Minor Prophets Major Message
Blueprint of Repentance
Joel 2:12-17 | #minorprophets
INTRODUCTION… Background of Prophets
In the Bible, when God wanted to get His people’s attention He would often do something demonstrative like speak from a burning bush or lead by a pillar of cloud or shake the ground or do a miracle in nature. God did all of those things. God also spoke through people we call prophets.
We know some of the names of these folks whom God called to be His prophets: Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Huldah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Anna, John the Baptist, and many more. God calls the people through His prophets and gives them directions in their relationship with Him. God calls the people through His prophets and encourages their faithfulness and warns them that faithlessness would have dire consequences.
This morning we are continuing our journey in the last twelve books of the Old Testament which I have called “Minor Prophets Major Message.” I want to focus each week on one of these specific prophets and the message that he brought to the people of God because those messages are also important for us.
I want to let you know that the many of these last books in the Old Testament make mention of a phrase or event that often unifies them into a common theme, but can be confusing. The common theme we sometimes see is: “The Day of the Lord.” The phrase “The Day of the Lord” can mean three different things depending on the context. First, it can mean a time of judgment from God that will come within the prophet’s lifetime and in the lifetime of the people that are listening. This might mean a king is removed or a severe famine or something significant meant to discipline God’s people towards repentance. Second, it can mean a significant severe judgment that will happen at some point in the future. We know from the history of God’s people that 722BC, 586BC, and 70AD are all dates that fulfilled these prophets’ warnings and were great times of war and destruction. Third, it can also mean the final judgment of humanity at the end of time. However it is used, and confusingly it can mean more than one at the same time, it is important to note that “The Day of the Lord” is a span of time during which God personally intervenes in history accomplish some specific aspect of His plan and it usually involves death, destruction, and terrible judgment; especially for those who turn away from God.
We find “The Day of the Lord” talked about in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi in the Old Testament among other places. We should not forget that the same event or events are talked about by Jesus in the Gospels and also Acts, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 2 Peter, and the Book of Revelation.
This is a significant theme for these prophets and it binds them together. Yes, “The Day of the Lord” is a time of judgment and fear, but for those who believe in God and look to Him for deliverance, “The Day of the Lord” is a time of excitement and salvation and hope. God did, does, and will do much judging on “The Day of the Lord” but He also did, does, and will do much saving on “The Day of the Lord.”
I know that I may not have made this idea all that clear, but I don’t want us to read that phrase “The Day of the Lord” as we make our way through these prophets and not have any reference. Basically: it is a time of judgement from God designed for people to repent.
CONTEXT: JOEL
Today, we will be in the Book of Joel. If you were here last week, we talked about Hosea who spoke to the Northern Kingdom of Israel though prophetic messages and though his intense family life. Joel had a different assignment. Joel spoke to the Southern Kingdom of Judah to call them to faithfulness. As you read over the three chapters of Joel, you will notice that Joel writes about the imagery of God being in complete control of nature and using nature to disrupt life in Judah to grab their attention away from all the idols to repent. We know God uses nature and supernatural things to press His will because He did it in Exodus 7-11 with the Egyptians on behalf of Israel by way of Moses. We see something similar in Joel.
Joel 1 starts out with “the word of the Lord” coming to Joel and it is not a nice word. It is a word of judgment. It is a word directed to the “elders” of Judah (1:2) and to “all inhabitants of the land” (1:2). This was a message of doom that was to be shared (1:3). Joel shares a message that armies of locusts will descend upon Judah and destroy everything. It will be so bad and sad and terrible that even drunk people will weep (1:5). There is some question whether or not the armies and numbers of destroying things are actual locusts or if Joel is speaking about an invading army that acts like locusts. I happen to think Joel is predicting an actual plague of nasty locusts and then again about an invading army. I personally think he is talking about both. In any case, the result is the same: hunger, groaning beasts, fields on fire, fear, helplessness, anguish, and death. That is how Joel chapter 1 and Joel chapter 2 begin. Yay! Each one of those chapters begins with Joel sharing doom and gloom and warnings.
ILLUSTRATION… Texas 1996 (p)
When I was 18, I went home after my first year of college and my parents were living at Fort Hood, Texas at the time (now Fort Cavazos). I spent the summer there watering trees for the base and working in a convenience store trying to save for a car that I could have for my sophomore year. I recall going to a grocery store called HEB there in Killeen, Texas and when I got out of the car I noticed that there were a lot of weirdness going on.
There were crushed bugs on the asphalt of the parking lot that cars had driven over. I noticed as I walked that there was some crunching. I did not think anything of it until I looked up at the HEB and noticed two things. #1 the bottom half of it was black. #2 the bottom half of the store front seemed to be slightly moving. The entire parking lot and the store was covered in 10,000s upon 10,000s of black nasty grasshoppers. Just walking you crunch them underfoot because they were everywhere. It was eerie and it was nasty and I do believe that my fear insects started on that day. You had to walk past the moving walls of black insects to get into the store. It is a terrible memory! Maybe you have had an experience like that and reading Joel 1-2 will bring it back to you!
