When I was on the crew team in college, I spent the first year as the coxswain. The coxswain is the individual who steers the boat or crew shell (as it is called). What you had to do as the coxswain was to maintain as straight a course as possible. What that meant was setting your sights on a fixed object in the distance beyond the finish line. And throughout the race you had to continue to make course corrections to align yourself within your lane. Perhaps one side of the boat would row with more force and so you would be pulled to the opposite side. It was your aim to bring the boat continuously back on track.
This is like repentance. In our Christian life, we are in a race. Not a race to finish first but a race to finish well. And God calls us to set our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He has a path, a lane if you would, upon which we must follow. And throughout our journey we must continually make course corrections. Our course corrections must be made in accordance with having set our eyes on Jesus otherwise we will get well off track. If our eyes catch something that is fleeting across our path we can be pulled that way. And it means that when we recognize that we have been led astray our course correction is going to need to be greater and will cost us more precious time in our race to finish well. Let us not find ourselves greatly off track when the time comes for us to meet our Savior at the finish line.
The need is even more important now, as we have discussed in the past weeks just how gravely in danger our nation is of falling into judgment. And so we must be willing to repent for that which the Lord reveals to us concerning, as the author of Hebrews says, the race that is set before us.
The key idea of these verses, in Joel, is that God calls His people to repentance because He is zealous for the honor of His name and wants to restore to His people the blessing of being in a right relationship with Him. There are three aspects to the repentance process that Joel outlines for us.
1. What We Must Do
The first aspect to the repentance process that Joel outlines for us is what we must do. There are certain actions that we must take in accomplishing the repentance that God requires of us. God demands that we act on the basis of His Word. And here Joel describes two actions that we must take if we are going to accomplish authentic, God honoring repentance.
A. Return (1:19-20; 2:12)
Joel describes the first action that we must take in 1:19-20 and 2:12. Here he says that we must return. If God is telling us to return that means that we have been drifting away from Him. Chapter 1:19-20 describes the prayer of repentance that the Israelite would pray in the midst of the calamity that has struck the Israelite nation. It reads, “To You, O Lord, I cry.” Finally the people recognize that God is the one to whom they must make supplication. They have tried their gods and found them lacking. They have looked to all their self-effort and ingenuity and it has failed them. They have gone in every other direction and they have crashed and burned. Now they heed God’s admonition to return to Him. Finally, they look to God for their deliverance. How long do we have to fail in seeking our own solutions to our sin and our difficulties before we realize that only in the Lord do we have an answer? We try to work out the difficulties of our lives on our own only to recognize that we are no closer to overcoming than when we first began.
But God still is patient. In 2:12, God calls out, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning.” Even when we have been going away from Him so long God stretches out His arms and says, “Yet even now return. You have not gone too far. If you have recognized your sin don’t continue to try to hide it. Don’t look for yet one more solution that will also fail. Seek me! Return to me. There is no other place but here. There is no other One but Me who can give you rest in the midst of all your difficulties.”
What God is saying is that though it is late, though the darkness of the locust plague is bearing down upon us, though their shadow is hanging perilously close to our crops it is not too late. “Yet even now,” God says, return. What God wants us to do, however, is to return in His way not in our way. We cannot make the call for our surrender on terms. It is unconditional surrender to Him. If we wish to avert the disciplining hand of God we need to return to Him in His way. We have recognized that we have compromised too greatly with the world. We have understood that living halfheartedly in our Christian life merely gives the world a reason to go their own way. We see that failing to take a stand for Christ in the midst of a permissive society simply waters down any effect that we might have had. Instead of being able to lead someone to the way, we find ourselves with no voice, no impact and no excitement or expectation of having made a difference for Christ in our community and in our world.
God’s intention for us as Christians has never been for us to live a life that is luke-warm or tasteless. He has given us all the resources to live an exciting and profitable life for Him. Jesus said, “I have come so that you might have life and that you might have it to the full.” He wasn’t talking about extreme sports when He said we will have life to the full. He was talking about extreme fruit when He said, “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, He shall bear much fruit.”
