Return to the Lord

Return to the Lord

Joel 2 was written in the aftermath of a devastating locust plague — a national disaster that the prophet interprets as a call for national repentance. But his instruction is unusual: 'Rend your heart and not your garments.' External mourning practices — tearing one's clothes — without internal transformation were not what God was looking for. The invitation to 'return' (shuv — the same word as repentance) is to turn the heart back toward God, not to perform public grief. And the motivation for returning: God's character, which Joel quotes almost word for word from Exodus 34:6-7 — gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Joel 2:13 gives the most persuasive reason for returning to God: what you will find when you get there. Not an angry judge waiting with punishment. Not a disappointed parent holding grudges. Gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, relenting from calamity. The character of God is the motivation for repentance. We return not because we have to but because of who we are returning to. The one who rents garments without renting the heart has performed religion. The one who rents the heart and returns to the gracious God has encountered reality. If you are distant from God today — by sin, by distraction, by drift — the reason to return is not fear of punishment but the character of the One waiting.