Daily Blast - Minor Prophets: Day 6
Scripture
“Don’t be afraid, land;
Rejoice and be glad,
For the Lord has done astonishing things.”
Reflection
In Joel chapter 2 we learnt that Joel was looking ahead to a coming judgement. An imminent disaster, crushing all that stands in its way. We are reminded that God is a God of judgement, but it goes on to show how He is a God of mercy too, standing ready to redeem and restore when His people come before Him in repentance.
Joel writes how God promised to restore prosperity (wealth and success) to the repentant people and defeat the mighty army. Joel teaches to look forward in faith and to praise God for the restoration He promises – even before they see it with their own eyes and before the army has even come.
Joel sees similarities between the ravaging locusts from yesterday’s passages and the arrogant, violent nations of his own time, who attack and oppress people, and so in Chapter 3, he describes a ‘future day of the Lord’, when God will confront the evil among all the nations and turn their violence back on themselves bringing justice to right all wrongs. A day prophesied multiple times by Isaiah, Zephaniah and Ezekiel. Yet, in the midst of it all, “the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites”. Within every storm or valley, God will be the shelter and the strength to His people.
Challenge
‘...even before they see it with their own eyes and before the army has even come.’
Joel was teaching the people of his time to look ahead and rejoice at the great things God will create from a tough season before that tough season had even begun.
Spend some time thinking about and thanking God for the restoration to come and all the great things He will bring out of this current season. It may be a new community with neighbours, a new opportunity to be creative or the fact that nature has an opportunity to heal as humans slow down.