Rend your heart
and not your garments (Joel
2:13).
Just after midnight,
the day after Christmas 2004, an undersea earthquake hit off the coast of
Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Measuring 9.1 on the Richter Scale, the quake
triggered a massive tsunami wave, which devastated the entire region and killed
over 250,000 people.
Joel writes to the
people of Judah following another natural disaster. While locust invasions are
not unusual in the Middle East, Joel wrote that their grandchildren would be
telling their
grandchildren about this one – the locust storm of the century.
He then springboards
from this catastrophe into an almost apocalyptic portrayal of another coming
disaster he terms the day of the Lord. In this day an army likened to giant locusts
will invade from the north. In other words: If you think the last
locust invasion was rough, just wait. Something even worse is on its way.
But then Joel offers
a word of hope: Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the
Lord your God, for he gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding
in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and
relent… (2:13,14).
Joel says real
repentance happens in the heart. The truly repentant don’t have to fear the
coming Day of the Lord, whether that day is a natural disaster, a military
invasion, or judgment itself.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
How, in your life, does
offering God the sacrifice of a broken spirit look different than just tearing
your clothes?
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