“Where Is Their God?”
Joel 2
12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
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Deuteronomy 6
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
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I don’t know about you but, pretty much every time we say the Shema at Shabbat … that tiny three letter word ALL kind of pulverizes my heart.
Now, that’s not a bad thing and I don’t mean it in a negative, defeatist way. It’s just a reminder that God wants every aspect of us, not just those parts we want Him to have or those parts we think we can do without. He wants all and we are to respond by giving Him all. And it seems the heart is a vital part of the all.
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I just finished my third time through the book of Joel. It’s only three chapters but as my KJV Study Bible says, it “is a highly emotional prophecy, rich in imagery and vivid descriptions.”
Since very early in my Christian walk, the book of Joel has always been one of my favorites. I think it’s because I found I could make specific personal application of it to my life. Joel speaks with clarity and forthright potency. It’s hard to not get the point.
What is the point? …
My take:
God is not concerned with our outward presentation (i.e., rending our garments) as much as He is our inner representation (i.e., rending our hearts). I like that. Why? Because all of us are fairly expert at looking like the model believer on the outside while on the inside … ???
Or maybe it’s just me?
Trow so? Yes but … no trow so. I think it is all of us.
But here’s the thing.
In reality, (and this is OK) we are no different than those that lived during the time of the prophet Joel. He called upon all of God’s people, from priest to people, to get down to some serious business with Him.
But here’s another thing.
We probably won’t get around to this level of yielded commitment until our life catches up with us and we finally, out of desperation, relinquish our facades (i.e., the outside) and rend our hearts (i.e., the inside).
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Why is this important?
We have a mission.
There are many ways to describe and explain our mission, but perhaps this passage sums it up with imagery we can take to heart …
Matthew 5
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. ——
Specifically and (I hope) accurately stated:
If we don’t have much taste (i.e., appeal)
and
If we don’t give off much more than a flicker (i.e., impact), then what?
Won’t the unsaved world look at us and say something like:
“Where Is Their God?”
Or maybe they won’t ask that at all because they don’t recognize us as salt shakers and light bearers.
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Let me flip this around a bit.
We for sure don’t want the unsaved world looking at us and wondering why they don’t see God.
Sooooo …
For that to not happen, it might be prudent to ask ourselves how dominate a role God plays in our lives —
*Is He an intricate part of my daily existence?
*Is He near or far?
*Is He communing with me; am I communing with Him?
*Is He my all-in-all?
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I’ll make closing application with a well-known passage of Scripture. Use it as a reference point to take inventory as to whether God (as I said at the beginning) has every aspect of your life.
Such as:
*In your personal relationship with Him
and
*In your interpersonal relationships with other believers,
and
*In your external effectiveness as God’s representatives in the world.
In other words, to help assure ourselves people won’t wonder: “Where Is Their God?”
Notice three areas for us to run inventory:
James 4
{Misplaced and misdirected priorities}
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
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{How we get our priorities back into proper focus}
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
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{How to make practical application with visible manifestations that let others know where our God is}
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law (Torah), and judgeth the law (Torah): but if thou judge the law (Torah), thou art not a doer of the law (Torah), but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
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Therefore:
What do you say we ….
*Brother to brother,
*Sister to sister,
*With all our heart,
*With all our soul,
and
*With all our might —
Commit to making sure those around us will never have cause to wonder:
Where
IS
THEIR
God?