“And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. 29And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 32And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” Joel 2:28-32
In Joel 2:30 it speaks of there being - ‘Blood’, ‘Fire’ and ‘Pillars of Smoke’ before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. For many Christians this could only mean the judgments of God coming on the earth. An outpouring of God’s wrath upon a sinful mankind and maybe nuclear war. I used to think that this was the only way to interpret this verse, but I now see it differently. Yes there will and has been bloodshed, fires and bombs on the earth, but I don’t think that is what is being said here. God’s judgement, His wrath was poured out upon His Son at the Cross and His ministry to mankind now is one of reconciliation.
When the Prophet Joel gave this prophecy 2300 years ago it was before the cross. He was seeing things far into the future that were amazing to behold. I believe he was speaking of the day coming when Jesus’ blood would be shed for all mankind. He saw the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world. He saw the fire of God’s wrath being put on His Son and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that He would baptise us in the Holy Spirit and Fire and that happened at Pentecost. This was a major event on God’s timetable and worthy of mention, before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. He saw the Holy Spirit coming on all flesh and not just Prophets Priests and Kings as it had been back in Joel’s day. He saw the Spirit coming on men, women and children of all nationalities and not just the Jews, but the Gentiles too.
I believe the Pillars of Smoke that he saw was the concentrated Presence of God turning up in places all around the world - Revival. It’s the end result of the Blood and the Fire. The Presence of God is often described as smoke and clouds in the bible. Look at these 3 verses for instance.
“When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.” 1 Kings 8:10-11
“Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1-4
In Hebrew, the word for ‘Pillars of Smoke’ in Joel 2:30 is ‘Palm Trees’ of Smoke. In Acts 2:19 this same verse is mentioned again on the Day of Pentecost as a ‘Billows of Smoke’. “Blood and fire and billows of smoke.”
There is another interesting verse in Isaiah that must be speaking of the End Times and God’s protecting power. Mount Zion in a New Testament sense is the place where God is enthroned and that’s now in our hearts and in the Church.
“Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” Isaiah 4:5-6
It says that God will create clouds of His Presence over His people. Pillars of Smoke or manifestations of His Presence in the End Times. His people will be walking Pillars of Smoke, carriers of His Presence. The Levites of old were the ones who carried the Ark of God with them on their shoulders. Inside the Ark was the Presence of God. We too have the privilege of carrying the presence of God with us wherever we go, for we are God’s House.
When God’s presence came down in Wales in the early 1900s, there must have been a Pillar of Smoke over the whole land. God’s presence was so strong that the nation turned to God and the Churches filled with people, day and night. I believe God wants to do this again. Yes, I know that the Spirit has now been poured out on all flesh, but this is something different.
Look at Acts 4:31. It says that the whole place was shaken where the Apostles were seated, when the Spirit of God turned up in a special way. This was a unique event and not something, that happened all the time. This was after Pentecost, after the Spirit had been poured out on all flesh. God can cause supernatural things like this to happen that will affect the atmosphere over a Church, a town and a country. He can shake a city, and a Nation and He actually asks us to ask for nations in Psalm 2:8. He asks us to pray that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven in Matthew 6:10. We can pray that God will come down in concentrated Pillars of His Presence and show forth His power in these End Times. May there be Nuclear Explosions of His resurrection Power that dismantle the Enemies strongholds over cities and nations.
In the days of Hezekiah an Angel came down from heaven and struck dead 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. That’s as many as died when the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima to end the war with Japan in 1945. Jesus is greater than any Angel, for He is the Captain of the Angel Armies and He did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. He can lift the veil over a city so that people can see their need for salvation. In Malachi 4:5 it speaks of Elijah coming before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. I believe this is symbolic of the the Spirit Filled Church. One of the highlights of Elijah’s ministry was when he called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel. May we call down God’s Fire, His Presence to save men’s lives and destroy the enemies strongholds. Call down that day that burns as an oven.
“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” Isaiah 64:1-5