know why Peter messed up. He still thought rabbinically. The God of Israel was just for Israel. The poured-out spirit wasn’t for Gentiles. They were beyond the pale. Unfortunately, today’s Church in the West operates precisely the same way—in reverse. Now Christians think of Jews as the outsiders. Šāpak is still wrath for all those who haven’t come to the Christian Christ. Maybe Christians need a rooftop experience too. If we keep thinking šāpak is still about spilling the blood of sinners[3], then Joel isn’t for us either.
Topical Index: šāpak, pour, pour out, Joel 3:1-2, Joel 2:28-29
[1] Austel, H. J. (1999). 2444 שָׁפַך. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 950). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Cf. Isaiah 42:25
