12“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
13Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
12 “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
KJVKing James Version
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.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
12 Yet even now, saith the LORD, turn ye unto Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation;
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God; for He is gracious and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and repenteth Him of the evil.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Should we rend our clothes?2 Kings 22:19 and the parallel 2 Chronicles 34:27 record God praising Josiah for rending his clothes; Ecclesiastes 3:7 lists a "time to rend." Joel 2:13 calls…
Is God merciful?Dozens of texts describe YHWH as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loyalty — Exodus 34:6, Deut 4:31, the Psalms, the prophets, the New Testament l…
James 4:8-9(v12)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, mourn, and…
Isaiah 55:6-7(v12)Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let…
2 Chronicles 7:13-14(v12)“If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if…
Hosea 12:6(v12)Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.
Jeremiah 29:12-13(v12)You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me…
Show all 58 cross-references
Psalms 86:15(v13)But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Jeremiah 4:1(v12)“If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you…
Psalms 34:18(v13)Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
Hosea 6:1(v12)“Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
Isaiah 57:15(v13)For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a…
Exodus 34:6-7(v13)Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness…
Deuteronomy 4:29-30(v12)But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.…
Matthew 5:3-4(v13)“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
1 Samuel 7:6(v12)They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned…
Jonah 3:5-8(v12)The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. The news…
Micah 7:18(v13)Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
Zechariah 1:3-4(v12)Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. Don’t…
Acts 26:20(v12)but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should…
1 Samuel 7:3(v12)Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and…
Lamentations 3:40-41(v12)Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
Hosea 14:1(v12)Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
Psalms 86:5(v13)For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
James 1:19-20(v13)So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the…
Nehemiah 9:1-2(v12)Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them. The…
Jeremiah 18:7-8(v13)At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation,…
Judges 20:26(v12)Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day…
Psalms 103:8(v13)Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.
2 Chronicles 20:3-4(v12)Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Judah gathered themselves together…
Isaiah 66:2(v13)For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is…
1 Kings 8:47-49(v12)yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who…
Isaiah 22:12(v12)In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;
Jonah 4:2(v13)He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to…
Zechariah 7:3(v12)and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating…
2 Chronicles 6:38-39(v12)if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive,…
Psalms 51:17(v13)The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
2 Samuel 1:11(v13)Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and all the men who were with him did likewise.
Zechariah 7:5(v12)“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for…
Ephesians 2:4(v13)But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
Numbers 14:18(v13)‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty,…
2 Kings 22:19(v13)because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its…
Psalms 106:45(v13)He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
Romans 2:4(v13)Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Romans 5:20-21(v13)The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even…
Job 1:20(v13)Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
Psalms 145:7-9(v13)They will utter the memory of your great goodness, and will sing of your righteousness. Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of…
Zechariah 12:10-14(v12)I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom…
Nehemiah 9:17(v13)and refused to obey. They weren’t mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion…
1 Timothy 4:8(v13)For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which…
Nahum 1:3(v13)Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in…
Matthew 6:16-18(v13)“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be…
Genesis 37:29(v13)Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes.
Genesis 37:34(v13)Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
1 Kings 21:27(v13)When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
2 Kings 5:7(v13)When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me…
2 Kings 6:30(v13)When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he…
Isaiah 58:5(v13)Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth…
Ezekiel 9:4(v13)Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that…
2 Kings 22:11(v13)When the king had heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv12–13The Prophet, having proclaimed the dreadful judgment which we…
The Prophet, having proclaimed the dreadful judgment which we have noticed, now shows that he did not intend to terrify the people without reason, but, on the contrary, to encourage them to repentance; which he could not do without offering to them the hope of pardon; for as we have said before, and as it may be collected from the whole of Scripture, men cannot be restored to the right ways except they entertain a hope of God’s mercy inasmuch as he who has been ungodly, when he despairs, wholly disregards himself, observing no restraint. Hence the Prophet now represents God as propitious and merciful, that he might thus kindly allure the people to repentance.
