Be Humble, Rend Your Hearts, & Share The Lord
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(12) “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” (13) 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… (17) Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare Your people, Lord. Do not make Your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”’ (Joel 2:12-13, 17)
The issue with our nation, indeed the whole world, today is the people have lost their fear or reverence for God – or that they simply don’t know Him to be reverent. Why do promises or oaths made need to be kept if there are no consequences? In Joel 2, the prophet Joel talks about the people of Israel facing tribulations such as natural disasters, famine and pestilence before Jesus comes back to His triumphant return. One can make the parallel comparisons between Joel’s prophecy and today’s situation (though by no means is it as harsh as Joel’s foretelling – yet). As our nation and corporately its people stray further from God, we are starting to see natural and man-made interruptions to our supply chain that transports goods, a growing lack of quality in goods and services, food shortages along with disasters like wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and severe storms.
Yet in Joel 2:12-17, God provides, as He always does, a way to alleviate much of the pain that comes with such events. The simple answer is for the people to return to following Him and His Word. When He says ‘rend your heart and not your garments’, it is not for us to perform outwardly acts as a ‘show’ (rending or tearing your garments, or to simply imply we’ll follow Biblical principles); It is not simply enough to go through the motions of reinstituting His precepts to follow, but to be humble, accepting His presence, and repentant in returning to Him (rending of the heart). If the nation as a whole returns to Him, He will soften the impact of the woes we will face, as He stated He would do in Isaiah 16:13-14 to Moab if they would only heed His warning (which they did not do.)
It starts with the leaders of the church; the priests, pastors, elders, and teachers to seek God’s grace for the people – but it also implies that Jesus’ people – His Bride, who are also called priests to share His Gospel message. The question that is asked, ‘Where is their God?’ invokes a second question, ‘Where are God’s people to share His Word to those who ask this?’ If one does not know God or where He can be found, it means that someone has not shared that information with them. We can pray for God’s intervention to apply His Grace, but we also must act in opening the door to invite the non-Believer to see who God is and what He is about.
People act in hate because they don’t know the love of God. They follow the mob because they don’t know to follow Christ. Decency is overcome by debauchery because they don’t know Biblical morality. We Christians must humble ourselves, pray for Jesus’ forgiveness and guidance, and come together under His leadership to stay strong as we go out to share the Gospel message Jesus asks us to share. Only then can our nation and its people will return to His blessings that He provides.
