The Hardest Task You’ll Ever Love—Joel 2:16

The Hardest Task You’ll Ever Love—Joel 2:16
Jack Radcliffe
2/17/2013
Faith and repentance are often mentioned together in the Bible as fundamental practices for followers of Jesus (see, for example, Acts 20:21 or Hebrews 6:1). They go together. Both are critical.

But I don’t think faith and repentance get equal billing in the lives of many believers. I hear people talk all the time about how they want more faith. Maybe they’re working to build their faith. Or they’re praying for faith. But I seldom hear anyone say they’re seeking deeper repentance.

That’s understandable, I guess. Repentance is turning away from the sins we indulge and pursuing godly behavior instead. No one really enjoys that at the time, because it means killing off our sinful selves. Not surprisingly, it feels like death. It’s so, so hard to go through.

I think this is one reason God sent prophets in the Bible. Like Jesus, the prophets confront us about unpleasant matters that we’d prefer to keep putting off but need to deal with. They call us to repentance. If that sounds hard to you, please keep reading. I think the prophet Joel can help us.

Repentance as an urgent need

Repentance is the main theme of Joel’s message in the Bible. He preached to the people of Judah, who had come to love self-indulgent idolatry and had no intention of repenting anytime soon. He warned them that it was dangerous to toy with God like that. He gave vivid images of judgment. He called for deep, heartfelt repentance marked by sorrow and shame over sin and for a return to godly behavior.

Joel said the people should meet together to repent: “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” (Joel 2:16, NLT).

The first thing this verse shows is that repentance is for everyone. Whether you’re an elder or a child, all of God’s people practice repentance. We must always be on guard against ways in which our hearts love evil and selfishness. We must come to hate those things and turn to God instead. That’s what his people must do—all of us, all of the time.

The second message is that once we see our sin, we should have an urge to repent immediately. Waiting won’t do. Repentance is so vital that it’s worth being called away from your honeymoon. Sin is a dreadful pollution. It’s foolhardy to think God will put up with it. Besides, repenting of it is too delightful to delay.

Repentance as a daily joy

But didn’t I say repentance feels like death? Now I call it delightful. Which is it?

Well, it’s both. Joel’s call to repent comes at the midpoint of his book.
Everything leading up to it is about the dangers of sin and God’s judgment. But most of what comes after it is about God’s mercies. Joel says that God will forgive his people. He’ll help them prosper. He’ll fight their enemies. And in a famous passage quoted centuries later by the apostle Peter, Joel says God will pour out his Spirit on his people.

So we have two big reasons for repenting: the danger of ignoring sin and the joy of pleasing God. And we have two aspects to repentance itself: dying to self and living for God.

If you—like me at times—find dying to self so unpleasant that you’ve been pretending you don’t have to do it, try thinking about Joel’s assurance that God will pour out his Spirit on his people. That means we don’t repent on our own to prove something to God. We repent with him at our side, in prayer, hearing and reading his Word, sure that he’s in the battle helping us. He understands. He knows we need his power.

It also means we repent with great expectation. We’re able to conquer sin in our lives. We can grow. We’re becoming like Jesus, who died to save us from sin and for a life of godly behavior. We anticipate more and more pleasure as we spend more and more time with God—with less sin in the way.

You see, for those who love coming closer to God, nothing they might do—absolutely nothing!—is sweeter than repentance.

What pet sins do you enjoy so much that the thought of giving them up feels like death? Believe me, I know that feeling. But the rewards of repentance are beyond what we can imagine. Joel ends his book by saying, “The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Water will fill the streambeds” (Joel 3:18, NLT). Repentance is water, wine, and milk. Good stuff.

This is the second in a series of articles about the shorter books of prophecy known as the Minor Prophets.

Jack Klumpenhower is a writer and children’s ministry worker living in Colorado.