A heart response
So having lived through a plague of locusts sweeping through the land, destroying everything in their path, Joel draws a parallel between this mighty invasion and the coming of God’s judgement.
God does this often. Uses everyday events, things that are happening in the people’s lives, to draw out truths about Himself and His love. Just like Jesus did in his parables. Using the concrete to illuminate the abstract. Using the everyday to shed light on the divine.
Joel believes it is time to sound the alarm. Be afraid. Be very afraid. There’s a sense of impending doom, an approaching darkness. A devastating army draws near. Such as never has been seen before. And never will be seen again. Fire is before them and behind them. Blazing, devouring. Creating desolation. An army of locusts – organised, systematic, total destruction. There is nothing anyone can do. Every face turns pale at the sight of them.
And where is God in all this? Right at the head of this devastating army. God is in this invasion. This is God’s doing.
The day of the Lord is great;
it is dreadful.
Who can endure it? Joel 2:11
And yet. And yet. It is not too late. There is always a way back.
‘Even now,’ declares the Lord,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
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.
Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing –
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God. Joel 2:12-14
Return to God with all your heart.
It is not too late.
Grieve: fast and weep and mourn.
It is not too late.
It’s not about outward acts of penitence and sorrow but it’s what’s going on in your heart that counts.
It is not too late.
For God is gracious and compassionate.
It is not too late.
God is slow to anger and abounds in love.
It is not too late.
He has shown mercy before; He can do it again.
It is not too late.
Some of you may have been travelling on this journey with us for a while now and be thinking ‘Yes, I get what you’re saying. I can see what you’re getting at. But what am I meant to do? What kind of response are you talking about? What do I have to do? What do I have to say? Give me a clue here. I’m totally out of my depth.’
I’m sorry. We can all fall into the trap of saying things like ‘Return to God’ but not explain what that really means. That’s because it’s really hard to explain in words.
This is a heart thing. Response to God is a heart thing. It’s like love – falling in love and committing to another and aligning your life to the one you love. Being prepared to do anything for them. Putting them first. Ask anyone what love is and you’ll get a different answer every time. Everyone knows that love is a thing but there’s no clear cut definition, no definitive set of rules or behaviours.
Love is a heart response. It starts deep inside in the heart and all that is then said and done is an outworking of that love.
I believe it’s the same with God. It starts deep inside – with a feeling, an intuition, a stirring, a connection. A sense of turning towards the light, responding to the truth, awakening to what life can be, what you can be. This initial response grows as we listen to it more and respond to it more and trust it more. It feels strange at first – we’ve been used to going it alone and doing it all our way and now we’re beginning to recognise that God is with us and guiding us and we’ve never been really alone at all.
The relationship starts to grow and develop. We start to feel more comfortable with this presence of God in our world. We become more confident to find the words to talk to God. We open our eyes and see God in the world around us. We open our ears and hear Him speaking to us in a million tiny ways every single day. We learn what it is to trust and obey, because trust and obedience grow out of love, out of relationship.
It’s a journey. A lifetime’s journey. It starts with that moment of turning to God, turning away from how you’ve been doing life before and accepting that that hasn’t worked that well for you in the past and committing to trying a different way, God’s way. That’s what repentance means.
There are plenty of other people around to accompany you on this journey. Who’ve worked through some tough stuff with God before and can share their experiences with you and what they’ve learned along the way.
So if today, you’re reading that God is gracious, God is compassionate, God is slow to anger, God abounds in love and it’s making you feel weird inside, don’t ignore it. That is your heart responding to God’s love.
Yes, there may well be other times and it is not too late. There is always a way back. But why wait? What better time is there than now to respond to God’s love?
