How to Respond to Global Crisis
“Now therefore”, says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and he relents from doing harm. Who know if He will turn
and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him – a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from
his chamber , and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between
the porch and the altar; let them say, “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?’
(Joel 2:12-17)
I. RESPONDING TO GOD IN HUMILITY AND TENDERNESS
A. In the days of the young King Josiah, there was in the king’s court a woman named Huldah who was a prophetess
and the keeper of the wardrobe. She had an anointing of the Spirit upon her, and Josiah learned of this anointing. He
sent word to her, asking her to inquire of the Lord for him. This was a strong statement of humility because Josiah was
the most powerful man in the land, yet he requested help from a lowly woman, the keeper of the wardrobe. Huldah agreed;
she prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered her.
“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man (King Josiah) who sent you to Me, “Thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book …
because they have forsaken Me … Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched’”
“but as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him,
‘Thus says the Lord god of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard – because your heart was
tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place – and you
humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you” says the
Lord. Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your
eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.” (2 Chronicles 34:23-28)
B. Josiah responded to God in a profound way (2 Chronicles 34:27). His response was one of tenderness and
wholeheartedness, praying, in essence, “Lord, I want to be fully Yours! I want to give myself to You unreservedly!” To
this the Lord answered, “because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, I have heard you”
(2 Chronicles 34:27). The Lord said that He would not allow either Josiah or his generation to see the calamity He would
bring. Josiah led the last great spiritual reform before the Babylonian captivity. He died in 609 BC, around the time of
Joel’s ministry. Because of Josiah’s response to the Lord, the judgment that was to come in his day was prolonged until
after his death. Because of Josiah’s tenderness and humility, because he cried out to God in the time of crisis and
because he fully aligned himself with God, the judgment was delayed.
II. THE RESPONSE GOD REQUIRES
A. Just as God was looking for a response from Josiah when he received word of coming judgment, so God is looking
for a response from His people today, in light of the coming Day of the Lord. He is asking His people to take a very
specific position; He does not leave us guessing as to what this response that He desires looks like. In Joel 2:12-17,
God tells us exactly what we are to do in order to receive His mercy and experience His deliverance. God gave the
answer for Joel’s generation in the context of the warnings of the Babylonian invasion. This is the same answer found
throughout the pages of scripture, and it sets the precedent for what Israel is to do in the end-time military invasion
against them. This response that God requires is not limited to Israel, but includes every nation of the earth, for all
will be negatively impacted by this coalition of evil nations under the leadership of the antichrist.
B. In the coming pages, we will look closer at this crucial response, but first, let us again take in the magnitude of
what will be happening on the earth. In that day, despair will be everywhere, even in the midst of the church. Yet, God
does not want despair to prevail. He wants us to respond in the way that He describes, to act in faith, to move into God’s
heart with certainty of His answer. He has not left us in the dark as to what forces are at work in the global crisis, both
positive and negative. Rather, He desires for His people to know what is happening and what forces are operating,
even overlapping, in their influence. When we know with certainty all of the reasons for what is happening, and the forces
we are dealing with, we can respond in the way God has prescribed. Even now, the Lord is in the process of raising up
those with very precise understanding as to what He is dong in the midst of the global crisis around the corner.
C. The central idea of Joel 2:12-17 and even the full message of the Book of Joel is that God wants to deliver His
people in crisis. God desires to show compassion and to release deliverance in the midst of the crisis. He does not want
the people to be unprepared, and therefore, He has given us this clear instruction. It is the clearest passage in the Word
concerning how to enter into God’s mercy amidst national crisis. He wants us to have holy confidence, acting in faith and
certainty in the midst of crisis. Though this passage is mostly neglected by the corporate body of Christ today, it will be
so relevant and critical, a clear roadmap for the body of Christ, as this global drama unfolds at the end of the age. There
is already a growing crisis in the nations, but this crisis is going to increase because God wants everyone hopeless,
except for their hope in Him. He will back the entire earth into a corner to bring this desperation to a head – they will find
no solution but in Him. The one thing the nations need is the favor of one Man, Christ Jesus.
D. The bad news is that the church in our day is not even aware of what is happening. Though the body of Christ is
supposed to be the light in darkness, the ones who understand the forces that are at work, the ones who know the
solution and the roadmap to true “world peace”, we are much in need of understanding of the end times. The good news
is that it will not end this way. God is committed to bringing forth a mature prophetic people, those who know the times
and seasons and stand in the counsel of the Lord, those who are fearless in love amidst all sufferings and tribulation.