He says first, And even now the Lord says, Turn ye to me. The Prophet exhorts the people, not in his own name, but speaks in the person of God himself. He might indeed have borne witness to the favor which he proclaimed; but the discourse becomes more striking by introducing God as the speaker. And there is a great importance in the words, even now; for when one considers what we have noticed in the beginning of the chapter, a prospect of relief could hardly have been deemed possible. God had, indeed, in various ways, tried to restore the people to the right way; but, as we have seen, the greater part had become so void of feeling, that the scourges of God were wholly ineffectual; there remained, then, nothing but the utter destruction which the Prophet threatened them with at the beginning of the second chapter. Yet, in this state of despair, he still sets forth some hope of mercy, provided they turned to him; even now, he says. The particles וגם ugam are full of emphasis, “even now” that is, “Though ye have too long abused God’s forbearance, and with regard to you, the opportunity is past, for ye have closed the door against yourselves; yet even now, — which no one could have expected, and indeed what ought to be thought incredible by yourselves, — even now God waits for you, and invites you to entertain hope of salvation.” But it was necessary that these two particles, even now, should be added; for it is not in the power of men to fix for themselves, as they please, the season for mercy. God here shows the acceptable time, as Isaiah says (Isaiah 49:8) to be, when he has not yet rejected men, but when he offers to be propitious. We must then remember that the Prophet gives not here liberty to men to delay the time, as the profane and scorners are wont to do, who trifle with God from day to day; but the Prophet here shows that we must obey the voice of God, when he invites us, as also Isaiah says, ‘Behold now the time accepted, behold the day of salvation: seek God now, for he is near; call on him while he may be found.’ So then, as I have reminded you, these two particles, even now, are added, that men may be made attentive to the voice of God when he invites them, that they may not delay till tomorrow, for the Lord may then close the door, and repentance may be too late. We at the same time see how indulgently God bears with men, since he left a hope of pardon to a people so obstinate and almost past recovery.
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Even now, he says, turn ye to me with your whole heart. The Prophet here reminds us that we must not act feignedly with God; for men are ever disposed to trifle with him. We indeed see what almost the whole world is wont to do. God graciously meets us and is ready to receive us unto favor, though we have a hundred times alienated ourselves from him; but we bring nothing but hypocrisy and disguise: hence the Prophet declares here distinctly, that this dissimulation does not please God, and that they can hide nothing, who only pretend some sort of repentance by external signs, and that what is required is the serious and sincere feeling of the heart. This is what he means by the whole heart; not that perfect repentance can be formed in men, but the whole or complete heart is opposed to a divided heart: for men well understand that God is not ignorant; yet they divide their heart, and when they bestow some portion on God, they think that he is satisfied; and in the meantime there remains an interior and some hidden perverseness, which separates them far from God. This vice the Prophet now condemns, when he says, Turn with the whole heart. He then shows that it is an hypocrisy abominable to God, when men keep the greater part of their heart, as it were, closed up, and think it enough, if only they bring, so to speak, some volatile feeling.
He afterwards adds, fasting, and weeping, and mourning; and by these words he shows how grievously they had sinned; as though he said, that they deserved not only one kind of destruction, but were worthy of hundred deaths; that God therefore would not now be content with any common repentance, and except they came suppliantly and deeply felt their own guilt. It is indeed true, that we ought daily and even constantly to sigh, because we continue almost every hour to provoke God’s wrath against us; but the Prophet here speaks of solemn fasting, because the people had so grievously offended God that there was required some extraordinary confession, such as he here describes. Come then to me with fasting, and weeping, and wailing” that is “Show at length that you are guilty and submissively deprecate the vengeance which ye have through your wickedness deserved.” He speaks like a judge, when he tells the criminal, not to act dissemblingly, but simply to confess his fault. The guilty are indeed wont to weave many excuses to avoid punishment; but when the judge deems a man guilty, and he is abundantly proved to be so, he says, “What good can you do? for these your shuffling and subterfuges make your case worse: for now I hold you bound, and you cannot escape by these shifts, and will only the more provoke my displeasure. If then you wish me to show you favor, own how grievously you have offended, and without any coloring; confess now that you are worthy of death, and that nothing else remains for you, except I mercifully pardon you: for if you try to extenuate your crime, if you attempt by some excuse to seek reprief, you will gain nothing.” So now does the Lord deal with this people: Turn to me, he says; first, sincerely; then with fasting, with weeping, and with wailing; that is, “Let it appear that you suppliantly deprecate the destruction which ye have deserved, for moderate repentance will not do, inasmuch as ye are guilty before me of so many crimes.” We now apprehend the Prophet’s meaning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v13Mortify your affections and serve God with pureness of…
Mortify your affections and serve God with pureness of heart, and not with ceremonies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Joe 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn…
Joe 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:
Ver. 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord] Now, though it be late first, and, as you may think, too late, Nunquam sero si serio. Now, though the dreadful day of the Lord be very near at hand; yea, though the locusts be already come, as Kimchi senseth it. Oh that ye would know at the last in this your day of grace, the things that belong to your peace, before the gate be shut, the drawbridge taken up, the taper burnt out, &c. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," 2Co 6:2. The apostle (after the prophet Isaiah) purposely beateth upon the το νυν, as if he should say, Now, or never; since thou mayest, the very next minute, be cut off by the stroke of death from all further time of repentance and acceptation. Up, therefore, and be doing. It is the Lord himself that thus saith,
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Turn ye even to me] Usque ad me, altogether as far as to me; give not the half turn only; begin not to repent, and then give over the work. Some are ever about to repent, but they can never find time and hearts to set seriously about it, to do it in good earnest, stultitia semper incipit vivere folly always begins to live (Sen.). Some wamblings they have, as I may say, and some short-winded wishes, some kind of willingness and velleity, but it doth not boil up to the full height of resolution to return. The prodigal changed many places ere he came home. Many came out of Egypt that yet never came into Canaan.
