repentance and relief

Good afternoon friends,
I hope this beautiful day has been a good one for you. Today's reading starts with hope for God's forgiveness and ends with a promise for the conclusion of history. Even when God judges us and calls us to change our ways there is a future. God corrects us to bring us back to the right path. In the end there will be blessing. Notice too the last paragraph. God promises the Holy Spirit for everyone, not just for prophets. That's exactly what happens at Pentecost.

God bless,
Sam

Joel 2:12-16, 18-21, 28-32

¹²Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. ¹⁴Who 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? ¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; ¹⁶gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. ¹⁹In response to his people the Lord said: I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a mockery among the nations. ²⁰I will remove the northern army far from you, and drive it into a parched and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its rear into the western sea; its stench and foul smell will rise up. Surely he has done great things! ²¹Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!

²⁸Then afterward 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. ²⁹Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. ³⁰I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. ³²Then 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.

an insect army

Good afternoon friends,
As I mentioned yesterday, Joel uses a plague of locusts as a symbol for God's judgment on Israel. He talks about the locusts as an invading army bringing God's wrath. The good news is that God's judgment brings forgiveness and redemption, even though it's scary. Love wins in the end.

God bless,
Sam

Joel 2:1-11

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— ²a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

³Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. ⁴They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge. ⁵As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. ⁶Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale.

⁷Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course, they do not swerve from their paths. ⁸They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. ⁹They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. ¹⁰The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ¹¹The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it?

locusts

Good morning brothers and sisters,
This week we're getting ready for Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit came and Peter tried to explain what was happening he went back to a passage from the book of the Prophet Joel. So we're going to get ready first by getting to know Joel. Joel is a short book. We can't pin down Joel's setting exactly, but scholars guess the fifth century before Christ, which is after the return from exile.

Joel was sent to Israel to interpret a terrible plague of locusts that almost destroyed agricultural life. He interprets it as God's judgment and calls Israel to repent and return to the Lord. He talks a lot about temple sacrifice including grain and wine offerings to God. The locusts become apocalyptic and Joel see's the end of time. Let's take a look to see what we can learn about repentance and God's calling.

Blessings as you start your week,
Sam
 

Joel 1:1-13

The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel: ²Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors? ³Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. ⁴What 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. ⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. ⁶For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. ⁷It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches have turned white.

⁸Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. ¹⁰The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails. ¹¹Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined. ¹²The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people. ¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Joel

Good morning friends,
As we approach Memorial Day weekend, please take some time to remember the men and women in uniform who have died in service. We also remember those who have served and suffered for our sake. Regardless of how we feel about military action, these folks risk their lives to serve their country. They deserve our profound gratitude.

In our reading for today we continue the story of Pentecost. God poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples and they began telling the good news in other languages. Some people were amazed and others thought they were drunk. Peter gets up to explain what God is doing.

Blessings as you finish your week,
Sam

Acts 2:14-21

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. ¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. ²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. ²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.