This prophecy concerning the pouring out of God’s Spirit as the early rain for Israel’s salvation was fulfilled as a foretaste by the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 16-21), and it will be fulfilled as a full taste by the pouring out of the Spirit a second time, before the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), for the salvation and regeneration of many of the returned Israelites. This second outpouring is different from the pouring out of the Spirit as the late rain on the last day of the tribulation for the salvation of the remnant of the Jews under Antichrist’s besieging (Zech. 12:10).
In the Bible and in the Minor Prophets four things are unveiled: God’s chastisement on His elect people, God’s punishment of the nations, the manifestation of Christ, and the restoration. These four matters are covered in Joel, a short book of three chapters. First, God sent the locusts to consume Israel (Joel 1:2-20; 2:1-11). This was God’s chastisement because of Israel’s great evils. Then, this book reveals that God will punish and judge the Gentile nations because in their consuming of Israel they are excessive, acting without regard for justice (Joel 3:1-16, 19). God’s chastising of Israel and His punishing of the nations issue in the manifestation of Christ. Regarding this manifestation, Joel speaks here concerning the outpouring of the processed, consummated, compound Spirit, i.e., the Spirit of God compounded with Christ’s humanity, Christ’s death and its effectiveness, and Christ’s resurrection with its power (see note Exo. 30:251). This is the Holy Spirit, who was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 16-21), and this Spirit is the consummated Triune God and the realization of Christ for the manifestation of Christ. This manifestation began with the incarnation of Christ and has been confirmed and strengthened by the outpouring of the Spirit, for through that outpouring the individual Christ became the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), the church as the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The church as the manifestation of Christ will bring in the glorious day of restoration, the age of the millennial kingdom (Joel 3:16-21), in which Christ will be manifested in a fuller way. The restoration will consummate in the fullest manifestation of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). See note Joel 1:41.