AIM Commentary
Introduction
We begin our journey into the paradox of Lent with the dire warnings of the prophet Joel about the coming day of the Lord. In this passage we see a just God who wrathful at sin, the sorrow of a covenant broken, and the hope and joy of restoration that comes with repentance. We have fear, sadness, hope, and joy, all mingled together at once. It is, in a way, the whole of Lent in a small package.
Ancient Lens
What can we learn from the historical context?
Historical Setting
It is difficult to pinpoint the specific historical context in which Joel penned his message. Scholars debate whether or not Joel was a pre-exilic or post-exilic prophet or if the “locust” invasion in chapter one is merely a metaphor for the conquering armies of Assyria or Babylon.
Judgment for Disobedience
Whatever the historical event being referred to, it is clear that Joel’s use of the phrase, “day of the Lord,” in both chapters one and two is indicative of God’s judgment on his people. In chapter one, whether that judgment comes through a devastating swarm of locusts that lay waste the crops of Judah or an invading army of Assyrians or Babylonians is not the point. The point is that God’s judgment reflects the consequences of breaking his covenant which are warned of in the Torah.
In the second Sinai covenant, when the 10 Commandments are brought down the mountain a second time, the people are warned that, though God is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness..., forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin," he is also will "by no means clear the guilty" and will punish iniquity (Ex 34:6-7, ESV).
The surprise revealed in chapter two is that the invading army is not to be understood as a mere calamity, it is to be understood as the army of God (2:11).
Blessings and Curses and God’s Invasion
The covenant context is essential. The people to whom Joel writes were very familiar with the covenant and the curses associated with its infringement. As outlined in Deuteronomy 26, blessings accompany the keeping of the covenant and curses fall upon those who breach its parameters, “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land” (Deuteronomy 26:52, ESV). Joel’s prophetic vision of the Day of the Lord’s invasion is a reminder to the people of their covenant failings but also of God’s infinite mercy towards his wayward people.
God’s Swarming Army and His Abounding Love
When God’s army unleashes its destructive power upon the disobedient it is as thoroughly consuming as a swarm of locusts (Joel 2:2-9). God’s invasion spares no place or person. Yet, God’s judgment is not his final word. This very same God, unlike a merciless and vindictive warlord, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. In an appeal to God’s character, Joel exhorts his people to repent and to rend their hearts and see if God will not relent (Joel 2:12-14).
Joel appeals to the second Sinai covenant, even borrowing from Ex 34:7-8, writing,
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. (ESV)
This drives home both his point that Israel has violated the Lord's covenant, but that his character welcomes their return.
The covenant blessings and curses that Joel recalls echo in the final fulfillment of God’s promises through Christ.
Jesus Lens
How do we point to Jesus?
Incarnation as Invasion
The Incarnation is God’s ultimate invasion of his people, the true day of the Lord. God enters the human condition, bearing the burden of our covenant-breaking sin. He offers compassion, grace, and abounding love to the convicted and condemned. He disarms the disobedient by becoming one of them, fully human and yet without sin. He tears his own heart in place of ours. He conquers the covenant breakers through his own destruction.
Woe Over Jerusalem
I am reminded of Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (ESV). His arrival is without arms and artillery, troops and battalions. He comes alone, accompanied by a deep compassion for us, longing for restoration.
The Inadequate Priests of Joel 2 and Jesus, our Priest
Joel 2:17 implores the priests of Israel to weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations” (ESV). The priests cannot adequately mediate. Only God can. The invading, incarnate God himself intercedes for his people from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34, ESV). His act enables repentance, to return to him with, “all [our hearts], with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning” (Joel 2:12, ESV).
Modern Lens
How does this touch my heart, life, emotions, thoughts and relationships today?
Ash Wednesday and the Prophet’s Wake Up Call
The prophet sounds a wake up call: God is coming. Are we ready to welcome him into our lives?
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of our Lenten fast. It is the sounding of the alarm that God is in our midst as both the One who condemns and the One who comforts. Will we offer him more than just an outward sign of repentance? Will we render our very hearts to him? Ash Wednesday is for all of us, young and old, religious and secular, high and lowly, occupied and unoccupied. Like the call to repent on the day of the Lord, Ash Wednesday is a call for humanity to remember its Maker. He is both our judge and redeemer. We are but dust endowed with the breath of God.