TRANSITION
This morning, Let’s read from the second half of the chapter of Joel.
READ JOEL 2:12-17 (ESV)
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;13 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. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
TRANSITION
As we look deeper into Joel 2:12-17, we are going to look at the heart of God’s people, the character of God, and the blueprint of repentance that we find.
THE HEART OF GOD’S PEOPLE (VERSE 12)
Unlike most of the other prophets, oddly Joel does not spell out the sins of the people of Judah. Most of the time the prophets are specific about the sins of the people and specific about the judgment that will come if they don’t repent. Joel is a little different in that he is general about the sins of the people.
Verse 12 shares with us the phrase from God “return to Me with all your heart.” We know that the sins and issues that the people of Judah are dealing with are all about their hearts. This makes me think of other Bible passages and I believe the folks Joel was speaking to would have thought of some of these as well.
I think of Deuteronomy 6:5 in which God commands us to love Him with all our hearts and everything that is in us. All of our loyalty and faith and honor should be directed to Him alone.
READ DEUTERONOMY 6:5 (ESV)
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
I am reminded of a passage in Deuteronomy 10 which further explains the same emphasis about the heart of the people of God and how dedicated to Him His people should be. A great summary of these verses is that God deserves all of our love and honor and loyalty and focus. Deuteronomy 10:14-16 says:
READ DEUTERONOMY 10:14-16 (ESV)
“Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the LORD set His heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
I think about the other passages like Deuteronomy 29, Joshua 22-24, and 1 Samuel 7 which all have words telling us to dedicate our hearts fully to God and to push away desires to attune our hearts to anything else. The prophets spoke to king after king in the history of Israel in 1-2 Kings and 1-2 Chronicles who either were “not careful to walk in the Law of the Lord and follow God with their hearts” or “set their hearts on the covenant with God.”
It would seem that the heart of God’s people was in opposition to Him or did not keep Him in the place in which He should be. They did not love the Lord with all their heart. They let their hearts be overtaken with priorities above God. In my opinion, we don’t necessarily need a list of sins because I think you and I can identify with the umbrella sin: ‘God does not have my heart.’
* Our heart can be overcome with doubt more than faith.
* Our heart can be filled with discouragement instead of confidence.
* Our heart can be riddled with unconfessed sin and not peace.
* Our heart can be tired and not full of the Spirit.
I think you and I can identify with the umbrella sin: ‘God does not have my heart.’
TRANSITION
As we look deeper into Joel 2:12-17, we have seen the wayward heart of God’s people, but now we need to look into the character of God because Joel does because the character of God, believe it or not, fuels our repentance.
THE CHARACTER OF GOD (VERSES 13-14)
The Prophet Joel reminds the people about the character of God Who calls for them to have 100% heart-devotion to Him. Who God is matters! He deserves our faith! He deserves our undivided focus!
Joel says God is gracious and merciful. God shows favor and consideration to us which is amazing! God is the Almighty Creator and He takes the time and effort and power to notice when we little peon humans are in need of Him. The Hebrew word has a flavor with it “to bend down.” I imagine a word picture of the Almighty God “bending down” from the vastness of eternity to pay attention to us.
Joel is not the only one to see God in this way and to communicate this part of His character. Moses does this in Exodus 34:6. King Hezekiah says this in 2 Chronicles 30:9. Nehemiah (9:17, 9:31) and David (Psalm 86:15, 103:8, 111:4, 112:4, 116:5, 145:8) also praise God for His grace and mercy. Oddly enough, in Jonah 4 it is God’s graciousness and mercy that enrages Jonah because God forgives the wicked evil people of Nineveh when they repent.
Joel says God is slow to anger. The phrase in Hebrew that we translate “slow to anger” or “longsuffering” is a super weird one. I learned from a Bible Project Podcast in 2020 (episode 6, 9/2020) that the phrase “slow to anger” or “longsuffering” in the Hebrew language when the Bible speaks of anger is unique. The main way the Bible talks about people’s anger and God’s anger is with the Hebrew words for “heat” and “nose” and so many times anger is a “hot nosed” or “short nosed.” When God is “slow to anger” the phrase is literally “long nostrils.” English does not work like Hebrew and so it seems a little funny to us. The words mean it takes a long time for God’s anger to get full-up hot.
ILLUSTRATION… Parental Regret (p)
I have one regret as a parent when my kids were growing up. Honestly, just one. I was quick to anger and much of what they did got on my nerves along with violating all my illogical unwritten rules. Sometimes I am still that way. It is a terrible quality to have ‘a short fuse’ or for things to ‘get on your nerves’ easily because it makes a relationship with you difficult.
God is the opposite of a short fuse. He is long of nose and is not easily angered. That same phrase about God is like the other in that Joel is not the only one to use it. Exodus, Numbers, Nehemiah, Psalms, Proverbs, Jonah, and Nahum all say God is “slow to anger.”
