Joel 1:1-7
TODAY IN THE WORDSome
counselors utilize a concept called “tough love”--a love that is
strong enough to be tough when needed. Parents show tough love to a
child when they refuse to give in to a temper tantrum. Tough love is
strong enough to reprove one who needs correction, and it is willing
to allow others to suffer the consequences of their foolish actions in
the hope that they will learn from their experiences.
God often expresses tough love
in the form of divine discipline. Jesus told the church of Laodicea,
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent”
(Re 3:19). This was also God’s message to His people through the
prophet Joel.
We do not know when the book of Joel was written. The lack of any
reference to Judah’s king has prompted some scholars to suggest that
it was written during the time when Joash, the boy king, ruled Judah
(835-739 B.C., see 2Ki 11–12). Other scholars think that the book
was written some time after the Babylonian exile. All that is known of
the book’s author is that his name was Joel and that he was the son of Pethuel (Joel
1:1).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
Can you think of the events in your life that God has used to get your
attention? Perhaps He has used the consequences of your own actions to
help you see the folly of making sinful choices. Or He may have used
circumstances that are beyond your control to show you your need for
His power and grace. Such experiences are not for your benefit alone.
Like the tough love experienced by those in Joel’s day, these lessons
can benefit others. Ask some trusted friends to share some things God
has used to get their attention and the lessons they learned as a
result. Share your story and thank God together for His tough love.
Joel 1:3
Morning and Evening
C H Spurgeon
“Tell ye your children of it,
and let your children tell their children, and their children another
generation.” — Joel 1:3
In this simple way, by God’s grace, a living testimony for truth is
always to be kept alive in the land—the beloved of the Lord are to
hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their
heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first
duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who
does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought
by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home
has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the
Lord’s arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we
cannot delegate it to Sunday school teachers, or other friendly aids;
these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation;
proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and
fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of
God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of
the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty—who so fit to look
to the child’s well-being as those who are the authors of his actual
being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than
brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family
itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is
covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means
for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the
instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken
to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to
talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it
has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the
children through the parents’ prayers and admonitions. May every house
into which this volume shall come honour the Lord and receive his
smile.
Joel 1:8-12
TODAY IN THE WORD
Godly sorrow brings repentance
that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. - 2 Corinthians 7:10
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the
British painter and poet, was so desolate when his wife committed
suicide after only two years of marriage that he vowed to bury the
poems he had written for her. He placed the book in the coffin,
wrapped in the tresses of her long hair. But after a few years
Rossetti regretted his decision. He believed that the poems were some
of the best he had ever written. It seemed senseless to leave them
buried. After a lengthy court battle Rossetti won the legal right to
open the grave and recover the book.
Rossetti’s change of heart is
similar to the way some people approach repentance. They may resolve
to make changes or take action. But when the initial discomfort of
their guilt dies down, they may have second thoughts and regret their
decision. Others would prefer to avoid the discomfort of repentance
altogether. They prefer a painless faith without the anguish of
repentance. God, however, values repentance. One reason He allowed the
people of Joel’s day to experience the devastation of the locust
plagues was to bring them to a point of genuine grief over their sins
(Joel 1:8). The resulting cessation of grain and drink offerings served as
a painful reminder of the way their sins had hindered their fellowship
with God (cf. Nu 29:39). These were hard measures designed to
shatter their complacency. God intended for His people to feel remorse
for their sin. The Hebrew term that is translated “despair” in Joel 1:11 might also be translated “be ashamed.” But this was not His only
purpose. He did not merely hope that these experiences would make
people feel badly about their sins. He also wanted them to “wail” or
lament (Joel 1:11). True repentance expresses sorrow for sin.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
Can you think of a time when you felt sorrow for sin? How did you
respond to the sense of guilt and shame that you experienced? Not all
sorrow for sin is true repentance. Genuine repentance may be painful,
but it will enable you to see your need for the forgiveness that only
Christ can offer. It is not too late to express your repentance for
sin and to ask for God’s help in making the necessary changes in your
life. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1John
1:9).
Joel
1:13-15
TODAY IN THE WORD
Just as sin reigned in death, so
also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life
through Jesus Christ. - Ro 5:21
When Arthur Andersen auditing firm was indicted for destroying
documents related to a Federal investigation of one of its clients,
some of the firm’s employees staged a public protest. One employee
even wrote to the President of the United States, complaining that the
indictment was unfair because of what it implied about the thousands
of honest employees who worked for the company. “They are casting
doubt on our honesty and our integrity,” he wrote. Some of the people
of Joel’s day would identify with this complaint. They too may have
wondered whether it was fair for many to suffer for the sins of a few.
