SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2015
8:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “Rend Your
Hearts!”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Joel 2:12-17
Message of the
verses: “12 "Yet even
now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and
mourning; 13 And
rend your heart and
not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is
gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And
relenting of evil. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a
blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD
your God? 15 Blow a trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn
assembly, 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his
room And the bride out of her bridal chamber. 17 Let the priests, the LORD’S
ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, "Spare
Your people, O LORD, And do not make Your inheritance a reproach, A byword
among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ’Where is their
God?’"”
What we are reading here in these verses from the book of
Joel reminds me of what actually happened after the Jews returned to their land
after being in captivity for 70 years.
The book’s of Ezra and Nehemiah speak of a great revival that happened
during that time which is what Joel is calling for in these verses, unfortunately
it happened many years from the time of this writing.
As we read these verses we can be sure that the nation
did not know exactly when this invasion was going to happen, so Joel tells the
people to repent and perhaps God would
not send the Assyrians upon them, but if they did not repent then for sure God
would send them upon them. God wanted
them to be truthful in their hearts actually repenting of their sins. Dr. Wiersbe writes “It’s easy to participate
in a religious ceremony, tear your garments, and lament, but quite something
else to humbly confess your sins and bring to God a repentant heart (Matt.
15:8-9). ‘The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise/
(Ps. 51:17 NIV).”
No once again I want to mention the character of God,
what we see in His attributes and forgiveness is certainly one of His
attributes, and so by know this one should not be afraid to come to the Lord in
repentance claiming the forgiving attribute that God is about. “Now
return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to
anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil (Joel 2:13b).” Joel goes on to explain in verse 14 “Who
knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him, Even
a grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God?”
In verses 15-17 Joel tells the people that they must
assemble and then turn to the Lord, something that I mentioned would eventually
happen when they returned to the Promised Land many hears from this time, but
they would not do it here even though Joel is pleading for them to do so. Joel even wanted the nursing mothers, the bridegroom,
and the brides to be a part of this solemn assembly, showing the seriousness of
it. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The prophet gave
them a prayer to use (Joel 2:17) that presents two reasons why God should
deliver them: (1) Israel’s covenant
privileges as God’s heritage and (2) the glory of God’s name before the other
nations. Moses used these same arguments
when he pled for the people (Exodus 32:11-13; 33:12-23).”
From other books of the OT we have learned that the
Jewish people were certainly God’s special treasure and heritage as seen in
(Ex. 15:17; 19:5-6; Ps. 94:5; Jer. 2:7; 12:7-9.
Let us also look at what Paul wrote in Romans 9:1-5 “1 I am telling the
truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy
Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I
could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4
who are Israelites,
to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the
giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the
fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen.”
As we look at the last part of verse 2:17 we see one of
the ways that Israel failed, and that was to get the word out to the nations
around them telling them about the Lord, for the nations around them worshiped
idols, and their idol worship influenced Israel more than the true worship of
God influenced the nations around them.
We can tell this truth about Israel, but we must remember that believers
today are to tell others about the Gospel, how Christ died on the cross to pay
for our sin so that we can become the sons of God and be with Him forever. Paul writes “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel
which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you
hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor.
15:1-4).” “9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in
salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE
DISAPPOINTED (Romans 10:9-11).”
8/4/2015 9:02 PM
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