As a side note, we should not forget that God wants this for us as well:
READ JAMES 4:19-20 (ESV)
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Joel continues to praise God for His character in verses 13-14 and says that God has “steadfast love,” “relents over disaster,” and “leaves a blessing.”
It was this last phrase “leaves a blessing” that grabbed my heart. God blesses us so much that we don’t even realize how much His goodness bathes our lives. I was struck this past week with thankfulness for all the blessings I have that I see and even more for those blessings that are hidden from me when God moves and does what He does and I do not see it. God blesses me in hidden places! God does bless us. I was reminded of Malachi 3:10 which as far as I recall is the only place God tells us to test Him.
READ MALACHI 3:10 (ESV)
“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
SUMMARY
The first part of this passage from Joel to the people of Judah shares with them that they have turned their hearts away from the gracious and merciful, always loving, and slow to anger God Who deserves their believing loyalty. God wants them to repent. God wants their hearts to turn back to Him.
TRANSITION
As I was thinking and praying over Joel 2, I noticed the waywardness of God’s people and the wonderful character of God, but I also noticed that Joel is specific about repentance. We use that word “repent” in church and sometimes I think we do not know what it means and everything it entails.
* Do we know how to repent?
* Do we know what repentance involves?
* How do we know when we have repented?
Let’s take a look at the blueprint of repentance that we find in Joel 2:12-17. I would like to remind us of what Joel says in this passage (verses 12-17) so we are going to read them again to help center our thoughts.
RE-READ JOEL 2:12-17 (ESV)
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;13 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. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?
THE BLUEPRINT OF REPENTANCE (VERSES 12-17)
First, I noticed much weeping of a changed heart. Weeping and great solemn emotions are mentioned in verses 12, 15, 17. Repentance of our wayward heart often begins with emotions that tell us we have betrayed God, ourselves, or other people. Please notice that repentance is a kind of reform of our heart motivated by guilt or remorse about the past, but if this is all repentance is… emotions… we will get stuck. We should definitely feel a sense of remorse about our sin, but regret and shame and guilt are not necessarily helpful emotions. We will not move forward if we only just weep and we also will not move forward if we don’t weep. Mourning over our sin is the beginning of repentance. Sadness that we have hurt others is the start. A broken heart must happen. King David reminds us in Psalm 51:
READ PSALM 51:17 (ESV)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Secondly, we must add to our weeping and solemn emotions fasting and prayer focusing on our gracious and merciful, always loving, and slow to anger God Who deserves our believing loyalty. We must add God into the mix of our brokenness over sin because our sin displeases Him the most and He is the only source of forgiveness for us.
Here is where we should appreciate Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. The blood of Jesus makes a permanent way for us to receive forgiveness. Jesus is our only source of forgiveness and we must go to Him. The Apostle John in 1 John 1 reminds us:
READ 1 JOHN 1:9 (ESV)
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The cleansing comes from Christ. Sometimes I think we believe repentance is all about being so completely sorry for sin, which is true, but we also need to move forward and be focused on the source of forgiveness and restoration which is God in Christ. God always responds to a broken heart about sin with healing and forgiveness. God gives grace and mercy and love when we turn back to Him. God is always faithful to forgive us when we ask for it so may we focus well on the One Who is doing all the forgiving. Let us remember the blood of Christ! The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in Romans 2:
READ ROMANS 2:4 (ESV)
“Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”
Thirdly, once we have our hearts broken over sin and we are focused once again on a gracious God Who has given us the blood of His Son, we then must complete repentance by action(s). In this passage in Joel 2, God tells them to “return” (verse 12). We also see blowing of trumpets (verse 15), assemblies gathered to pray (verse 16), newly married people coming out for a breath of air for once (verse 16), and ministers offering prayers (verse 17). These actions might seem strange to us, but the result of all of these actions is the people of God responding to the message of repentance. Everyone from every walk of life was to respond to God’s call to return their hearts to Him.
Repentance is not just an internal matter of emotions or a change of heart or a realignment of morals or sorrow for sin, but an action focused on God; moving towards Him by the blood of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Joel, in verse 17, does not want the people of Judah to become a “byword.” That is the Old Testament prophet way of saying that he did not want the people of Judah to become forgotten or that their existence was just a rumor. Joel wanted all of the people’s actions, no matter their place in the world from the youngest to the oldest to repent to God and demonstrate their belief in Him.
Repentance is what Joel called for. Change. Fix. Redo. Restore. Forgive. Demonstrate. Evolve. Resolve. Shift. Adjust. Modify. Reversal. Turnabout. We add to the sorrowful emotions purposeful actions that center us back on God Almighty.
CONCLUSION
The prophet Joel comes to the people of Judah and shares a message of repentance before a terrible tragedy of locusts and armies befalls them as God tries to get their attention. I guess the message is the same for some of us. Wake up! Wake up and turn to God before the “Day of the Lord” is upon you and God tries to get your spiritual attention! I don’t know what He will send your way to get your attention, but repentance is better by far. Repent and turn to Him while there is still time!
PRAYER
INVITATION