The plague of locusts that had
so devastated Israel’s crops carried an important lesson. Sin is not
just an individual matter--it is a corporate one as well. The proper
response was for God’s people to take responsibility for the sins of
their nation and seek God’s forgiveness. Speaking through the prophet,
the Lord called for Israel’s national and religious leaders to
publicly express their grief for their sin in a “holy fast” and a
“sacred assembly” (Joel 1:14). The priests were instructed to take the
lead and summon both the elders and the people to the sanctuary in
order to fast and cry out to God for deliverance.
The Bible supports the idea of corporate guilt. Israel’s defeat at Ai
is a good example (see Josh 7:1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Only one man violated God’s command
not to take any of the plunder from the defeat of Jericho, yet the
Lord spoke in plural terms when He apportioned the blame (Josh 7:1).
Only one man had sinned, yet both the guilt and its consequences were
shared.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
Just as in Joel’s day, one way that God’s people can express their
grief over sin is through fasting. Fasting does not remove guilt--only
God’s grace could do that for them. But it is a way to express
repentance. If your physical health permits, why not skip a meal and
spend that time confessing sin to the Father? Pray for yourself, your
church, and your nation--God is pleased by our recognition of our
corporate responsibility and our heartfelt repentance. When you are
finished, thank God for His grace and mercy.
Joel 1:14
F B Meyer
Our Daily Homily
Joel 1:14 Sanctify a fast, call
a solemn assembly, gather the elders, and cry unto the Lord. (r.v.,
marg.)
It was a terrible invasion. The
locusts had lighted down upon the land of Israel; so that the seeds
rotted under the clods; garners were desolate; the barns were broken
down. Despair took hold of the husbandman; and the herds and flocks
panted out their anguish. At this juncture the prophet called for a
national fast.
Whenever our life is visited by
special trials and perplexities, we should withdraw ourselves from
common pursuits, and lay bare our heart-secrets, so that we may learn
the cause of God’s controversy with us. There is a reason and a
needs-be; because He does not afflict willingly, or grieve the
children of men.
From time to time a call for
prayer has issued from the hearts of men closest in touch with heaven.
In the middle of the eighteenth century Jonathan Edwards issued such
an appeal; and this led to that union of prayer, which played so
significant a part in the origination of the great missionary
societies. It was notably the effect of that appeal on Sutcliffe,
Rylands, Fuller, and Carey, that led to the formation of the Baptist
Missionary Society at the close of the eighteenth century.
It may be that a wave of prayer
is again about to break over the Church. There are many signs of it.
We hear Christian people saying on all hands that they want to get
back to God; and surely it would be one of the most significant signs
of the unity of the Church and the power of the Holy Spirit, if such a
prayer wave were to lift us all on to a new level of intercession for
the Church of God and the world around us. We need not wait for the
Church to appoint.
Joel
1:16-20
TODAY IN THE WORD
God disciplines us for our good,
that we may share in his holiness. - Hebrews 12:10b
A mother was working in the
kitchen when she heard the sound of whimpering on the back porch. When
she opened the door, she saw her small son sitting on the steps
nursing a bruised finger and crying. He and a friend had been loading
rocks in a basket when one of the rocks had landed on his hand. “Why
didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” his mother asked. The boy
sheepishly replied that he had been afraid to come to her. “Afraid?”
she said in amazement. “Why would you be afraid?” “I thought you might
be angry,” the boy explained. The mother bandaged her son’s finger and
as she hugged him she said, “You never have to be afraid to come to us
when you are hurt.”
The consequences of Israel’s
disobedience in Joel’s day had been painful for both man and beast. A
combination of locusts and drought had destroyed the crops. Men and
animals alike were suffering. What is more, the shortage of food had
interrupted the cycle of temple sacrifices and festivals (Joel 1:16). The
pitiful lowing of hungry cattle and the bleating of starving sheep
mirrored the anguished cries of God’s people (Joel 1:18). As Joel watched
wild fires consume land and crops, he added his voice to this chorus
of suffering (Joel 1:19). This was God’s intention. His design was that
Israel’s suffering would make them aware of their own sin and would
instill in them a longing for restoration. These sufferings prompted
God’s creation to “pant” or long after God (Joel 1:20). It could only be
hoped that His people would be as wise as the animals they tended.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
How have you responded to the difficult circumstances in your life?