But we must know this: it is not enough to simply know the information of Joel 2:12-17. It is a response He requires.
We need to move from having information into the place of burning with conviction and living differently.
III. UNDERSTANDING GOD’S ROLE IN THE COMING GLOBAL CRISIS
A. God wants us to understand His role in the crisis. Surprisingly, God’s role is probably the most misunderstood role
in crisis. What is God doing in times of judgment? Anything? Yes! He is actively involved. The Church is quick to talk
about satan’s role and even sinful man’s role, yet is uncertain about God’s role in crisis. From Genesis to Revelation the
prophets have cried that God is in the midst of crisis. Sometimes He allows these calamities to come and sometimes He
causes them in a very direct way. His overall interest is to remove everything that hinders love; that is the purpose of His
judgments. Part of our response to God in that time will be to cultivate understanding of what is happening in His heart.
When we understand His role in the crisis, we can relate to Him and respond to Him in a right way.
B. God’s role is always one of holy zeal, adamantly opposing every area of sin, His enemy. When there is rebellion
in the hearts of people, God sets Himself against them in order to cause them to turn to Him. This is what happened with
the nation of Israel: “…they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He
fought against them” (Isaiah 63:10). The Lord was conveying to Israel that its problem was that He had become its enemy.
They had set themselves in an adversarial relationship with God, and because of their responses towards His covenant
and His zeal to deliver them, God brought judgment and discipline to them. This was His role and He wanted them to
understand it and not blame all of their troubles on all the other possible contributors. Again, God wants to deliver His
people in the midst of the crisis. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). What He delights in is
when hearts turn to Him and live. He wants His people to return to wholehearted relationship with Him that He might
deliver them and lift the judgment off of them.
C. There are four contributing factors to this worldwide crisis that is around the corner, but God’s zeal is the primary
cause. God’s declaration is that He will shake everything that can be shaken, and His passion to bring forth a pure
people, a prepared bride, will bring forth this shaking (Hebrews 12:26). This zeal is called judgment. It was God’s zeal
that raised up Nebuchadnezzar and the nation of Babylon to come in and discipline Israel in Joel’s day. God’s zeal for His
church is what is moving Him to raise up the antichrist and give him a worldwide influence. Though this may be starling,
it is biblical. God’s jealousy to bring forth a people equipped to reap the harvest will cause the rise of this evil empire,
this ten-nation confederation led by the man of sin. Though God is not responsible for the evil of this man, He is
responsible for giving him a certain platform and sphere of influence to exercise his evil. All of this belongs under the
category of “God’s role” in the great shaking that will produce the end time harvest, a prepared bride, a purified church.
D. The second factor contributing to the end-time crisis is satan’s rage. God will allow satan to vent his fury more
than at any other time in natural history. When the events of the end times culminate, satan will know that his time is
short and thus his wrath will be great (Revelation 12:7-12) and his boundary lines will be greatly enlarged.
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great
wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” (Revelation 12:12)
E. The third factor is the role of man’s sin, when human beings behave wickedly towards God and one another.
Part of the dignity that God has given every human being is a free will. We truly have been given by God the ability to
choose. We can use this honor for good or for evil. If we choose evil, we have the power to express evil towards others.
Man’s free will provides the legal entry point for both angels and demons to be much more active in the natural realm.
When we are living in righteousness, we open up legal access for angelic activity into the natural realm. When a people
live in rebellion, giving themselves willingly to satanic activity, they open up legal entry points for demonic activity to be
heightened in the earthly area.
F. The issue that affects time and eternity is how we choose to operate in this gift of the free will. It is an issue of life
and death. Decisions that we make today affect our life in this age, they affect those around us and they affect life in the
age to come – in eternity. What we choose now counts forever. As the fullness of the times comes into fruition, God will
permit the human will to be exercised to the fullest degree in both sin and in righteousness. Thus, man’s sin will contribute
to the great shaking. Men will do what they wish, exercising their limited sovereignty in the earth.
