📊 Wake Up Call | Joel 2:12

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

If you missed it yesterday, you’ll notice we have a new look this week! 👀 

We made some visual updates to our emails to make reading them feel more like you’re in an Oasis, aka the still waters referenced in Psalm 23:

We hope you like it!

In today’s email…

• 📖 Passage context for Joel 2:12

• 🤔 A reflection question to process with God

• 📊 How well do you know the kings of Judah?

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MEMORIZE 🧠 

“Yet even ___,” ________ ___ Lord,

“return to me with all ____ _____,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;"

Joel 2:12

CONTEXT 📕 

Yesterday, we pointed out the 4 major section in Joel chapter 2:

• The Day of the Lord (v1–11)

• Return to the Lord (v12–17)

• The Lord Had Pity (v18–27)

• The Lord Will Pour out His Spirit (v28–30)

In the first section, Joel describes the “Day of the Lord” with intense imagery: fire, war horses, chariots, soldiers, earthquakes.

When Joel describes the Day of the Lord, he’s describing God's decisive intervention in history to judge sin and rebellion, which will be:

• inescapable (like natural disasters)

• universal (affecting all creation, like the moon, sun and stars darkening)

God, through Joel’s words, was trying to:

1. Wake up the people of Judah to true reality of the coming judgment

2. Motivate a return to repentance

— which is where our memory verse is found.

Verses 12–17 lay out the steps for God’s people to return to Him:

• Show remorse with sorrow and weeping (v12–13a)

• Think on God’s goodness and grace (v13b–14)

• Gather the people — young and old (v15–16)

• Ask the Lord for mercy (v17)

Once they’ve done this, we then enter into the passage of the Lord’s pity (v18–27). Here, God makes these merciful promises: 

• To replenish their needs and standing (v18–19)

• To repel the invaders (v20)

• To restore their land with plenty and prosperity (v21–27)

But He doesn’t stop there.

In v28–30, the Lord makes a promise that is greater than kingdom restoration:

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APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃‍♂️ 

In every season of life, God invites us to return to Him with a repentant heart.

The people of Judah were:

• spiritually disconnected from God - going through motions without genuine devotion

• struggling with the consequences of their own sin

Reflect on this today:

Where have you grown spiritually complacent, treating faith as routine rather than relationship?

Bring it to God in prayer.

Lord, you know every part of me. You know I don’t always choose to love you and others like You’ve called me to.

Please increase my hunger for you, and lead me to greater depths of repentance and to always return to You when I stray from the path You’ve laid before me. Amen. 🙏

TRIVIA 📊 

Click one of the answers below and see how you do…

ANSWER KEY ✅ 

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;"

Joel 2:12