If God is anything, He is a God of restoration. That is what the cross is about, that is what salvation is about, that is what the work of the Spirit in my heart and life is about…that is what God is about. God is love. Agape. Without condition and without exception kind of love. Love that just loves. And that kind of love, God Himself, 24/7, desires restoration unto Him.

This chapter is special because I believe what we find in it is specifically how we come back to Him. How we become restored with Him and in our lives. Maybe you’re fine today and don’t necessarily need restoration, you’re doing well….we don’t like you but good for you. HA! But I would guess that many of us aren’t there. So, as we walk through this chapter, I’ll point out the three things, the three steps to restoration unto God. Because they are clear….

Joel Chapter 2 Verse 1
• Step one of restoration jumps right out at us in the first verse of this chapter and really lasts through verse 11. The first step of restoration unto God is urgency. We want to change, we want to be well, but in our heart of hearts, there is no urgency. It must be there. The devil’s favorite word, or one of them, is tomorrow. We really must always have an urgency when it comes to sin in our lives. To clear it out as soon as possible. And when it comes to restoration, if you want it, want to receive it from God, then look…there must be urgency.
• Last week, in chapter 1, we talked a lot about the issue of sin and the affect that sin can have on a life. The chewing, the swarming, the crawling, the consuming of verse 4 of the previous chapter. And we talked about the grace of God, the protection and provision that He desires for us that we would awake and choose Him.
• Here is the urgency…., blow the trumpet, sound an alarm…Yes Joel is speaking about Israel but remember we don’t have much of a reference point to draw from in terms of historically linking this to any past event. Perhaps we can tie it to future events as we progress through this chapter…but because of that, I read these words and internalize them immediately. Personalize them readily.
• This is my play, my role, my action of believing God and choosing Him in order to offend sin…offend the enemy…because there is no defend. Once the enemy is driving recklessness and consequence into my heart and mind and life, I can’t defend…damage is already being done…so if I do choose to go on the offense, which every Christian should be on the offense, then these urgent actions are mine to take!
• Blow the trumpet in Zion! Zion is a placename used in the Bible as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole. Specifically, the term Zion is used to imply that this is the land of God. This is His land. This is not just Israel, this is Zion, this belongs to the Lord. Psalm 147:12, “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!”
• And so, Jerusalem, Israel is the land of God and Zion speaks of the heart of the land…belonging to God Himself. And so, what must I do, to offend the flesh, offend the enemy…blow the trumpet of offense in my own heart. Blowing of the trumpet, or the shofar, is an act of war, it is a call for congregation…for joining, for unity…I am to go to the pinnacle of my heart of hearts, only I’m there…and only the Lord is there…and I am to do these things. Blow the trumpet and sound the alarm.
• Once you do these things, there’s no going back. The people are going to take up arms. They are going to assemble. The army is coming. And this is the place I and you and we and us must get to, Christian, if we are to overcome sin through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Everything changes…that trumpet cannot be unblown….homes and jobs and hobbies and interests and all that is left behind for the sake of coming to the holy mountain, meeting God there in my heart of hearts, and drafting and enlisting every bit of who I am into the person and mission of Jesus Christ. For my life and for the lives of those around me.
• This is the decision, this is the action, this is pivotal in a life. This is it. Remember that song? Huey Lewis? If this is it? Please let me konwwwww! Well, I’m letting you know. Muster up some urgency…sound your alarm. I cannot do it for you. Do it!
• Look, this is what God did for you! In Zion, the Holy Mountain in Mt. Moriah, where Jesus took your sin and my sin and your shame and my shame and He nailed it to a cross, buried it in a tomb, and left it there. His sounding, His alarm was, “It is Finished.” And now it’s my job to respond!
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 1 – 2
• The Day of the Lord is a term used not infrequently (in fact 35 times) throughout scripture to describe God’s final and ultimate intervention in the affairs of men. It’s used to describe the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, the second coming of Jesus in Revelation 16:14, and the final judgment of all sin such as we read in Isaiah 2:12. And so the Day of the Lord can be applied to any of these events or the series of events that are all eschatological and all yet ahead in our timeline/future.
• But notice, it says here, in the end of verse 1, “For it is at hand.” The Day of the Lord for the you could be coming to salvation. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom have never been…that is the power of the blood of Jesus, unlike anything else, because it alone has the power to forgive you of all of your sin and restore you unto your creator. To change your destiny from elimination (removal from a holy and just God) to eternal life.
• For the believer, this is the calling upon the whole of heaven, the power and the might of the Holy Spirit from within you, to defeat your sin and your flesh and to move forward. To trust God. To break free from the strongholds that sin has held onto within you that you have never had the strength to overcome!
• Surely Joel is talking about Israel and definitely he is talking about a true and real and perhaps future physical army, but this doom and gloom is pronounced upon my sin and my shame when I walk into and receive the grace of God, calling upon and yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit with urgency. HE PROMISED! God promised you!!
• Deuteronomy 4:29, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heat and with all your soul.” Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find Me.” Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” So, God, I call You on that! And that’s what He wants…why? Because that is to trust HIM!
• So, walk through these verses with me and picture this…this is the stronghold of sin in my heart…and the righteousness and love and grace and forgiveness and power of God through the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and life just decimates it when I got after it with urgency!
