Standing in the Gap When Disaster Looms | Joel 2:12–17

Show Notes

Episode 782: 
In this episode, we reflect on the book of Joel, specifically focusing on Joel 2:12-24. We discuss the call to repentance that God extends to the people of Judah, emphasizing His merciful and compassionate nature. The passage highlights the importance of turning back to God while there is still time, and we explore the significance of genuine repentance over mere outward displays of grief, such as tearing one's clothing.

What is The Bible Guys?

Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.

Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.

Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys, and thanks for tuning in. Here we are we are right here, We are back. We are on the stage of Heritage Church. Man, oh man, it's gonna be a good one today, Yes it is. We're going to do our best. Yes, and that you know what. I wasn't planning on doing that until you said, But now, why not? I was shooting for mediocrity. Why not just give it the best we got? That's great. Well, Hey, we are in the middle of a series called Dangerous Prayers, and today, actually this whole week our prayers of intercession, right to intercede on someone else's behalf. And before we get into that, we have a segment that desire put together. And this segment is so important to us. Actually, this is it's a dad joke. It's a Dad Joe competition. I haven't looked I haven't looked through these yet, so I'm excited about it. I think I'm messed up. I turned to the wrong scripture. Are we in? Joel? We are in Joel oh wow. Yeah, okay, so I'm on the wrong I'm I'm on the whole wrong wrong to day. Yeah, I'm on the whole wrong day. I'm on tomorrow. It's gonna be a rough. I've turned to Second Chronicles. Okay. Oh that's a good one too. Yeah. So for for for those of you who are wondering, we're in Second Chronicles tomorrow. Tomorrow, it's gonna be really great. It's gonna be great. Okay. So Dad Joe competition, So you want to start? Okay, here goes. Ready, here's my first one. Yep. So we're doing five five we're trying to win. Yeah, we're gonna go. Okay. I told my computer I needed a break. Now it won't stop sending me kitck CAATs. I think I hate it? Yeah, you hate that one? Yeah? How could your computer send you kit cats? I don't know it just Amazon. Oh I guess I could do that. I guess. I totally explained that, and I liked it more. Yeah, okay, yeah, I didn't like it. Okay, here we go. Uh. I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough. Now I'm just needing the job. Oh no, that's a rough one. We're over and we're over, and we are we are No, here go, here's my number two. Yep. What's the best way to watch a fly fishing tournament? Which way? Live stream? Oh? I love it? You like that one? Great? Okah? Really yeah? Live stream? Yeah? Okay, okay, okay. It's great. I mean it made me laugh out loud. No, but it was clever, okay. Number two. I was wondering why the frisbee keeps getting bigger? But then it hit me, I. Like that one, like that. More than yours? Yes, yours was. I'm gonna say you're the winner on I was. Wondering why the frisbee kept getting bigger. Then it hit me there was no winner for one. I think you're the winner on two. Okay, so it's one nothing. What's the skeleton's least favorite room in the house? The living room? Yeah? I see how you did. Okay, I know where you're going with this. All right, there we go. I'm afraid of the calendar. It's days are numbered. But why would he oh, for the calend for the count I'm afraid. I'm afraid for the calendar. It's okay, okay, So it was in your delivery. It was in my delivery. Yeah, but it's still bad. It was still bad. Okay, so it's still just one nothing. I think, I think, I don't really understand electricity, but I'm shocked by it. Yeah it's rough. Yeah, it's too easy. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's too easy. All right. Number four because we like clever dad jokes. We do. Yeah. Yeah, what historical period did people have the tidiest shirts? What historical period did peter people have the tidiest shirts? I d I e s t tightiest shirts. I don't know the iron age, iron age, so they iron their shirts. This is rough. Oh my goodness, that's what it means. So I just read ahead, and this one's worth. It can't be worse than that with the one I just read. What do you call a fruit that magically shows up? Okay? Pair? Oh my word? Like a peer peer? Yeah yeah, peary. Yeah, that is such a rough one. That is such a stretch. It's a rough one. Dude, we got we got one? I think out of ten? What's your what's your fifth? I wanted to crawl in a hole. Yeah, this is really all right? Here we go, ready? I asked for twelve bees. Oh, I like this one. This is a good one. Okay, yay, we have a good one, lady and gentlemen. Okay, okay, I all right, here we go, Okay, here we go. I asked for twelve bees, but hang on, okay, I asked for twelve bees, but the bee keeper gave me thirteen. He said, it's a freebie. Okay, that's a good one. That's a good one. Okay. I think I think I like it because we had one laugh. Oh, this was great. Okay. I think this is a great joke. It's a free beat. See, it's the surprise good dad jokes, and you always have. To I cannot wait to tell Toy this year. Okay, so so so okay, So I think you're the winner today. I am. I'm just I'm just going to concede. Well, you know what, we don't have any control over this, Jeff. We just get to vote. Desiree is the one who picks these. That's correct. And sometimes I wonder if she, excuse me, well, yes I do. It's a little dark outside, but I don't. I sometimes wonder, I really do. Sometimes I never asked her, but I sometimes wonder if she chooses bad ones. On purpose to get our reaction. In order to get the one really great one. Yeah, you know, so that so we could laugh on one and be like. We're appalled on the