In my Bible reading today, I have come across these verses:
The Lord utters his voice
before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
who can endure it?
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
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. – Joel 2:11-13
These verses come in the context of prophecy of the coming Judgment Day of the Lord. The words are bleak, stark, and relentless. There are words of fire and blackness, chaos, and anguish. These are descriptors of a world left to its own sinful desires. We are called to tremble at the thought of the coming Day of the Lord! But then we have verse 12 – a call to return to the Lord. And I love these words “yet even now,” because they set up for us the gravity of our salvation. The words communicate “despite the bleakness of this reality, the Lord loves to save and be with his people.” The call is to return to Him because this is his character: he is gracious, merciful, and loving. Not just loving, kinda, but endlessly loving – abounding in steadfast love. This is the OT’s most common description of God – those words: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. What a mighty God we serve!
The chapter goes on to prophesy famously about the coming of the Holy Spirit, a text that will be quoted in Acts 2, and a declaration that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32). The salvation of our Lord is dramatic and wonderful – this is what it means to fear the Lord – look at what he’s done; instead of leaving you to your own ways, he has rescued you with a mighty arm and brought you to himself. Be in awe of that kind of grace! Say to yourself, who is this God who would love me like that? Who would move mountains to save me, just little me? Rejoice that our God demonstrates his character in his deep love for you.