A Plea For Repentance : Part 2
The Next STEP (in responding to God’s plea for genuine repentance) is,
Gather the People
These next two verses are very similar to chapter one, verse 14. “Sound the shofar in Zion! Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather all the people.” This was the work of the priests; they were to lead by example. Here, Joel goes through a list of specific people who should be there. No age group is excluded, and nothing should be allowed to interfere with this gathering, not even previous exceptions in the law of Moses; like the one exempting newly married couples from certain duties for their first year together (Deuteronomy 24:5).
Notice with me how this plea for repentance is set in the context of the community of God’s people. Our culture, western culture is a “me” culture instead of a “we” culture. The emphasis in our culture is on the individual. Our wants, our desires, our rights take precedence over everything else. That isn’t the biblical pattern, although we have tried to adapt the Scripture to fit our culture. I’m not suggesting that individual repentance isn’t necessary, it is, but individual repentance does have ramifications for the larger community.
If you look at examples of repentance in Hebrew culture, the emphasis is on the group rather than the individual. Nehemiah prayed, “please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned.” Daniel’s prayer in chapter nine of his book is very similar. Both godly men include themselves in the prayers of repentance.
Joshua 7 records the defeat of Israel’s army at Ai that resulted from the sin of Achan. After the defeat, Joshua tore his clothes and cried out to God. What did God say? He said, “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them.” Did you catch that? One man sinned, Achan, but his sin affected the whole group. In the New Testament, in the closing verses of First Corinthians eleven, Paul tells us that those who participate in the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner cause disease and death in the body, the church.
Joel called on the religious leaders of Judah to consecrate a fast. The Hebrew word is kadhesh. It means “to be set apart” or “to be holy.” To consecrate something is to set it apart for a special purpose. So, the people of Judah were commanded to set apart time and resources for a period of fasting. Fasting involves crying out to God and asking Him to reveal His will. Fasting can sharpen mental alertness and spiritual perception. The process often leads to purification, as God through the Holy Spirit reveals sin that we were previously unaware of.
The priests were instructed to gather the people for a sacred assembly. A sacred assembly was a special time of corporate worship. It was a time when no regular work was done. Israel as a nation had regular festivals that included gatherings like this one, but this was an “emergency” meeting. Just as Joel instructed them to consecrate a fast, he now tells the priests to sanctify or consecrate (they’re both the same Hebrew word) the congregation. If they were going to hear from God and make an appeal to Him, it was imperative that take care of any sin among them.
As the crowd is gathered the priests are to lead them in repentance. They are instructed to “weep between the porch and the altar.” When there is sin in the Body of Christ, leaders need to set the example of repentance.
I remember so well, as a young man, attending a large gathering of Believers representing many different local congregations. It was customary in that gathering for ordained leaders to sit on the large platform behind those who were leading the meeting. I don’t remember the name of the man who spoke at that meeting, but I do remember him making a passionate appeal from the Scriptures for a spirit of repentance and godliness among leaders of the church.
At the end of his message, he gave an invitation to those in attendance who were leaders in their local congregations. Among the dozens of leaders present, not one responded. I was stunned. I thought to myself, “is there no one among this large group of leaders who is in need of repentance, of forgiveness, of cleansing?” And then I understood why there was so little repentance in their churches. As leaders, they should have set an example for their people. They had gathered the people, but they failed to lead.
The first step in responding to God’s plea for genuine repentance is, “turn to Me.” The next step is to gather the people of God into the presence of God in sacred assembly.
The Final STEP (in responding to God’s plea for genuine repentance) is,
Pray to the Lord
The priests were to “weep between the porch and the altar.” The area between the porch and the altar most likely referred to the porch of the temple entrance and the altar in front of the temple, where sacrifices would have been offered.
Think about it, the picture that Joel gives us earlier in verse 14 is that the grain and the drink offerings would be cut of when God judged their sin. The stripping of the land by the locust plague would leave them with nothing to offer. They are to lament between the porch and the altar. The altar has no sacred fire on it because no sacrifices or offerings are available. No sacrifices mean no atonement for sin, no access to God or fellowship with Him. It is like a table spread without any sacred food!
