Yet Even Now: Return to Me

In one paragraph

Joel is the most optimistic of the minor prophets, and Pastor Josh preached the whole book on the first Sunday of Lent, connecting its ancient word about locusts and ruin to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and to the season of repentance the church has just entered. Joel opens without naming a king or a date. Pastor Josh placed it likely in the post-exile period, though he acknowledged theologians...

Read together

1. Joel 1:1 opening of the book, noting no king is named and no date given
2. Joel 1:2-4 the locust swarm described, elders and inhabitants called to hear
3. Joel 1:5 heavy drinkers called to weep because wine has been cut off
4. Joel 1:6-7 a nation with lion's teeth has laid waste to vine and fig tree
5. Joel 1:8-10 call to wail in sackcloth, grain and drink offerings cut off from the house of the lord
6. Joel 1:11-12 farm workers and vinedressers called to wail, all trees dried up, joy dried up
7. Joel 1:13-14 priests called to mourn in sackcloth, solemn assembly proclaimed
8. Joel 1:15 woe declared, the day of the lord is near, destruction from the almighty
9. Joel 1:16-18 food cut off, seeds dried up, animals suffering with no pasture
10. Joel 1:19-20 cry to the lord over fire devouring pastures and stream beds dried up
11. Joel 2:1-2 trumpet blown in Zion, day of the lord coming, a great and mighty people
12. Joel 2:3-9 the advancing army like locusts leaving desolation, climbing walls like soldiers
13. Joel 2:10-11 the lord commands this army, day of the lord great and awesome, who can endure it
14. Joel 2:12-13 yet even now return to the lord with fasting and weeping, rend your hearts not your garments
15. Joel 2:13 the lord described as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, relenting of catastrophe
16. Joel 2:14 who knows, he might relent and leave a blessing behind
17. Joel 2:15-17 trumpet blown, solemn assembly gathered including bride and groom, priests cry spare your people
18. Joel 2:18-19 the lord responds with compassion, promising grain, wine, and oil
19. Joel 2:20 the northern army driven into the sea, its stench to ascend
20. Joel 2:21-23 land and animals told not to fear, early rain given for vindication
21. Joel 2:24-25 threshing floors full, compensation promised for what the locust ate, god's great army
22. Joel 2:26-27 people will eat and praise, god in the midst of Israel, people never put to shame
23. Joel 2:28-32 spirit poured out on all mankind, sons and daughters prophesy, everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved
24. Exodus 34 Moses asking god to show himself, god proclaiming himself merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love to thousands of generations
25. Acts 2:1-41 Pentecost account, holy spirit poured out, Peter quoting Joel, crowd pierced to the heart, three thousand baptized

Talk about it

1. Pastor Jonathan described Joel as the most optimistic of the minor prophets, partly because it is the only one he knows of that does not call out specific sin. What did you make of that approach, and how does it change the way the call to repentance lands on you?
2. In the face of the locust devastation, Joel's instruction was to consecrate a fast, gather the people, and cry out to God together. What does it look like in practice to respond to personal or corporate calamity that way, rather than pulling back from community?
3. Pastor Jonathan read from Joel, 'Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not merely your garments.' He pointed out that tearing your clothes is easy if you wear cheap clothes. Where in your own life is there a gap between the outward gesture and what is actually happening in your heart?
4. Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and said that what the crowd was seeing fulfilled what Joel had written five hundred years earlier. What does it mean to you that a promise that old was kept in that way, and how does it affect your confidence in promises that still feel future?
5. Pastor Jonathan said that any present calamity is a good reason to humble yourself before God, and that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Is there something you are currently facing where you have not yet brought that kind of humility to God? What is holding you back?