other one, I think so. Or does she just like say, hey chat, GPT, give me some jokes and then just tosses them in there. Well, she doesn't care about her job or her salary or hair search you. Or me exactly. Well, so, so right now we're supposed to be saying nice things about her, which is not true. We're supposed to be saying nice things about her, correct, But she is in my office fantasy football league. Oh and we're going head to head this week and right now, so our office of our office fantasy football league has two teams. Yes, so that the league you're in and the league I'm in. So it's not two teams, it's it's two league teams. There's two leagues, right, So there's a league you're in, there's the league I'm in, and Des is in my league. And right now she's the only undefeated person on our entire heritage staff. Wow. Right, she's beaten everybody up and so I have to play against her this week. Yeah. Yeah, And so while by the time people hear this, I will have already beaten her. You have, Oh, I was gonna say you have already lost? Well, very likely the way it's been going. The way it's been going. So I think you're gonna have to say nice things about her, but I just I can't today. Okay, all right, yeah, well that that is something. Yeah, okay, so we are in I'm not even going to try to transition this. Oh talking about saying nice things for people? All right. So there's a call to repentance, and then God promises to restore in Joel chapter two, verse twelve. And for our short time listeners, if you just started listening, Chris and I we went through every highlight passage in the entire Old Testament, and we covered the Book of Joel. I don't know, maybe one hundred episodes ago or more. So maybe go back and check that out if you're in. Nice said, But here's what it says. In Joel chapter two, verse twelve. It says, that is why the Lord says, turn to me, now while there is time, give me your hearts. Come with fasting and weeping and mourning. Don't tear your clothing and your grief. But tear your hearts. Instead, return to the Lord, Lord your God, for his merciful and compassionate slow to get angry, and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. Who knows. Perhaps he'll give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you'll be able to offer grain and wine to the Lord your God. As before, blow the rams horn of Jerusalem, announce the time of fasting. Call the people together for a solemn meeting. Gather all the people, the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room. Let the priests who minister in the Lord's presence stand and weep between the entry room to the temple and the altar. Let them pray. Spare your people, Lord, don't let your special possession become an object of mockery. Don't let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, has the God of Israel left them? And then the Lord will pity his people and jealously guard the honor of his land. The Lord will reply, look, I am sending you grain and new wine and olive oil enough to satisfy your needs, you will no longer be an object of mockery among the surrounded nations. Well there you go. There it is. Wow. What a prayer. Yeah, and some parts of it are very specific, like grain and things. We don't deal with grain. You and me. You don't deal with grain, do you? I mean we eat bread and pizza. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's stuff. You don't harvest grain. Do you harvest grain in the farm growing up? No, we didn't. You have to have a special license to grow like wheat and barley and those things. The government controls that. But besides that, the rest is pretty relevant. Right. So this is what the Lord says, turn to me now, while there is still time, give me your hearts, come with fasting, weeping and morning. Don't let your clothing. Don't tear your clothes. Okay, so so it's going on good. By the way, tearing your clothing was a common thing back then. They would tear their clothing. There was a demonstrative. How upset I am. Yes, I'm in sorrow. I'm warning. It was a demonstration. So if somebody was walking around with clothing that was torn, you knew that they were in mourning. So anyway, but it turned to me while there's still is time and turned to me with weeping and fasting and mourning. That is a request, isn't it. Yeah, So the whole first chapter is in the first half of the second chapter is God saying listen, people of Judah, turn back to me. Remember at this point, the kingdom is divided, so there's the northern Kingdom Israel and the southern Kingdom Judah. Northern kingdom walked away from God way before Judah did, and they were just following after idols and wickedness and all kinds of things, and God brought judgment on them regularly, but Judah prospered. But then over time Judah began flirting with the same things and eventually started going their own way, rebelling against God, starting to worship idols and things and God now through Joel is warning them saying, listen, judgment is coming and it's going to be really, really horrible if you guys don't come back to me. And so then Joel starts so in verse two or chapter two, at the beginning, he says, sound the trumpet in Jerusalem, raise the alarm in my holy Mountain. Let everyone tremble in fear because of the day of the Lord is upon us. So Joela is like, listen, people, judgment is not coming. Judgment is here. We have to turn away, turn away from our sin and come back to God. And then that's where we picked up in verse twelve. That's why the Lord says, come back to me, and yeah, because I want to be slow to judgment. I don't want to. I don't want I don't hate you, right, I'm willing to discipline you like a parent needs to discipline a child in order to get their attention to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing. He says, I love you. What is the one verse he just said a