C, Ash Wednesday - Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 2 Corinthians 5:20a "Be Reconciled To God"

The book of Joel has three chapters.  The first chapter speaks of unstoppable swarms of locusts. Wave after wave, their march has undermined all human efforts.  “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” (Joel 1:4 ESV)

Surprisingly, these battalions of grasshoppers, were sent upon Israel by God.  So destructive are the locusts on the land that the inhabitants cannot even make an offering to God.  We hear, “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord.” (Joel 1:9a ESV) They call a gathering and lament, “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.” (Joel 1:15 ESV)

The second chapter continues the judgement of God upon his people.  The text we have before us speaks of darkness and gloom because the day of the Lord is coming, it is near!  We hear God’s call to repentance and some speculation as to what might happen.  “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”  (Joel 2:14 ESV)

Notice the desire is not for a blessing for the appeasement of the afflicted, but rather a blessing of produce that the afflicted can offer to God?

Joel calls for repentance proclaiming, “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:13 ESV)

The disaster that concerns God, the ruin from which he wants to relent, is affliction that spiritually separates people from him.  If they don’t have the produce, the wine, the grain, the oil, and the meat, they cannot fulfil the required sacrifices under the law, to have fellowship with God.  The greatest suffering humanity faces is separation from God’s steadfast love, where without God one eternally burns in the suffering of their unfulfillable desires!

So, the second half of Joel chapter two and chapter three (the final chapter) change in tone.  Joel, like Moses and many other faithful prophets in Israel, gets the attention of Israel off themselves and the earthly disaster of the day, turning them from themselves, and certain spiritual death.  This is the reason why God has allowed the legion of locusts and the following famine in the first place. 

Like climate change today, the climate change required by God is not out there, but within each of us.  God allows the climate to change in his creation to get our attention.  When we turn from him, his Word, and his way, he allows heartache, to stop us, to turn us, so we allow him to renew our hearts with holy repairs.  God promises to provide for his children.   But he needs our attention, and he requires faithful repentance!

Once God turned Israel and got their attention, Joel then becomes God’s agent of reconciliation.  He speaks of what God will do through his gracious and merciful character, which is slow to anger—in other words, patient—and overflowing with enduring compassion.

He announces what God will do, saying, “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, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:28–32 ESV)

These words from Joel are the words Peter also spoke to the crowd at Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven.  The complete fulfilment of Joel’s three chapters of prophecy is finished in Jesus Christ. 

In these days of disobedience, we do well to return to the prophecies of Joel and the other prophets in the Old Testament.  We need to be correctly focused, by God’s Word, from ourselves, back to the steadfast love of God, with which the Holy Spirit cleanses us through the passion of Jesus Christ.

In this time of “Lenten reflection”, God seeks your attention!  He calls you to ponder why Jesus had to come for you!  You do well to reflect on God’s Word in the Old Testament, so the locusts of God’s destruction can chew up your idols.  The very things given to you by God, which should be used to glorify God instead of yourself.

Like King David, you and I, need to allow purification to occur within us, so we can allow the daily drowning and cleansing of the human spirit.  So we can call on the name of the Lord, and receive all the benefits of the Holy Spirit, by which we can offer God right worship.

As Paul requests of the Corinthians, his call continues, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:20b ESV) This is not a reconciliation worked by you or me! But a surrendering within to the work of the Holy Spirit, who purges and cleanses you in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. 

Like Paul, you’re called to see your judgement and flee in repentance from the self to God, namely, to his Son, Jesus Christ, who pours out the Holy Spirit on your flesh, so you can call on the name of the Lord, and trust God’s salvation. 

Let David’s call, be your call, in the name of the Lord, praying, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.”   (Psalm 51:7–13 ESV)

Earlier I pointed out how Joel said, “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”  (Joel 2:14 ESV) Joel encouraged Israel to see why God would relent and bless them.  So they could make an offering to God with the return of produce, like wine, oil, grain and meat. 

Today you and I need to see what God’s purging and cleansing does!  It helps you to glorify God as the Holy Spirit retrieves you, restores you and remains with you to produce faithfulness and works within you, that please and glorify God.

We all need the Holy Spirit to overcome the human spirit within and will us not to glorify ourselves, but God.  Therefore, like King David, the offering all believers can give to the Lord is to teach transgressors God’s ways, so through the Holy Spirit, other sinners like you and me can have opportunity to return to the Lord, adding to the glory that God deserves. 

On being purged of sin and cleansed by the Holy Spirit, through Christ we are returned to God, so the next generation can be taught about the work of God.  Know this is a God pleasing sacrifice. This glorifies God in our church and in the community, today and tomorrow, and into eternity!  Amen.