Joel 2:18-27 – Receiving Mercy for Making Messes
Once there was a pastor who was such a golf addict that one Sunday he called in sick and went golfing instead. Two angels were above him on the golf course, discussing the situation. One angel said, “You just wait. I’m gonna punish him good for this.” The other angel just floated back to see what would happen. The pastor stepped up to the first tee where he promptly whacked the ball 300 yards straight down the middle of the fairway. Since he had never driven the ball more than 200 yards, he couldn’t believe it. Yet, there it was. And his luck continued. Long drives on every hole, perfect putting. By the ninth hole he was six under par and was playing near-perfect golf. The fellow was walking on air. He wound up with an amazing 61, about 30 strokes under his usual game. The one angel looked at the other and said, “Wait a minute. I thought you were going to punish him.” The other angel smiled and said, “That is punishment. I mean, who’s he gonna tell?”
Ah, heavenly punishment. If only it were all as pleasant as this. Today we will take a look at a fairly uncomfortable topic – God’s punishment. And I hope through it all that we will get a fresh glimpse of God’s mercy too. Turn with me to the book of Joel.
Now, the nation of Israel was in hard shape. The prophet Joel was giving messages from God to the people at a time when they were prosperous and complacent. They had been taking God for granted. They had turned to self-centeredness, idolatry and sin. They may have begun well enough, but their spiritual focus was lost. They were not turning to God, but away from Him.
And God wanted to get their attention. He wanted them to realize that all the good things they had were from Him. And what the Lord gives, He can take away. So He did. God caused a plague of locusts – hungry grasshoppers – to devour the land. And they did. Joel 1:4 – they ate everything. And what was left of the land was as barren and harsh as the condition of the people’s hearts.
And if we were honest, we would likely say that there have been times in our lives when we felt barren. Picture this scene in v8-12. This is a picture of disaster. Wasteland. Emptiness. Shame. Dryness. Depression. Despair. Have you ever been there? And v12 sums it all up. The joy of mankind has withered away.
Joy is not just an emotion, but is a condition. Joy is knowing that God is in control, so you might as well find hope in that. Joy is resting easy in His arms. Joy comes trusting Him, even in hard times. Joy is a security in Him. Joy is an inner smile when all around times look grim.
Joy is possible to have even in barren droughts.
But their joy had faded. The Israelites had put their joy in things, in situations, in stuff. And it had vanished. Folks, our God is indeed a jealous God. He wants your sole attention and focus. He does not want competition. And I heard someone say once, that if He doesn’t remove the competition, then He’ll make you not enjoy it. So sometimes He takes away the stuff we love ahead of Him. But sometimes we go through barren times because God has removed the joy from the stuff we’ve been putting ahead of Him. The loss of joy in our lives is usually the result of loving something else too much.
So if you are here today, and nothing makes you happy, and nothing satisfies you, its because you have set other things before Him. And He taking the joy away from them to get your attention.
That is how the punishment of God works. The ultimate form of God’s punishment is hell. Those who chose anything but God in this life will get anything but God in the next as well. But for us here, now, God’s punishment is usually leaving us to ourselves. Allowing our joy to fade. Withdrawing His presence from our lives. Allowing our sins to take their toll on us. You have heard it said about AIDS. You have heard it said about September 11, 2001. Are these curses or punishment from God?
Well, yes and no. No, in that God does not delight in the innocent suffering. No, in that it was evil people who sometimes do evil things. But yes, in that God allowed things to happen. And yes, that because God has set up natural laws, and if they are broken, there will be consequences. God really did say, one man and one woman, no more, for as long as you both shall live. If this rule were never broken again, HIV and AIDS would be wiped out perhaps in 20 years.