Doesn’t it hurt your heart that we have done so little for one who has done so much for us? And it is only because we are failing to live in Him as we should. Can’t we just believe His Word instead of making excuses for not obeying the prompting of His Spirit? O what joy we miss out when we fail to live for Him. And so God says, through the prophet Joel, “Return. For there is still time. I can still work with you but don’t delay. It is late but not too late.”
B. Rend (2:13)
Joel describes the second action that we must take in 2:13. Here he says that we must rend. He says, “Rend your heart and not your garment.” In the ancient world, individuals would show their distress by tearing their garments. When Jacob was told that his son, Joseph, was dead he tore his clothes. When the congregation of Israel rejected Moses’ leadership and were about to appoint a leader to bring them back to Egypt, Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes.
It meant something back then but by Joel’s time, for the most part, was merely a ritual that had no inward reality. And so God tells the people, “Rend” or “Tear” your hearts and not your garments. God is never impressed by outward show with no inward reality. Too often Christianity becomes simply a creed recited instead of a relationship sought.
Telling God that we are sorry with no intention of changing our behavior will not fool Him. He will not draw back from His discipline if genuine repentance doesn’t occur. And how then will we show God that we mean business? I think the middle of verse 12 describes how we can show God that we are serious in seeking after Him. He says to return with all your heart and rend your heart with fasting, weeping and mourning. I think this says that we are serious about returning to God when we willing to do whatever it takes to receive God’s blessing once again. We don’t speak much of fasting in today’s world. We live in a society that calls for self-indulgence not self-sacrifice. We have lost the mentality of fasting because fasting is never convenient. And when I say we have to get serious about fasting I don’t necessarily mean going without food. Fasting is really about getting our priorities straight. We look at what is really necessary in life. The mentality of fasting asks questions like,
“What is keeping me from the necessity of meeting with my God?” “Are there things in which I am indulging that keep me from praying?” “What can I do without that would benefit my relationship with Christ?” Is there some goal I am pursuing that is keeping me from pursuing Christ w/ a whole heart?
Now before I get really radical let me address what I have said already. You may be asking yourself, “Is he nuts? Is he really saying that God is calling us to readjust our focus and forsake self-indulgence?” Now that you understand me let me say that the reason I see that God is not visiting our community and our state and our country in the power of His Spirit is because we have become so distracted and self-absorbed that we will not take the time nor effort to forsake those things which are wasting our time and seek Him.
So let’s get radical. How are you going to fast? What are you going to reduce, minimize or go without in order to spend more time with the Lord in His Word and prayer? Is it window-shopping? You know what window-shopping is don’t you? It is giving yourself desires for things you can’t afford. Where do you need to fast? Is it TV? How many hours a week do you spend there? Are you allowing TV’s message to conform your attitudes and actions to those of the world? But pastor I can’t memorize Scripture. I don’t have the time. I’m too busy watching TV. Is it the computer or video games or your work? Is it your sports or your recreation?
Do you really desire God? What are you going to do this week? Are you going to ask yourself the tough questions (The tough questions that lead to repentance)? Do you care to know how much God can really do through you when you seek Him wholeheartedly? Will you be willing to take that risk?
I will share with you a fast that I am on with the hope that you won’t think less of me, or think that I am less of a man for it. But last year the Lord spoke to me about my football watching. I didn’t watch too much. It wasn’t an idol that kept me from serving the Lord or kept me from church. I usually just watched the Patriots or perhaps a Vikings game. Yet when I watched, especially in a close game, my blood pressure would rise and I could feel myself becoming agitated. I can remember times during important games a couple of years ago thinking or vocalizing, “They need to knock that guy out of the game,” or “They need to break his hand.” God’s Spirit began convicting me about this. The Scripture says that nothing shall be master over us. The Lord made it clear to me if it could control the way my body behaved then it was my master. I don’t think there is something wrong with the game itself but what I allowed it to do to me. The Lord made it clear to me that I needed to stop watching it. And toward the last several games of last season I stopped. Perhaps someday the Lord will let me watch football again. But God showed me that He wants to be in control of my spirit and nothing else should be. How about you, what is it that has control over you? What is it that the Lord has been saying to you that you need to give up, not because it is wrong but because it has become your master and therefore is wrong for you?
