Turn (Joel 2:1-17)

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Go ahead, grab your Bibles and open up to Joel chapter two. Joel chapter two will be in the first half of Joel two this morning, as you’re turning there to Joel two, imagine life during the London Blitz, not the happiest time, of course, for London residents. You know blackout shades and curfews and then, most especially, the panic of the air raid siren, when it goes off knowing that the German air force is coming to bomb your city, the siren would pierce the silence, and you would, of course, have this rush of emotion, grief, I’m sure, at what’s happening to your city and your country, but panic as well, all of this stemming from the deep desire within you for your own safety, but probably most especially for the safety of your loved ones. All that, though, is happening like in an instant, and then it’s going to force you to act like it’s going to prompt, provoke a response immediately you’re going to go find shelter in the short term, help other people find shelter in the long term. You might, you know, send your kids away for a time, like at the Pevensey children, you know, shipped off to a professor’s country estate where there may or may not be a magic wardrobe. We’re testing your literary skills right now. That process is what we’re seeing play out in Judah right now, the air raid siren is blaring because there is an invasion. It’s not the Luftwaffe, but it is locusts in this case, and that has provoked these emotions that we saw, especially in week one, where they were mourning and wailing in grief, all of that exposed the deep desire within them, which was not just for an end to this locust plague, but especially for the Lord behind the locusts. And now the question is, what action will that lead to we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, kind of, we’re sort of building an argument here in a lot of ways. Lastly, let morning move you, but let morning move you to act. And so now the question is, what is the proper response when disaster comes? Whether, again, that’s national, local, personal, whatever it may be, what is the proper response when disaster comes? We’re going to try and answer that question. We got really two halves to this prophecy, so just two points this morning. In the first half, we’re going to look at God’s judgment on the people of Judah, on their sin, and there’s gonna be a lot of reiteration of what we’ve already talked about. But the main idea, of course, is that this should provoke a response, and then in the second half, we are going to see what that response is. So when disaster comes, when the air raid siren goes off, what should our response be? Let’s look at the first half now, the Lord’s punishment, chapter two, verses one to 11. It’s a little bit longer, so I’m going to kind of read it as we go. We just read verses one and two with me right now? Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness like Dawn spreading across the mountains. A large and mighty army comes such as never was, such as never was in ancient times, nor ever will be in ages to come. So begins with blow the trumpet, right? That’s literally the air raid siren, right there, like sound the alarm, give the warning of what’s about to come, so that the people can respond. That’s the whole point of the siren or the trumpet to alert people to the danger so they can choose to respond or not. Of course, some people may go, hey, the likelihood of this affecting me not very high. I’m sure people in London months didn’t go to the shelters. Read that other places in the world, of course. But still, this is the Prophet’s job is to blow the trumpet so that people at least have the chance to respond. This is Ezekiel. Makes this point very clear. The Lord makes it clear to Ezekiel, this is his job in blowing the trumpet. Ezekiel, 33 verses, two to four, when I bring the sword against the land, and the people the land choose one of their men and. Him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land, and blows the trumpet to warn the people. Then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. So you just get the point. The Prophet’s job here is to go. It’s in your hands. Now. You can choose to respond or not, but you know what’s coming. I’ve done my job, and the warning that Joel has given us, and we’ve seen this in the last two weeks, we’ll continue to see it. The warning is intense, because it’s not just locusts, but the day of the Lord that is coming. Talked about this last week, but if you weren’t there, you know, we kind of said there’s something about this day, the locust plague, that’s prepping us for that day, the final day, like day with a capital D, the day of the Lord. And so Joel describes this locust plague, using End Times language to show us how serious it is. Both this day and that day like this is not a time for Stiff upper lips. This is a time to tremble in fear because we can’t endure what’s coming apart from God. I mean, look at what he says. It’s close at hand this day, and it’s a day of darkness and gloom. Interesting too, because this is undoing God’s original work of creation, the Bible opens with darkness, and the Lord pierces the darkness when he says, Let there be light. And now instead, the Lord is bringing darkness to overwhelm the light. And so it’s a terrible, terrible day evokes the Exodus as well, which, of course, Joel’s audience would have known well. Would have talked about, sung about celebrated Passover to remember year in and year out, and the eighth plague in the 10 plagues during the exodus was locusts like this is familiar to them, and there were so many that they