Soaking up Joel

It is a rainy morning. Just the kind of morning that plants need to sustain their growth. As plants need water, we need to be soaked daily in the Word of God. To remind us of who He is and who we are in Him.

This morning, I read from the Old Testament book of Joel.

Joel was a prophet of God from about 835 to 796 B.C. Like many other prophets, he was called to warn the people of Judah of God's impending judgment because of their sins, and to encourage the people to turn back to God.

The people had become both wealthy and complacent. Instead of recognizing God's hand of blessing, they took Him for granted and became self-centered and idolatrous. Joel warned the people that God would judge this kind of living.

The key verses in Joel's prophetic book are found in the second chapter, verses 12-13:

"Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." So 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; and He relents from doing harm.

In the midst of judgment, God offers an opportunity for repentance through the prophet Joel.

In these verses, Joel refers to Old Testament practice of tearing one’s clothes in a moment of grief. It was an outward sign of an inner heart response. [Circumcision and New Testament believer's baptism function in a similar way.]

The point of these two verses is that while God offers an opportunity for repentance, He desires more than a change in behavior; He wants repentance that results from a heart that returns to Him.

God wants to change our hearts, and then change the way we live. He invites us, we who have turned our hearts away from Him and gone our own way, to return to Him, a merciful God, with all our hearts.