Even Now...

 

Read Joel 2

The first chapter charged those who should have known better to wake up!  Judgment was coming.  Joel continued in the second chapter with what he would label as the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.

Mostly, he focused on the second part.

Darkness, gloom, clouds, and blackness headline what’s coming.  Let’s add an army like never seen before.  This may be an army of locusts that devour.

If that were not enough, there will be fire that precedes the invasion and is still burning afterward.

What looked like the Garden of Eden before will be a desert wasteland afterward.

No place will be left untouched.  People will tremble in fear.

Could this be an army of locusts or is this the battle in which the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords leads the charge?  The answer is yes.

This was prophecy for the near term in Judah.  Calamity was coming.

This is prophecy for the end of the age.  Things will get really bad before the end.

We see the cosmic disturbance that Jesus mentioned to his disciples in Matthew 24. That tells us that this part was still to come.

Who can endure the Day of the Lord?

Joel’s prophecy does not answer so much who can endure the Day of the Lord but how we can endure it.

Even now—at this late date return to God with all of your heart.

Even now—your time is not up yet, so do the things that signal repentance.

Even now—all is not lost.  Do you know God? Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

That was from Jonah 4.  Let’s see how Joel presents God to his people.

He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

    and he relents from sending calamity.

God desires none to perish. His desire is for all to come to repentance.

Joel’s prophecy called upon the people to rend their hearts and not their garments. Return to the Lord.

Rend your heart

    and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

    and he relents from sending calamity.

Who knows? He may turn and relent

    and leave behind a blessing—

grain offerings and drink offerings

    for the Lord your God.

Do you remember what the King of Nineveh said in Jonah 3?

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.  But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.  Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

The king of Nineveh made sure that his people—and even the livestock—at least had the outward signs of repentance.

Joel calls upon people to repent with their hearts.  Repent with your very being.

Then they are to call out to God and ask him to remember them as his prize possession.  Don’t let them be an object of scorn for the world.

Repent, return to God, and call upon him to spare you.

For us today:  Repent, Profess Jesus is Lord, live as his disciple.

Amen.