actually blackened the sky, although then the ninth plague is darkness, total darkness for three days. It says oh and oh, by the way, what’s the 10th plague? The really bad one, the death of the firstborn. So you even can see this kind of building here going, we should probably be concerned. Like this is deeply serious. The siren is blaring. We should probably respond somehow, do something. And Joel in this section, he’s quoting Zephaniah 115 that’s the whole bit about darkness, gloom, clouds and blackness. And Zephaniah himself is is drawing on Amos passage I quoted for us last week that talks about the day of the Lord being a day of darkness and not light. So we got creation, we got Exodus, we got Zephaniah, we got Amos like you get the idea. Joel is not original here, like he’s he’s stealing things. He’s anthologizing. He’s not writing new poetry or anything like that. Why he’s intentionally unoriginal, because He wants everyone who’s familiar with all these works to know that their fulfillment is happening in the present situation that like we’re on the verge of seeing some of these terrible prophecies fulfilled, so that we might as well be in the end times. So wake up, right. Respond. This is all meant to jolt us into action. So what present situation is it that’s so bad that it’s the fulfillment of these terrible prophecies? It’s this large, mighty army that is invading. Now it’s possible we’re talking about a real army here. Some commentators take it that way. I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’re describing the locusts as if they were an army, for reasons we’ll see in a moment. But it’s interesting, because in the midst of this darkness and gloom, of course, what you want is for a light to dawn. And so Joel talks about the dawn that’s coming, except it’s not a good dawn. It’s an army approaching like Dawn spreading on the mountains, and it comes like a wildfire. He sees. Let’s keep reading verses three to nine before them, fire devours behind them, a flame blazes before them. The land is like the Garden of Eden behind them a desert waste. Nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses. They gallop along like cavalry with a noise like that of chariots. They leap over the mountaintops like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle at the sight of them, nations are in anguish. Every face turns pale. They charge like warriors. They scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other. Each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city. They run along the wall. They climb into the houses like thieves. They enter through the windows,
so they come like a wildfire. I think I mentioned this last week, kind of, were there wildfires happening, or were the locusts kind of acting like a wildfire here? Especially, it seems to be the locusts themselves acting like a wildfire. This is how people will describe them. So I’ll quote a couple different. Counts of locust plagues. People say things like bamboo groves have been left standing like saplings after a rapid bushfire. Grass has been devoured, so that the bare earth appears as if burned. It looks as if the country has been burned by fire. So that’s what the locusts have done to the land. Like this is an army with a scorched earth policy for war. This is like Sherman marching to Atlanta, not just winning victory, but leaving a devastation that will endure in its wake. It is interesting, though, if we’re paying really careful attention to the text that it says that the fire devours before them. Now, how does that happen? Exactly like what’s going on here? Are we talking about? Maybe there was a drought that went first. Is this just poetic license? I think more likely what’s happening is that we’re we’re referencing a psalm to show that the locusts are actually the instrument of God here. So Julie read this for us earlier, Psalm 97 The Lord reigns. Let the earth be glad. Let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him. Okay, that sounds a little bit like what we got in Joel. Already, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side, his lightning lights up the world. The Earth sees and trembles. There’s the trembling again. But did you see fire goes before him? And so that’s probably what’s happening here. Joel is saying these locusts, they are the manifestation of God’s judgment and wrath. Serious stuff again. But then it gets worse, because Joel, God, speaking through Joel, deliberately reverses precious promises of restoration that we find in Ezekiel, but in Isaiah as well. So here’s Isaiah, 51 verse three, the Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins. He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness we found in her Thanksgiving and the sound of singing we’ve seen the last couple weeks, joy and gladness are cut off from the land, and now, instead of Eden, we get a wasteland. So it’s like going backwards. Instead of going from Desert to Eden, we go from Eden to desert. This is a really tough passage to read then, especially if you were familiar with these precious promises, this would be like pouring yourself a tall glass of milk because you got two Oreos in your mouth already, and you know you’re getting that dry kind of feeling, and you take the big swig to wash it all down, and it’s only on the second swallow that you realize the milk is chunky, like that’s a bad day, but safe to say, it will provoke a response in you, even if it’s an involuntary response. So what about this? You can see Joel’s using this to kind of go, are you feeling ready to act yet? Are you feeling ready to respond yet? Because the army is coming, and this is not a fun army, like