Who Will God Save? - Joel Overview

Intro

Please turn in your Bible to Joel. If you were here last week and are using your bookmark, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to find, but if you’re having trouble, it’s one of the last small books of the Old Testament. In the blue ESV Bibles it is on page 443. It will be closer to Matthew than Genesis. Again, there’s no shame in using the table of contents.

There are certain subjects that you’re not supposed to talk about in polite company. One of the most avoided of those subjects is religion. In Western culture we’re not supposed to talk about religion for fear of creating awkward conversations and discomfort in people.

However, when we lived in Houston we had many interactions with people of many different religions. From Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, to Muslims and Hindus we were neighbors and friends with a wide variety of people and it seemed that American Christians were really the only ones who hesitated to speak about religion. In fact, most of our friends were eager to discuss and debate religion and they invited us into these conversations.

It was an important experience that helped me become a lot more confident in sharing the Good News of Christ and his kingdom, but it also got me thinking. If we really do have this great news of salvation, why are we letting our culture make us so hesitant? And as I thought, I realized - at least in myself - that the hesitancy was in not wanting people to feel judged. Whether it was from me or from God, I didn’t want to commit one of our culture’s cardinal sins of judgementalism.

However, in interacting with Eastern cultures (cultures that are far closer to the culture of the biblical story) I realized they did not have the same taboo. Judgement goes hand in hand with salvation and if we cared about each other we would earnestly try to convince one another to the truth. But the question we all were trying to answer in our discussions is “Who Will God Save?”

Intro to Joel

We’re continuing our study in the Minor Prophets with the prophet Joel. And Joel answers that question in a way that is instructive and helpful.

Structure of Joel

Joel can be structured fairly simply. It’s a short book of only 3 chapters and really has only two primary sections.

The Judgement against Judah and the Day of the Lord (1:1-2:17)

The Mercy of the Lord and the Judgement against the Nations (2:18-3:21)

Historical Context

Not a whole lot is known about Joel the prophet. Unlike Hosea, there is virtually no biographical information given at the beginning of the book aside from his father’s name (Pethuel) in 1:1. We do know that, like most of the Minor Prophets, he prophesied to the people of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, called Judah. If you remember last week, this is different from Hosea who prophesied in the 700’s B.C. to the Northern Kingdom of Israel shortly before their exile into Assyria.

Judah managed to hold out for about 150 years before they too were taken into exile in 586 B.C. by a different enemy: Babylon. After a Jewish revolt, the ruler of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzer II, invaded Judah and destroyed the Jerusalem temple that had stood since David’s son Solomon had it built and took the Jews as prisoners of war into Babylon. Daniel prophesied during and after this time of exile.

Now, different from Northern Israel, the Jews of Judah were allowed to return to their home only about 60 years later when Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia. This was recounted by Ezra and Nehemiah in their books. Many Jews chose to remain in the now Persian occupied Babylon and this would be the time that the events of Esther and some of the later events of Daniel happened.

Many scholars believe that Joel prophesied after the Babylonian exile because he appears to be very familiar with the earlier prophets and is calling the attention of his hearers back to them, but again, we really just don’t know. Whatever the case, let us turn to “the word of the LORD (1:1)” that Joel gives to us.

Sermon

When we ask the question “who will God save” we must naturally proceed to the question “what does God save us from”?

Saved from What?

According to Joel there is much that we need to be saved from because there is much we have done wrong.

Foundational to understanding this is recognizing the biblical teaching that God made the world and is therefore the only one truly qualified to judge all of his creation. The Bible also teaches that we humans are made in the image of God and as such are to be his image bearers, his good representatives, on the earth. But we have not done that.

The Bible tells us that we have failed to represent God faithfully, in fact we all have outright misrepresented and rebelled against him. We have fallen from our glorified post and deserve the judgement of our Creator. This is the core of Joel and really every other book of the Bible.