With all your heart] With the heart, Jer 4:14 Pro 23:26, and with the whole heart, in opposition to a divided heart, Hos 10:2, a double heart, Jas 4:8, a heart and a heart, Psa 12:2. This whole heart is elsewhere called a true heart, Heb 10:22, a perfect heart, 2Ch 16:10, truth in the inwards, Psa 51:6, where there is an unfeigned faith, 1Ti 1:5, laborious love, 1Th 1:3, sound and cordial repentance, as here, undissembled wisdom, Jas 3:17, such holiness as rendereth a man like to a crystal glass with a light in the midst of it, doing the truth, Joh 3:21, and having his works full, Rev 3:1-2, being a true worshipper, Joh 4:24, an Israelite indeed, Joh 1:47. God he knows to be just and jealous: he will not endure co-rivals or co-partners in the kingdom. His jurisdiction is without peculiar: he will not divide with the devil. Be the gods of heathen good fellows? saith one; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. He must be served truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving.
And with fasting, weeping, and with mourning] With deep and downright humiliation, suitable to your sins, as Ezr 9:6. Ye have inveterate stains; such as will not be gotten out till the cloth be almost rubbed to pieces. Satan hath intrenched himself in your hearts, and will not be gotten out but by fasting and prayer. Fasting is of itself but a bodily exercise, and meriteth nothing; for religion consisteth not in meat and drink; in the belly, full or empty, Rom 14:17 Col 2:23; but fasting is a singular furtherance to the practice of repentance and the enforcing of our prayers. See Ezr 8:21. As full feeding increaseth corruption, Jer 5:7-8, so religious abstinence macerateth, tameth, and subdueth the rebel flesh, 1Co 9:27, giving it the blue eye, υπωτιαζω, as there and 2Co 7:11, so that not the body so much as the soul is made more active by emptiness. Fasting days are soul fatting days, they fit men for conversion, as here, and make much to the humbling of the spirit; hence they are called days of humiliation and of self-affliction, Lev 16:31; Lev 23:37.
And with weeping] Drown your sins in a deluge of tears; cleanse your wounds by washing in this precious water; quench hell fire with it, kill the worm, fetch out sin’s venom: there is a healing property in these troubled waters. Tears of vine branches are said to cure the leprosy, and the olive is reported to be most fruitful when it most distilleth. These April showers bring on May flowers, and make the heart as a watered garden; or as some faces appear most oriently beautiful when most bedewed with tears. Peter never looked so sweetly as when he wept bitterly; David never sung more pathetically than when his heart was broken most penitentially, Psa 6:1-10 Psa 51:1-19. when tears instead of gems were the ornament of his bed, as Chrysostom speaketh. Mary Magdalene (that great weeper), as she made her eyes a fountain to wash Christ’s feet in, so she had his wounds as a fountain to bathe her soul in; yea, she had afterwards the first sight of the revived Phoenix, whom she held fast by those feet that had lately trod upon the lion and the adder.
And with mourning] This is added, as a degree beyond the former. Men may fast, and yet find their pleasures, Isa 58:13, weep out of stomach, as Esau, or compliment, as Phryne the harlot, who was surnamed κλαυσιγελως, weep-laugh, because she could easily do either: and as among the Brasilians tears are for a present salutation, and as soon gone as if they had said, How do ye? Ut flerent oculos erudiere suos (Ovid). What is a humbling day without a humbled heart? not only a religious incongruity, but a high provocation; like Zimri’s act, when all the congregation were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. Here, therefore, the Lord calleth to mourning, funeral mourning, as the word signifieth: with tabering upon the breast, Nah 2:7, smiting on the thigh, Jer 31:19, beating on the head, face, and other parts, sicut mulierculae in puerperio facere solent, saith Luther there. Nudaque marmoreis percussit pectora palmis (Ovid). See Isa 32:11; Isa 22:12. Sorrow for sin must not be slight and sudden, but sad and soaking: the heart must be turned into a Hadadrimmon, Zec 12:10-11, where the prophet seems, in a sort, to be at a stand for comparisons fit enough and full enough to set forth their sorrow, who, looking upon Christ, whom they had pierced, felt the very nails sticking in their own hearts as so many sharp daggers, or stings of scorpions. The good soul (say the school-men) seeth more cause of grief for sinning than for the death of Christ: because therein was aliquid placens, something that pleaseth: but sin is simpliciter displicens, simply displeasing. So that God’s mourners need not send for mourning women to teach them to mourn, as Jer 9:17, but rather have need to be comforted, lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch grief, 2Co 2:7, and lest Satan get an advantage against them, 2Co 2:11, by mixing the detestable darnel of desperation with the godly sorrow of a pure penitent heart, as Mr Philpot, martyr, speaketh.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Therefore, since so great displeasure is conceived against you…
Therefore, since so great displeasure is conceived against you for your sins, and so terrible execution is shortly to be made upon you, and there is no way of resistance or escape left,
turn ye even to me; repent of your sins whereby you have departed from me; all this preparation made against you is made not to destroy you utterly, but to awaken you to repentance; whilst you may find mercy upon repentance, be advised to it, and prevent your final desolation.