we get five rapid fire comparisons. They’re like horses, like cavalry, like chariots, the sound of chariots leaping over the mountains. That’s one of the reasons we know this is figurative, by the way. Because take, figurative, by the way, because taking chariots through the mountains is a really stupid idea. So if you’re gonna be military strategy later, don’t do that. So there’s that. Then, like fire again and like a mighty army, which is interesting. This army is like a mighty army, which makes me think again, we’re probably talking about figurative army here, locusts. But you see this army coming, and you panic at the sight of them. Nations are in anguish. Every face turns pale. These are common words to describe what happens to a woman in labor in the Old Testament. And keep in mind labor back then, no epidural, no hospitals, things like that. So this would happen with a midwife in your home. Neighbors hear what’s going on. Kids are seeing it all like they would understand the power of this image right here. And that’s how bad it is, because this is a more disciplined army than any other. They’re not people who are fickle. These are locusts. And did you notice they march through defenses? They don’t march around them like nothing gets them out of line or anything like that. No, they’ve got this unstoppable advance. And they break into the land like thieves into a house, not in the sense that they sneak in at night. Because, of course, they’re not sneaking in. Everyone knows they’re coming. It is true, the day the Lord comes like a thief in the night. But that’s not the image here. They’re thieves because they take what isn’t theirs, everything, all the food in the land, and then what happens? Let’s keep reading verses 10 and 11 before them. The earth shakes, the heavens tremble. The sun and moon are dark. And the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of his army. His forces are beyond number, and Mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great. It is dreadful. Who can endure it. It’s interesting. At the start of verse 10, when it says before them, it is actually singular there. So it could be before it, meaning the army, this horde of locusts, that is coming, but it could be before him which would prep us for what’s coming in verse 11, whichever one it is, it causes the people to tremble once more. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve got cosmic reverberations now that the locusts have shown up, the moon and the sun and the stars, they all stop shining because the locusts have darkened the sky. Maybe, again, we saw that in Exodus, but more likely, we’re drawing on some stock images here, again, like the stars and the sun the moon, they’re withholding their light in the same way that the Lord is withholding His favor from the land. Often, how this language is used in the prophets. So Isaiah, again, Isaiah 11, verses, nine to 11, see the day of the Lord is coming. So same topic that Joel has here, the stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be dark, and the moon will not give its light. Why is all this happening? Well, we see it. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. So again, we’re dealing with God’s judgment here. And if we missed all the subtlety here, with the before him and the reference to Isaiah or whatnot, in case we had any doubt that this is God’s punishment, verse 11 confirms it. It’s the Lord, the Lord thunders at the head of his army. He’s the one in command of this force. God has brought the locusts into Judah. And that is, of course, a hard truth to reckon with. It’s not an isolated truth. It’s not like we find it here in Joel and nowhere else in Scripture. It’s everywhere. I mean, Amos three, verse six, Joel’s been drawing on Amos a lot in his preaching. He said, Amos says this, When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? I just need to tell you right now, if you want to have a biblical theology, you got to have room for statements like this in it, like this is the Lord’s doing. Because God is in control. He is sovereign. He rules. Everything happens in conformity with the purpose of His will. Does not mean that everything that happens is good, even though the Lord is unfailingly good, that word for disaster means bad, like when a bad thing happens, has not the Lord ordained it? And Johnny Erickson, tada, helps us understand this, of course, as someone who has suffered enormously in our own life, said God ordains what he hates to accomplish what he loves and that’s what we’re seeing in Amos and Joel and all these other places. I mean, the Lord is marching against his wayward people. Why he cannot abide sin. That’s part of it. In his holiness, He will not tolerate sin, but it’s also because he loves them too much to leave them in it, and that’s really important for us to see love and judgment go together, like love and anger go together. They have to, because you only feel angry when you love something enough to get angry about it. So most of the time we get angry it’s because we love ourselves a lot and we don’t like it when people inconvenience ourselves. That’s unrighteous, selfish anger. That’s sin, by the way, but there are other times when we get angry because we love someone else and we see what is happening to them. If you love someone, you will hate whatever is destroying them. That’s why people are not fond of cancer. Picture a parent whose child is given over to an opioid addiction. How angry that parent is? Why? Because they know it’s killing their kid, and that’s how the Lord feels when he looks at us, because sin is destroying us like cancer, and yet we return to it as addicts.