God’s Love Comes with Conditions
Our modern sensibilities welcome a God who loves us without question, who affirms us for who we are, a God who cheers us on without challenging us, who advocates for us without accountability. Modern sensibilities reject wrath, but do they embrace righteousness? Wrath and righteousness are two very different ideas.
Wrath is bent on destruction while righteousness is bent on deconstruction (and reconstruction). God deconstructs our unrighteousness and sin and rebuilds us. His judgment is part of his justice and his justice is an expression of his love for us. He invades our sinful world and our sinful lives in order to conquer the sin within us and claim us as his own. Lent invites us to allow God to work in us⸺will we accept? Will we allow our hearts to be torn at the heaviness of our sin and let him go to work in our lives in this period of joyful sadness in which the pain of our wrongdoing mixes with the hope of God’s forgiveness and restoration?
Discussion Questions
What significance does the "Day of the Lord" have in Joel 2, and how does it reflect God's judgment on His people?
Joel emphasizes that God’s punishment is a response to covenant disobedience. How does this idea challenge or align with modern perspectives on divine justice?
What emotions or reactions arise from the notion that the invading army in Joel 2 is described as “the very army of God”?
In what ways does Joel’s depiction of God’s judgment and mercy foreshadow the redemptive work of Jesus Christ?
Lent is described as a time of “joyful sadness.” How can we hold these two seemingly opposing emotions together in our spiritual practices?
How can the themes of judgment, mercy, and repentance in Joel 2 guide your preparation for Easter?
Sermon Resources
Key Quote
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To repent means to “turn around.” Good Ash Wednesday advice. Turn around from our illusion of self-sufficiency and face God, which means facing the truth of who we are. This is a day to turn around and confess that we get it: one day we will once again be ashes.
Key Illustration
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A Deep Breath and a Turn
There is an interesting history of the word repentance. The word in Hebrew means originally “to take a deep breath and sigh.” A deep feeling of sorrow, of remorse. Repentance at the root, at the very beginning, seems to have the idea that you realize that you have done something wrong and you feel badly about it. And you feel it deeply; it gets down deep inside you, and you groan or sigh or you breathe deeply.
All of us know how that works. We know that part of repentance. We know the part that has to do with our feelings. The interesting thing is that use of the word didn’t last long in the Bible. Very quickly the writers began to substitute another word for the same action, and this other word meant “return” or “turn around and go.”
Not a word of feeling at all, but a word of action. Under the influence of the prophets, repentance became not something you felt but something you did. And it’s essential you get that through your head if you are going to understand what the Bible means about repentance. You don’t repent by taking a deep breath and then feel better.
You repent only when you turn around and go back or toward God. It doesn’t make any difference how you feel. You can have the feeling, or you don’t have to have the feeling. What’s essential is that you do something. The call to repentance is not a call to feel the remorse of your sins. It’s a call to turn around so that God can do something about them.
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
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Based on Psalm 57 and Wisdom 11
ViewPastor: Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
People: for in you my soul takes refuge;
Pastor: in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
People: till the storms of destruction pass by.
Pastor: I cry out to God Most High,
People: to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
Pastor: He will send from heaven and save me.
People: God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
Pastor: You have mercy on all, O Lord,
People: and abhor nothing you have made.
Pastor: You look past the sins of men that they may repent.
People: You spare them all because you are our Lord, our God.Psalm 57:1-3 and Wisdom 11:24-26, adapted for liturgy by Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, IL.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Prayer of Confession
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Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.All our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
you Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.
Assurance of Pardon
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Pastor: God has spoken! Clearly He declares: Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven! As far as the East is from the West, so far have your sins been removed. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses you from all your sins. Though they be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Go in peace and joy! Forgiven, you have a new beginning, and are free to be a blessing to others all the days of your lives.
People: Amen. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to You.
Based on Matthew 9:2, Psalm 103:12, and Isaiah 1:18 (updated KJV). Psalm 86:5 from NIV. Adapted for liturgical use.
Meant to accompany this prayer of confession.
Bible Translation: KJV King James VersionScripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Bible. The King James Bible is in the public domain in the United States.
Bible Translation: NIV New International Version ZondervanScripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Benediction
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Pastor: Now as you set out on your Lenten journey, may the crosses of ash be a reminder that you are a people called to repentance, washed clean in the waters of baptism, and redeemed in the fire of God’s love. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
People: Amen. Thanks be to God.