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With all your heart; not hypocritically, with divided heart, but sincerely and with full purpose of amendment: let your heart, your whole heart, first be turned to me your God and Sovereign.
With fasting; public fasting as well as private, such fasting as is required, Joe 1:14,
With weeping; make it appear that you are sensible of, and deeply affected with, your former sins in the jollity of your sensual life, now weep for it.
And with mourning; tears do well become a fast, but they must not be tears only, but a mournful frame of heart within, a fountain of these tears, is expected, and indeed required.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v12We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred…
We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred from that desolating judgment described and threatened in the foregoing verses: Therefore now turn you to the Lord. 1. "Thus you must answer the end and intention of the judgment; for it was sent for this end, to convince you of your sins, to humble you for them, to reduce you to your right minds and to your allegiance." God brings us into straits, that he may bring us to repentance and so bring us to himself. 2. "Thus you may stay the progress of the judgment. Things are bad with you, but thus you may prevent their growing worse; nay, if you take this course, they will soon grow better." Here is a gracious invitation,
I. To a personal repentance, exercised in the soul, every family apart, and their wives apart, Zac 12:12. When the judgments of God are abroad, each person is concerned to contribute his quota to the common supplications, having contributed to the common guilt. Every one must mend one and mourn for one, and then we should all be mended and all found among God's mourners. Observe,
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1. What we are here called to, which will teach us what it is to repent, for it is the same that the Lord our God still requires of us, we having all made work for repentance. (1.) We must be truly humbled for our sins, must be sorry we have by sin offended God, and ashamed we have by sin wronged ourselves, both wronged our judgments and wronged our interests. There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame, fasting, and weeping, and mourning; tears for the sin that procured it. But what will the outward expressions of sorrow avail if the inward impressions be not agreeable, and not only accompany them, but be the root and spring of them, and give rise to them? And therefore it follows, Rend your heart, and not your garments; not but that, according to the custom of that age, it was proper for them to rend their garments, in token of great grief for their sins and a holy indignation against themselves for their folly; but, "Rest not in the doing of that, as if that were sufficient, but be more in care to accommodate your spirits than to accommodate your dress to a day of fasting and humiliation; nay, rend not your garments at all, unless withal you rend your hearts, for the sign without the thing signified is but a jest and a mockery, and an affront to God." Rending the heart is that which God looks for and requires; that is the broken and contrite heart which he will not despise, Psa 51:17. When we are greatly grieved in soul for sin, so that it even cuts us to the heart to think how we have dishonoured God and disparaged ourselves by it, when we conceive an aversion to sin, and earnestly desire and endeavor to get clear of the principles of it and never to return to the practice of it, then we rend our hearts for it, and then will God rend the heavens and come down to us with mercy. (2.) We must be thoroughly converted to our God, and come home to him when we fall out with sin. Turn you even to me, said the Lord (Joe 2:12), and again (Joe 2:13), Turn unto the Lord your God. Our fasting and weeping are worth nothing if we do not with them turn to God as our God. When we are fully convinced that it is our duty and interest to keep in with him, and are heartily sorry we have ever turned the back upon him, and thereupon, by a firm and fixed resolution, make his glory our end, his will our rule, and his favour our felicity, then we return to the Lord our God, and this we are all commanded and invited to do, and to do it quickly.
