Good morning! The joy of hearing God’s call to return to Him is tinged with the shadow of the fact that His people had turned away from Him in the first place.

Joel was likely written in the mid 830s B.C., and written to pronounce a day of judgment on the southern kingdom of Judah. The predominant theme in this book is the “day of the Lord.” And as such, those who are repentant will receive mercy and restoration while those who are unrepentant will receive the judgment God prophecies.

The locust plague that happened in Judah destroyed the crops that prevented God’s people from bringing in His prescribed offerings. In our day, this pandemic has affected people in such a way that has exposed things in their hearts that our national prosperity has hidden, showing why more and more people in our country are turning away from the things of God.

God is calling His people to return to Him with all they have. In 1 Peter 4:17, we read that “judgment begins with the house of God.” This passages is talking to God’s people, not our nation as a whole. We as Christians live as a spiritual nation within a political nation. One cannot return if they have never turned initially in surrender to Christ.

We are reminded of the Robert Robinson hymn:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

If you are reading this and have strayed from Christ and His fellowship, return to Him.