Consider these questions while you dwell in Joel 2:18-27:

1. How does God's response to repentance in this passage demonstrate His love and concern for His people? What does it reveal about His desire for a genuine relationship with them?

2. In what ways does God promise to restore and bless His people after they have repented? How does this restoration extend beyond mere material prosperity and reflect a deeper spiritual renewal?

3. How can the promise of never being put to shame be applied to believers today? What significance does this assurance hold for facing life's challenges and finding hope in the midst of difficulties?

Transcript:

On Monday, we saw the call for repentance, and now God is responding to that repentance. And look what it says here. The Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people. Now, we hear that we're jealous and we think bad things, but doesn't God have a right to be jealous for the people that He has brought to Himself? Doesn't He have a right to desire that they desire Him? They are His people. He has paid for them. He has bought them. He has cared for them. He has created them. And so, he desires for them to love him. And so, He thinks about this land, this people that occupy his land, and he has pity on the people. And he says, Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. The idea here is that God has heard their cries. He has heard and seen their repentance, and now he is responding. And so, what is he doing? Well, remember it said last time that they didn't want God to be seen as this God who wasn't caring for his people among the nations.

And so now there is something that has turned. He says, I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. People will be able to see that I am your God, and that I am faithful to you. And so how is he going to do this? There's a lot going on in this passage, but one of the most interesting things that is said is in verse 25, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locus has eaten the hopper, the destroyer, the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you, this famine that has been caused by the locus is going to be rebuilt. It's going to be restored. The idea here is not that, Well, it'll grow back over time and you'll catch up at some point. No, he's going to restore the years that has been eaten. Even the stuff that has been lost, he is going to build it back up. There aren't going to be lost years. They're going to be given it. And so we see that they'll eat plenty, they'll be satisfied, and they will know that God has dwelled wonderfully with them. And it says, My people shall never be again put to shame.

And they will know that He is in the midst of Israel, that He is the Lord their God. There is none else, and my people shall never again be put to shame. This is important. God is letting them know that He is their God. He is saying, You repented, and so, I am going to show to you that I am with you. This isn't just some random call to a random people. I am your God. You are my people. My call to repentance is real, and you responded with true faith, and so I am going to bless you. And so not only will the other nations know that God is their God. The people in Israel will know that He is their God. They'll never be put to shame. There is none else. And so, what does this mean for us? This is an interesting thought because we don't experience this in the same way that the people of God did in Israel at this time. This is not the same. So how do we apply this to our lives? Well, we look at when we are called to repent in scripture. We're always called to repentant.

We read God's Holy Word, it convicts us of our sin. We ask for forgiveness. God forgives us, and He has blessed us. And it isn't the same. We're not going to have the locus come in and eat up our stuff, and that's going to call us to repent. But as we think about this passage, we can look to the forgiveness that we receive. Our lives can be obliterated by the sin that we do. But when we repent, when we turn to God, He restores us, just as He restored the people here. Now, it might not look the same. It might not be like, Oh, I lost money because I was doing something wrong, and God's going to give me the money back. That's not what I'm saying. That's not how this works. But we have our hearts restored. We have our confidence restored in God, and we see that He is our God. Why? Because we have been forgiven. Again, as we look at this call to repentance throughout the Book of Joel, what have I been saying? I've been repeating myself. We look to the cross. We see where we have had the price paid for our sin, where God has forgiven us.

And so, we see that and we know these things. We look to the cross and we understand that God is in the midst of us. We see the forgiveness that we have in Christ and that He has united His people together in the New Covenant. And we look around to our fellow believers and we say, God is in the midst of us. Why? Because we have salvation in Jesus Christ. We know that He is the Lord our God. There is none else. Why? Because we have been forgiven. We've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We understand God's word, and we are given this desire to live a new life in Christ. And we know here also, this last verse, that his people shall never again be put to shame. Not the same as what we're talking here. God was talking about that he was going to build them up. There wasn't going to be a punishment for these sins that they had. But for us, what does it mean that we'll never again be put to shame? It means that no matter what happens in our lives, no matter our difficulties, we have the promise of the cross, we have the promise of eternal life, and that is what truly matters.

And so, when we face these difficulties that we come up against every day, we can know that even though these times are hard, we see that God is in our midst. There is none else. And so no matter what happens, we have this awesome salvation in the Lord Jesus, and we can trust in that salvation to give us peace, to give us hope. We can know that we will never be put to shame. Why? Because our ultimate destination is with God for eternity in the new heavens, in the new earth, we have salvation. It is a sure thing because it is guaranteed for us by the Lord Jesus. So, may we put our hope in that, knowing that we will not be put to shame because of what? The Lord. The Lord has done for us.