Joel 2:13 (NIV) Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Yesterday we considered the times and seasons in Ecclesiastes 3, in particular, the time to tear or rend and the time to sew. The setting for today's verse was one of turmoil and unrest for the nation. Things weren't going well, the beginning verses of the book speak of four kinds of locusts that devoured everything. It is easy to picture a worse economic situation than we are facing or Europe, for that matter.
There is a time to rend and a time to sew, to patch repair, reconstruct. In those days, people would tear, rend their garments as an outward sign or symbol of woe, remorse, and grieving. Joel cuts through all of this to the heart of the matter. What the nation and each individual needed was a change of heart. It needed to be torn, broken before it could be "sewn" back together. In verse one he called for the nation to return to God with "all their heart", with weeping, fasting and mourning.
These are the things that will lead to God's grace, mercy and healing being poured out. We may face difficult times and may show one thing on the outside. show remorse over sin that may have put us in that position. God sees through all of that to the heart. A perfect example of this heart rending may be found in Psalm 51 where David repented after his sin with Bathsheba.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Wherever you find yourself today, "even now" (v.12) there is time to return to the Lord.
In Christ,
Mike
Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace NIV
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace NIV
Joel 2:12-14 (NIV) Rend Your Heart
12 "Even now," declares the Lord,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing —
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing —
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.
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