Ash
Wednesday
Joel
2:12-19
2/14/24
This
year billions of cicadas will emerge from the ground in Illinois. The state will experience a rare occurrence
as two different broods of cicadas emerge at the same time. One brood is on a thirteen year cycle, while
the other is on a seventeen year cycle.
The simultaneous emergence only occurs once every 221 years. The last
time it happened was 1803.
The
good news is that the two broods will emerge in different parts of the
state. The one brood will be centered in
northern Illinois, while the other is in southern Illinois and Missouri. Only in the center of the state is there the
possibility of an overlap between the broods.
Cicadas
don’t bite or sting. For the most part
they are considered harmless. The one
thing they do is make noise, which can be substantial. And when they die they can leave a mess to
clean up.
In
our text tonight, Israel also faces billions of insects. However, the locusts that are coming upon the
nation are far from harmless. Instead,
they are like an army that consumes everything edible before it. Joel says in the previous chapter, “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.”
The prophet laments: “The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil
languishes.”
Yahweh had sent the locusts upon the
land because of the sin of the people. This event was described as the day of
the Lord. Joel says, “Blow a trumpet
in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants
of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day
of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!”
The
locusts were the presence of God’s judgment against the people’s sin. However, God did not want them to be his
final action. He wanted them to prompt
repentance among the people. We hear in
our text, “‘Yet
even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and
not your garments.’”
Yahweh called the people to return to
him. He wanted them to turn from their
sinful ways. He didn’t want them just to
go through the motions. He said, “rend
your hearts and not your garments.”
The whole nation needed to
repent. We hear in our text, “Blow the
trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the
people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the
children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the
bride her chamber.” The urgency of the
occasion would prompt even those in a wedding party to interrupt the normal
course of things.
The disaster of the locusts made it
look as if Israel was not God’s people.
And so Joel instructed: “Between the vestibule and the altar let the
priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare your people, O
LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the
nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
However, God was there. He was calling his people to repentance. He was speaking through his prophet. Through
Joel he urged them to repent and he provided the reason that they should do
this. He said, “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.”
The call to repentance was grounded in
the character of God himself. This
description of God is repeated again and again in the Old Testament. It is almost like a “creedal” statement. God is gracious. He gives people blessings that they do not
deserve. He is merciful. He shows compassion towards those who are in
need. He is slow to anger. God is patient and does not respond
immediately with judgment. He abounds in
steadfast love. God is characterized by abundant
faithful loving kindness. And he relents over disaster. God wants to forgive. He wants to turn away from judgment.
The people did repent. And as Joel had declared, Yahweh was gracious
and merciful to them. The end of our
text says, “Then
the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD
answered and said to his people, ‘Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine,
and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach
among the nations.’”
We hear the text from the prophet Joel
on Ash Wednesday because we are entering into a season of repentance. Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season
of Lent. We enter into a time of the
church year when we confess our sins that caused God to send his Son into the
world. We prepare to remember the
suffering and death of Jesus Christ for us.
God’s word addresses us just as it did
Israel: “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and
not your garments.’” Return to the
Lord. Rend your hearts and not your
garments. God calls us to repent. He
calls us to confess our sins in an honest and humble fashion.
This leads us to the Ten
Commandments. They are the diagnostic
tool for the Christian. They reveal the sin that is present in our life – the
sin that we wish to ignore. So how have
you feared, loved, and trusted in things other than God? What are the things
you place before him as they receive more time, effort, and attention?
Have you turned to God in prayer to
give thanks, or do you take his blessings for granted? Do you faithfully use and receive his Word on
a daily basis? Do you obey your parents, or do you cause them difficulties by
your attitude and behavior? Do you hold on to anger and hatred toward those who
have wronged you? Do you lust for one
who is not your spouse and use pornography? Are you lazy at work? Do you pass
on gossip and hurt your neighbor’s reputation?
Do you covet the wealth, status, and success of others?
These questions pierce each one of
us. They show how we all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God.
Through this law comes the knowledge of sin. Our every mouth is stopped
and we find that we are accountable before God.
We have no excuse for we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath and
judgment.
Yet when there may seem to be place
for despair; when there seems to be no hope for dealing with the holy God, Joel
says to us: “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.”
God calls us as sinners to repentance
because he wants to forgive. He is
indeed gracious, merciful and abounding in steadfast love. These are not just
words. They are words that have become flesh in the incarnate Son of God. We have received God’s grace, mercy, and love
through Jesus Christ.
At Christmas we celebrated the fact
that God sent his Son into the world as he became true man without ceasing to
be true God. During Epiphany we saw that
the One who is true God and true man entered the water of his baptism by John
in order to take our sin. He was the
Servant of the Lord upon whom God lay the iniquity of us all.
We prepare during Lent to follow Jesus
to the goal and purpose of his ministry.
Joel described God’s judgment in the locust plague as the day of the
Lord. He called it a day of
darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. The day of the Lord in the Old Testament is
God’s action of judgment. Jesus
experienced the day of the Lord on Good Friday. He hung on the cross in the
darkness as God poured out his wrath against our sin. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” as he received God’s judgment in our place.
Jesus’
death has given us redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Because of Christ we no longer fear God’s
wrath. We are justified before God. We already know the verdict of the Last Day.
Paul told the Romans, “Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We have
peace with God, and we have the peace of knowing that death as been
defeated. Lent will bring us to the
darkness of Good Friday. It will bring
us to the darkness of the sealed tomb.
But Christ did not remain dead. On
the third day God raised Jesus. The tomb
was empty and the risen Lord appeared to his disciples. He is the beginning of our resurrection. Because he has been raised, we will be too on
the Last Day.
Jesus’
death and resurrection means that repentance leads to forgiveness. After his resurrection Jesus told the
disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
We repent and return to our God who has shown in Jesus Christ that he is
gracious, merciful, and abounds in steadfast love.
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