minute ago? Uh? He for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry, and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. Right right, God's not delighting in the fact that punishment is coming. He's really eager to relent and not punish. He's full of mercy and unfailing love. If the people would just turn from their sin and turn to God, and that same prince is available to you and me today, that's. Awesome, and I love how it's a cull to repentance. And what he's really saying is is he's saying, who knows, perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of a curse. And really what he's saying is is it's never too late, right, It's never too late. So it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter if you think, like, hey, I've crossed the line of no return. You know, there's no way that God can forgive me. Judgment is coming. You know, there's a lot of people what they do is they make mistakes and then they find themselves in the midst of consequence, you know, and then all of a sudden, everything around them starts crumbling or relationships start to get severed, and it's just like it's almost like they've held their position of non repentance, and people just somehow think that, you know, uh, they're just going to hang on to their view. But you know what, I think that even in the midst of I mean, even if judgment were to come, is what I'm issuing. That's sort of where my mindset is. It's like, even if judgment were to come and even if you know there was some sort of a big judgment coming, there's still a repentance factor that will allow God to bless you even in the midst of the valleys, right, Because doesn't God still bless in the midst of the valleys. Doesn't he still grant mercy even when there's earthly consequences to our bad choices. So the way that the prophets talked, no, so when once judgment is unleashed, the only thing that turns it back is full repentance. That's it, right, So there's no I'm judging you and blessing you simultaneously. It's the gloves are off and judgment is here now, and it's going to be really really bad until you repent. And I was having a conversation with a guy who's been going through some really really difficult things as a result of his own bad choices. He lost so much in his life. He lost his home, he lost his marriage, he lost so many things, and he was so hateful and resentful for a while towards others. He was demanding all this justice and things as he felt, but he was the one who pulled his life down around him. Other people participated perhaps and made it worse. And then finally, as we were going through this conversation, the Bible says God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And I asked him, I said, so, are you still wanting revenge on everybody else? Do you want your enemies to suffer all these things? He started crying. He said no, not anymore. I said, well, what change? He said, I have nothing as I have is my books. He started crying. He said, I wouldn't even want my enemies to live this life. And I said, You're in exactly the right place now for God to begin to bless you, right, because you have nowhere else to turn. And that's usually what God does once judgment comes, it's unrelenting until we repent, and that's what he was doing in that moment. He was repenting, going, no, you're right, I've done this to myself, and I alls I have is God's mercy to help me out from that. So, yeah, I see what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. I think that that when you read the minor prophets like this, judgment is unrelenting until repentance, and the repentance means that I have to get to the point where I'm the one who caused this the consequences. I can remember one time. My parents were spankers. They spanked me always under under control and discipline, so they weren't beaters, you know, they didn't just beat me. It was very disciplined and orderly, and my dad would always make me, uh sit alone for a while while he calmed down, you know, so he'd never spank me when he was angry. He come and say, listen, why why is this going to happen? And maybe because I lied, or I stole or I disobeyed, they did whatever, right, And I think it's the same thing with God. You know, in Hebrews, he says, if if you don't get disciplined by God chastened is the word, then you're an illegitimate child, you're not one of his own. So God does that, And it's not that God's being mean, It's that our own behavior isn't going to turn without a certain amount of pain sometimes and God knows when that moment is in our life, and so he'll bring it to us. But the second we repent, and this is why it says he's eager to relent and not punished God is he's just waiting for the first hint of repentance. God, I did this to myself. I deserve it. Would you forgive me? This is what happened with that guy yesterday, the tax collector says, God, have mercy on me a sinner. Yeah. Right. So I had a very early ministry experience early on, like within my first seven years of being in ministry full time, and I had a staff member who had a more failure. And then I left that church and then went to another church in the area, stayed there for another three years, and then I was moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Michigan. Well, he had heard that I was leaving the state. So we hadn't talked since this big conflict and everything else. So he said, why don't you, Why don't we meet. It's it's high time that we met since this big falling out. And I said, okay, that's fine because I'm interested in reconciliation obviously. But this guy, by the way, was like six foot three and like two hundred and fifty pounds and could destroy me. And he goes, oh, let's meet in the best by parking lot, and I said, best by parking lot. That's where I would have my cousin meet somebody that with brass knuckles, Yeah, with brass