Would you say that they have drawn you closer to God, or are you in
danger of being driven away from Him? Take time to examine the
difficulties you face. How has God been using them to teach you more
about His faithfulness and forgiveness? While not every problem you
meet may be a case of divine discipline, you can have confidence that
God is lovingly working through the events that come your way to
produce righteousness and peace in your life.
Joel 2:1-11
TODAY IN THE WORD
Let all who live in the land
tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand. -
Joel 2:1b
When a case is examined in a
courtroom, not everyone arrives with the same agenda. The prosecutor
hopes to make a case to convict the defendant. The accused, if
innocent, looks for vindication. The defendant who is guilty may look
for mercy. The judge, on the other hand, should be interested only in
seeing that justice is done. Unfortunately, in human affairs this
doesn’t describe every judge. The Persian ruler Cambyses II, the son
of Cyrus the Great, discovered that a judge in his kingdom was
notoriously corrupt. He had the man flayed alive and then ordered that
his skin be used to cover the seat upon which his successors would
render their decisions. Though not every unjust judge will receive
rebuke here on earth--certainly not to the extent exercised by
Cambyses II--they will answer to the justice of God.
The Old Testament phrase “Day of
the Lord” refers to a time when God will judge the nations. God’s
judgment is always just, and for this reason the prophet Joel warned
that the Day of the Lord would be “a day of darkness and gloom, a day
of clouds and blackness” (Joel 2:2). Just as the locust plague in Joel’s
day blotted out the light of the sun, the future day of the Lord would
be a day of disaster for sinners. Other prophets describe this as a
time when men’s hearts will melt with fear and sinners will be judged
(Is 13:6, 7, 8, 9). In particular, they predict that it will be a time when
the Gentile nations will be called to account (Ezek 30:3; Obadiah
1:15). The devastation and darkness of the locust plague of Joel’s day
brought to mind cosmic disturbances that would accompany the coming
Day of the Lord. They compelled the prophet to make this observation:
“The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” The
implied answer: “Nobody!”
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
If the Day of the Lord were to come today, how would you fare? Only
those who have been declared righteous by faith in Christ will be able
to endure that day.
Joel 2:8
Morning and Evening
C H Spurgeon
“Neither shall one thrust
another; they shall walk every one in his path.” — Joel 2:8
Locusts always keep their rank, and although their number is legion,
they do not crowd upon each other, so as to throw their columns into
confusion. This remarkable fact in natural history shows how
thoroughly the Lord has infused the spirit of order into his universe,
since the smallest animate creatures are as much controlled by it as
are the rolling spheres or the seraphic messengers. It would be wise
for believers to be ruled by the same influence in all their spiritual
life. In their Christian graces no one virtue should usurp the sphere
of another, or eat out the vitals of the rest for its own support.
Affection must not smother honesty, courage must not elbow weakness
out of the field, modesty must not jostle energy, and patience must
not slaughter resolution. So also with our duties, one must not
interfere with another; public usefulness must not injure private
piety; church work must not push family worship into a corner. It is
ill to offer God one duty stained with the blood of another. Each
thing is beautiful in its season, but not otherwise. It was to the
Pharisee that Jesus said, “This ought ye to have done, and not to have
left the other undone.” The same rule applies to our personal
position, we must take care to know our place, take it, and keep to
it. We must minister as the Spirit has given us ability, and not
intrude upon our fellow servant’s domain. Our Lord Jesus taught us not
to covet the high places, but to be willing to be the least among the
brethren. Far from us be an envious, ambitious spirit, let us feel the
force of the Master’s command, and do as he bids us, keeping rank with
the rest of the host. To-night let us see whether we are keeping the
unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, and let our prayer be that,
in all the churches of the Lord Jesus, peace and order may prevail.
