God's Word for the Day: Joel 1:13-20

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God. (v13)

When we were disobedient as children, our parents would render judgment upon us in the form of some sort of discipline. Even in the those tender ages, our sinful nature was often put on display as we would protest our innocence, disrespect our parents' discipline, lie, etc. While this wasn't always the case, we must all admit that we did not always respond to the just judgments of our parents as we should have. The proper response to judgment is repentance--a sorrow for sin and turning from it unto God.

In the first section of Joel, we see the physical judgments of God coming into play for the disobedient people of Israel. Now they are called to repentance--"put on sackcloth"--which is the appropriate response. Yet even at this point, the days of the nation of Israel as God's chosen nation are forever drawing to a close. This is largely the point of all the Prophetic books--to prosecute God's case against His people and render just judgment: exile.

Alongside the theme of judgment, however, is one of hope. No amount of repentance will restore the Israelites to this earthly promised land. They have shown that man cannot earn an earthly promised land, let alone a heavenly one. The hope held forth is for a new man, a perfect man, to stand in the place of God's people and earn for them the heavenly promised land.

So repentance is still the proper response for the Isrealites, not to return to a land, but to return to the God of promise--a God who has promised that such a man would come to crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15; 1 Cor. 15) by being torn apart like an animal, not for His own failure, but for that of His people (Gen. 15; Is. 53).

My friends, our sin is always before us and it is against God alone (Ps. 51). He alone can offer the forgiveness of sins, and He has done so for us through the perfect life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Our appropriate response to this incredible, merciful work is a lifestyle of grateful repentance. As we view our sickening sin and consider what it merits (death), we should also view our suffering Savior and what He merited (our life), grieve of our sin as an affront to God, and turn with joy to Jesus, who has guaranteed that our Father will never turn a deaf ear to our cries.