God Will Restore Those Who Call Upon Him

Joel 2:25,32: " I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten . . . my great army that I sent among you . . . . (For) everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance."

These verses should be a tremendous source of encouragement to us all, for each of us like the sinful, obstinate Israelites of Joel's day has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). In the passage above, the covenant community had lived for years in abject rebellion against the Lord. They had sought their own sinful delights over the One True God, despite God's petitions to draw them back into intimate fellowship with Him. Eventually, God needed to send calamity (i.e. the locusts) to get the attention of His people . . . and He certainly got their attention. Still, the purpose for such punitive measures was restorative, to return His people to right relations with Him.

Although God affirmed that He was the one who brought the famine upon the nation by introducing the swarm of locusts, He also proclaimed that He would restore everything that "the locusts had eaten." God is in the restorative business, for He "wants no one to perish but all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Still, God's forgiveness is predicated upon our response to His calling. We must "call upon the name of the Lord," which means we must repent of our sins of rebellion against Him and surrender to His Lordship in our lives.

An interesting contrast is found in Joel 3:12, where God's declarative judgement is enacted upon those who defy Him (i.e. those who attempt to assert their own lordship over the One True God). The Lord says in this passage that He will judge all the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (whose name means "the Lord judges"). These people will experience the eternal wrath of a Holy, Sovereign God who will not let the wicked go unpunished. However, for those who chose to respond in repentance to the Lord, He will be faithful to restore His Divine blessings. Respond to the Lord today with a humble heart of contrition and let His healing begin to restore your soul.