Torn Hearts, Tender God

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Opening Prayer

Loving Lord and my loving Father, Your greatness demands my praise and Your love demands my devotion. I gladly give them.

Read Joel 2:12-27

^[12] “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” ^[13] 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. ^[14] Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God. ^[15] Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. ^[16] Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. ^[17] Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?'” ^[18] Then the LORD was jealous for his land and took pity on his people. ^[19] The LORD replied to them: “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. ^[20] “I will drive the northern horde far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land; its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things! ^[21] Do not be afraid, land of Judah; be glad and rejoice. Surely the LORD has done great things! ^[22] Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. ^[23] Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. ^[24] The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. ^[25] “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm- my great army that I sent among you. ^[26] You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. ^[27] Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

Meditate

“Repentance is a not merely an intellectual change of mind or mere grief, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which result in spiritual fruit” (D.A. Carson). This is what Joel is talking about.

Think Further

Because God is at the head of the invading army, there is hope for God’s people. They are urged to return to God wholeheartedly (12). Their repentance must not only be ritualistic (rending garments), but real (rending hearts) because God responds tenderly to such heartfelt repentance (13). The people (from the youngest to the oldest) are to fast and pray, “Spare your people, Lord” (15-17).

When we turn to him with all seriousness and sincerity, God takes pity and responds tenderly and immediately (Hos. 2:14). It is not that God delights in disciplining his children. If only we can spare him the agony of having to discipline us by trusting him and obeying him (Heb. 12:10,11). Even if he has to discipline us, he delights in reversing our circumstances when we turn to him in repentance. Being at the head of the invading army, he would turn around and stop them (20).

There is a great reversal when God responds tenderly to our repentant broken hearts. The description of the devastation brought on by the locusts and the invading army is written over by connected blessings. Hence the earlier “dried up” experience will be replaced by abundance and fullness (19,22-24). There will be new wine for the new day (Rev. 21:5). God promises to “repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (25). Like Job, who received back all he lost and in double measure (Job 42:10-15), God’s people would be richly blessed by his forgiveness and generosity. It is important that they remember that it is God who has worked this miracle (26) lest they fall into sin again. God is keen to assure his everlasting love to his people, declaring that “never again” will they and therefore, God, be shamed (19,26). The ball is in our court.

Apply

What would true repentance look like? What are the blessings that such repentance brings to individuals, families, churches, and nations?

Closing prayer

Father, I acknowledge that in my life, there are years “…that the locusts have eaten.” Thank You that those failures can be reversed, and a new day will dawn.

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