G. The other contributing factor to the great shaking, playing the fourth role in the drama, is creation’s groan. We
have already looked at the mysterious yet glorious connection between the human race and natural creation, or the land,
and how the curse came upon the land when Adam sinned (Genesis 3). Since the time of Adam, the curse has been
escalating right along with the escalation of humanity’s sin. For six thousand years, sin has been accumulating. Thus,
one of the reasons earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and turbulent weather patterns occur, is because creation is groaning
under the weight of sin (Romans 8:22-23). The earth’s convulsions are going to increase in direct correspondence to the
ripening of sin in the earth (Isaiah 24:20).
Creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until
now. (Romans 8:21-22).
The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws … broken the
everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. (Isaiah 24:5-6)
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard … its transgression shall be heavy upon it and it will fall,
and not rise again. (Isaiah 24:20)
H. There are four key factors: God’s own zeal to release judgment, satan’s rage, man’s sin, and creation’s groan, are
the contributors to the great shaking that god is bringing. These factors continually work together under the government
of God’s sovereignty and wisdom. Yet once again, it is God’s own zeal for a pure church that plays the primary role – the
other factors are secondary. It is as if God were to say, ‘Know this planet earth, your biggest problem is not satan and his
rage or the sin of the human race. It is also not the groan of creation and the natural defects that come from original sin
that has increasingly progressed. Your real problem is that I Myself have zeal for the human race, and I will not allow sin
to go unchecked during the greatest hour of revival in history.” The compromising church and the rebellious world has
an unavoidable dilemma and obstacle that is greater than all the other obstacles they will face, and that is God’s own zeal to
rid them of their compromise and rebellion.
I. How do we respond to these strong contributors to the great shaking? First, we receive God’s correction in all
humility, and we embrace the discipline that arises from His zeal for a pure church. Our first response corresponds to
the primary factor we are dealing with. We respond to God first and grow in understanding of His role in the crisis.
Second, rather than receiving satan’s rage, we resist his activity in faith. Third, we wholeheartedly repent of our sin.
But if we do not understand God’s role, we will likely spend excess energy “resisting the devil” when the one we really
need to reckon with is God.
IV. TURN TO GOD WITH WHOLEHEARTEDNESS
Now therefore, says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with
mourning. Rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God” (Joel 2:12-13)
A. In the midst of the crisis, God requires mankind to turn to Him with wholeheartedness, with all of our love. Jesus
voiced this in the first commandment, when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart”
(Matthew 22:37). The exciting thing about this divine requirement is the fact that God wants our heart more than
anything else. The fact that He desires our love reveals what kind of heart He has. Any other king would require the
money, land or service of his people without asking for relationship. The evil world leader that will arise before Christ’s
return will not care about the heart of the people. He will want their land, their money and their service, but he will not
ask for relationship with them. Yet the King of all of the earth does not desire all of these secondary things; His main
requirement is our hearts.
B. It is in the midst of this offering of our hearts to Him that He causes deliverance to be known. The condition He
requires is that we respond to His love for us with love back to Him. God’s zeal is all about love. The entire existence of
mankind is about this divine, eternal romance of God’s love pursuing us, awakening love in us and bringing us together
in intimacy with King Jesus, the Bridegroom God, as His eternal companion. The real source of the global conflict that
will intensify as Christ’s return draws near is this God of love who is after love and partnership with a vengeance. He will
have it.
C. When we turn to the Lord with all of our hearts, we are seeking to position ourselves to receive the favor of God.
The place of immunity from the judgment of God is in corporate, long-term love or wholeheartedness. The only place of
safety in the earth is in the midst of a company of people living in long-term, corporate wholeheartedness.
D. Now, to qualify this statement, let me reiterate that there are and will be the other contributing factors adding to
the great shaking at the end of the age. Satan’s rage, the sin of man and the groan of creation are still real components
of the Day that is known as very terrible.
E. In living wholeheartedly before God, we do not escape suffering from these other components. In fact, our very
wholeheartedness will only increase the rage of satan against us, as well as the rage of evil men against us. End-time
martyrdom will be a direct outflow of satanic rage. There will be suffering for believers. Yet by living wholeheartedly
before God, we find immunity from His judgment against sin. We receive the work of the cross of Christ and we live in
righteousness before God, aligning ourselves in agreement with Him. We flee sin and darkness so as to not position
ourselves as an adversary against God by the very sin we have embraced. In this way, we receive the favor of God
and we are kept in a place of safety from the primary cause of the shaking – God’s zeal against sin.