2. What arguments are here used to persuade this people thus to turn to the Lord, and to turn to him with all their hearts. When the heart is rent for sin, and rent from it, then it is prepared to turn entirely to God, and to be devoted entirely to him, and he will have it all or none. Now, to bring ourselves to this, let us consider, (1.) We are sure that he is, in general, a good God. We must turn to the Lord our God, not only because he has been just and righteous in punishing us for our sins, the fear of which should drive us to him, but because he is gracious and merciful, in receiving upon us our repentance, the hope of which should draw us to him. He is gracious and merciful, delights not in the death of sinners, but desires that they may turn and live. He is slow to anger against those that offend him, but of great kindness towards those that desire to please him. These very expressions are used in God's proclamation of his name when he caused his goodness, and with it all his glory, to pass before Moses, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7. He repents him of the evil, not that he changes his mind, but, when the sinner's mind is changed, God's way towards him is changed; the sentence is reversed, and the curse of the law is taken off. Note, That is genuine, ingenuous, and evangelical repentance, which arises from a firm belief of the mercy of God, which we have sinned against, and yet are not in despair. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The goodness of God, if it be rightly understood, instead of emboldening us to go on in sin, will be the most powerful inducement to repentance, Psa 130:4. The act of indemnity brings those to God whom the act of attainder frightened from him. (2.) We have reason to hope that he will, upon our repentance, give us that good which by sin we have forfeited and deprived ourselves of (Joe 2:14), that he will return and repent, that he will not proceed against us as he has done, but will act in favour of us. Therefore let us repent of our sins against him, and return to him in a way of duty, because then we may hope that he will repent of his judgments against us and return to us in a way of mercy. Now observe, [1.] The manner of expectation is very humble and modest: Who knows if he will? Some think it is expressed thus doubtfully to check the presumption and security of the people, and to quicken them to a holy carefulness and liveliness in their repentance, as Jos 24:19. Or, rather, it is expressed doubtfully because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident as we can that, in general, God is gracious and merciful. There is no question at all to be made but that if we truly repent of our sins God will forgive them, and be reconciled to us; but whether he will remove this or the other affliction which we are under may well be questioned, and yet the probability of it should encourage us to repent. Promises of temporal good things are often made with a peradventure. It may be, you shall be hid, Zep 2:3. David's sin is pardoned, and yet the child shall die, and, when David prayed for its life, he said, as here, Who can tell whether God will begracious to me in this matter likewise? Sa2 12:22. The Ninevites repented and reformed upon such a consideration as this, Jon 3:9. [2.] The matter of expectation is very pious. They hope God will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, not as if he were about to go from them, and they could be content with any blessing in lieu of his presence, but behind him, that is, "After he has ceased his controversy with us, he will bestow a blessing upon us;" and what is it? It is a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord our God. The fruits of the earth are called a blessing (Isa 45:8) because they depend upon God's blessing and are necessary blessings to us. They had been deprived of these, and that which grieved them most while they were so was that God's altar was deprived of its offerings and God's priests of their maintenance; that therefore which they comfort themselves with the prospect of in their return of plenty is that then there shall be meat-offerings and drink-offerings in abundance brought to God's altar, which they more desired than to see the wonted abundance of meat and drink brought to their own tables. Thus when Hezekiah was in hopes that he should recover of his sickness he asked, What is the sign that I shall go up, not to the thrones of judgment, or to the councilboard, but to the house of the Lord? Isa 38:22. Note, The plentiful enjoyment of God's ordinances in their power and purity is the most valuable instance of a nation's prosperity and the greatest blessing that can be desired. If God give the blessing of meat-offering and the drink-offering, that will bring along with it other blessings, will sanctify them, sweeten them, and secure them.
II. They are here called to a public national repentance, to be exercised in the solemn assembly, as a national act, for the glory of God and the excitement of one another, and that the neighbouring nations might know and observe what it was that qualified them for God's gracious returns in mercy to them, which they would be the admiring witnesses of. Let us see here, 1. How the congregation must be called together, Joe 2:15, Joe 2:16. The trumpet was blown (Joe 2:1), to sound an alarm of war; but now it must be blown in order to a treaty of peace. God is willing to show mercy to his people if he do but find them in a frame fit for it; and therefore, Call them together; sanctify a fast. By the law many annual feasts were appointed, but only one day in the year was to be observed as a fast, the day of atonement, a day to afflict the soul; and, if they had kept close to God and their duty, there would have been no occasion to observe any more; but now that they had by sin brought the judgments of God upon them they are often called to fasting. What was said Joe 1:14 is here repeated: "Call a solemn assembly; gather the people (press them to come together upon this errand); sanctify the congregation; appoint