We are so good at justifying our self-indulgence. We don’t want to give up that which may control us because we’ve been doing it for so long. It would be too difficult. It would be too uncomfortable. The fact is that we are just too selfish to give God anymore of our lives. We tell Him, “God, you can come only so far but no more.”
Joel says not only are we to turn over our self-indulgent ways to Him but also to return and rend with weeping and mourning. To return to the Lord with weeping and mourning is that we grieve over all precious moments that we lost in living for Christ. It means that we are heartbroken over our sin. It means that we are distressed over the condition of our country. We are hurt as we see sin exalted and God minimized. We experience grief for our friends and family members who have no concern for Christ or living for Him. We see that blame shifting will no longer do. We recognize that our excuses for not living for Christ are unfounded in light of the power of God to transform us. We are willing to identify our sin instead of covering it up.
Let us not be feeble in our attempts at returning to the Lord. Joel says in verse 15-17, “Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride of out her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the LORD’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’” You see the importance of the issue of repentance for ourselves and our nation calls for the cessation or postponement of normal activity. It calls for fasting and prayer and weeping over our condition. Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to add action to your words? Or is this another “Good sermon pastor, see you next week.”
Ray Ortlund says it so well. “Our age, overstuffed with entertainment, nevertheless craves ever more carefree superficiality. This pollutant can seep into the soul of the church.” We must turn back to God. We must not let that which used to seem OK for us to capture our hearts any longer. Let us return to God. Let us rend our hearts and repent. Let us stop hiding our sin as if we think that God doesn’t know. Let us become open and honest with God in repentance. When we do Joel says that God will accomplish great things in our midst.
Often the lies of Satan keep us from coming to repentance. There is his lie that we will miss something if we give ourselves completely to God. There is his lie that we have failed too greatly for Him to use us again. There is his lie that God will make us miserable if we return to God with all our hearts.
How do we know these things aren’t true? How can we have hope that when we repent God will receive us? How do we know that we haven’t gone too far for Him to take us back? Joel tells us why at the end of verse 13. Joel says, “For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil.” We can hope that when we repent God will hear and turn and bless us because He is not like us. He relents from bringing discipline upon us when we turn back to Him. We don’t have to worry that God will turn out to be like Saddam Hussein when his sons-in-law returned to him from hiding in another country and he killed them. God is not waiting for us to return to Him so that He can harm us. He wants to bless us.
Because God is a God of grace and compassion, because He is slow to anger and abounds in lovingkindness, because God is willing to relent concerning impending calamity we can know that God will receive us when we return to Him. But again I say that we must return to Him in His way. We must return to Him with no more excuses or boundaries or limitations that we place upon Him.
2. What God Will Do
The second aspect to the repentance process that Joel describes is what God will do. Now before we begin we must recognize that when we repent it doesn’t force God to act. He is in no way obligated to do anything for us. It is His gracious nature that causes Him to act. When He sees that we truly want Him more than anything else the world has to offer He will do certain things.
But again the only reason that He comes to us at all in anything but wrath is because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus Christ’s complete moral perfection offered as a sacrifice on the cross is what allows a holy and righteous God to turn away from impending calamity. And unless we first come to the Savior He will not turn away His wrath. So if you have not yet come to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of your sins even though you might survive through this world unscathed from the greater part of the wrath of God you will not escape the next. Because if God’s wrath has not been appeased on your behalf through the blood of Jesus Christ only God’s wrath awaits you. This is why it is not enough to believe in God alone. The Scripture says that the demons believe in God and they tremble at their coming fate.
