Tag: Psalm 51:17
Multitudes in the valley of decision!
Scripture reading for September 10: Joel 1-3
“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; The earth and sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people; a stronghold for the people of Israel.” Joel 3:14-16
This book of Joel is an appropriate reading for our day! Joel was a prophet of God who spoke to God’s people during a terrible plague of locusts. (Joel 1:4) God used this locust plague to speak of their coming judgment if they failed to repent and turn to Him. (Joel 1:13-14) Joel called God’s people to fast and prayer for God’s mercy. A trumpet was to be blown calling all to God’s temple for serious intercession. Joel spoke to them about the ‘day of the Lord’ being near and their need to be ready.
The preparation for this coming ‘day of the Lord’ was preparation of the heart. The custom for fasting was to put on sackcloth and sprinkle ashes on their heads. They would cry out in weeping before God, symbolically in mourning for their sins. But God was after something else. He desired a broken and contrite heart! (Psalm 51:17) (Joel 2:13) God through Joel called all the people together to rend their hearts. They were to say, “Spare Your people, O Lord.” (Joel 2:17) God’s grace and compassion was the motivation for the fast. The goodness of God always leads His people to repentance! (Romans 2:4)
The answer from God to this fast was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the whole land! (Joel 2:28-32) (Acts 2:14-21) As they came to fast, all would be anointed with God’s Spirit! There would be signs and wonders among God’s people, young and old, men and women! This would happen right before the ‘day of the Lord’! Everyone who would call on God would be saved! (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13)
Joel ends with a vision of the coming ‘day of the Lord’. Joel sees multitudes of people gathered in the valley of Jehoshaphat. There God enters into judgment against the nations that have rejected Him and His people. There are multitudes who will be judged and eternally lost! (Joel 3:1-2) This will be a terrible day for the unsaved when the lights of heaven grow dim and eternal darkness covers their souls. But God will be a refuge for His people! Whose side will you be on? Maybe it’s time for another fast!
Breaking unplowed ground!
Scripture reading for September 7: Hosea 9-11
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.” Hosea 10:12-13a
Hosea loved farming illustrations and so do I! I loved to plow when I was younger. We would often plow under red clover that was sowed along with the oats crop. Red clover would produce nitrogen that would make the corn grow better the next year. The dirt turning over and the smell of that fresh soil was special. Usually a flock of seagulls would follow the plow to pick up worms and a chicken hawk would scout out scampering mice as they ran down the furrow. At night, coyotes and foxes would also come out and find rodents running in the furrows. You could see them in the tractor lights as you plowed.
Hosea’s illustration was not about plowing dirt, but about the soil of hearts that had grown hard and had not produced a crop in a long time. The ground had to be broken up to receive the Seed of God’s Word in hope of a crop. The sowing had to change, too. Instead of wickedness, false promises, lawsuits and idolatry growing and making bad seed, the people needed to sow a crop of righteousness so they could reap a crop of unfailing love. (Hosea 10:4-5, 12)
God often takes the weeds of our lives and uses those bad seeds to become fertilizer for a good crop. For instance, if we were delivered from a life of drugs and drunkenness, we are able to minister to those who are bound by those habits. Someone else might have struggled with sexual temptations and upon breaking up their fallow ground, the old habits enable that person to minister to others who have similar strongholds. The plow has to be put to the hardened ground to prepare it for the crop of righteousness.
Waiting for the harvest requires patience. Hosea encouraged the people to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on them. We must ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking and knock and keep on knocking until the answer and crop comes. Prayer keeps an open line with the Lord and softens the ground of our heart. As we sow righteous living, we will reap the fruit of His eternal and unfailing love. A broken and contrite heart, He will not despise! (Psalm 51:17)