F. When you become so convinced of the need for sustained, wholehearted, gatherings of fasting and prayer, you
make a radical change in your life. The corporate wholeheartedness is the only sure place of immunity, of safety, in
the earth. Beloved, the crisis is coming and there really is a place of safety, but it must be acted upon in the present
tense!
G. The expression of turning with all of our hearts is through fasting, weeping and mourning before the Lord. God
gives us insight into what this turning to Him looks like. This definition of wholeheartedness is resisted in the western
church today, yet it is God’s definition.
H. The parallel passage to this verse is Joel 1:13-14: “Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God …
consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord
your God, and cry out to the Lord.” This like Joel 2:12-17 is an exhortation to God’s people to take action and change
their lifestyles. Chapter One is written in light of the locust plague, Chapter Two in light of the coming Babylonian invasion.
Joel is now repeating many of the same elements of responding wholeheartedly to the Lord that he did in Chapter One,
yet giving an even more detailed call of response, with new dimensions of the subject of wholeheartedness. We have
previously looked at the themes of lamenting and wailing before the Lord, which parallel the weeping and mourning in
Chapter Two. We looked at the call to sound the alarm, the strategic role of fasting, the necessity of calling sacred
assemblies and the mandate to gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord that
they might cry out to Him. Let us look now at the unique dimensions Joel brings to this second call to wholeheartedness.
V. REND YOUR HEART AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS
“So rend your heart and not your garments; return to the Lord your God …” Joel 2:13
A. One of the elements of wholeheartedness unique to this passage is the invitation, “Rend your hearts and not your
garments”. Traditionally, in the time that Joel prophesied, the people would tear their garment to show their grief and
desperation. Yet what God desires is the tearing of the heart, which speaks of spiritual violence and dealing radically
with the matters of the heart. I find this to be the most challenging, the most piercing and penetrating word in the whole
exhortation, yet it is simple. We take our cold hearts and position them before God’s fire, asking Him to set us ablaze with
love for Him and to consume all that stands in the way. Then we commit to separate our hearts from anything which God
reveals as a hindrance.
B. Rending our hearts before God is a non-optional part of wholeheartedness. To rend means to tear something
violently or forcibly. When we violently tear our heart away from areas of sin then we are lining up with what Joel
proclaimed that God required. Speaking symbolically of this radical tearing, Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to
sin, pluck it out … and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off …” (Matthew 5:29). He was talking about a radical
pursuit of righteousness that painfully tears the heart in the process. Peter said, “I beg you … abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). I can picture Peter doubled over, saying, “I plead with you, tear your heart
away from compromise and worldliness.”
C. When we tear our hearts, we are radically aligning our lives to be in agreement with God that we might live in the
realm of His favor. Joel was crying out, “Tear your heart open! Spare not! Be ruthless! If there is an issue in the way
that is quenching the anointing, get rid of it! Cut the hand off or pluck the eye out! In other words, radically forsake all
compromise!” Some people pursue wholeheartedness in such a casual way. They want a wholeheartedness that is
gentle, subtle, and tame. The Lord wants a wholeheartedness that makes real change. It involves a real turning and
a resolute expression of obedience to God.
D. Many believers in the western church are nearly as unrenewed in their thinking and feelings now as they were when
we were saved 5, 10, 20 years ago. We are almost at the same place we were 10, 20, 30 years ago in terms of having a
vibrant spirit and the anointing of prayer in our lives. There are some exceptions, but many continue in lifestyle patterns
similar to what they did before being born again. This is why the heart must be torn, because God is against much of what
the church approves of today calling it liberty in grace. Many of the ‘liberties’ that the church is fighting for the very thing
that God is fighting against. The way we spend time and money; the way we seek honor; the way we speak, relate, and
show our bitterness gives evidence of not having torn away from that which we were, even before we were saved.