So then, in the book of Joel we see that there are two things that people need to be saved from. First, we must be saved from God’s judgement on the nations.

1. God's judgement on the nations

The first two chapters of Joel focus on the nation of Judah, but the last chapter focuses on all the nations instead. Let’s begin by reading Joel 3:1-16.

Joel 3:1–16 (ESV)

1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

9 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake.

Joel depicts the nations who stand against God as a harvest that is “ripe” (13), fully grown in wickedness and ready to be cut down. As God prepares to cut down the nations he encourages them to gather up their full strength, from the strong men to the weakest. Think of the Helm’s Deep scene from The Lord of the Rings movies where old men and boys are having to take up weapons. In fact, in Joel 3:10 God reverses his peaceful instruction from Isaiah 2:4 to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, instead telling the nations to beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears. This is an all-out fight for survival. If these nations think they can come against the LORD and his people and walk away from it, they have another thing coming. But what could all the swords and spears and fighters in the world accomplish against the One True God? Nothing.

In 3:2 you will see this Valley they are called to gather in is called the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Now, there is often (though not always )an importance to understanding the literal meaning of Hebrew names in the Bible because they have meaning. Jehoshaphat literally means “YHWH has judged.” Later in verse 14 we see this then referred to as “the valley of decision.” This valley is the judgement seat of God.

So, this sounds like a call to war, but what is it really? We see from verses 12-16 that it’s actually a summons to assemble for judgement! What will this judgement look like? Like a farmer swinging his sickle through grain or like a winemaker stomping out the grapes for wine (13). The nations will be harvested, cut down, and squashed underfoot for their wickedness.

For some of you, this imagery makes you uncomfortable. It feels strange to read something like this when we are so used to primarily reading encouraging verses of the day or devotionals that focus on uplifting our spirits every day. This is the feeling that leads many to commit the heresy of Marcionism where we separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament. They try to ignore these verses by saying that really it’s Jesus who matters.

We like to try to clean up the judgement of God, but if you have come regularly to this church for much time, then you will have heard Jesus saying strong things about the judgement of God throughout the book of Matthew. We just ended Matthew 13 two weeks ago and in that we saw Jesus saying that there would be some cast into fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We cannot separate this out from the character of God and we cannot ignore it.

Here in Joel 3, God summons the nations and it seems that Joel is overwhelmed by the numbers gathered and their impending judgement. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (3:14),” he cries. They have been gathered into this valley for judgement and justice. Had these nations sold the Israelites into slavery? Yes. Was God going to turn that back upon their heads? Yes (3:8). He did just that a couple hundred years later when Artaterxes and Alexander the Great conquered these peoples in the 300’s BC.

Now, a couple of quick warnings about misapplication of these verses. First, we must remember that 3:10 is about the nations rising up against God. They are not verses calling on the people of God to fight. This is not meant to be a verse to inspire you to fight as a warrior of God.

Joel 3:10 (ESV)

10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

Now a second misapplication that happens in this section comes from verse 14. There have been many revivalists who have taken Joel 3:14 to talk about the great throngs of people at some future revivalistic crusade that will be “making a decision for Christ.” But we have already seen that is not true at all! The decision is God’s decision, not the decision of his creation and the gathering multitudes are not choosing to follow God, they are being judged for their wickedness!

The “Valley of Decision” is the Valley of Yahweh’s Judgement, his verdict. This is his courtroom where he pronounces judgement. Nothing is lost from his eye, nothing is hidden, all evidence is clear, and he will judge righteously and perfectly. This is the Day of the LORD (14) (and if we notice the all capital letters in “LORD”, we should see truly that it should be called “the Day of Yahweh”). We’ll talk more about that in just a minute.

Friends, it is vital that we take the time and effort to actually understand what God is teaching his people in the Bible. We have been far too comfortable for far too long letting people give us their human opinions and taking it as Gospel truth simply because they throw out a Bible verse here or there without actually checking if what they say is true.

