Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
This passage from Joel is essentially quoted by Luke in the Book of Acts of the Apostles. Apart from the eschatology, the prophecy and the promises of God, I have reflected on this passage simply in terms of the hierarchy of offices.
1. Sons and daughters shall prophesy. The office of the next generation is the enlightenment of the elders by sight into the future.
2. Young men shall see visions. The order of intellectual ability combined with curiosity and unbridled enthusiasm gives to the young the capacity to alter the future. Some examples for your consideration would be Einstein, who published the theory of special relativity at age 26; Gates (Microsoft at age 20) and Jobs (Apple in his mid-20s) who essentially changed the way the world works; Zuckerberg (Facebook at age 19) who radically changed the way people interact with one another.
3. Old men shall dream dreams. This office is exceedingly easy to fill. I, for example, could easily be in Dreamland before I finish pecking out this sentence on the keyboard, which is made all the more likely by my penchant for running sentences on, like coon dogs, until daybreak. So for old men, dreaming is rather the natural order of things.
Whether there is or is not enlightenment in this reflection is open to interpretation.
2 comments:
but i LOVE your sentence about running sentences on like coon dogs! That is priceless.
Thanks, Shark. But you know I'll have to wonder about the "but"
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