E. There is often pain when we cooperate with the Lord to pull out the whole root system of bondage in our lives.
Sometimes it hurts to press through until we get a break-through, yet it is the way to freedom. Oftentimes we would rather
not change our lifestyles in order to find this freedom. We want the Lord to somehow cause our problems to evaporate
without any cost or struggle or without the pain of tearing our hearts. This tearing of the heart is typically the part that is
most overlooked in the process. It is the part that we like the least. We might not mind missing a few meals in fasting or
give a few hours to cry out a little bit in the prayer room. Yet the tearing of the heart gets intensely personal. It is painful
and violent in nature. The Lord’s response to this is that He will help us uproot these places of bondage. He will give a
divine enabling and empowering. Yet we must give Him our cooperation by rending our hearts, by tearing open our inner
places and by letting Him reach in to utterly possess us.
VI. CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S KINDNESS
Return to the Lord … for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; He relents
from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing …? “ (Joel 2:13-14)
A. Joel now summons the people to return to the Lord, giving five reasons why this is the only appropriate response.
In many scriptures where this exhortation to return to God is given, God is speaking to a corporate people about entering
into corporate obedience. This is the case with Joel 2:13-14; it is in context to national crisis, not personal crisis. The
response God is seeking when he says: “Return to the Lord your God” is from a whole nation. It is a call for a corporate
people to return to the place of seeking God as their primary source of life.
B. Joel gives five reasons for this returning: he is gracious, he is merciful, He is slow to anger, He is of great kindness
and he relents from doing harm. These are no small points! The knowledge of God empowers us to respond to Him. It
takes time to develop understanding of God’s heart; it does not come automatically. We have to deliberately feed our
spirit on it. People who have lost their way and are locked up in bondage to sin can return to God with confidence if they
know these things about His personality. One of the reasons that there is not as much returning to the Lord as there
should be is because we do not know that He is gracious and kind and that in His mercy, He will make a way of deliverance
for us. He will help us like the Shepherd helped the lost sheep, carrying us to the place of breakthrough and victory
(Luke 15).
C. Knowledge of God’s heart is the most powerful motivation for wholeheartedness. Coming judgment is an important
motivation too and Joel did not withhold it. He told Israel of a great enemy invasion on the horizon. This judgment
motivation was given as a warning to those who would resist. Yet the mightiest motivation he gives to return to God is
what I will call the “God of great kindness” motivation – to return to the Lord because He is gracious and kind. This is
what gives us the courage to tear our hearts so that our fellowship with God would be restored.
D. If we perceive God as mostly mad, our motivation to return to Him will be deflated. The logic we come up with is: He
will probably wipe me out in judgment anyway, so why go through the hassle of returning to Him? This “angry God
paradigm” views as God holding a big hammer looking for a reason to smash and crush us. Many believers think this is
what God is like, which diffuses all motivation for wholeheartedness toward Him. The truth about Him is that if we take one
step toward Him, He will take ten. He is bending over, if you will, in a posture of eagerness, waiting to deliver those who
cry out to Him (Isaiah 30:18). We need to know this truth about God in order to be motivated to tear our heart before Him
in abandonment. We need to know Him as the gracious God of kindness, who is merciful and slow to anger.
VII. THE LORD IS GRACIOUS
A. The first motivation to return to God is because He is gracious. He evaluates us so differently than anyone else
does. He remembers our frailty and that we are but dust (Psalm 103:14). He is not a harsh military leader or the
calloused football coach that we imagine, forbidding any form of weakness. God is human-friendly in His style of
connecting with us and by the grace of God His requirements are within the reach of weak and broken people. When
we get lost in the river of experiencing and encountering His love, His commandments are not burdensome, but doable
for weak and broken people (1 John 5:4). Even the boundary lines of His commandments are an expression of His
graciousness. He set up the whole framework of His commands and our response in a way that we might succeed in
touching Him to change history. He is gracious in His style, His standards and in the whole structure of the way he set
up our relationship to Him.
B. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). The premise for this statement is that when
we are in the place of encountering a God of graciousness and feeding our spirit on the truth of who He is, His burden is
light. We are able to obey God because His help is present and because He is kind to a sincere heart that falls short.
David’s great revelation of God’s heart was of God’s great kindness. Because he knew this to be true, he ran TO God
instead of AWAY from Him in countless times of stumbling.
VIII. THE LORD IS MERCIFUL
A. Secondly, He is a merciful God. Not only does He create a pathway and a standard that is feasible in His grace, he
is merciful with us as we walk that pathway. Speaking of God’s willingness to give mercy to sinful people, Isaiah said, “For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your
thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). No other person or king gives mercy at the extreme that God gives mercy. We could search all
of the earth and no one would model the passion that God has for mercy. The prophet Micah declared, “He does not
retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy” (Micah 7:18). The Lord enjoys taking weak and broken people
who have a “yes” in their spirit and absolutely blowing their minds with His ability to give them another beginning, a new
start. He delights in it. He loves the look on our faces and the response in our hearts when it dawns on us that after so
many failures, He is offering us yet another opportunity to begin.