All this to say, then the end of these 11 verses, in disaster, in trials and troubles, tribulations, more is going on than we sometimes think. We see locusts and in our enlightened rationalism, which is neither rational nor enlightened, we think locusts. We need our eyes open to see what’s going on behind the scenes. Now, if you remember from your yearly Bible reading, there’s this fascinating scene in Second Kings six, where. Elisha has caused the king of Aram all sorts of problems, and so the king keeps trying to kill him. Eventually figure out he’s in Dothan, and they surround the city, this army, like they’re just there to kill Elisha. Elisha, servant wakes up in the morning, looks out, sees the army, and goes, Oh no, like we’re done for and Elisha goes, No, we’re good man, like there are more of us than there are of them. And the servants, like, listen, bro. Like, like, no, there are more of them. And so Elisha prays that his eyes would be open and he sees the hills filled with chariots of fire, like the Lord’s army is here. You just couldn’t see it in enlightened rationalism, you can certainly see it with eyes that can actually see everything that is happening, including in the supernatural we need our eyes opened too. The day of the Lord is near and here and when disaster comes, it is a preview of that last day. Do we see how important this is? Because it is a great and dreadful day. Who can endure it? And if we stopped here, it would just leave us hopeless, unless there’s an answer to our question. So let’s see if there is. Keep reading. I will read the rest of our passage now, verses 12 to 17, as we see the people’s penitence even now declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows he may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God below the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. Consecrate the assembly. Bring together the elders. Gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? So the air raid siren is blaring. Everyone is panicked. What should they be doing? What is our response? How can we endure this great and terrible day? And God tells us, at last, the day is rapidly approaching. So of course, there’s this sense of urgency, even now, like right now, there’s this brief window of time before the end even now, return to God. And return is a very important word in the Old Testament. It can be translated a couple different ways. It just means turn at its most basic, but turn return and then often is translated as repent as well, which just involves turning from sin and turning to God. They all have the same idea, right? They’re all communicating the same thing, however you want to translate it there, like God is saying, You wandered away, so return home, or you turned to idols. And maybe those were idols like Baal or something like that, but maybe those are just the idols of you thinking my money is enough security for me, I’m going to trust in that you turned to idols. So turn to God, or you sinned. So repent. But the important piece here is that you return with your whole heart. How often we hear heart and we think emotion? That is not how a good Hebrew would hear this word like the heart is all of you. It encompasses your thoughts, your emotions, certainly your desires, which we do use it that way today, too, of course, like this is where your love comes from, your heart, so your desires, your affections, your loves, and because of that, then your will, because we do what we want, we do what we desire. And Jesus says, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and really out of the abundance of the heart, everything we do happens. So return with your whole heart, with all of you. I mean, already we’ve got some questions kind of here, as we think about our response, do we need to repent of half hearted following God, or do we need to repent of turning to God? Yes, but turning to idols. Also, again, where, where does my comfort, where’s my security, come from, really? And again, here in Elmhurst in 2024, probably not looking to Baal, but to our 401, okay, or our bank account, yeah, like, that actually does happen in Elmhurst, doesn’t it? So maybe we need to repent of that. You know, we’re. Trying to serve God and mammon, God and money and Jesus told us, somewhere on the mountain we looked at this spring, that doesn’t work. So how do we do this? How do we return to the Lord? I think lamentations three can be our guide. Now, Lamentations is written when Babylon is sacking Jerusalem, destroying the temple. So this is just a little bit before everything that Joel is talking about here, and that’s why it’s called lamentations. Not a happy time, right? They’re lamenting what’s going on? Lots of crying. But lamentations 340, to 42 says this. The lamenter says, Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord same phrase, let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven and say, We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven. So what do we see here? This disaster should prompt some self examination. Again. We wake up, why hasn’t God forgiven us? So Something must be going on here. We need to look at we need to examine ourselves, and then turn to God. It’s interesting too that it says, lift your hands and your hearts. Because it’s very easy to lift your hands. It’s very easy to go through the motions of repentance, right to have outward ritual without inward repentance, and Joel wants none of that. That’s one of the reasons why he