Joel 2:11
Morning and Evening
C H Spurgeon
“His camp is very great.” — Joel
2:11
Consider, my soul, the mightiness of the Lord who is thy glory and
defence. He is a man of war, Jehovah is his name. All the forces of
heaven are at his beck, legions wait at his door, cherubim and
seraphim;, watchers and holy ones, principalities and powers, are all
attentive to his will. If our eyes were not blinded by the ophthalmia
of the flesh, we should see horses of fire and chariots of fire round
about the Lord’s beloved. The powers of nature are all subject to the
absolute control of the Creator: stormy wind and tempest, lightning
and rain, and snow, and hail, and the soft dews and cheering sunshine,
come and go at his decree. The bands of Orion he looseth, and bindeth
the sweet influences of the Pleiades. Earth, sea, and air, and the
places under the earth, are the barracks for Jehovah’s great armies;
space is his camping ground, light is his banner, and flame is his
sword. When he goeth forth to war, famine ravages the land, pestilence
smites the nations, hurricane sweeps the sea, tornado shakes the
mountains, and earthquake makes the solid world to tremble. As for
animate creatures, they all own his dominion, and from the great fish
which swallowed the prophet, down to “all manner of flies,” which
plagued the field of Zoan, all are his servants, and like the
palmer-worm, the caterpillar, and the cankerworm, are squadrons of his
great army, for his camp is very great. My soul, see to it that thou
be at peace with this mighty King, yea, more, be sure to enlist under
his banner, for to war against him is madness, and to serve him is
glory. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, is ready to receive recruits for
the army of the Lord: if I am not already enlisted let me go to him
ere I sleep, and beg to be accepted through his merits; and if I be
already, as I hope I am, a soldier of the cross, let me be of good
courage; for the enemy is powerless compared with my Lord, whose camp
is very great.
Joel
2:12-17
Our Daily Bread
So rend your heart, and not your garments (Joel 2:13).
The Baouli people of West Africa describe repentance this way:
"It hurts so much I want to quit
it."
Genuine repentance hurts our
pride and wounds our ego. But it's a necessary and healing hurt.
John Calvin said,
"Let everyone search himself and he
will find that he labors under this evil—that he would rather rend his
garment than his heart." Calvin was thinking of the time God brought
His people Israel to repentance by sending a vast army of locusts to
invade the land. The insects consumed all vegetation and stripped
fruit trees and gardens bare. Man and animals languished under the
effects of this widespread devastation. The prophet Joel seized the
occasion to call Israel to repentance, to "rend your heart, and not
your garments."
According to the record, they
heeded his warning and turned from their sin (Joel 3:18, 19).
Sometimes we find ourselves hemmed in by economic or domestic
pressures. And sometimes accidents or natural tragedies disrupt our
lives. Through these events we recognize our need for God. It's as if
He is saying, "Examine your life and conduct. Are you walking with Me,
obeying My commands, putting Me first?"
God pleads with us to "rend our heart" when we sin so He can relieve
our pain and show Himself as a gracious God, ready to forgive, slow to
anger, and full of mercy. —D. J. De Haan (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Repentance is sorrow for the deed,
not for being caught.
Joel
2:12-17
TODAY IN THE WORD
Return to the LORD your God, for
he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
- Joel 2:13
A businessman whose unethical practices were widely known once told
Mark Twain of the pilgrimage he hoped to make some day. “Before I
die,” he said, “I will climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments
aloud at the top.” Twain was not impressed. “I have a better idea” he
retorted. “You could stay at home in Boston and keep them.”
Religious observances like
fasting can have great value. But they were never meant to serve as a
substitute for genuine repentance. In Joel’s day God’s people engaged
in religious rituals like fasting and tearing their garments. The
problem with these efforts was that they were not performed with a
repentant heart (Joel 2:12). As far as God was concerned, the outward form
of such rituals was not nearly as important as the attitude of the
heart. He challenged them saying, “Rend your hearts and not your
garments” (Joel 2:13). He also reminded them of the description of His
compassion that He gave to Moses after Israel had sinned with the
golden calf (Ex. 34:6, 7). This description underscored the folly of
their mechanical approach to worship.
True repentance is not a matter of perfunctory observance of certain
rituals but is grounded in relationship. Those who turn to God in
repentance do not base their appeal for forgiveness on their own
performance but upon God’s character. In Joel 2:13 the prophet gives
them five reasons for “rending their hearts”: God’s grace, compassion,
patience, love, and mercy. Based upon this, the prophet called upon
the priests to declare a sacred assembly in the hope that sincere
repentance would result in restoration. This was to be a universal
expression of grief over sin. Although public and formal, it was also
to be sincere (Joel 2:12).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
We are to approach God with the confidence that He sees what is done
in secret and knows all that we truly need. As you approach God in
prayer today, ask yourself whether you are merely going through the
motions. Has your devotional life become too mechanical? Perhaps it is
time to make a change. Take a walk and use what you see as a basis for
prayer. Find a hymn and let its words guide your devotional time.
Whatever you choose to do, be sure that you engage your heart first.
Joel 2:13
Morning and Evening
C H Spurgeon
“Rend your heart, and not your
garments.” — Joel 2:13
Garment-rending and other outward signs of religious emotion, are
easily manifested and are frequently hypocritical; but to feel true
repentance is far more difficult, and consequently far less common.