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 3 – 11
• None. No sin can survive. I give my whole heart to Jesus…He overpowers, overwhelms, overcomes, overshadows and calls it all to be over even in my own heart of hearts!
• When we are right with the Lord, we want the Day of the Lord to come. It’s great and it’s terrible but it restores, it renews, it removes that which is not of Him. When we aren’t right with the Lord, we dread the Day of the Lord because it takes away something that we desire more than we desire Him.
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 12 – 13
• The second step in restoration is brokenness. Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, these, O God, You will not despise.” There must first be an urgency and then there must be a brokenness.
• The Jews would outwardly display disgust and remorse by rending or ripping their clothes. A circumstance that would need repair…but God says, “Yea, do that with your heart!” Thick with meaning here…only you can do that. It’s literally, break your own heart over the situation. Only I can be broken over my own condition. And God is so much less (zero) concerned over me facing and fixing what’s on the outside than me facing and fixing what’s going on in my heart!
• God has said so many times to me, “I don’t want your tears! I want transformation!” He gives a new heart, a new mind. David cried out, “God, You desire truth in the inward parts!” I heard it said once that the harvest only comes from broken soil. Rain only comes from broken clouds. Bread only comes from broken wheat. Nutrition and filling only comes from broken bread. Peter was never restored unto power until he was thoroughly broken and humbled. The fact is that God can only use broken hearts. Humble hearts. His heart is far from the proud but His grace is poured upon the humble.
• But notice, He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…just looking for an opportunity to save. Just looking for me to call out to Him…man in trust or not in trust…He’s ok with desperation…His heart is for me, not against me…to bring me through not to leave me to my own pain…doesn’t feel like that in the moment…but the sorrow only lasts for the night when I turn to God…it lasts indefinitely when I don’t deal with myself.
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 14 – 17
• This is like bring it all…go entirely all in after the Lord. This is the third and final step of restoration unto God. First, urgency. Second, brokenness and humility. And the third is surrender. This is the setup for success in the heart and life of the child of God. Bring the people, elders, children, bring your faith, bring your past and your future (elders/children) and go get hitched to Jesus! This is a call to turn to the Lord with your entire heart…hurts (past), fears and questions (future) and then even a renewal of faith… Let my faith that has been built these years but now has failed…let it fall and rise again stronger…
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 18 – 19
• New wine always speaks of the Holy Spirit. It always speaks of a new work that God is doing and will do in your life, in my life. The trick is though, can’t use old wineskins…before God can bring the new wine, I’ve got to be in a prepared state…new wine skins…that’s brokenness and surrender.
Joel Chapter 2 Verse 20
• I love this picture…James writes in James 4:7-8,10, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” I actually don’t have to fight the enemy, my offense is to resist and to draw near to the Lord. When you draw, you create a picture, a reality…that is a great thought here…that I am redrawing my life, redrawing my heart…and in doing so, the enemy is fleeing because I am near to the Lord!
• This picture is awesome. This enemy doesn’t know if he should run or defend. That’s why his face is towards the east and his back is towards the west but he is moving north. He’s on his heels. Scrambling. Totally unstable and panicked. Why? Because I am finally dealing with my own heart…the one thing that will defeat the monstrosity of sin in my life…
Joel Chapter 2 Verse 21
• Notice, from monstrous to marvelous. I’m so ready for that. One thing though, let the monster flee. I hold onto my failures of yesterday like treasures. Treasures that teach me how to be better…not so much, let them go…the marvelous of now and what God is doing now and how God has healed and changed me and given His grace…that is a much much much better teacher for my future.
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 22 – 23
• It’s good to recall the faithfulness of God. The former rains as it were. That God has been so faithful and even now He will yet be faithful to His Word. The latter rain. I also personally read that as the ladder rain. That as I wait upon the Lord and watch for His faithfulness, many times that gives me the tool I need to climb out of my pity party, my ditch, my own darkness. Far too many times I look at God through the shadow of my own sadness when it ought to be the other way around. That’s when I climb…
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 24 – 27
• Trials, tests, situations and seasons build faith. Isn’t that just the pits? HA! I mean, I’d rather bible studies and prayer and good works and good stuff like that…I’d rather that do the work of perseverance and character in me…but it doesn’t. I’m happy with full vats… God wants bigger vats…and He wants to see me watch them overflow. I’m good with today being good…God wants to show me even how the years past can be entirely restored. I’m weak but He is strong. And what He wants for me is greater…and His will is on the other side of hardships in my life in which I learn to trust Him more…
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 28 – 29
• Certainly speaking of future events for Joel…the giving of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men, the foreshadowing of the Day of Pentecost, an emersion into the Spirit of God. That is the idea of “pouring.”
Joel Chapter 2 Verses 30 – 32
• Whosoever figures it all out, whosoever is sinless, whosoever isn’t hurting, whosoever is entirely ready and entirely done with sin…nope, none of those things. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord…that’s it. Urgency, brokenness, surrender. To call upon Him for help. For healing. For deliverance. For change. For salvation. It’s so much easier and simpler than we/I make it. Whoever will simply call…blow the trumpet, sound the alarm…call a stop to it all in your own heart of hearts and perhaps even again trust in God completely! Humble myself in the sight of the Lord, and He will life me up!