says, rend your heart and not your garments. Is one of the common actions you would do to show that you are grieving is tear your clothes. You can see how easy you could manipulate that process. Great. All of you find your oldest t shirt. We’ll whip it. God will notice. He’ll be compassionate. No Joel’s saying, rend your hearts, rend your hearts, and not your garments. Let this be genuine. Your repentance is just go through the motions, even good motions like fasting and praying and calling, the kinds of things that we’ve talked about that we see here again. Don’t just go through the motions, and we need a wholehearted return, because we know that God looks at the inside and not the outside. Because if you’re doing all this on the outside and it’s not inside, that’s just hypocrisy, the Lord is no fan of hypocrisy. Jeremiah three verse 10, for example, this is talking to the people of Judah. They’ve seen their northern neighbors, the northern tribes. Israel just got destroyed by Assyria a couple generations ago. You’d think they’d have gone, okay, let’s not do what Israel did. Let’s do something else. But no, Jeremiah 310 says this, in spite of Israel’s end, basically, you know, the destruction of Israel, despite of all this, her unfaithful sister, Judah, did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense. And of course, we’ve seen this. Judah has been offering sacrifices right up until the locusts came, but had they brought broken and contrite hearts like we talked about last week. Of course, the New Testament warns us of this as well. You know, like you say you’ve got faith, like, Where’s the proof of it? Because it’s really easy to say, I believe in Jesus. You can get baptized. You can come to church, you can do all that. You can walk the aisle, you can pray the prayer that’s all really easy. Where’s the proof of it in the whole life? So Joel repeats God’s command.
Then, you know, return to the Lord your God, middle of verse 13. By the way, that’s a really comforting phrase, the Lord your God. We’ll talk about this more next week. But anytime the Lord is God’s covenant name, and then that pronoun is so important your god, this is like talking about your spouse, like you have a relationship. There is a covenant in place there, and God remembers it, and you should remember it. But why do we return to the Lord our God? Because He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Now this is a stock description of God shows up seven times in the Old Testament, such a famous collection of attributes that the Hebrew people actually just called these the characteristics that was it. These are the characteristics, capital T, capital C, of God. They come from Exodus, 34 six and seven, after the golden calf, all that kind of stuff. And Moses at one point says, Lord, show me your glory. And God says, I will proclaim My name. Which is what he does. The Lord, the Lord the compassionate and gracious God, you know, as he, as his glory passes in front of Moses, and so this is where we get this, this description, from, but Joel’s point in using this language is to say that the only hope we have is who God is. That’s it. That’s our only hope, because he is perfect in. Power and Wisdom and holiness, yes, but love and compassion and grace as well, so that who knows he may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing. What a reminder, though, in that question, who knows? Who knows? The prophet is not saying if we do this, God will absolutely, 100% for sure do this. In response, there’s no guarantee. We can’t obligate God to relent from sending calamity, right to forgive our sin and so turn from the disaster that he’s bringing. We can’t obligate god, that’s why it’s called grace, which means unmerited favor, stuff you can’t earn. There’s this concerning trend in American Christianity to move from who knows to God owes so that if we do these things, we’re entitled to these benefits in response, in part, because we got a very contractual mindset instead of a covenantal mindset here. So you see this, of course, in the name it claim it prosperity gospel. If I do this, then all these blessings come automatically. But it’s wider than that. I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news, but the good news bad news is that, well, we’re not the first culture or generation to have this problem. Look at how God’s people responded to disaster in Hosea, chapter six, verses one to three, and how flippant they are with their sense of obligating God. Come. Let us return to the Lord same phrase. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us. He has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us, and the third day, He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains, that water the earth. This is not the Prophet speaking. And this is not God speaking through his prophet these. This is the people speaking. And so they’re really overconfident here. They basically have said, Look, if we insert our return to the Lord into the cosmic vending machine, that is God, then boom, blessings pop out as a response, and that’s not how it works. We know because Hosea goes on to rebuke them. God says, Through Hosea, what do I have to do? Like to get your attention, it’s just a few verses later, we get the famous phrase from Hosea. Jesus quotes, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Stop going through the motions and actually bring me your heart people, but you see the flippancy again, right? Like we