Return to the Lord

Joel 2:12-19 ¹²Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and grief. ¹³Tear your heart and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and he relents from sending disaster.

¹⁴Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. ¹⁵Blow the ram’s horn in Zion. Set aside a day for fasting. Call a solemn convocation. ¹⁶Gather the people. Consecrate the assembly. Bring together the elders. Gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say: Have compassion on your people, O Lord. Do not subject the inheritance you have given us to the scorn of the nations. Do not make us notorious among the nations as an object of ridicule. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”

¹⁸The Lord is zealous for his land, and he will take pity on his people.  ¹⁹The Lord will respond to them: I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil, enough to satisfy you fully. Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.

“Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and grief.’ (Joel 2:12) Amen.

Brood X cicadas are coming! These cicadas emerge from under the ground every 17 years. Honestly, wouldn’t they have fit better in 2020?

Millions of Brood X cicadas will emerge at the end of May through June when the ground temperatures reach 64 degrees. These cicadas look kind of freaky with their black bodies and red eyes. They will be coming to trees and cornfields in about 15 eastern, southern and midwestern states this spring.

The cicadas aren’t harmful. They may be a bit annoying, though. A single cicada isn’t very loud. But with hundreds or even millions in an area, they will create a noise that will reach 80 to 100 decibels. That’s roughly the same volume as a lawn mower.

In the book of Joel, the prophet paints a vivid picture of the coming judgment of God, the Day of the Lord. The imagery is bold and terrifying. God’s judgment on his people for their sin and impenitence will be a plague of locusts.

Cicadas are annoying but harmless. Locusts are devastating. A single locust weighs 3.5 grams and will eat its own weight in a day. A swarm of locusts may number a billion insects. They will eat everything – fruit, grain, leaves, stalks and bark. Nothing will remain standing.

God is justifiably angry with his disobedient and unrepentant children.

Does it feel like God is angry with you? Does he have a right to be angry? As a nation, Judah had turned away from the Lord, away from his Word and his will. How about America? As a nation, are we following God’s Word and his will? Not even close!

Big Tech is working to silence any kind of opposing viewpoint – meaning “Christian” viewpoint. People claim college students aren’t mature enough to pay off their college loans, but young children are mature enough to choose a different gender. We have seen an increase of violence in our streets, alcoholism in our homes and suicides among our young people. The most grievous departure from God is that we legally murder our unborn children. If that’s not enough, as a nation, we send money to support the murder of the unborn in other nations.

As Christians, we are rightly indignant at all this evil. We should be! But what do we do about it? We get upset about it. We share angry posts about it on social media. We talk about it in the echo chamber of those who agree with us. We try to vote out of office those who promote this evil.

But that’s about it.

What we need to do is repent. As a nation. But more importantly, as individuals. We cannot fix the immorality in our nation until we fix the immorality within our own soul. God has every right to bring judgment on our nation in whatever way he sees fit – a plague of locusts, economic depression, war or who knows what kind of devastation. God has every right to pour out his wrath on us as individuals and as a nation.

What can we do?! That was the very question the Israelites were asking Joel as he prophesied God’s devastation on their nation.

Joel gives the answer in chapter 2 verse 13. He says, “return to the Lord” so they will be found righteous before “the coming of that great and terrifying day of the Lord” (2:31).

“Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and grief.” “Even now.” It’s never too late to repent. We can’t fix a nation by electing right rulers or enacting just laws. We cause a nation to return to the Lord only after each of us as Christians return to the Lord. We each need to examine our own hearts, expose our sins, verbalize our guilt to God, and confess our shame. Before we mourn about our nation abandoning God, we must first mourn that we each have abandoned the Lord our God.

Joel continues in verse 13. “Tear your heart and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and he relents from sending disaster.” God does not want you to simply “go through the motions” of repentance. Let God’s Word sink into your heart and conscience. Reciting the confession of sins, singing hymns, mouthing prayers, sitting through a sermon and giving an offering is not fulfilling your duty to God. God isn’t satisfied if your seat is in the pew or in your living room, but your heart and mind are far from him.

True repentance means you are appalled at your sins because each one separates you from your God who is the source of love and life. True repentance includes faith in the forgiveness Christ won for you.

Joel’s words aren’t only for the Israelites. Could you be facing a swarm of locusts that threaten to destroy you?

You certainly are. There are small, unassuming little things that each do a little bit of damage. But they add up to a destructive force that descends on the landscape and decimates everything good in its path. Your sins are like locusts. While a single locust doesn’t seem all that terrifying, when the entire list of your deeds is considered, it is breathtaking and terrifying. If the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and if, as Ezekiel says, “the soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:20), then this locust swarm of your sins is terrifying indeed. These locusts will destroy everything you hold dear.