a time for solemn preparation beforehand and put them in mind to prepare themselves. Let not the greatest be excused, but assemble the elders, the judges and magistrates. Let not the meanest be passed by, but gather the children, and those that suck the breasts." It is good to bring little children, as soon as they are capable of understanding any thing, to religious assemblies, that they may be trained up betimes in the way wherein they should go; but these were brought even when they were at the breast and were kept fasting, that by their cries for the breast the hearts of the parents might be moved to repent of sin, which God might justly so visit upon their children that the tongue of the sucking child might cleave to the roof of his mouth (Lam 4:4), and that on them God might have compassion, as he had on the infants of Nineveh, Jon 4:11. New-married people must not be exempted: Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet; let them not take state upon them as usual, not put on their ornaments, nor indulge themselves in mirth, but address themselves to the duties of the public fast with as much gravity and sadness as any of their neighbours. Note, Private joys must always give way to public sorrows, both those for affliction and those for sin. 2. How the work of the day must be carried on, Joe 2:17. (1.) The priests, the Lord's ministers, must preside in the congregation, and be God's mouth to the people, and theirs to God; who should stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God but those whose business it was to make intercession upon ordinary occasions? (2.) They must officiate between the porch and the altar. There they used to attend about the sacrifices, and therefore now that they have no sacrifices to offer, or next to none, there they must offer up spiritual sacrifices. There the people must see them weeping and wrestling, like their father Jacob, and be helped into the same devout frame. Ministers must themselves be affected with those things wherewith they desire to affect others. It was between the porch and the altar that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was put to death for his faithfulness; that precious blood God would require at their hands, and therefore, to turn away the judgment threatened for it, there they must weep. (3.) They must pray. Words here are put into their mouths, which they might in their prayers enlarge upon. Their petition must be, Spare thy people, O Lord! God's people, when they are in distress, can expect no relief against God's justice but what comes from his mercy. They cannot say, Lord, right us, but, Lord, spare us. We deserve the correction; we need it; but, Lord, mitigate it. The sinner's supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. Their plea must be taken from the relation wherein they stand to God ("They are thy people, and thy heritage, therefore have compassion on them"), but especially from the concern of God's glory in their trouble - "Lord, give not thy heritage to reproach, to the reproach of famine; let not the land of Canaan, that has so long been celebrated as the glory of all lands, now be made the scorn of all lands; let not the heathen rule over them, as they will easily do when thy heritage is thus impoverished and disabled to subsist. Let not the heathen make them a proverb, or a by-word" (so some read it); "let it never be said, As poor and beggarly as an Israelite." Note, The maintaining of the credit of the nation among its neighbours is a blessing to be desired and prayed for by all that wish well to it. But that reproach of the church is especially to be dreaded and deprecated which reflects upon God: "Let them not say among the people, Where is their God - that God who has promised to help them, whom they have boasted so much of and put such a confidence in?" If God's heritage be destroyed, the neighbours will say, "God was either weak and could not relieve them or unkind and would not." Deu 32:37, Where are now their gods in whom they trusted? And Sennacherib thus triumphs over them. Where are they gods of Hamath and Arpad? But it must by no means be suffered that they should say of Israel, Where is their God? For we are sure that our God is in the heavens (Psa 115:2, Psa 115:3), is in his temple, Psa 11:4.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Therefore also now, saith the Lord,.... Before this terrible…
Therefore also now, saith the Lord,.... Before this terrible and intolerable day, which is near at hand, comes; before these judgments and calamities threatened take place, though just at hand; serious repentance is never too late, now is the accepted time; see Luk 19:42;
turn ye even to me with all your heart; against whom they had sinned, and who had prepared his army against them, and was at the head of it, just ready to give the orders, and play his artillery upon them; and yet suggests, that even now, that if they turned to the Lord by true repentance, not, feignedly and hypocritically, but cordially and sincerely, with true hearts, and with their whole hearts, he was ready to receive and forgive them. The Targum is,
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"turn ye to my worship with all your heart:''
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; external signs of inward grief and sorrow, testifying their hearty return to the Lord; which, though, without the heart, signify nothing, yet should be shown where hearty repentance is, for the honour and glory of God.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v13And repenteth him - He turneth from executing the…
And repenteth him - He turneth from executing the fierceness of his wrath.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Verse 12. Turn ye even to me] Three means…
Verse 12. Turn ye even to me] Three means of turning are recommended: Fasting, weeping, mourning, i.e., continued sorrow.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v12Joe 2:12-14. Therefore, also now, &c. — Or, Nevertheless,…
