Joel 2
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Joel 2:31
Indeed the Day of the Lord is going to be the great and awesome day as prophesied in the Bible. Many faces would turn pale when it comes, but there would be some who would rejoice to see that day.
So which group of people will we belong?
Our God is truly a fair and just God.
He admonishes, He teaches, He warns, He incarnated in the flesh to die for man’s sin, and finally He will judge.
In this chapter, God foretold what would be coming before the great and awesome day of the Lord, giving detailed description of the situation leading up to that Day.
Scary and fearful that day would be, but of those who are willing to repent of their sinful ways, God’s healing would surely come upon them.
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
Joel 2: 12 – 13
Our God is gracious and merciful, He always have our interests in His heart. As what Prophet Hosea had revealed to us, that God has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. (ref. Hosea 6:1)
Therefore in this chapter, after the description of what would God do before the Day of the Lord, Prophet Joel calls for the people to repent from the bottom of their hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
And then, the Lord would not only relent from bringing calamities, he would also leave blessings for them.
To me, among the blessings mentioned, the greatest and most amazing blessing is in verse 28 to 29,
“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Joel 2: 28 – 29
God is a Spirit, and when He promised to “pour out My Spirit on all flesh”, that clearly and simply means He Himself will come upon all man.
Are we worthy of such a privileged promise?
We all knew that we are not worthy, not even a single bit! But in the mind of God, He knew we need Him to be in us so that we can be guided personally by God to walk on the narrow path towards heaven.
This promise was proclaimed through Prophet Joel, was written down, and most wonderful of all is our God is a keeper of His promises; therefore He will surely honor it.
We indeed have a wonderful and awesome God; do we want to do things that would grief Him? Would we want to hide ourselves from Him, or do we want to draw near to Him, to adore and to worship Him?
So we who are the children of God, we must consciously be aware that our God is Sovereign, He has all authority and power to execute His divine will. And on our part, we have to continue to be humble, to be obedient to His word and to do them, and also not forgetting to repent constantly of our sins.
May God continue to strengthen and guide us as the great and awesome Day of the Lord draws near.
Shalom