God’s Kindness and Mercy
Joel 2:12,13 Now come back to me with all your heart. Cry and mourn, and don’t eat anything! Show that you are sad for doing wrong. Tear your hearts, not your clothes.” Come back to the LORD your God. He is kind and merciful. He does not become angry quickly. He has great love. Maybe he will change his mind about the bad punishment he planned.
Life has a funny habit of taking a sharp turn from good times into bad; from a time of abundance to a time of famine; from a time of joy to a time of sadness. And the further we drift away from God, the worse it gets.
The Old Testament prophet Joel was writing at such a time; a time of locust infestation and drought; desperate circumstances for God’s allegedly chosen people.
Why had this happened? What was its cause? Well, God answers that pretty directly through His prophet:
Joel 2:12,13 Now come back to me with all your heart. Cry and mourn, and don’t eat anything! Show that you are sad for doing wrong. Tear your hearts, not your clothes.” Come back to the LORD your God. He is kind and merciful. He does not become angry quickly. He has great love. Maybe he will change his mind about the bad punishment he planned.
God’s chosen people had drifted away from God through their sin. It’s happened to you too, right? I get it. And rather than punishing them further, rather than admonishing them even more deeply, He calls them to come back to Him with all their heart.
Come back to the LORD your God. He is kind and merciful. He does not become angry quickly. He has great love.
Sometimes, oftentimes, that all too familiar turn for the worse in life’s road happens as a direct consequence of our sin – yours and mine. But as much as God allows the consequences of our sin to be visited upon our lives to bring us to our senses, His heart – His great and mighty heart – is to draw us back close to Him.
Come back to the LORD your God. He is kind and merciful.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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