cannot obligate God, we can only genuinely inwardly repent and return and trust in God’s character that he is who he says he is. And I will say we’ve got a little more confidence than Joel would have had, because we live on this side of Jesus, who embodies, literally, the characteristics of God, and who came to make this way for us so that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If we are in Christ, of course we will be saved. But who knows? Joel says we don’t want to assume anything here. Let’s do our part and trust the Lord for his part. Who knows he may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing? In contrast, by the way, to the locusts, who leave behind nothing whatsoever. It’s interesting though, that they say he may leave behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God, I love that, because it shows that for Joel, at least, he’s not concerned about eating. He’s concerned about fellowship with the Lord. What we saw at the end of last week, right? Like to call on the Lord, not so that he’ll help us, but because we just want he just want him, and that’s what they’re expressing here. Can be fascinating to see what happens with that next week. So there’s your teaser. Come back next week. But so let’s, let’s act. And that’s where Joel goes next. Of course, he repeats all these commands, blow the trumpet. We already saw that this week. And then, you know, declare a holy fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. That was last week, we were doing all these things, but still act like take this seriously, and everyone is involved. We gather the assembly. You know, gather the people. It’s the elders and the children and even the infants that are coming at this point, because the Gospels for all ages, part because sin and its effects affect all ages. So we all need this good news, but everyone is involved. Gospels for all ages, what a good reminder for families and even for us as the family of God like kids. Are a part of the Kingdom of God. They can be, should be, and can actively participate in it, like, you know what I think when I’m up here preaching, and I reach, like, that high point of the sermon, you know? And the heavens have opened and the spirits descending and stuff, and right as I get that, like sweet spot, the organs gonna start playing behind me and stuff. A baby starts crying. I think, good. That’s exactly what it should be like, like, it’s such a happy sound to my mind, because it’s for all of us, like we all need I love seeing our kids serve in church. When they’re on the connection team, they’re Junior helpers downstairs, like we are all involved in this. So not Joel’s point necessarily. I’m gonna get off my soapbox now. But we need to gather the whole assembly, all the people of God, and then need to consecrate the assembly as well. To make it holy, to do that, three things you gotta do if you’re gonna make an assembly holy. You abstain from food, declare fast, right? You abstain from work, right? You’re assembled. That means you’re not at work that day, and then you abstain from sex again. You’re gathered. Makes kind of good sense. But also why we get the mention of the bridegroom and the bride. It is interesting that they’re here, because usually newlyweds are exempt. In Old Testament, thought there’s a military conscription. If you were married that year, you don’t go because you need to be home with your wife. The bride and groom were exempt from offering prayers the morning of their wedding, even, which is really crazy when you think about it, except that it also isn’t crazy. Like, you know, a lot of weddings are on Saturday, right? How many of those couples show up to church on Sunday? None of them. And you know what? None of us think, seriously, you guys couldn’t have gotten flights later in the day. Like, no, you’re like, of course, you should go, you should be with one another, right? Now, that’s how the Old Testament sees it, too, except here, because it’s so serious they need to cut their honeymoon short. There’s no place for normal human joy at a time like this. And again, we live this not that long ago, like weddings got canceled because of a plague that we had not that long ago, like that’s what’s happening here, too. So this is the sacred assembly that has come together, and then, no surprise, it’s the priests who are leading the assembly. Part of the priestly task is intercession. They do it between the temple steps and the altar. That’s right, where the prayer happens. That’s why they’re between portico and altar. And what do they pray? Their prayer is so interesting because they got this slight shift in emphasis from our prayers. Generally, they don’t pray save us for our sake. Lord. What they pray is, save us for your sake, Lord, because they do not want God’s name to be dishonored. This is so common in Old Testament prayers, and so uncommon in our prayer lives. It’s worth talking about like Psalm 79 when an enemy is attacking Jerusalem sacking Jerusalem, the Psalmist Asaph cries out, help us, God, our Savior, for the glory of your name, deliver us and forgive our sins. For Your name’s sake, why should the nation say,