Men will attend to the most multiplied and minute ceremonial
regulations—for such things are pleasing to the flesh—but true
religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the
tastes of the carnal men; they prefer something more ostentatious,
flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are temporarily comfortable;
eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness
is puffed up: but they are ultimately delusive, for in the article of
death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more
substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital
godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere
heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery
of the majesty of heaven.
Heart-rending is divinely wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret
grief which is personally experienced, not in mere form, but as a
deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of
each believer. It is not a matter to be merely talked of and believed
in, but keenly and sensitively felt in every living child of the
living God. It is powerfully humiliating, and completely sin-purging;
but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations
which proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is
distinctly discriminating, for it belongs to the elect of God, and to
them alone.
The text commands us to rend our hearts, but they are naturally hard
as marble: how, then, can this be done? We must take them to Calvary:
a dying Saviour’s voice rent the rocks once, and it is as powerful
now. O blessed Spirit, let us hear the death-cries of Jesus, and our
hearts shall be rent even as men rend their vestures in the day of
lamentation.
Joel 2:13
September 27, 2003
Happy New Year!
READ: Joel 2:12-17
Rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God,
for He is gracious and merciful. —Joel 2:13
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New
Year, is regarded as the anniversary of the day that God created the
world. The celebration begins with a blast of the shofar (ram's horn)
to announce that the God who created the world is still the One ruling
it. The blowing of the horn also begins a 10-day period of
self-examination and repentance leading to Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement (Leviticus 23:23-32; Nu 29:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
The prophet Joel urged people not to just go through the motions of
repentance, but to turn from their sins and obey God (Joel 2:13). In
his day, tearing garments was a sign of sorrow for sin. It made a good
show, but it didn't impress God. He was more concerned with their
hearts.
Especially interesting is the basis for Joel's appeal. It wasn't only
to avoid God's wrath, but also to enjoy God's grace, compassion, and
love. Sometimes we think of God as being heavy-handed with punishment
and tight-fisted with mercy. The words of Joel remind us that the
opposite is true. The Lord is slow to punish and eager to forgive.
There's no better way to celebrate God's creation than to let Him
re-create your heart through faith in Jesus the Messiah and turn your
desires toward Him. —Julie Ackerman Link (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
When I tried to cover my sin,
My guilt I could not shake;
But when I sought Your mercy, Lord,
My sin I did forsake. —Hess
Confession is the key
that opens the door to forgiveness.
Joel 2:14
August 23, 2006
God Fights Against Us
READ: Joel 2:12-17
Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him?
—Joel 2:14
In Joel’s book of prophecy, God
declared: “I am in the midst of Israel . . . . My people shall never
be put to shame” (Joel 2:27). But earlier in the chapter God promised to
fight against His people. A plague of locusts would descend like a
ravenous army on the nation (Joel 2:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).
It’s hard to fathom that the Lord would fight against His chosen
people. But Israel had given their affections to other gods.
In fact, God had fought against them before. “Wherever they went out,
the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity” (Jdg 2:15).
I have learned that if my own heart wanders away from God, I can count
on Him to fight to bring me back. If I become proud and self-assured,
if reading God’s Word and spending time in prayer seem like a waste of
time, God will step in and deal with me.
God will fight against us for our good. He permits us to experience
defeat so that we will listen to Him when He says, “Rend your heart,
and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:13).
Don’t wait for God to fight against you before you seek His face.
Return to Him today. —Albert Lee (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Because our Father’s heart is grieved
Each time we go astray,
He lifts His chastening hand in love
To help us find His way. —D. De Haan
God’s hand of discipline is a hand of love
Joel
2:18-27
TODAY IN THE WORD
Never again will my people be
shamed. - Joel 2:26b
In the magazine Today’s Christian Woman, Linore Burkhard wrote of the
time she went for a walk with her two-year-old daughter. Suddenly the
toddler let go of her mother’s hand and began to run ahead, with her
frantic mother chasing close behind. The little girl was just about to
step into a busy street when she lost her balance and fell. As
Burkhard stooped to pick her up, she shuddered to think about what
might have happened. She recognized a surprising blessing and a
valuable spiritual lesson in her daughter’s bruises that she now
attempted to soothe. “What we don’t see while we’re feeling pain is
God’s hidden purpose” Burkhard explained. “Sometimes, the very
incident we see as hurtful is God’s way of protecting us from worse
harm.”