Joe 2:12-14. Therefore, also now, &c. — Or, Nevertheless, also now, saith the Lord, &c. — Here a method is pointed out, whereby they might still have hopes of avoiding the calamity denounced against them, namely, by turning to God sincerely, and publicly testifying their inward repentance and grief for their sins, by outward expressions of sorrow and humiliation. And rend your heart — Rending of the garments was customary in times of great sorrow and affliction, not only among the Jews and Israelites, but among almost all the ancient nations. The prophet here does not absolutely forbid their using this outward sign of sorrow, but exhorts them to attend more to inward contrition and humiliation, without which the outward signs of them were of no signification before God. The Hebrew writers often signify the preference that is due to one thing above another in terms which express the rejecting of that which is less worthy. Thus we read, Hos 6:6, I will have mercy and not sacrifice; that is, I require mercy rather than sacrifice. In the same sense we are to understand the text before us. God prefers a broken and a contrite heart far before all outward expressions of humiliation and grief. For he is gracious and merciful, &c. — These words allude to God’s own declaration of himself, Exo 34:6, on which they might with good reason ground hopes of forgiveness on their repenting unfeignedly of their sins, and bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance. And repenteth him of the evil — That is, of the evil which he had threatened to inflict in case those, against whom his threatenings were denounced, did not turn to him in true repentance. God is in Scripture said to repent when the humiliation of sinners and the reformation of their conduct make it unfit that he should inflict the punishment threatened by him. Who knoweth if he will return, and repent — God’s own nature, and the former instances we have found of his merciful disposition, encourage us to hope, that our sincere repentance may avail to avert his wrath, and engage him to restore his blessings upon us and our land. The prophet expresses himself between hope and fear of what might be the event, lest he should fill them with too much security on one hand, or drive them on the other, by a despair of pardon, to have no thoughts of repentance or amendment, but to go on still in their sins. Even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God — At least sufficient provision to supply the necessary parts of God’s public worship, which since the dearth had been necessarily omitted.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Therefore - (And) now also All this being so,…
Therefore - (And) now also All this being so, one way of escape there is, true repentance. As if God said , “All this I have therefore spoken, in order to terrify you by My threats. Wherefore “turn unto Me with all your hearts,” and show the penitence of your minds “by fasting and weeping and mourning,” that, fasting now, ye may “be filled” hereafter “weeping now,” ye may laugh hereafter; mourning now, ye may hereafter “be comforted” Luk 6:21; Mat 5:4. And since it is your custom “to rend your garments” in sorrow, I command you to rend, not them but your hearts which are full of sin, which, like bladders, unless they be opened, will burst of themselves. And when ye have done this, return unto the Lord your God, whom your former sins aleinated from you; and despair not of pardon for the greatness of your guilt, for mighty mercy will blot out mighty sins.”
: “The strict Judge cannot be overcome, for He is Omnipotent; cannot be deceived, for He is Wisdom; cannot be corrupted, for He is justice; cannot be sustained, for He is Eternal; cannot be avoided, for He is everywhere. Yet He can be entreated, because He is mercy; He can be appeased, because He is Goodness; He can cleanse, because He is the Fountain of grace; He can satisfy, because He is the Bread of life; He can soothe, because He is the Unction from above; He can beautify, because He is Fullness; He can beatify because He is Bliss. Turned from Him, then, and fearing His justice, turn ye to Him, and flee to His mercy. Flee from Himself to Himself, from the rigor of justice to the Bosom of mercy. The Lord who is to be feared saith it. He who is Truth enjoins what is just, profitable, good, “turn ye to Me,” etc.”
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Turn ye - even “to Me,” i. e., so as to return “quite to” (see the note at Hos 14:2) God, not halting, not turning half way, not in some things only, but from all the lusts and pleasures to which they had turned from God. : “Turn quite to Me,” He saith, “with all your heart,” with your whole mind, whole soul, whole spirit, whole affections. For I am the Creator and Lord of the heart and mind, and therefore will, that that whole should be given, yea, given back, to Me, and endure not that any part of it be secretly stolen from Me to be given to idols, lusts or appetites.” “It often happens with some people,” says Gregory , “that they stoutly gird themselves up to encounter mine vices, but neglect to overcome others, and while they never rouse themselves up against these, they are re-establishing against themselves, even those which they had subdued.”
Others, “in resolve, aim at right courses, but are ever doubling back to their wonted evil ones, and being, as it were, drawn out without themselves, they return back to themselves in a round, desiring good ways, but never forsaking evil ways.” In contrast to these half conversions, he bids us turn to God with our whole inmost soul, so that all our affections should be fixed on God, and all within us, by a strong union, cleave to Him, for “in whatever degree our affections are scattered among created things, so far is the conversion of the heart to God impaired.” “Look diligently,” says Bernard , “what thou lovest, what thou fearest, wherein thou rejoicest or art saddened, and under the rags of conversion thou wilt find a heart pervered. The whole heart is in these four affections; and of these I think we must understand that saying, “turn to” the Lord “with all thy heart.”
