Restoration

Restoration- Pastor Gary

The prophecy of Joel is short but certainly not lacking in beauty or interest. Joel is introduced as the son of Pethuel. Apart from that, little is known of him. His name means Jehovah is God. The prophet uses many literary devices to produce his vivid style: alliteration, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, synonymous, and contrasting parallelism. Graham Scroggie comments, “Joel’s literary impact is as follows: The style is elegant, clear, and impassioned, and must be given a high place in Hebrew literature.”

Joel spoke to a prosperous, but increasingly apostate, Israel. His message was one of warning and a call to repentance. Consequently, he has been called the John the Baptist of the OT.

Joel begins with the instruction to blow the trumpet in Zion. The trumpets were used to call the people to assembly, as part of the celebration of ceremonial feasts, and to call the people to war. Joel’s warning was that war was coming. The army they were going to face, however, were not natural armies, but the armies of God. Joel was prophesying utter destruction and the coming destruction was called “the day of the Lord.” It was described as, “dreadful.” The question was asked, “Who can endure it?”

Why would God desire to bring destruction on a people that He had gone through such pains to establish? From the earliest books of the Bible, to the last, the clarion motif is that God wanted to be their God, they were to be His people, and He would dwell among them. God desired, and still desires, relationship with His people. The Israelites had become self-sufficient and began looking elsewhere for inspiration, guidance, and spirituality. God’s law seemed burdensome, narrow, and restrictive. Certainly, there were many roads to God and many gods that could save. It wasn’t important what one believed as long as he was sincere in his pursuit of faith.

God’s response was, and still is, that one could not ignore God and obedience to His Word without consequences. God is just and absolutely consistent. If one insists in persistent rejection of God and His ways, he will eventually incur God’s judgment. Galatians 6:7-8 warns, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that naturewill reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (NIV).

The second trumpet call mentioned in Joel is a call to repentance. They were to return to the Lord with fasting (Self denial) and weeping (Sincerity) and mourning (Sorrow for their condition/ not just sorry they got caught). God is said to be, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:13). In Hosea 6:1 we read, “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; He has wounded us, but he will bind up our wounds.” Like any good parent would, God does not shield or protect us from the consequences of our bad choices and behavior. He will, however, always be willing to receive again the repentant and humble. Not only will He receive us, He will bind up our wounds and heal us. God promises Israel in Joel 2:25, “So I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten” Charles Spurgeon once said, “Lost years can never be restored literally, time once past is gone forever. . . . You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours.”

God’s desire has always been to be restored to right relationship with His children. He desires to restore us to His intended purpose and plan for us. God will see to it that we are restored to wholeness. He will bind up our wounds, and heal us. Our God is a God who takes great joy in bringing full and complete restoration to His people.
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