Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words LORD and people.
Reading
Joel 2:12-27—Return to the LORD
Keys for kids
- Joel urges God’s people to repent and return to the LORD.
- We too must repent and return to the LORD.
- Repentance must come from our hearts.
Questions
- What does Joel urge God’s people to do?
- How do we know if we will find God’s favor?
- What does God do when we genuinely repent?
Notes
(See last day for authors.)
Again, Joel is sounding an alarm. But this one, rather than urging people to flee, is urging people to return. Return to the Lord. Repent. Be filled with godly sorrow over your sin. Seek the Lord’s favor—perhaps he will grant it.
We now know, in the full revelation of the Bible, that if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin. In other words, when we genuinely turn from our sin and to the Lord, he will grant his favor. Yet Joel’s words should still sound a warning to us. For do we turn from our sin from the heart? Paul sounds a similar warning in 2 Cor. 7 where he points out the difference between godly and worldly sorrow. Worldly sorry produces death. Godly sorrow produces repentance without regret.
Robertson points out that true repentance always must involve a turning upwards towards God rather than inwards towards oneself. After his betrayal of Christ Judas was ‘seized with remorse’ for his crime. But he destroyed himself because he turned in upon himself rather than outwards towards the Christ he had betrayed (Matt. 27:3–5). In sharpest contrast, Peter abandoned himself to Christ in repentance even though he had denied his Lord three times (John 21:4–8). As a result of his repentance, Peter found restoration (John 21:15–23).
How’s your repentance?
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 7b, 134b
Prayer
- Ask God to help you constantly have godly repentance.
- Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Sunday.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.