The Mercy of the Lord

The Mercy of the Lord

Joel 2:12-17

Lamentations 3:22 says “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” That was certainly true in Joel’s day. Despite the fact that Judah had experienced awful discipline from the hand of the Lord they had not received all they deserved. The very fact that God sent them a prophet proved that God had not cast them away. What we have seen so far in this book is difficult. It makes for harsh preaching.

We have seen destruction.

We have seen fingers pointed at individual groups.

We have seen promises of impending doom.

We have seen calls for weeping.

We have seen the effects of sin on man, on plants and on animals.

Now, the tone of the text changes. We move into a section in which we begin to see the mercy of the Lord. Judah needed grace and God is going to offer it to them. This morning as we look at this section of Scripture, I want you to see three things:

1. God is merciful.

2. Repentance should be immediate.

3. Restoration is possible.

1. God is merciful (13).

A. The divine invitation (12).

Notice in verse 12 that it is the Lord Himself who invites Judah to come to Him. From what we have read so far in the book you might think they should run from Him. Joel just asked the question in 2:11 “For the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it?”

Why would the Lord invite them to come to Him? Certainly not to destroy them. He invites them because He is not only a God who judges but He is also a God who forgives. It is the mercy of God that beckons us to come unto Him. If all we knew about God is that He is the Judge of the universe we may never come to Him. But we know so much more about Him.

Specifically, through Christ we know that He is merciful. I can almost hear Jesus saying, “Come unto Me all ye who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Notice that God invites the sinner.

He invites the greedy tax collectors like Matthew.

He invites the self-righteous like James and John.

He invites the enemies of the cross like Saul.

Like the hymn says:

What riches of kindness He lavished on us

His blood was the payment His life was the cost

We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford

Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

So, we see the Divine invitation. We are invited by the God who will judge the universe. He invites us to Himself so He can forgive us Himself.

B. The description of God (13).

The description Joel gives is taken from the book of Exodus. When Moses asked the Lord to show Him His glory the Lord not only showed Himself partially to Moses, He also revealed His character by speaking to Moses. As He passed before Moses, He said

“The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

He is gracious and merciful. The word “gracious” is used only of God in the bible. Both Hebrew words are in the intensive action. That means the words are strengthened. It would be like us saying God is very gracious and very merciful. Even that is an understatement. God is overflowing with grace and mercy.

He is slow to anger. He is patient. Literally the Hebrew word means “long of nostrils”. The imagery is of a person who takes a deep breath through his nose when he is tempted to get angry. God is patient with this world. If He were not so glorious His patience would have been exhausted long ago.

He is of great kindness. God loves us when He sees our pitiful state. He is moved by His love to acts of kindness. We see that in the life of Jesus. Lepers called out to Him and He took pity on them. The sick and deformed called out to Him and He took pity upon them. The hungry cried out to Him and He took pity on them.

Joel wants us to know that God is good. I have heard many people claim that God is not good. Perhaps they even were active in Joel’s day.

If God is good, why did we have four waves of locust attacks?

If God is good, why did we lose all our crops?

If God is good, why won’t He make it rain?

If God is good, why don’t He give us some offerings?

If God is good, why are the animals suffering?

How easily we forget the goodness of God when His discipline comes our way.

If God were not good, we would have more than locust plagues.

If God were not good our crops would never grow.

If God were not good, it would never rain.

If God were not good this world would be suffering more than you could imagine.

The Bible says it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). The very fact that I am saved proves God is good. I don’t know what trials I may face on the narrow road, but I know where the narrow road will lead me. It will lead me to Christ. It will lead me to heaven.

The path God has for me may lead me to many things.

It may lead me to poverty.

It may lead me to heart ache.

It may lead me to loss.

It may lead me to loneliness.

It may lead me to the hospital.

It may lead me to a wheelchair.

It may lead to a nursing home.

But ultimately it will lead me to heaven!

When I reach that happy shore, I will shout God is good! God is merciful!

C. The desire of God. The end of verse 14 says He is relenting of evil. This means He does not take pleasure in judging humanity. He finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He would much rather save us than punish us. God finds great pleasure in forgiving us. He rejoices in our coming to Him. When the sinner turns from sin and to Christ the Lord turns from the judgment the sinner deserved.

2. Repentance should be immediate (12, 13, 15-18).

A. Everyone should be called to repentance (15-16).

This is the second time Joel has called for the trumpet to be blown (2:1). It’s also the second time he has called for a solemn assembly (1:14). We’ve already explained what a solemn assembly is, so we won’t spend time on that. The blowing of the trumpet was the sounding of an alarm. It was a summons for the people to gather together as one. Notice who is called to this fast and solemn assembly.

The congregation- everyone.

The elders.

The children.

The infants.

The bride and bridegroom.

I’m sure they could all make up an excuse.

The elders might say they’re too old and sick to come.

The children’s parents might say they get too bored to come.

The infant’s parents might say they make too much of a fuss to come.

The bride and bridegroom might say they just got married so they can’t come. I want you to notice something in verse 16. It speaks of the bride being called out of her closet and the bridegroom called out of his chamber. What does that mean?

In that culture marriage was not finalized until the marriage was consummated. The chamber and the closet both refer to the same place. This was the place the marriage was consummated. So, the imagery is of a newly married couple who just arrived at their honeymoon suite but are interrupted and told to come and gather at the solemn assembly. That’s how important it was that the people of Judah repent. There were no excuses. No matter who you were you were to be there.

Grandma and grandpa had to be there.

Mama and daddy had to be there.

The kids had to be there.

The babies had to be there.