And as far as 9-11 goes, Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her, regarding the attacks on Sept.11, "How could God let something like this happen?" Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" You see? God’s punishment for our sins, Christian or not, is often simply letting sin take its course. This is the justice of God. This is God giving us what we deserve. It is the consequences of sin. Galatians 6:7 says: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
You see, I don’t think God enjoys sending punishment. You can almost hear the sorrow in the words here. And look at the words in v6-7. God said, “This army has invaded MY land, has laid waste MY vines, and ruined MY fig trees.” That is, the punishment affected God as well. God’s army didn’t just devour Israel’s land; it devoured HIS land. God doesn’t enjoy punishment. He doesn’t like dishing out just desserts. He does it because He is just and fair and holy.
But even as the law of the sowing and reaping is in effect, there is another law in effect too. It’s the law of undeserved favor. It’s called grace. It’s called mercy. Watch what happens as the book of Joel unfolds. The 2nd half of ch.1 calls the people to repentance. To change their ways. To stop loving things, or themselves for that matter, more than God. Chapter 2 contains the description of God’s army performing the desolation on the land – locusts. And then again, in the 2nd half of ch.2, there is another call to repentance. 2:12-14. The Lord says not to look sorry, as displayed by the tearing of the clothes, but to actually BE sorry. Turn your heart. Don’t just say the words. Mean it with all your heart. Turn your ways, and return to Him – v13.
Then God sends a surprise – v14. He may just bless us after it’s all done. Excuse me? Bless us? To stop the army is one thing. But to bless us afterwards? I mean, come on. Who would do that? Apparently God would. Let’s read v18-27.
V18 says that the Lord will take pity on people who turn their back on sin and turn to Him. V19 says He will give us enough to satisfy us, and we will never be scorned by others. V20 says He will drive our enemies away from us, and even though the smell may linger, the sting will be over. The passage talks about blessing our ruined fields, about giving us yummy fruit again, about blessing us with gentle rains to nourish our parched souls. And I love v25. It says that God will repay His people for the years the locusts have eaten. He will repay us. Now let’s think about this for a minute.
Remember what this book is about. The land of Israel is being overrun by hungry locusts. The crops are destroyed. There is nothing left. And it’s because of God’s punishment upon them for leaving their first love. These people have deserved to lose God’s blessing on the land because they took Him out of first place in their lives. The book of Revelation says that God is just in His judgements – that is, He is right in what He does. So, these people deserved what they had gotten. And when we disobey God or walk away or set up idols or ignore Him or get away from His leadings, then He will use different tactics to call us back. This is because He loves us, not because He doesn’t.
And when we have come to our senses, and we admit that we wandered, and we confess our sins and shortcomings, and we return, God takes pity on us. And then He wants to repay us for the pains and struggles we had along the way. He wants to bless us and bring back the joy that leaked out along the way. He wants to make us fruitful again. He wants to bring life out of death. He wants to forgive. Even though many of the hardships we faced along the way we deserved (not to say that every hard time we face we deserve – after all, Job went through hard times and he was upright and pure), God still wants to make up for them, even as He did for Job. But He wants to repay us good for evil, blessings for wanderings, spring rains for hungry locusts. Does this make sense? No. But because we serve an extra-ordinary God, He pours out extra-ordinary blessings. This is mercy and grace in action. This is where God’s love and God’s justice come together. To be forgiven and to be blessed afterwards – this is the mighty God we serve.
Now, not everybody likes this kind of message. Some like to come down hard on sin, and so they come down hard on people. To be forgiven and walk away scott-free is hard to understand. And when it comes to others, we don’t like to believe that it is for them. But Robert Farrar Capon, in the book Between Noon and Three, said this: You’re worried about permissiveness—about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. . .While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue—that music, dancing, and a fatted calf are, in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: “Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.”
Folks, God wants to more than make up for the trials you have faced due to wandering astray from His plans for your life. He wants to make you alive, not keep you punished for your previous mistakes. Will you end your wandering? Will you receive His forgiveness, even as Christians who have messed up? Will you confess your weaknesses and failures? Will you receive His free gift of a party thrown for you? Will you celebrate His immeasurable love for you?