B. One of God’s favorite dimensions of leading the whole universe is watching the expressions and the heart
responses of the people to whom He gives mercy. When we encounter the relentless mercy of God, it radically reworks
our whole inward life; our emotional chemistry is radically transformed by it.
C. We see God’s mercy with wicked men as well. he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wants them to
turn and live (Ezekiel 33:11). He looks for ways to forgive them without violating their free will and without violating His own
justice. God went out of his way in redemption, and it was with great difficulty that He caused the righteous to be saved
(1 Peter 4:17-18). It cost Jesus greatly to provide the way of salvation, becoming human and coming to the earth to be
crushed by the wrath of His Father. This mercy is what God is about and what He delights in.
IX. THE LORD IS SLOW TO ANGER
A. We return to God in wholeheartedness because He is slow to anger. When we would have said, “Enough is enough!”
God gives another season and another chance. When the Lord spoke to the church in Thyatira, he spoke to them of the
way they had tolerated Jezebel, the one who taught the bondservants of God that it is fine to live in immorality. Yet as
they were fully engaged in this sinfulness, Jesus said to them that He gave them time to repent – yet another change to
respond in righteousness.
Because you allow … Jezebel … to teach … My servants to commit sexual immorality … I gave her time
to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those
who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. (Revelation 2:20-22)
B. We see this same slowness to anger when God spoke to Abraham about his descendants inheriting the land of
Israel (Genesis 15:16). He told Abraham that it would be a while before they would possess it, five hundred years later, to
be exact. First they would spend four hundred years of captivity in Egypt, and then they would finally inherit the land
under the leadership of Joshua. The Lord’s reason for this delay was because the Amorites, who were in Israel, had not
fully reached the maturity of their sin. Their sin had not yet come to completion, and it would not reach that point for
another four hundred years. God refused to do anything that would violate His justice, and thus he wanted to give them
time to repent. Though He knew in His foreknowledge that they would ultimately resist Him, He would not allow the sword
of justice to strike them until they had gone to the uttermost place of violating His grace and His kindness toward them.
I can imagine Abraham saying, “Could we shorten that to three hundred years?” And the Lord responds, “No, I cannot.
It is in My nature to be slow to anger. I will not speed up the process of judging people.”
X. THE LORD IS OF GREAT KINDNESS
Do you despise the riches of His goodness (kindness), forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness (kindness) of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
A. Fourthly, He is a God of great kindness. The Lord is saying to His people, “So you are stuck. Rend your heart.
Cry out in your weakness and your brokenness. I am so kind.” He does not just say kindness, but great kindness. The
Lord says, “I am so kind, today I will erase what you did last night.” To those who are responsive, He offers Himself as the
kind-hearted God who will go out of His way to help them find break-through. With gentleness, he brings them to the
position of cooperation with His heart that they might receive blessing instead of judgment. Paul the apostle said, in
essence, “Do not despise the kindness and tenderness of God’s heart, for when you encounter His kindness, it is what
leads you to repentance.”
B. The people of God must experience God’s kindness, for it is in this encounter that they will walk down the pathway
of repentance. We must labor to establish this truth about God in both our personal understanding and in the
understanding of others. Our spirit has to be overflowing with this reality! At the very center of end-time judgment is the
call to wholeheartedness based on the fact that God is of great kindness. This point must be pressed with all diligence,
for people’s hearts hang in the balance of understanding it.
XI. THE LORD RELENTS FROM DOING HARM
I sought for a man … who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land,
that I should not destroy it; but I found no one (Ezekiel 22:30)
A. Finally, He relents from doing harm. This does not mean that God capriciously changes His mind after already
decreeing a thing, surprising even Himself in the process. Rather, it means that He honors the freewill of man in the
present tense without ever violating His own justice. When a city rises up and repents before the Lord, the Lord is able to
send blessing to them without violating His justice or their freewill. It is in this sense that He relents, for He makes it clear
to a people whom He is about to judge that judgment is only coming because they refuse to turn to Him. So when people
truly do turn to Him, He may relent. Instead of releasing that scheduled, deserved judgment, He changes history. Even
when God deals with the devil, He does not violate His own justice, but gives him every dimension of fairness, not taking
any short cuts.
