Joel 2:12-14 Therefore also now, said the LORD, turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:… This exhortation is addressed to all who, like the Israelites in the time of Joel, are living in opposition to the authority of Jehovah. "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and He enforces His Divine command by the solemn threatenings which His law has denounced against sin. Some can only be reached by arousing apprehension and alarm. But even when we speak the threatenings of Divine law, it must always be in accents of tenderness and love, entreating men to be reconciled unto God. Repentance is a turning unto God. It is an exercise of free and deliberate choice. It is not a partial, but a total change of character. What are its external manifestations? Fasting was an ordinance in the Jewish economy designed as an expression of the feelings of sorrow, and as a means of exciting and confirming these feelings in the hearts of the worshippers. Frequently the sorrow of the world makes a man afflict himself in secret. The accumulation of terms, "with fasting and weeping and mourning," may be viewed as a Hebrew superlative designed to set forth the earnestness and intensity of the grief which fills the heart of the penitent. It is to obtain a season for solemn thought, that the Christian sets apart his times of fasting. "Rend your heart," etc. The rending of the garments is in Eastern countries a token of grief. In connection with religious worship, it might be dictated by a sense of humility before God. It was, however, by no means an infallible mark of genuine emotion. Dubious marks of penitence are not enough for those who would turn with acceptance to the Lord their God. A broken heart is the emblem of deep anguish. Those who will not yield to threats of judgment, the prophet endeavours to persuade by kindness and love. He tells of God that "He is merciful and gracious,' etc. "Gracious," as bestowing His favours upon those who have no inherent claim upon His bounty. "Merciful," extending His kindness even to those who, by their sins, have merited His wrath. "Slow to anger," bearing from time to time with those who are living in rebellion against Him. "Of great kindness," not impoverished by the mercies bestowed on a few, ever enough, and more than enough, for the wants of all who humbly and believingly ask it. "Repenteth him of the evil." Not that He will positively alter His Divine purposes, but even when the cup of their iniquity is almost filled, if they turn to Him in sorrow and penitence, the threatened wrath will be averted. The believing view of God's mercy, and the apprehension of God's wrath, are both, in their own place, instrumental in leading men to repentance. Learn to make a right improvement of our afflictions. Whatever inquiries we may institute in regard to their secondary causes, let us not forget that their great first cause is God; that they are sent upon us for moral purposes; that they speak to us with the authority of heaven-appointed messengers, saying, in God's name, "Turn ye even unto Me." (William Beckett.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: |
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