Y Safle

“Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?”

–Joel 1:2

What is Joel saying now? He is referring to a plague of locusts that had overrun crops with devastating consequences. Look at verse four - there were four waves of locusts, and by the time all four waves had passed there was absolutely nothing left. The locusts had eaten everything.

Joel saw with a clarity that which had been lost to his contemporaries. He could say without a doubt that this destruction was brought about by the judgement of God. The iniquity of God’s people had reached such mammoth proportions that God had poured out his wrath in a manner that had never been seen before.

Joel knew that God was a God of Justice who could not turn a blind eye to the sin of a debased generation, and while he was long suffering, and for many years allowed this situation to continue, there came a point when God shouted from on high enough is enough and hurled the plague of locusts upon his people.

Yet God is also a God of love and great mercy. In the midst of the chaos he raised up Joel to declare to the people the means by which they could turn away God’s anger; through repentance.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Is God happy with the church today? Is God pleased with what we are doing? Or is he angry?

I believe that God looks at today’s church with long-suffering patience and gracious mercy. He looks upon an adulterated gospel and ministers many of whom have been caught in sinful acts, even adultery and worse. He looks at Christians (including our leaders) who do not pray.

A survey of ministers in an evangelical Bible College revealed that 95 percent of them admitted to having no devotional life.

Another survey of all Christians revealed that a similar proportion of these considered themselves to be “babes in Christ”.

Imagine if your country went to war and a survey of soldiers revealed that they were all children, that the Generals wore baby-grow suits.

What a wonderful church we must be to God when he looks at us but never hears from us. He sees us preferring our sins of pride and lust, theft and deceit, materialism and injustice, to our ministries of prayer and worship; truth, justice and mercy.

We love to talk of our beliefs, but what we say in public does not match up with our secret devotional life (and here I am speaking personally too. Oftentimes I have expounded my beliefs happily and been oh so ready to debate and argue my faith, but when all is done and I turn to private devotion to God I have proved myself dry and barren. I have discovered the truth of the saying that “failing here, we fail everywhere.”)

We claim God is all sufficient for us but we still look to our money for our support. We claim God is love and that we love him, but we never talk to this number one love in our lives! We claim that we have a heart for this lost and dying world, and point to our occasional arguments of theology as support, but we never once did spend a night in prayer for these people.

Imagine that someone you claim to love is gravely ill. This person will not last the night without your help. Would you help them? Of course. If it were necessary you would have your blood sucked from your body and pumped into theirs. If you truly loved them you would give them not only your time but your very life energy to assist them.

Why, oh why then do we rest easy in our beds when this world is waltzing its way through the twilight hours on the gem encrusted, oh so sweet road to an eternity of damnation in hell? How can we be dry eyed about just one soul who falls into a lost eternity? Why have we no concern for these people? (or is a thirty second prayer counted as concern now?)

Jesus asked his disciples to wait up with him one night to pray in Gethsemene, but they fell asleep. Our Lord’s most traumatic moments but the disciples preferred their bedside to our master’s side. How sad.

But if we were in Gethsemene, from the evidence of our lives I would say that we would be sleeping too. Will we be roused now? Will we watch and pray with our Lord and Saviour? Or are we too comfortable. To needy of our warm and soft beds?

We are pitifully far from God at this time. God is holding back his anger, but how much longer? How can we forestall God’s anger? I know only one way:

Repentance.

We need to repent of our failings and turn to God with sincerity. We need to do those things we have neglected so long. Don’t look at other Christians to find God’s minimum standard for your life. Turn to God fully and do everything within your power to please him, and then maybe we can pray:

Lord, I’ve heard of your fame, and I stand in awe of your deeds. O Lord, renew these deeds in our time, and in your anger, Lord, remember mercy.

In your anger, Lord, remember mercy.