The area between the porch and the altar was a place of limited access. Not everyone could go there. Only the priestshad a reason to go beyond the altar toward the temple. This was where the priests usually stood to intercede for the people through sacrifices and prayers. Joel called them to “weep between the porch and the altar,” which is the entrance hall to the temple (Ezekiel 8:16). This way, the priests would lead the congregation in repentance.
So, instead of praying for and blessing the people as was the custom, instead of the joyful music that normally accompanied their worship, the priests were on their faces weeping and wailing in repentance. The prophet Amos, Joel’s contemporary, speaking for the Lord, stated, “Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” I wonder, does God have a similar message for the Church in our day?
And then, God so graciously provides them with a script for their prayer in verse 17. Try to imagine the weeping of this multitude punctuated with loud cries of “Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
Do you see God’s heart in this prayer? As Joel stated in verse 13, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He is longing to bless His people if only they will love and obey Him. The focus of the prayer is on God, Your people, Your heritage. God is jealous for His name and His glory. If Judah was destroyed God’s reputation would suffer. The surrounding nations would scoff, “where is their God?” Many of the prayers in the Old Testament have this focus on God’s name and God’s glory.
After rehearsing the many rebellious acts of the children of Israel on their journeys through the wilderness, Moses said in Deuteronomy 9, “‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’”
I believe that the message God had for Judah through the prophet, Joel, is a message He has for the church today, especially the church in the western world. In Deuteronomy 32, after outlining the many gifts God gave to Israel, He offers this assessment.
“But Jeshurun (this was a term of endearment God used for Israel) grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.”
Earlier in this message I quoted Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise.” How will you respond to this plea for repentance? How will you go about getting a broken heart? The first step is to ask God to grant it to you. Paul wrote in Second Timothy 2:24 to 26, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
Another important aspect of attaining a broken heart is to realize the relational aspect of our sin. Why do I say that? Often, we view our sin as a failure of performance rather than a failure of intimacy. The grief we experience is disappointment in our inability to do what is right, and not that we have “despised” the living God.
When we sin, we play the part of an adulterer who looks for satisfaction in another, rather than the only One who can satisfy. That is why David said to the Lord, “against you, you only, have I sinned,” Psalm 51:4. David rightly saw his failures in terms of relationship, and as a result his heart was grieved as it can be only when we have sinned against the One we love so much.
Finally, true repentance comes to us not merely by understanding the relational aspect of sin, but by understanding the nature of the One with whom we are in a relationship. The more we see God as glorious and holy, the more we will see sin as something to weep over. Repentance is less about feeling bad over behavior, and more about feeling awe and delight towards God. The more glimpses we have of the glory of God, the more we mourn for scorning that glory.
I believe there are many unsaved people around us today asking the question, “Where is their God?” They see our affluence, our focus on the material, our lack of concern for the poor, the way we respond to adversity, the moral failures of church leaders, and a multitude of other choices. And they reach the conclusion, “these people really aren’t any different from us aside from the fact that they’re religious.” Can you and I prove them wrong?
God said to the people of Judah, “turn to me with all your heart.” Today, He is inviting us to turn to Him in genuine repentance, repentance that changes the direction of our lives. He doesn’t want religion; He wants a relationship. He wants to be the supreme love of our lives.
Perhaps it’s time to gather the people, to call a solemn assembly to humble ourselves before the Lord with fasting, and prayer, and tears of repentance. Perhaps it’s time to ask God to forgive us for the way our choices have caused unbelieves to disregard God and His name. And perhaps it is time for us to pray “Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach…”
Remember, “…[God] is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him…” Do you want God’s blessing? If so, these are the necessary steps of action we must take in responding to God’s plea for genuine repentance.
Listen to Part 1 here: A Plea for Repentance : Part 1 – Heralds of Hope