A title, a Bible verse, and a following of people is enough for us to trust them and their words, but there have been many cults created with the exact same foundation. It is worth every effort to study and understand the Bible because in doing so we are studying the very word of God and we are acting in love by protecting ourselves and others from false teachers.

But let’s get back into Joel. God’s judgement on the nations is clear in this book, but it’s not the only judgement that we see. We also see God’s judgement on his own people.

2. God’s judgement on his own people

This is actually what brought Joel to prophesy. Turning back to chapter 1 we see destruction for Judah, both in the present and in the future.

Present destruction - Hordes of Locusts

At the beginning of the book we immediately encounter the present destruction of Judah (1:1-12).

Great swarms of locusts have devoured everything. Wine, fruit, grain, and oil have all disappeared, totally eaten by these bugs. Joel challenges the elders of the nation to recall a time when they have ever faced a worse destruction!

Everyone - from the drunkards, to the farmers and winemakers, to the priests - has reason to mourn! The drunkards had no more wine and the priests had nothing to sacrifice to God (which was also where their own meals came from)! Though these locusts are small on their own, they have all come as a great army, destroying the land!

However, Joel uses this event to draw our eyes to a future event: The Day of the LORD.

Joel 1:15–20 (ESV)

15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. 19 To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Great and terrible destruction, whether it is a national event like 9/11 or a personal event like the sudden death of a loved one, tends to cause us to think on the end of all things. Events like these snap us out of our complacency around our present circumstances and force us to think forward about the things of eternal significance.

And as Joel thought on the destruction of the locusts it caused him to think on a greater destruction that he knew would be coming in the future; a destruction that many prophets refer to and call our attention to: The Day of the LORD.

Future Destruction - The Day of the LORD

What Joel starts to say in chapter one, he trumpets in chapter 2.

Joel 2:1–11 (ESV)

1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.

3 Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. 5 As 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. 6 Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale.

7 Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. 8 They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. 9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 11 The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

The chapter ends with the same declaration in verse 31.

Now the ESV says “awesome,” but if you read other translations you might notice instead, the words “terrible” or “dreadful” and this is because in North America we often misuse the word awesome from its original meaning. We use it to mean “impressive” or “excellent” but it really should be closer to “awe-inspiring” or even “awful.” But whatever your Bible translated the word to, this Day of the LORD is no joke.

In chapter 2 we see all of creation seemingly withdrawing in anticipation of this day. And in chapter 3 the Lord promises “The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining (3:15).” And why do they darken and withdraw?

Well, look at 3:16: “The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake.” God roars and thunders in such a way that all of creation shakes. This Day of the Lord will be both great and terrifying. And what is the Day of the LORD? It is the day when God finally brings his great, perfect, and terrifying judgement against all people!

And this judgement covers all of creation! Like a wild fire (2:3) or an army (4-9), there is nothing that will avoid this destructive force! And where does this destruction originate? Look at Joel 2:11 again.

Joel 2:11 (ESV)

11 The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

God is the one who brings this judgement on all who have rebelled against his will! And as we have spoken about clearly last week in Hosea, that’s each and every one of us from all places and all times. Each of us today and each of the Israelites from the time of Joel need to be saved. We all need to be saved! We are just as unfaithful as Israel has been all throughout its history!

But what exactly do we need to be saved from? Well, the correct question is not “what,” but “who.” We need to be saved from God himself.

This might be rather frightening for you because you have always thought of God as whatever crosses your mind when you think of the word “nice.” We have a tendency to dilute God down to whatever we think is pleasant or comforting, but God is so much more than that. He is far more complex than we really want him to be and you cannot keep that anemic imagery of God in your mind when you read Joel or any of the other Old Testament prophets. That is one reason why the Minor Prophets are vital for us to read and understand; the Minor Prophets give us a more clear and accurate vision of God!

