Joel begins the lamentation before the Lord. He sees the destruction that has already come
upon the land through the plagues of locusts and that all Israel suffers from
drought and famine. We're not quite sure
when Joel exercised his prophetic ministry in Judah, so the particulars are not
available to us. He pleads with the Lord
for Him to relent of this judgment and to come save them and yet the response
is exactly the opposite, sort of, "You haven't seen anything
yet." The Lord's army, disciplined,
mighty and ruthless is coming in judgment.
There is none who can endure the coming of this army, nothing can be
done to stop it by human armies. That
day will ultimately come for all the earth, our only hope against God's
judgment is His Son's sacrifice on our behalf.
He has provided a way to survive.
Can you imagine choosing to follow Jesus and all your
friends and relatives turning away from you, hating you even? When Jesus called the disciples like the
Galileean fishermen, they had to choose between their families and following
Him. They left their fathers behind to
keep up the family business to go with Jesus.
Others at that time had to choose between their unbelieving families and
belief that Jesus was Messiah and that choice divided families. In the Middle East today men and women choose
Jesus over their families and it costs them all they have known, all the love
of the ones who raised them. We
typically don’t have to make that choice the same way but we do make weaker
choices to follow, we prefer peace to fanatical devotion, the kind of devotion
that led to the cross.
While merchants, sailors and men lament over the destruction
of the city, heaven exults. From the
perspective of earth, the city looked like something wonderful but from heaven
it was an abomination that led people away from God. The kingdoms of earth must be overthrown for
the kingdom of heaven to be established.
Have you ever seen the aftermath of a disaster? My friend's house burned a few years ago and
when I went to see him he took me in and showed the damage. It was a nice house but in that moment,
looking at the destruction, it lost its luster and appeal to the eyes. We have to see things as they really are if
we are going to assign them their proper value.
Even John is tempted to worship the angel, so great is his
splendor. Ask Him today to show you
things as they are that you might worship Him alone.
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