Joel
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.
- Joel 2:12-13
What have you been watching on Netflix during lockdown? There have been some favourites, like Ted Lasso, but also one or two that we’ve given up on. One series, Spiral, we thought we’d try again. It’s French, gritty, police and justice system against the drug lords. Not PG. And while it’s clever and compelling, I’ve realised that it’s the complete lack of justice, the appalling behaviour of the police, the corruption of the judges and the lies and ambitions of the lawyers that left us feeling uninspired. Most of us want justice.
As we continue through the (not so) Minor Prophets, you may be wondering whether they vary or whether they all share the same message of judgment, repentance and salvation? The answer is yes, they are all concerned with Israel’s faithfulness or lack of it, but each emphasises a particular characteristic of God. In Joel, the theme is the Day of the Lord. God wants justice.
Joel is unusual because though judgment is clearly described, the Israelites' sin is not. Some commentators suggest that Joel 2:13 implies that the people were going through the motions of faith, performing sacrifices but without genuine repentance in their hearts, a kind of spiritual languishing. Perhaps they had an attitude of entitlement, thinking that God wouldn’t really judge them because they were ‘good enough’.
This theory makes sense of Chapters 1 & 2 and the images of locusts, destruction and loss because God wants our attention and sometimes, as CS Lewis said, he needs to use our pain as his megaphone.
It would be so helpful for you to read Joel – its only 3 chapters before Sunday as well as Deuteronomy 28 and Exodus 34 if you’re keen.
Since Growth Groups are having a break, here are a few questions to help you think through some of the themes in Joel:
In Joel, God used a real-life plague of locusts to warn the people of the coming day of the Lord. How is God warning us today? How, can we draw other’s attention to it?
What will it mean for you to repent, to rend your heart not just your clothes?
Chapters1 & 2 share a pattern that is not continued in Chapter 3. What is different and why?
Why is it important to think about what we’ve been saved from as well as what we’ve been saved for? How does that deepen our understanding of God?
As we share the gospel with others, how does our own personal repentance get expressed?
Reference: David Cook & Grant Thorp 12 Books to Change your Life: Teaching the Minor Prophets, SMBC Press, 2009.