Reading
SAA Notes
Joel: The Lord is God! Joel wrote about 790BC in the Kingdom of Judah, with his contemporary Amos in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The terrible calamity of a locust plague had befallen Palestine. Obadiah sees natural disasters as a potent reminder of sin’s cosmic consequences and hence an occasion for repentance – returning to God.
SJA Notes
* Father God, please open our eyes to the message of Joel today as we read this passage.
“What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten.”
Israel has been decimated, ravaged by destroyers.
And Joel calls out to both the people and to the leaders of the people,
“Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar.”
Joel is calling Israel to repentance.
“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.”
AND CRY OUT TO THE LORD.
This is a hard word for us today, for the church here and across the world.
Remember the Lord. Remember what He has done. Remember that He saves us. Remember His word, write it on our hearts, never forget!
This is a word for us today.
* O Lord God,
We call and cry out to You.
Please sink us in self and lift You up.
Please lower us and raise Yourself in us.
Please mark us as a humble and contrite people before You, our one and true God.
Please forgive us Lord for our sin.
Amen.