And so in saying this, what God will do in our repentance is not an obligation but an extension of His gracious character. And in this we can have assurance in coming to Him He will not turn us away. Joel says that God does two things when He sees our repentant hearts.
A. Relent (2:14)
The first thing Joel says God does is that He will relent. Look at 2:14. “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?” Now Joel is not doubting God’s course here as he asks, “Who knows.” He has already told us how God responds in verse 13. He loves to relent concerning calamity. But Joel is letting us know that God is still the one in charge here. He will give His mercy in His way. He is not responding to our repentance as if He were changing His mind in midcourse. God is not trying to figure us out as we go alone. He has everything figured out already. His plans are firm, His counsel is set. And from our human perspective we can only look and wonder at what God will do. If He relents concerning calamity it wasn’t because He was taken by surprise.
The truth is, however, that when God shows His mercy in our repentance what takes place will be so utterly astonishing that it appears to us as if it were that God changed course. When in reality we changed course and aligned ourselves with God’s way.
B. Restore (2:25-26; 3:1)
The second thing that Joel says God does is that He will restore. We see this in 2:25-26 and 3:1. In 3:1 He says, “When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem.” In 2:25-26 He says, “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
Not only will God remove His hand of discipline against us but He also will restore unto us the joy of our relationship with Him. And when He does He begins to do amazing things as it says in Ephesians 3, things that are beyond what we could even ask or imagine.
Only God can reclaim for us years that we have wasted. And only by looking to Him can He give us what we never thought that we would be able to accomplish. With God it is never too late to say, “I’ve messed up what is behind me. Now take what is before me.” The apostle Paul, having been a murderer of those in the early church could have looked upon that time with defeat and declared that God had no use for Him. Yet in Philippians 3 he says, “Forgetting what is behind and reaching for what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Whatever time has been wasted in your life God can restore. He can make your years ahead even more profitable for the kingdom of God than your past years. What you have wasted, God can remake. What you have lost, God can restore. Only recognize that it is not too late to serve Jesus Christ with all your strength. You may have less strength and fewer resources than you had in the past but God can take what you have now and multiply it greatly. Think of the young boy who offered his meager lunch of fish and loaves to Jesus with which He fed over 5000 people. Friends, our concept of God is too small. Why don’t you believe that He can use you with your meager fish and bread resources? Why don’t you believe that He can take what you have and turn it into more than you ever could have imagined for the kingdom of Christ? Stop doubting and believe in a God that is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond even what you can ask or think. Or will you be afraid? Don’t be afraid, like the man who was given one silver piece to put to work for his master but he hid it. Don’t be afraid but believe in the greatness of our God to restore unto us what we have missed in the past so we might build His kingdom in greater measure in the future.
3. What We Will Then Do (2:23, 26)
The final aspect to the repentance process that Joel describes is what we will then do. He notes two actions that we will do in 2:23 & 26.
A. Rejoice
First Joel says we will rejoice. Verse 23 says, “So rejoice O sons of Zion, and be glad in the Lord your God.” When the Lord relents from the discipline which He is carrying out and when He restores to us the beauty of the nearness of His presence we can rejoice. He says that we are to be glad in the Lord our God. God is the source of our blessing. We can have everything the world has to offer and be miserable because we do not recognize God as the source of our blessing.
We will find that complete repentance toward God will bring ultimate joy. When we stop following hard after those things that take us away from God we will find ourselves once again experiencing the freshness of our relationship with Him. Why do we think that we cannot enjoy ourselves if we commit ourselves to Christ completely? He has come that we might have life and that our joy may be full. And we can never have greater joy then when we are bearing fruit for our Master.
Have you experienced the joy of the presence of God? Have you experienced the joy of His presence recently? One of the marks of a restoring work of God among His people is an explosion of fresh joy. When the Psalmist in Psalm 126 describes the restoration of God’s work in their midst he said, “Our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy.” There is a fullness of joy when we see God working in our midst.
