#DailyDevotion God’s calling to repentance is an invitation to eternal life.
January 21st
Read Joel 1:1–20
Joe 1:13-15 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. (14) Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. (15) Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Disaster is coming upon the Israelites and the people of Judah. The locusts in this passage represent the kingdom of Assyria coming down from the north to exact the Lord’s vengeance upon his own people. They had sinned against the Lord by worshipping other gods. They performed all sorts of vile practices in the worship of the foreign gods. On top of that they worshiped the Lord with false hearts and they sinned against their neighbor and oppressed the poor, the orphan, the widow and the foreigner who resided in their gates. They did not follow the Law of God and broke His covenant.
When disaster comes or is coming that is the time to repent. The Lord warned them this was coming. He called for them to proclaim a fast, to put on sackcloth and ashes and turn to the Lord their God with all their hearts, confessing their sins and iniquities and begging his forgiveness. The day of the Lord, the day of destruction was coming. He warned them ahead of time. So what did they do? Nothing. They ignored the warnings and went on with their life as if the Lord did not warn them. Swift destruction came upon them all.
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians tells us these things happened so we might learn from them. When disaster strikes, whether natural or man-made, we are not to dismiss it as nothing. We are being called to repent of our sins and call upon God with faith and trust that he will forgive us for Christ’ sake and relieve of these disasters. These troubles that come upon us individually, nationally and world-wide are not are not simply run of the course happenings. They are the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth calling us to repent and believe in Jesus. God takes no pleasure in disciplining mankind. He takes no pleasure in our death and destruction. He desires that we repent and live.
Unfortunately we read in Revelation, Rev 9:20 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,…” and Rev 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.” We see it all around us. Bad things happen and instead of repenting we curse God instead. Instead of looking at our own sins, confessing our guilt and turning from them we blame God and do not turn to the relief he has provided us, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus his Son.
You however, don’t be that guy.
Lord Jesus Christ, may we always confess our sins and believe they are forgiven for your names’sake. Amen.