August 25, Joel 2
”Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. - Joel 2:12-13
After the locusts devoured every green thing in the land, God put his hand on another band of invaders. This time the destruction would come not from swarms of insects, but from an overwhelming host of soldiers who would destroy the cities and kill many inhabitants.
God sent a warning of approaching doom through Joel that was like an alarm trumpet that signaled the approach of a fierce and overpowering enemy. A final call to repentance came with the warning. At this late date, with God's plan already underway to bring the brutal Assyrians against them, the LORD still assured his delinquent people that he loved them. He would gladly show them mercy and call off the powerful enemy, if they would repent.
Joel used that phrase common to the other prophets who spoke of judgment: "The day of the LORD." He used it in each chapter of this little book. In Joel 2, the day of the LORD has a double meaning. Joel looked ahead to the final judgment and the days of Messiah's kingdom. He called that the day of the LORD. But he also used it to describe a much nearer in time judgment, the judgment of God against his rebellious chosen nation.
God would change his plans if the Israelites would change their minds and repent. The invasion and destruction didn’t have to happen. God would relent if they would repent and return to him. But the repentance would have to be wholehearted. He would not compromise his holiness and accept a professed repentance from a divided heart.
The repentance would have to be genuine. A ritualistic garment-rending would not substitute for a genuine heart-rending. God wanted them to repent. He described his holy heart as gracious, merciful and slow to anger. He was eager to relent about the punishment and forgive those who repented. Another trumpet blast summoned the people to assemble. None were exempted, all were ordered to appear before God to be judged. He taught the priests the vocabulary of repentance to lead the people back to God.
God had a double motive to forgive and spare the Israelites who would repent. He would save them and uphold the glory of his name by preserving and delivering them. He also loved and pitied these people who were headed to destruction. He did not demand some impossible task they had to perform before he would change his mind. They only had to turn back to him.
The hand of God that had been so strong and severe in punishment could be equally strong and gentle in restoring his penitent ones. They had forfeited blessings during their years of idolatry. But God said he could restore those years. The time could not be restored, but the blessings they missed could be theirs again when they came back to God and made him their only God. God had taught and commanded the nation at Mt. Sinai to have no other gods. But they had turned to idols. He was calling them back to the original terms of their covenant with him.
It's sad that there was either no repentance or a very short-lived one across the nation. God may have delayed the immediate threat, but they would soon be in trouble again as they persisted in doing evil.
Most of us know something about Joel 2 because Peter quoted from it on the day of Pentecost. He said the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostle that the crowd witnessed that day was the fulfillment of God's promise in Joel to pour out his spirit on all flesh. Peter's words remind us of the certainty of God's word, and the double meaning of “the day of the Lord” in some passages.
Once again, God's absolute sovereignty, the certainty of his word and the great love in his heart for broken, sinful people shines in this chapter. Which of these magnificent attributes of God is most comforting and precious to you today?
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—August 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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