We are a procrastinating people. When you live in a prosperous nation like we do you can afford to be. But when it comes to repentance we cannot afford to procrastinate. Think of those people told to bring their infants to the solemn assembly. They may say to Joel “I don’t want my child to interrupt the service. I’ll what to my child is older.” Perhaps Joel is saying to them there may not be a country left for their children if they do not repent.

We have a generation who are forsaking the Lord’s house now. They think they can afford to. The reason they think that is because they have been spoiled by prosperity. They are reaping the benefits of a previous generation’s faithfulness to the Lord. I’m afraid if we are not careful the lampstand of many churches is going to be removed. We have no idea what an America without a church on every corner will look like. I promise you it will not look good. Everyone was called to immediate repentance.

B. The priests should intercede for the people (17).

Joel tells the priests to gather together between the porch and the altar. The altar was where sacrifices were made and normally priests would be gathered there. There were no sacrifices, so Joel tells them to get between the altar and the entrance of the Temple. Joel tells the priests how to pray.

They are to pray for mercy. “Spare thy people O Lord!”

They are to pray that they will be spared from humiliation by the heathen nations.

The people of Judah are the people of God. The priests are to reason with God that if they are humiliated the enemies of God will speak evil of Him.

But I want you to notice something else the priests are supposed to do. They are to weep. We need broken hearted spiritual leaders. We have enough spiritual leaders telling us everything is ok. We have enough telling us to smile. We have enough who are saying Peace! Peace! when there is no peace. Before we have broken hearted people in our churches, we are going to have to have broken hearted preachers in our pulpits.

C. Repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God (12-13).

Joel tells the people two times to turn to the Lord (12, 13). Repentance is not just turning from something. Repentance is turning from something and to God. People turn from things all the time only to turn to something else other than the Lord.

They turn from bad relationship to another bad relationship.

They turn from smoking and to overeating.

The people of Judah were to turn from their sin and to the Lord. When we are living in sin, we have our back turned to the Lord. Turning your back on someone is a sign of disrespect. You are telling that person they don’t matter. If I were to preach this message with my back tuned to you, you wouldn’t hear a word I said. You would feel disrespected.

To live in sin is to disrespect the Lord. To live in sin is to have our eyes set on our own sinful desires. To repent of sin is to turn from our sin and set our eyes on the Lord. How can we follow the Lord if our back is turned to Him? We cannot. Repentance is turning from our sin and setting our attention on the Lord Jesus.

When we turn from sin, we must do it in sincerity. Joel says turn to the Lord with weeping and fasting and mourning. Look at verse 13. He says, “rend your heart and not your garments”. In the Jewish culture the ripping of garments symbolized sorrow or repentance. The problem was for the most part the ripping of garments had become for the most part hypocritical. The people assumed if they feigned outrage or sorrow then the Lord was satisfied. It became a ritual of sorts.

Someone might say “Am I sorry? Well of course I’m sorry. I ripped my garments, didn’t I?”

We have our rituals too. Instead of truly repenting we:

Give an offering.

Come to church.

Volunteer to serve.

None of those things matter if our heart has not been broken over our sin. Joel says not to tear your shirt but tear your heart. It’s not difficult to determine if someone is truly heartbroken over sin. In fact, a broken heart is one of the most difficult things to hide. The heart determines our actions.

Finally, I want you to see that repentance can’t be halfhearted. Verse 12 says turn to the Lord with all your heart. Repentance must be taken seriously. Repentance is so much for than saying we are sorry.

Repentance is turning away from a life of sin and turning to Christ.

Repentance involves a broken heart and a sorrow over sin.

Repentance is wholehearted.

Repentance is nothing to play around with. It should be entered immediately. When we consider how merciful the Lord is why would we not enter it immediately?

3. Restoration is possible (14).

A. Consider all they had lost.

They lost their jobs. Many jobs were directly connected to agriculture. With the locusts and drought, the farmers lost their jobs, and everyone connected to them did as well.

There was a shortage of food. Fruits, vegetables and even livestock was in shortage.

Their pleasures were removed. The drunks had nothing to drink.

Worship had been cut off. They couldn’t offer any sacrifices.

I already mentioned this in a previous message, but it is interesting to compare ourselves with them. We haven’t experienced things to the same degree they did but have we not seen:

People lose their jobs

Shortage of food and other items.

Pleasures removed- no sports, theaters, no concerts.

Worship cut off.

We never imagined these things could be taken from us so quickly. Friends we could lose everything they lost. We could lose it very quickly. We should take this moment in our history as a warning that all the earthly things we have can be stripped away.

B. Consider how we have responded in our time of crises.

There is very little humility.

There is very little repentance.

There is very little unity.

We argue politics.

Race relations are the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime.

Our response to all that is happening has been anger for the most part. Listen to me closely, we’re not showing the Lord that we have learned our lesson. We shouldn’t expect the blessing of the Lord any time soon if we continue as a nation to act the way we are acting.

C. Consider what God might do.

In verse 13 Joel says the people should repent because God may leave behind a meat offering and a drink offering. In other words, God might restore worship. If He restores worship, we can assume the other things would be restored as well because worship is the most important thing.

Notice it says the Lord might do this. If the people repented the Lord would no doubt forgive them, but the Lord was under no obligation to restore the country. Joel knew God would forgive the people, but he didn’t know if the country would be restored or not.

I don’t know if our country will ever be the same again. I can’t promise you that. But there is a possibility if we turn to the Lord that not only will the Lord forgive us, but He might make a godly nation out of America. He could do that. Our kids and grandkids could grow old in a revived nation. It could happen! But it most certainly will not happen if the present generation does not turn from their sin and to God.

God is merciful. He will give us more than we deserve. But we must turn to Him. We must turn from our sins. Perhaps if we do the Lord will give this world more time and we will see many souls swept into the kingdom of God. That is my prayer and my hope. I trust in the mercy of God we will see it come to pass.