As we have seen, the devastation
of the locust plague was intended to move God’s people to genuine
repentance. The wonderful promise was that God would respond with zeal
for the devastated land and pity for His afflicted people, both
objects of God’s jealousy and covenant promises (Joel 2:18). This may seem
surprising. The Bible often condemns jealousy in human relationships
(Ro 13:13; 1Co 3:3; 2Co 12:20). Yet our God is a jealous God
(Ex 34:14; 1Co 10:22). One of the chief differences between divine
and human jealousy is that human jealousy is self-centered. God’s
jealousy is directed toward the best interests of His people. Some
have suggested that it might be easier to understand God’s jealousy as
zeal for those He loves. God does not want His people to have anything
other than Himself as the object of their worship. He alone is God!
God’s ultimate desire was not to punish His people but to restore
them. He promised to send new wine, grain, and oil, He promised never
to make them an object of scorn among the nations. In addition, He
promised to drive the “army”
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
God may not shield us from the results of our sinful actions, but He
will forgive and accept as His children all those who come to Him by
faith in Christ.
Joel 2:25
F B Meyer
Our Daily Homily
Joel 2:25 I will restore to you
the peace that the locusts hath eaten.
How many years of our life have
been consumed by the locust! Self in one form or another has sorely
robbed us of our golden sheaves, reducing them to dust.
Self-indulgence, frivolity, wanton spend-thriftiness of time, and
talent, and opportunity, sloth and lethargy, mixed and evil motives,
secret sins—what a crew are there! They have played the part of the
caterpillar, the cankerworm, and the palmerworm with the green promise
and the yellow produce of our lives.
But God waits to forgive; to put
away from his mind the memory of the wasted past; to place the crown
of a new hope upon our brow—yea, more, to restore to us the years that
the locust hath eaten. There shall be a revenue of glory to Him even
from those wasted years. Either in the experience they shall have
communicated to us for dealing with other men, or in the penitential
and broken-hearted temper they shall have begotten in ourselves; those
years shall yet yield crops of praise to God, and of fruitfulness to
us. And, also, God is prepared so to add his blessing to us, in the
present and future, as to give us in each year not only the years
produce, but much more, so that each year will be laden and weighted
with the blessing of three or four beside. Where sin abounded, grace
shall much more abound. Where we have sown, we shall reap; not
thirty-fold only, but a hundred-fold. God is so anxious to give us as
large a result as possible to show for our life’s work, though we may
have sadly wrecked its earlier portions. Did He not restore to Peter
at Pentecost what he wasted in the hall of judgment? Did not Paul win
harvests for Christ out of the years which preceded his conversion?
Joel 2:25
Losses Overcome
Faith's Checkbook
C H Spurgeon
“And l will restore to you the
years that the locusthath eaten.”—Joel 2:25
YES, those wasted years over
which we sigh shall be restored to us. God can give us such plentiful
grace that we shall crowd into the remainder of our days as much of
service as will be some recompense for those years of unregeneracy
over which we mourn in humble penitence.
The locusts of backsliding,
worldliness, and lukewarmness are now viewed by us as a terrible
plague. Oh that they had never come near us! The Lord in mercy has now
taken them away, and we are full of zeal to serve Him. Blessed be His
name, we can raise such harvests of spiritual graces as shall make our
former barrenness to disappear. Through rich grace we can turn to
account our bitter experience and use it to warn others. We can become
the more rooted in humility, childlike dependence, and penitent
spirituality by reason of our former shortcomings. If we are the more
watchful, zealous, and tender, we shall gain by our lamentable losses.
The wasted years, by a miracle of love, can be restored. Does it seem
too great a boon? Let us believe for and live for it; and we may yet
realize it, even as Peter became all the more useful a man after his
presumption was cured by his discovered weakness. Lord, aid us by thy
grace.
Joel 2:25
January 1, 2004
Restoring The Years
READ: Joel 2:12-27
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. —
Joel 2:25
How many years have you lost to
the locust? Have self-indulgence, sensuality, sinful motives, and
personal ambition robbed you of joy, peace, and fruitfulness? Perhaps
you feel discouraged when you think of all the time that seems to have
been wasted, never to be reclaimed.
If so, consider the words of the Lord through the prophet Joel. God
told the people of Israel that even though they had been disobedient
to Him and had been disciplined through a plague of locusts, there was
still hope. The Lord said that He is "gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2:13). Then He promised, "I will
restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten" (Joel
2:25).