B. There is perfect justice in everything that He does; in this justice He relents when His people and the nations respond
to Him in righteousness. One of the great examples of God’s willingness to relent is found in the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Upon learning of God’s intentions to judge the city, Abraham asked the Lord if he would relent and save
it if there were only fifty righteous people in it. The Lord told Abraham that He would, so Abraham pressed the question to
forty-five people, then forty, then thirty, then twenty. Finally, Abraham said, “If there were only ten righteous in the city,
would You spare them?” Again the Lord told Abraham that if He found as few as ten people who would agree with His
heart, that would be enough to relent and save the city (Genesis 18:22-33). Truly there is no darkness in Him. “He
deals wondrously with His people” (Joel 2:26)
XII. THE MYSTERIOUS “PERHAPS OF GOD”
Who knows if (perhaps) He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him …? (Joel 2:14)
Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth … seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be (perhaps)
that you will be hidden (Protected) in the day of the Lord’s anger. (Zephaniah 2:3)
A. There is a mystery in the grace of God that has stunned the hearts of all those who have discovered it throughout the
ages. It is called the “mysterious perhaps of God”. It is a realm of possibility in the Lord’s heart where He may turn and
relent from judgment if His people will respond to Him in humility and righteousness. The New American Standard says,
“Perhaps He will turn”.
B. There is this question mark over God’s relenting or not relenting: He might and He might not, who knows? The Lord
is not trying to keep us guessing, as if it were a game. Rather, He hides the full implications of all of the numbers in the
equation – all the reasons behind His actions and His silence – so as to keep us from fulfilling an equation without relating
to Him. He cares deeply about relationship with us, so He invites us to press into Him as the God of kindness, and if there
is anyway that He can relent from judgment, without violating the human fee-will or His own justice, He will.
C. God wants to transform a would be ‘disaster zone’ into a ‘revival center’.
D. He loves to relent from judgment in specific geographic areas according to the response of His people. He invites
us to trust His heart, press into Him in prayer and rest in the assurance that He is far more merciful than we could imagine.
He is after Love in the hearts of men, and if this response of love from His people can be acquired without judgment, He
will relent. Yet if they remain resistant, He will go to any degree necessary to win them to Himself, though some will harden
their hearts still more.
E. In Joel’s day, in light of the Babylonian invasion Israel faced, God invited them to cry out to Him on the premise that
perhaps He would provide pockets of mercy in the midst of the invasion. Perhaps He would give cities of refuge!
“Perhaps He will leave a blessing behind Him” (Joel 2:14). In other words, maybe He will take the place that would be a
disaster zone and transform it into a revival center, making it a place of sovereign blessing. Joel went on to describe this
blessing that the Lord might leave behind as a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord. He was saying, in essence,
that if the Babylonian invasion happened, the crops would certainly be utterly destroyed, just like they were in the locust
invasion. Then, there would be no grain or wine for the offerings to the Lord. The very presence of these offerings, when
offered in sincerity, meant that the Lord removed judgment from them.
F. When Babylon actually did invade, they left Israel with no crops and no temple from which to offer sacrifices. There
was no way for them to continue in the life of devotion and worship as they knew it. They had not heeded the “perhaps”
of God.
G. King David knew about this “perhaps” of God after his sin of fornication with Bathsheba.
David pleaded with God for the child and fasted and … lay all night on the ground. Then on the seventh
day … the child died. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself … and he went into the
house of the Lord and worshiped. Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You
fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food”. And he
said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious
to me, that the child may live?” (2 Samuel 12:16-22)
1. After David’s sin with Bathsheba, she bore a son. The prophet Nathan prophesied to David that the baby was
going to die as God’s judgment for his sin. David did not assume that the issue was settled.
2. David might have said, “I knew that the baby might die, but I also know God. God has this mysterious dimension
in His heart. You humble yourself and cry out, and it moves Him. He delights in mercy! Sometimes He relents from
judging. I remember the days in the wilderness when I stumbled and fell so many times and when I cried out to Him, He
saved me. Even though He declares a judgment, sometimes He relents,” Once the child died, then he worshiped God,
trusting in God’s sovereign leadership in the situation.