knuckles, and put a head on him. And he goes, fine, where do you want to meet? And I said, I said that's fine. I said, let's just meet in the best you know, best by parking lot. That's fine. So we met there and and I remember him grabbing my truck and you know, my truck had like these like rails on. He grabbed my truck and he was shaking it. He was so mad and he was and the whole truck was shaking. I'm thinking, man, this guy's strong. He could he could kill me, right, but he didn't. It was a it was a it was a fine meeting. But in that meeting, I just said, I said, why didn't you just admit it? He went through he I mean, the church split everybody just, I mean just the consequences kept coming and coming and coming, and they just and and which is why I sort of even brought it up, because because it was like, it was like, so, yeah, it was coming. The judgment was there, right, you had this moral failure, You did all these different things he did like three things and uh, and and anyway, it's a long story, but I but I just said, why didn't you just say, Okay, fine, I did those things and and yes, the consequences could have still come right and and and maybe the end result could have been the same. Well, if he had confessed and repent, the consequences would have been far less. That's what I'm meaning. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to mean. Because he's he's slow to get angry and he's filled with unfailing. Yeah, that's why I said, like true repentance, and then God could still bless you in the midst of the valleys. Yeah, right, so it could still be a huge valley moment. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, Oh okay, I see what you're saying. So I was seeing the valley as the punishment. Yeah, and if you're not in the punishment, you're coming out of the valley and yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what you were saying. Yeah, that's what I was. I was I was just saying, like I was saying, like things would have gone better percent better if you would have just said, yes, I did those things. And we have to understand that, like you know, so you know ministry, but honestly, it's not just ministry. It's Christianity, isn't that right? Right, Like, you know, to be a godly husband, to be a godly father, to be a godly friend, right, I mean, just to be a Christian. You never win or excuse me, you never You never lose by admitting the bad things. I mean ultimately, yes, there's gonna be consequences for the bad things. You're just not gonna avoid it. But if you stay, you know, hanging on with clenched fists to the lie, it's just gonna get worsome unrepented hearts. You know, It's like it's like, what kind of person is that? Yeah? Right? And so when all the evidence points to the contrary. So it's just like if you if you let go and you say, yes, I did those things, then all of a sudden, now, oh hey he did those things. But but he's repented. Look, his character is good, his heart is good. Right, he's going back to God. Things are heading in the right direction. It's just it's a win every single time. Yes, so, and so in the midst of the consequences, you know, if you made bad choices. Well, there's not going to be Jesus said, the truth will set you free. Right, So there's not gonna be any freedom from the weight of the consequences of our sin until we finally get honest with God, honest with ourselves, and honest with others. Right, And so that's I think it's great. Then you have this intercession piece. Right, So this week is an intercession thing, he says, Blow the rams horn in Jerusalem and nounce the time fasting, call all the people together for a solemn meeting, and gather the elders and the children and the babies, right, brides and bridegrooms, everybody. And then let the priests who minister in the Lord's presence stand and weep between the entry room to the temple and the altar, and then let them pray. Spare your people, Lord, don't let your special possession become an object of mercy, machriy. Don't let them become a joke for unbelievers. And i'mbelieving foreigners who say, has the God of Israel left them? And so there's the personal repentance in those first five verses or four verses, and then there's public repentance, where as a group, we're praying for each other. Now the people are gathering together, we're praying for each other. The priests are praying on behalf of the people. God, you know, don't let this ruin us. Set us free, And there is a lot of power. Sometimes there are people who are in the middle of the judgment. They're in the middle of the hard time, and they're having a hard time even articulating what they need or what they need they need to do for God. And we can go. And the Bible says that the fervent prayers of a righteous person accomplishes much. And you and I can go pray for our friend, we can go pray for our family member who they don't even know how to pray for themselves right now. They're such a mess, they don't even know what to do. And then the Bible says, then the Lord will pity as people and jealously guard the hand of it, the honor of his land. And God can begin restoring because of the prayers of people who love other people. Right, so fast and pray is what he says here. And if you guys come with this attitude, you can intercede for each other even while you're confessing your own personal sin and there's a lot of power in that. We're going to talk about that tomorrow. As a matter of fact. The idea of us collectively praying for our land and praying for our people, and this is what's happening in this point, and God says, then the Lord will pity as people. It's after all, the people come together and begin praying for each other, not just for themselves. Yeah, that's great. It's a great place to end, and it looks like that's our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys. H