When we confess our sin to the Lord, He is quick to forgive our past
and fill our future with hope. He can bring good out of our wasted
years. He does that by teaching us humility through our failures, and
by helping us to understand the weaknesses we have in common with
others.
Although our previous years may have been blighted by sin, God is
eager to restore us and give us much fruit from our labor. What we
have learned from the past can now result in productive service for
Him and heartfelt praise to Him. The year ahead is filled with hope!
—David H. Roper (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Forgive me, O Lord, for all of my sin,
Please make my heart pure and cleanse me within;
To You I confess, my ways have been wrong;
Restore now my joy and fill me with song. —Fitzhugh
No matter how dark your past,
with Christ your future is bright.
Joel 2:25
September 27, 1998
Locust Years
READ: Joel 2:12-27
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.
--Joel 2:25
A British newspaper reported
that a woman had hidden $20,000 worth of jewelry in a plastic bag,
hoping to prevent burglars from finding it. Later, having forgotten
about it, she accidentally threw the bag out with her garbage. Several
workmen searched for 9 hours in a landfill before finding her treasure
and restoring it to her.
Some people throw away God's abundant and gracious blessings in their
lives through blatant sin. There was a time in my life when I wasn't
experiencing the blessing of God because of worry and bitterness. When
I finally realized that I couldn't help myself, I turned to God,
repentant and broken. Gradually, as He taught me through His Word to
rely on Him for all things, I experienced a full restoration of His
hand of blessing.
In Joel 2, an invasion of locusts had stripped God's people of
everything. What those swarming locusts did to them, our persistent
sins will do to us. Our only hope is to heed God's call: "Turn to Me
with all your heart" (Joel 2:12).
To those who turn to the Lord in repentance, regardless of the sins
that plague them, He promised, "I will restore to you the years that
the swarming locust has eaten" (Joel 2:25).
Do you need to get rid of "locusts" in your life? —Joanie Yoder
Our sinful ways can sap our joy
And isolate us from the Lord;
Confession and repentance, though,
Provide the way to be restored. --Sper
When God forgives,
He removes the sin and restores the soul
Joel 2:28-32
TODAY IN THE WORD
In his book entitled Keep in
Step With the Spirit, J. I. Packer notes, “For most people nowadays
Spirit is a vague and colorless word.” More often than not, he
explains, they associate it with a mood or attitude.
When some Christians hear the
word spirit, they think primarily in terms of power. But when the
Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit, it reveals that He is a Person. When
we are born again, we do not merely receive power to live the
Christian life, we are indwelt by a divine Person--the Holy Spirit.
This is the unique privilege of all those who trust in Christ. This
privilege was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.
The material blessings upon the land predicted in the previous verses
only foreshadowed a much greater blessing that was to come “afterward”
(Joel 2:28). Joel’s use of this term signals a general shift in focus. The
coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the rest of the events he
will discuss in the remainder of this book primarily pertain to a time
later in the future than the events predicted in the earlier half of
the book.
Although the Holy Spirit had been active in Joel’s day, the prophet
foretold that in the age to come His ministry would be characterized
by three important features. First, Joel promised that it would be an
inclusive ministry. Previously, the Holy Spirit had worked through
specific individuals. In the coming age He would be poured out “on all
people” (Joel 2:28). Joel speaks of the Spirit being poured out on sons
and daughters, as well as on old men and young men. All the people of
God, regardless of age or gender, are in view.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
The apostle Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as the blessing given to
everyone who is in Christ (Ro 8:9). He also spoke of the need to be
“filled with the Spirit” (Ep 5:18). This is not a contradiction.
Once we know that the Holy Spirit lives within us, we need to depend
upon His power daily to live a life that brings glory to Christ. Pray
and ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to help you rely upon
Him today.
Joel 2:32
Even the Faintest
Call
Faith's Checkbook
C H Spurgeon
“And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
delivered.”—Joel 2:32
WHY do I not call on His name?
Why do I run to this neighbor and that, when God is so near and will
hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down, and devise schemes, and
invent plans? Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the Lord?
Straight-forward is the best runner—why do I not run at once to the
living God? In vain shall I look for deliverance anywhere else; but
with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal shall to make it
sure.
I need not ask whether I may
call on Him or not, for that word “&whosoever&” is a very wide and
comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and
everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of
the text, and at once call upon the glorious Lord who has made so
large a promise.
My case is urgent, and I do not
see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who
makes the promise will find out ways and means of keeping it. It is
mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am
His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver
me.
