A CALL TO REPENTANCE

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL

Judah’s Judgment and Exaltation

1.THE INFLICTION OF JUDGMENT,   Joe_1:1-20; Joe_2:1-17

1. An Unparalleled Brought and Locust Plague, Joe_1:1-7

3. A Call to Repentance, Joe_1:14-20

A CALL TO REPENTANCE

Joel 1:14-20

Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a solemn assembly, Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD [in penitent pleadings].

Alas for the day! For the [judgment] day of the LORD is at hand, And it will come [upon the nation] as a destruction from the Almighty. [Zep_1:14-18]

Has not the food been cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seeds [of grain] shrivel under the clods, The storehouses are desolate and empty, The barns are in ruins Because the grain is dried up.

How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered and wander aimlessly Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

O LORD, I cry out to You, For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the wild animals pant [in longing] for You; For the water brooks are dried up And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

F. B.Meyer
on
Joel 1:14-20

A SUMMONS TO PENITENCE

We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be God’s mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory of God’s loving kindness ought to have kept His people faithful and loyal, but since grace and love had failed to affect them awful judgments were announced. A small insect, the locust, was to prostrate man’s boasted power. The four kinds of locusts here described and which doubtless devastated the country, were also symbols of the four world-empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, which were to lay waste the Holy Land. Such judgments call for acts of repentance, such as fasting, humiliation, and intercession. There are days in national experience when it becomes us to gird ourselves and lament. The ministers and elders of the Church should lead the way. Where there has been infidelity to the great Lover of souls, when the visible Church or the individual member has turned from Christ to the wanton world, then joy withers away, Joe_1:12, spiritual worship ceases, Joe_1:9, and there can be neither peace nor safety until there has been repentance and return.

By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18

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