Episode 615 Rend Your Hearts (Joel 2:12-29)

This week we’re reading Joel 2:12-29, a text most familiar from the Christian celebration of Pentecost as remembered in Acts 2. Read in context, though, Joel is about God promising to restore the land after it has been devastated by a plague of locusts, not only bringing an abundance of grain but also pouring out the Spirit on young and old alike. But now, before the restoration, in the midst of the devastation, God says, “Even now, return to me, with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow.” Before the spirit can be poured out, our hearts must be torn open. Before the blessing comes the weeping. Even now, says the Lord. Even now.