The great 20th Century writer and professor C. S. Lewis said this in his book The Problem of Pain:

“What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves,’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all.”

God is not some senile grandfather that is delighted so long as we had fun. He is a father who wants his children to thrive! And he will defend and sustain his children. Let’s read Joel 3:16 again.

Joel 3:16 (ESV)

16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The LORD may truly be terrifying, causing the heavens and the earth to quake with the thunder of his roar, but what else is he? A refuge and a stronghold to his people. C. S. Lewis again captures this beautifully in his children’s book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as Mr. Beaver is explaining the Great King Aslan to the Pevensie children:

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

He is not safe. But he is good. He offers a great salvation to his people and this salvation is not from difficult situations in our lives. He offers us salvation from sin and its consequences. And what is one of the great consequences of sin? The judgement and righteous anger of God.

Now this should lead us to ask another question: “What is Salvation?”

What is salvation?

While judgement is prevalent in Joel, it is not the only focus. Joel gives us beautiful pictures of God’s mercy and salvation.

God's rescue from enemies

In 2:20 we see God’s promise to deliver his people from their enemies, destroying the enemies and granting peace to his people. Then again, in 3:16-17 we see God’s great work in roaring against the enemies and leading his people to peace.

But God’s salvation is not merely rescue from enemies. God’s salvation also means restoration of prosperity!

God's restoration of prosperity

We should not miss (or misunderstand) this truth. One way that God brings salvation is in the restoration of prosperity. In 3:18 we read:

Joel 3:18 (ESV)

18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.

God restores his people with beautiful imagery of a prosperous nation. Mountains dripping with wine, hills flowing with milk, and water flowing from the house of the LORD. But before we start spouting off how we should be seeing that in our own lives on earth with mansions, sports cars, and private jets this imagery of water flowing from God should draw our attention to a book of the New Testament. A prophetic book itself. The book of John’s Revelation. Revelation 22 paints a picture of what the world will look like when Jesus finally makes all things right and brings the New Heavens and the New Earth together into one dwelling.

Revelation 22:1–2 ESV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

God’s promises of prosperity are not primarily given to make us think we’re suddenly going to be successful in everything we put our hand to. God’s promises of prosperity are intended to make us think of him and the work he is doing in all the world.

And ultimately, God’s salvation is all about God coming to reside with his people.

God's residing with his people

Joel 2:28–32 (ESV)

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that 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. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that 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.

There is a theology called dispensationalism that is only about 150 years old (which is very young in the scheme of Christian history) but was wildly popular throughout the later half of the 1900’s. Dispensationalism argues that we cannot take the promises of God to Israel and apply them to the church. They effectively completely separate ethnic Israel from the Christian church.

I do not hold to this theology and the New Testament authors did not either. The argument is clearly made throughout the New Testament (from the Gospels through Revelation) that the true people of God have always been the ones who follow him. God was first revealed to the Israelites, but then through Christ reached throughout all the world and is drawing people from every nation into his own people. Let me show you what I mean.

This passage in 2:28-32 is the passage quoted in Acts 2, on the day we call Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus and Peter says that this was the fulfillment of the promise of God to pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, not just the Israelites.

And the Holy Spirit is the great unifier of the people of God! On all flesh is what God says through Joel. On men and women, on the young and the old, and on the slave and the free! We are united through the Spirit of God Himself coming to dwell in us! God has come to reside with us by his Spirit living in us. God really is present where his people are.

Moses knew that the presence of God was truly the most important gift. What did he say when God threatened to leave Israel alone so that he won’t destroy them in their sin? “If you don’t come with us, then we won’t go! How can anyone know that we are your people if you are not with us (Ex. 33:15-16)?!”

Moses knew that the Promised Land wasn’t worth it without God and that the people of God are marked by his presence in their lives! What good was the Promised Land if God would not be there?