Joel’s words should hit you the same way they hit the Israelites. The Day of the Lord will come. And it will come with immense destruction and terror. On your own, there is no way to escape it. You can’t stop the swarm by yourself.

A single sin when you spoke ill of your co-worker. Another single sin when you helped yourself to office supplies because you figured they owed it to you. Another single sin when you lost your temper and screamed at the vehicle at the four-way stop that didn’t go soon enough. Another single sin when you treated your father with contempt or dismissed your mother’s request for help. Another single sin when you blew off worship because other things were more interesting to you.

I’m sure we missed lots of your little sins. Now bring the swarm together and see what devastation they have done, are doing, and will do to your life.

Return to the Lord!

Joel brings good news to you as you return to the Lord. He brings a promise. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32).

“Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and he relents from sending disaster.” This is the theme verse for our midweek Lenten series. Over the coming weeks, we will explore more deeply how God’s call to return plays out in our lives. We’ll do that by walking in the steps of the disciples and those who accompanied Jesus in the final days of his life.

Despite your sinful rejection of God, he invites you to return to him and promises to bless you. Stop trusting in yourself and look to God. Know that you can’t stop the swarming locusts and you can’t stop Judgment Day. It will come. All will be affected. The only solution is to return to the Lord.

God invites us to return to him for the most loving of reasons – he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. In that mercy, he may relent from sending the disaster upon us and our nation that we deserve. This invitation is not impersonal. It is not return to the Lord a God or the God or everyone’s God. It is return to the Lord your God. God desires a personal relationship with you.

The Lord is threatening future destruction and devastation because of his people’s sins and impenitence. Perhaps people might take the Lord more seriously if he punished certain sins with immediate consequences. Suppose every time you went ten miles over the speed limit, God gave you a flat time. You would watch your speedometer more closely. Suppose every time you spoke evil about somebody a big red pimple showed up on your face. You would be more careful about what you said about others.

But God doesn’t always work that way. He doesn’t always punish immediately, and because he doesn’t punish us immediately, many disregard him, disdain him, or feel free to disobey him. Since God’s judgment isn’t always obvious and instant, many folks wrongly and dangerously conclude that God isn’t serious about what he says. They think they can negotiate with him. They think he doesn’t care. Some even conclude he isn’t there at all.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. It is a frightening thing to mistake God’s grace for indifference, to confuse his mercy with disinterest, to assume that his long-suffering patience is the same thing as apathy. Sure, the Scripture record times when sin “A” received punishment “B” and when disobedience was immediately met by God’s discipline. After all, Adam and Eve weren’t given thirty days to vacate the Garden of Eden after they ate the forbidden fruit.

But that isn’t usually how God interacts with his people. Although God is just and punishes unforgiven sin, the Lord remains slow to anger. This is the Father in heaven who sent his Son to redeem a sinful and disobedient humanity. Jesus lived his life fulfilling the commandments we had broken, resisting the temptations that trip us up. He lived, died and rose so we might be saved. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that the Father who patiently waited for the right time to send his Son into the world, is also patient in giving lost sinners the time for the Holy Spirit to call them to repentance and faith through his Son.

Joel says, “Call a solemn convocation. Gather the people. Consecrate the assembly. Bring together the elders. Gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.” The prophet summons the young children from their mother’s breasts and even calls the couple to leave their wedding. Everyone should return to the Lord. Nothing takes precedence over that returning.

“Call a solemn convocation.” When I was in college, once a month on a Tuesday morning, we had a convocation in the music hall. It was the one day we could sleep in. Our Dean of Students knew this. That’s why before every convocation he announced over the loudspeaker in our dorms, “You are invited and expected to attend.” God invites you to repent and worship him. But he also expects you to repent and worship him. This is a picture of corporate repentance. All God’s people lament over their sinfulness together and turn to God to plead for his mercy.

We all want our nation to return to the Lord. But first, we need to answer Joel’s call and as individuals return to the Lord. Return to him with confession to receive absolution. “Who knows?” Joel says, “[The Lord] may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.” Amen.

We pray: Dear Lord, every day we each have our single sins that add up to a swarm of sins. For all that we have done wrong to pull us away from you, we beg for forgiveness as we return to your presence. With repentant hearts we give thanks that you have been slow to anger and abounding in mercy as you sent your Son for our salvation. We thank you as we return to you, Lord. Amen.