Joel 3:1-16
TODAY IN THE WORD
Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision. - Joel 3:14
Philip Ryken, senior pastor of
Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, tells of the time he was
leading his family in a study of the books of Kings. He read about the
death of wicked king Ahab and how his evil wife Jezebel was thrown to
her death from a parapet. As he described how the wild dogs licked up
Ahab’s blood and devoured Jezebel’s flesh, his four-year-old son let
out a spontaneous cheer. “Frankly, I was shocked,” Ryken writes. “Ahab
and Jezebel met such bloody ends, it hardly seemed right to celebrate.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized God’s victory is
something to cheer about.”
Joel’s purpose in today’s
passage was to give God’s beleaguered people something to cheer about.
Although things looked bleak, the prophet promised them that a time
was coming when God would judge their enemies. He predicted that this
would take place at a time when the Lord would “restore the fortunes
of Judah and Jerusalem” (Joel 3:1). At that time, all the Gentile nations
that had gloated over Judah’s destruction and exile would be gathered
together for judgment in “the Valley of Jehoshaphat” (Joel 3:2). The name
of this valley, which literally means “Jehovah judges” or “Jehovah has
judged,” appears to be symbolic. It is also called “the valley of
decision” (Joel 3:14).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
Have you been hurt or mistreated by someone who does not know Christ?
God will hold them accountable for what they have done
Joel
3:17-21
TODAY IN THE WORD
Then you will know that I, the
LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. - Joel 3:17a
Several years ago Amos Elon
commented in the New Yorker about the unrest that has been a feature
of the city of Jerusalem for so long. “Hardly a day passes in the
'holy city’ without a riot or a stoning, without cars being torched or
firebombs thrown, without attempted lynchings or the stabbing of an
Israeli by a Palestinian (or vice versa),” he noted. “After each
incident, municipal cleaning machines, marked 'CITY OF PEACE’ in three
languages, appear on the scene to wash the blood from the streets in
time for the next group of tourists to pass by.”
This is still true
today--Jerusalem is a place of conflict. Yet it will not always be the
case. Speaking through the prophet Joel, God promised to make
Jerusalem His dwelling place once again (Joel 3:17). (See
Multiple OT Passages that describe
the future earthly 1000 year Messianic Age)
In the time of David, the Lord chose to reveal Himself in a special
way in Jerusalem. In 1Ki 11:36 He called it “the city where I
chose to put my Name.” David relocated the tabernacle there, and it
was the place where his son Solomon later built the temple. Because of
this, the Psalmist described the Lord as “him who dwells in Jerusalem”
(Ps 135:21).
Unfortunately, the people of Judah came to view the presence of the
temple as a talisman. They believed that it made them exempt from
divine judgment. But, in 586 B.C. God allowed the city of Jerusalem to
fall to the Babylonians.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY -
Joel’s promises for Jerusalem are also relevant for us. God will dwell
with His people in the New Jerusalem, and He promises to wipe away
every tear from their eyes (Rev. 21:3, 4)
Joel 3:17
F B Meyer
Our Daily Homily
Joel 3:17 I am the Lord your
God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
This will be the lot of the
chosen people in the millennial age. The Holy God will make the city
in which He resides a Holy place. But it is true universally. Wherever
the Holy God dwells, there you have holiness—for it is the attribute
of his nature, as heat is of fire. Holiness is not It, but He. Do you
want it? Then you must invite Him to come.
When God comes into a day, it
becomes holy unto Him. When his presence is revealed in a bush, it is
holy ground. When He descends on a mountain, the fences are erected,
that unhallowed feet may not draw nigh. When He fills a building like
Solomon’s Temple, the whole is consecrated, and may not be employed
for sacrilegious purposes. Best of all, if He dwell in our hearts,
they too are rendered holy to Himself.
When the apostle prays that the
God of Peace should sanctify us wholly, he goes on to ask that spirit,
soul, and body, should be as a temple filled with God. The holy man is
he who is God-filled and God-possessed. It is not enough to possess
God; we must be possessed by Him. He who has more of God is surely
holier than other men; and he is the holiest who has most. Behold,
Christ stands at the door and knocks: He longs to come in and abide,
never again to depart; He brings with Him the holiness for which He
has taught us to yearn.
“Is it true, Ignatius,” said the
Roman emperor to the Christian martyr, “that you carry about your God
within you?” “It is even so,” replied the bishop, “for it is written,
I will dwell in thee, and walk in thee.” And for that answer they cast
him to the wild beasts. But what they deemed blasphemy is literally
true of the Holy Spirit.