where is their God? Same question we get here, right? There’s this concern, like the locusts wipe us out, we all die. Then everyone around is going to think, well, Israel’s God must not have been strong enough to save us. Now I’m looking at the time we’re already late. So two things to tell you. Number one, sorry, we’re gonna be late today. Deal with it. Number two, we’re going on the deep end. All right, we had a pool party yesterday for worship team. When I’m at a pool with my kids, I toss them into the water as high as I possibly can. I give them a moment to plug their nose. Plug your nose. We’re getting tossed Okay. Here we go. God loves his glory more than he loves us. That is not how we think, because we are self absorbed creatures. How could God possibly love anything more than he loves me? No God loves his glory more than he loves us. And his love of his glory is the foundation of his love for us. This should not shock us, by the way, because all I’m saying when I say that is God is not an idolatror. He has no other gods before him, because in his infinite wisdom, he values supremely what is supremely valuable, which is him self. So his ultimate commitment is to himself and not to us, and that is the very. Best news for us that is our security, and we see it here, because God loves his glory above all, he will act to magnify His glory in the eyes of all. Again, see this throughout Scripture, Isaiah, 48 maybe most famously, another time when God’s people are under threat, and God says, for my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. I restrain my wrath, I defer my anger, for my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory. And if the Bible were a symphony, which it certainly is, like this idea, it’s not a leitmotif. It’s not that little thing. Like, every now and again, the flutes come in with it. You’re like, Oh, that’s cute. Like, this is the theme. This is the heart of it. If the Bible were Beethoven’s Fifth this is like, this is it? This is the main theme in the Bible again. Here’s Ezekiel 36 it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I’m going to do these things, but for the sake of My Holy Name. And you think, okay, Brandon, that’s been a whole lot of Old Testament. But you know, Jesus is much nicer than the God of the Old Testament. That’s nonsense, by the way. Just wanna be so clear about that. Okay, here’s the New Testament. Ephesians, one, five and six. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will. Why, to the praise of His glorious grace. That’s who our God is. Think of how this changes our prayer then, like, look at Moses after the golden calf, and God’s like, hang on, Moses. Can Be right back, and I’ll wipe out these people. He’s testing Moses in this moment, and Moses goes, no, no. If you do that, the Egyptians and the Canaanites will think he was able to bring his people out of Egypt, but not into the promised land. He’s a weak God. You can’t let that happen, Lord. And of course, the Lord relents from sending disaster. We see it in Jeremiah, chapter 14, chapter 17, over and over and over again, act Lord, for the sake of your name. Or how about this? You maybe know this prayer Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. First prayer loses our first priority, the holiness of God’s name, and it’s a passive tense. But who’s going to do that? We’re praying, sanctify your name, Lord, make your name great in my life, How often have I prayed that for myself when it comes to my sanctification, where I’m like Lord, because my sin, I know I’m dishonoring you. Would you change me? Would you save this person? Because if you can save a sinner like him, you can save any of us. And I want everyone to know that it leads to these like Elijah on Mount Carmel moments too, right? Elijah go up against the prophets of Baal. It’s not because he’s tired of getting bullied by Jezebel. It’s because he wants the people of Israel to cry out the Lord He is God. The Lord He is God. Yah, they is God, not Baal, and we bring that mentality into all we do, and that’s why the priests pray this here vindicate Your glory among the watching nations, Lord, otherwise Israel’s God will be defamed. Now I asked a question to begin, how should we respond when disaster comes? Like mourning moves us to act, and now we know what that looks like, right? Our big idea, our takeaway for today, right? When disaster comes, turn wholeheartedly to your gracious, compassionate God should be on the screen. Patrick’s feeling the Holy Spirit fire right now, though he’s like whoo, glory of his name, turn wholeheartedly to your gracious, compassionate God. We know he will respond. He will relent, he will forgive. He will have mercy, because he loves his glory, and he loves the glory of His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will see him exalted in our eyes, so we can trust him. So what are you waiting for? Even now? Because the day is fast approaching, brief window of time. It’s like, you know the automatic doors, you push the button and you see the people before you go in, and you’re like, I gotta get moving now, because that door’s about to go and start closing. That’s the day, Lord, it’s coming, and we don’t know when, so move even now. Return to the Lord. Maybe it’s for the first time. We know the Lord is calling you. You know how I know that? Because you’re here, you just heard it. The Lord is calling you. Maybe for the first time, turn him. Maybe you’re realizing this morning as you’re listening I have been half hearted or outward only in my following I turn it. Maybe you’re a war weary battle. Www. God wholeheartedly, inwardly and outwardly, in turn, because He is gracious and compassionate, and he will forgive and save and love us to the praise of His glorious grace. Let’s pray to Him now he.

Amen.