Joel 2: 12-13
“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 your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
My two-year-old son and I have a game we like to play. I guess you could call it,
“Come back!” It goes something like this: He comes up to me, and says, “Bye dad. I’m
going to work.” Then He walks out of the room and I say “Come back!” while I pretend
to be sad about his departure. As soon as he goes around the corner and is out of sight,
he turns around and exclaims, “Back!!!”, and runs back to me with his arms open wide
and I scoop him up in my arms and tell him how glad I am he’s home again and how
much I missed him while he was gone. Then, he wriggles out of my arms, and the game
repeats itself.
Our Bible verse takes place during an epic game of “Wait! Come back! Not with a
dad and his child, but rather between God and His people. They were waiting because it
seemed as though He had left and forgotten to come back again. The problem though
was that it wasn’t a game. They were experiencing God’s punishment for their sin and
disobedience to His Word, and He had pronounced judgment against them. How
desperately they wanted to see God come around the corner!
In the midst of their suffering and despite the promise of judgment that was
going to come upon them, God sends a message of hope and comfort through His
prophet. They were the ones who needed to turn around and come back, for they had
strayed away from God. They were the ones who had sinned and brought about the
suffering they were experiencing. So, they are told to return to God with all of their
heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. In the Old Testament, tearing clothes
and sitting in ashes was a sign of sorrow and repentance over sin. They were to open
their hearts before God, to confess their sin and iniquity before Him.
God was calling them back to Himself because He is indeed gracious and
merciful. Thankfully, He does not have a short fuse. He doesn’t explode in fits of rage
and anger when we sin. He doesn’t desire that any of His people would die, but that
rather in repentance they would come to Him so that He might shower them with His
steadfast love.
That is the reminder we are given during this season of Lent. Our sin deserves
punishment. Our disobedience to God’s Word and Commandments leaves us deserving
of God throwing up His hands and abandoning us in our sin, or worse, striking us dead
that very moment. Instead of doling out the punishment we deserve for our sins, HE
sent us Jesus to bear the punishment that our guilt deserves. With gracious mercy, and
loving patience, He calls out to us, “Come back!” And we can return to Him with the
boldness and confidence of faith, trusting that for the sake of Christ’s suffering and
death upon the cross our sins have been forgiven, and that He will never abandon us.
When we confess our sins, we are welcomed with open arms and receive the full
measure of God’s mercy.
Thanks be to God for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
Written by: Pastor Joel Meyer