XIII. GATHER THE PEOPLE AND SANCTIFY THE CONGREGATION
Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out form
is chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. (Joel 2:15-16)
A. Following the “mysterious perhaps of God”, Joel continues in his exhortation to the people of how to respond in
the coming crisis. He cries out for the trumpet to be blown in Zion, a fast to be consecrated and a sacred assembly to
be called.
B. Blow the trumpet in Zion – this is emphasized from Joel 2:1.
C. Consecrate a fast – corporate long-term wholeheartedness is truly the God-given way of breakthrough, revival,
visitation of God and protection. We want to see the glory of God break in, and He has given us this calculated way to
release this glory by partnering with His heart.
D. Call a sacred or solemn assembly – advises a great gathering be held, bringing together all of the people – not even
leaving out the children, the babes, the bridegroom and the bride. In Joel 1:14, he looked at a parallel call to gather all
the inhabitants of the land.
E. Gather the people and children and assemble the elders and – it is notable that the children, the babes, the
bridegrooms and the brides are to be part of this gathering. God’s exhortation is that no one be exempt from crying out
to Him. Since none of these will be exempt from the coming crisis and judgment, therefore, why should they be exempt
from the crying out to God? It is no time for business as unusual in the way that the pastors and/or elders conduct their
ministries.
F. Sanctify the congregation – this is another unique aspect of God’s requirement. When you sanctify people under
your leadership, you are laying aside ministry programs in order to make this sacred assembly of seeking god the top
priority in terms of time, money and work force. You cannot consecrate a fast and call a sacred assembly “on the run”.
It is a disruptive change of events that aggressively stops “the machine” from working for a time.
1. Needs go unmet, some people get mad, and things do not get done when you do this. Thus, to sanctify the
congregation means to call them to this place of wholeheartedly seeking the Lord, using the best of their time, money,
energy and work force.
2. It is a very deliberate commitment because not as much will get done in the short term; people will complain; needs
will go unmet. Yet Joel said, in light of the coming crisis, this consecrated fast and sacred assembly is top priority. It will
accomplish more in the long term.
XIV. GIVE YOURSELF TO EARNEST PRAYER
“Let the priests who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, ‘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?’” (Joel 2;17)
A. Joel continues to describe the wholehearted response that God desires by emphasizing the necessity of earnest
prayer before God. God does not want prayers out of duty or by rote. We cry out for His visitation in sincerity and true
earnestness of heart.
B. It is interesting to note that some commentaries say that the military invasion of Joel 2 was really just a reiteration
of the locust invasion of Joel 1. Yet this prayer directly points to a crisis involving military invasion rather than a natural
disaster. The prayer is that the nations would not rule over Israel, and it was prayed because of the threat of the invasion
from Babylon. This prayer was not asking God why the Locusts were devouring their crops, but why an unrighteous
nation should come and destroy them. This is one of the key factors in understanding the context of Joel 2. A great
military crisis was on the verge of coming in and wiping out the nation of Israel, hence the prayer of Joel 2:17.
C. We have previously looked at the role of intercession and partnering with God’s heart by crying out to Him. Now
in this passage, Joel elaborates on what that “crying out” to God sounds like. He actually includes tow prayers that the
priests, the people of God, are to pray in light of coming crisis.
1. First we pray, “Spare Your people, O God!” This is the cry for God to release supernatural protection, provision
and direction. We are asking Him to allow the glory cloud to be the inheritance of His people and for the safety as Psalm 91
promises.
2. The second prayer that we pray is, “Do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is your God?’” We ask the Lord to not let the nations of the earth mock
the people of God as tough God were not real. We remind the Lord that His own reputation is at stake; we beseech Him
to come to the vindication of his people for the sake of His name! Though the Lord is not insecure about the nations
questioning Him, He absolutely wants to bring glory to His own name by vindicating His prayerful saints, showing Himself
to be the One who is present with those who fear Him.
D. This prayer for God’s vindication is not about us being a little humiliated by unbelievers, or God coming to the
rescue because our feelings got hurt. Joel was depicting the very real scenario when God’s name is being blasphemed
and mocked in the earth without a counteractive witness going forth from His church, for such is a hindrance to the great
harvest of all nations.