And what good is heaven if God is not there? So often when we think of heaven our minds think of times of bliss and joy. Floating on the clouds, having a big old family reunion, hanging out in our mansions (which is a really bad interpretation that we really like to think is true, but we don’t have time for that), maybe having a coffee with some friends at a cafe on one of the golden streets. Sounds great, right?

But what is missing from this picture? The Presence of God. In your mind’s image of heaven, if the presence of God is an afterthought and not the main point, then you do not understand what heaven is and you do not understand the Gospel. God saves his people so that they can be in his presence! What was lost in the original sin in the Garden of Eden? The ability to be in God’s presence!

What does God win for his people in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ? The gift of His presence once more! First, through his Spirit living in his people, but later through the redemption of all the earth itself from sin!

The whole Bible, not just Joel, is filled with this idea that salvation is saving us from God judgement, to God’s Presence, by God’s own works of Love!

When we forget this, when our motivation becomes our “treasures in heaven” and not God himself, we buy into a form of prosperity gospel that is just going after the gifts instead of the giver! It’s exactly like marrying someone for their money.

God saves his people to himself!

So then we must ask, why? Why will God save his people from his righteous judgement? Why will God’s people be saved?

Why will God's People be Saved?

Throughout Joel, and the rest of the Bible, we see God continuously giving three reasons for saving his people.

To Make himself known - God wants his creation to know him. He is not hands-off

Joel 2:27 (ESV)

27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.

History is really just constant records of God reaching down and interacting with his creation. God wants his creation to know him.

He also saves people to

Display his own character - God’s salvation displays his character

Joel calls the people of God to repent and return to him based off his character!

Joel 2:13 (ESV)

13 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 other words, Joel uses theology to call Judah to repent! The character of God should lead us to repentance and salvation! He is eager to forgive, to see us repent! He is not eager to bring disaster!

And the final reason God saves his people is:

To display his own glory

Joel 2:17 (ESV)

17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

Joel makes a similar argument to what Moses makes when God threatens to destroy the Israelites. “The nations will curse your name and call you weak if you destroy us. And you promised that you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” And God relents for the sake of his own name in Numbers 14:13-23.

In the New Testament Paul says in Ephesians 3:10-11 that God saves us and works through the church so that God would be made known amongst the “rulers and authorities and heavenly places.”

Now, you might find this to sound self-centered, but who would you rather God bring glory to? Who deserves glory more than he does? Yourself?

God is the perfect, holy, good, compassionate, sacrificing, Creator of the universe. Wherever he is not being glorified in all things is a moral and ethical travesty.

But let me now turn our big question. We have been discussing “who will God save?” but now I ask:

Who will save you?

What do you think you need to be saved from?

Christians recognize that every single one of us needs to be saved from our sin. This is why we confess our sin before God each and every week. This is why we gather as a church. Not because we think we are without sin, but because we know we’re chock full of it! And the only hope we have of salvation is that our sins would be forgiven because we recognize that we cannot clean ourselves up enough to somehow merit God’s favor. I hope that each of you recognize that today as well.

But whose sin will be forgiven? Why do we Christians stubbornly stick to this person, Jesus Christ? Because he is the only path to rescue from our enemies, to the restoring of what was lost, to the presence of God. God loved all of his creation so much that he did not even withhold his own Son in his plan to redeem it.

Jesus is the Son and he willingly was born into a human body with all its dishonor. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father, defeated sin and overcame temptation, and was the perfect representative that humanity so desperately needed.

And then Jesus faced all the judgement of God as the substitutionary representative sacrifice for his people, winning their freedom from sin, bearing their judgement, and gaining their entrance into the Kingdom of God and the presence of God Himself. And the call is to everyone. All are invited to become one of Jesus’ new creation people through believing he is who he claims to be and repenting of our sin and turning to him alone.

Who will save you from God? Who can save you from God? Only God can save you. Choose today whom you will serve, but salvation is only found in God.

I leave you with the instruction from Joel 2:13.

Joel 2:13 (ESV)

13 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.