(29) And also (better, even) upon the servants. . . .--The result of which promise, according to St. Peter's interpretation, is "They shall prophesy." "The promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:39).
2:28-32 The promise began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and it was continued in the converting grace and miraculous gifts conferred on both Jews and Gentiles. The judgments of God upon a sinful world, only go before the judgment of the world in the last day. Calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire toward him, dependence on him, and, as evidence of the sincerity of all this, conscientious obedience to him. Those only shall be delivered in the great day, who are now effectually called from sin to God, from self to Christ, from things below to things above.
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour my Spirit. Men servants and maidservants should partake of the gifts and grace of the Spirit in great, abundance; and many of them were effectually called by grace, through the ministry of the word; and some servants became ministers of it; all which appears from 1 Corinthians 7:21; for that is not true what the Jews (p) say, the Shechinah or divine Majesty does not rest but upon a wise man, and one mighty and rich; or prophecy, as Maimonides (q) has it.
(p) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 92. 1.((q) Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 32.
(p) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 92. 1.((q) Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 32.