This very week I saw God infuse me with His joy. It started on the other end of the spectrum. Have you ever struggled with a deep problem that sapped your strength and sucked all the joy out of the center of your belly? Do you understand what I am speaking about? Well I fell into one of those problems (or perhaps I should say God brought one of those to me). And as I laid on my bed Thursday night I went over the Scripture in my mind, “Phil 4:6, Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And I turned it over to the Lord. I said, “Lord You’re bigger than this. You can do whatever you want in this. I cast all my care on You because You care for me. Thank You Lord for this problem.” And I went to sleep. But Friday morning I woke up with it on my mind again. As I tried to praise the Lord I felt lousy. So I began going over those Scriptures again. I said, “I can only trust You to work it out in whatever way you see fit. And somehow God came down and filled me with a joy in my heart and lifted the heaviness and like the psalmist said, “my mouth was filled with laughter.” I wasn’t just glad. I was filled with gladness. And God will do this if we will only trust Him completely. But the truth was I had to keep acknowledging His sovereignty in that matter until I was completely yielded to it. And when I saw God’s power in the situation I couldn’t help but to rejoice in Him.
God’s presence is so sweet and yet we don’t seek Him as often as we should. It’s not seeking to do more but seeking Him more.
B. Reverence
Next Joel says that we will show reverence. In verse 26 he describes it this when he says, “You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God.” When God shows Himself powerfully in our midst we will reverence Him; we will give Him the praise that He deserves. It wasn’t wrong for the Israelites to have had plenty before the locust plague. But the problem was that they had abundance and failed to rejoice in God for it. We often take for granted the many blessings that we experience day by day that relatively few people in the course of history have experienced. We have markets in which there is a great abundance of food. We need not worry about not having something to eat. When my wife and I were in Romania in 1996 there was hot water twice a week for 2 hours a day. And each day you only had cold water from 6-9 in the morning, from 12-1 in the afternoon and from 4-8 in the evening. Yet do we consciously thank God for these blessings? Is our giving of thanks at meals a mere perfunctory undertaking. Are we truly an ungrateful and unthankful people? We become irritated at the traffic jam while failing to thank God for the car that He has so graciously provided us. We complain about our job yet fail to thank Him for what God has given us in being able to work.
Ask God to restore unto us the joy of our salvation that we might praise Him and see Him as the source of every blessing. Or as the hymn writer said, “Come, Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing your grace.” Let us turn back to the Lord our God. Let us repent at what God will reveal to us as our lack of zeal for Him. Let us come before Him and seek for Him. Let us not try to find cheap substitutes for the living God. He is the only source of real spiritual thirst quenching satisfaction.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair, the heroine, Jill bursts into an opening in a forest. She is thirsty. She spies a stream not far away. But she does not rush forward to throw her face into its current. She stands still in fear, for a great lion, representing Jesus Christ, is lying on the ground just this side of the stream. And it speaks to her: “Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion. “I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill. “Then drink,” said the Lion. May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
“Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill. “I make no promise,” said the Lion. “Do you eat people?” she asked. “I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion.
“Then I dare not come and drink,” said Jill. “Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. “Oh dear!” said Jill, “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
We too must realize that if we are going to find the satisfaction that our soul craves it is only going to be by returning to the Lord. He alone can restore us. He alone can remove the hand of discipline that is upon us or will come upon us. He alone can bring again to us the joy of our salvation. Stop looking to any other source to make you right. God says in Isaiah, “Listen! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat.” Jesus Christ is the stream to which we can go and have our thirst assuaged. A couple of verses later in Isaiah He says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God and He will abundantly pardon.” Come now and turn aside from your own selfishness and self-indulgence. Take a stand in praying for our nation. Live righteously before the world that they might not fall headlong into the pit while we look on too busy with our own lives to throw a lifeline to those in need. Let us come back to God His way.