Let then thy love be converted to Him, so that thou love nothing whatever save Himself, or at least for Him. Let thy fear also be converted unto Him, for all fear is perverted, whereby thou fearest anything besides Him or not for Him. So too let thy joy and sorrow equally be converted unto Him. This will be, if thou only grieve or joy according to Him.” : “There is a conversion with the whole heart, and another with a part. The conversion with the whole heart God seeketh, for it suffices to salvation. That which is partial he rejecteth, for it is feigned and far from salvation. In the heart, there are three powers, reason, will, memory; reason, of things future; will, of things present; memory, of things past. For reason seeks things to come; the will loves things present; memory retains things past. Reason illumines; will loves; memory retains. When then the reason seeks that Highest Good and finds, the will receives and loves, the memory anxiously keeps and closely embraces, then the soul turns with the whole heart to God. But when the reason slumbers and neglects to seek heavenly things, or the will is tepid and cares not to love them, or the memory is torpid and is careless to retain them, then the soul acts false, falling first into the vice of ignorance, secondly into the guilt of negligence, thirdly into the sin of malice.
In each, the soul acts false; else ignorance would be expelled by the light of reason, and negligence be excluded by zeal of will, and malice be quenched by diligence of memory (of divine things). Reason then seeking begetteth knowledge; will embracing produceth love; memory holding fast, edification. The first produceth the light of knowledge, the second, the love of righteousness; the third preserveth the treasure of grace. This is that conversion of heart, which God requireth; this is that, which sufficeth to salvation.”
And with fasting - o: “In their returning to Him, it is required in the first place, that it be with the heart in the inward man, yet so that the outward man is not left unconcerned, but hath his part also, in performance of such things whereby he may express, how the inward man is really affected; and so by the concurrence of both is true conversion made up. “With fasting,” which shall make for the humbling of the heart, which pampering of the flesh is apt to puff up and make insensible of its own condition, and forgetful of God and His service, as Jeshurun who, being “waxed fat, kicked, and forsook the God which made him and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation Deu 32:15. To waiting then on God’s service and prayer, it is usually joined in Scripture, as almost a necessary accompaniment, called for by God, and by holy men practiced.”
And with weeping and with mourning - that is, by “beating” on the breast, (as the word originally denoted,) “as the publican smote upon his breast” Luk 18:13, and “all the people that came together to that sight” (of Jesus on the Cross), “beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts” Luk 23:48. : “These also, in themselves signs of grief, stir up in the heart more grief, and so have their effects on the person himself, for the increase of his repentance, as well as for shewing it.” It also stirs up in others like passions, and provokes them also to repentance.” : “These things, done purely and holily, are not conversion itself, but are excellent signs of conversion.” : “We ought “to turn in fasting,” whereby vices are repressed, and the mind is raised. We ought to “turn in weeping,” out of longing for our home, out of displeasure at our faults, out of love to the sufferings of Christ, and for the manifold transgressions and errors of the world.” “What avails it,” says Gregory , “to confess iniquities, if the affliction of penitence follow not the confession of the lips? For three things are to be considered in every true penitent, conversion of the mind, confession of the mouth, and revenge for the sin. This third sort is as a necessary medicine, that so the imposthume of guilt, pricked by confession, be purified by conversion, and healed by the medicine of affliction. The sign of true conversion is not in the confession of the mouth, but in the affliction of penitence. For then do we see that a sinner is well converted, when by a worthy austerity of affliction he strives to efface what in speech he confesses. Wherefore John Baptist, rebuking the ill-converted Jews who flock to him says, “O generation of vipers - bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external…
Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external works are requisite, at least in will: if they be wilfully omitted, it is a sure sign that the heart is not moved. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv12–13With such judgments impending over the Jews, Jehovah Himself…
With such judgments impending over the Jews, Jehovah Himself urges them to repentance.
also now--Even now, what none could have hoped or believed possible, God still invites you to the hope of salvation.
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fasting . . . weeping . . . mourning--Their sin being most heinous needs extraordinary humiliation. The outward marks of repentance are to signify the depth of their sorrow for sin.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v1212-14. There is still hope. The door of mercy…
12-14. There is still hope. The door of mercy is open, and if the people turn to Jehovah in a spirit of penitence he may yet pardon. 12.
Therefore also now — Better, R.V., “Yet even now.” At the eleventh hour, when destruction seems imminent.
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Saith Jehovah — Literally, whisper of Jehovah. A very solemn asservation, giving to the utterance special weight and demanding earnest attention. The expression is common in the prophetic books. “Whisper,” Hebrews na’um, is a passive participle from a root “to utter a low sound”; hence, the whispered or murmured utterance of revelation that falls upon the mental ear.
Turn ye… to me — Leave your self-chosen paths of rebellion, come to your senses, recognize me as your God, and follow my instruction. This is the appeal of all the great prophets (compare Hos_14:1; Isa_1:2; Amo_4:6, etc.). Turn emphasizes the idea of conversion in its practical aspect. The exhortation indicates clearly the purpose of all the prophets in delivering their dark messages of judgment. The judgments themselves were primarily disciplinary; and the interpretations of these judgments by the prophets had for their sole object repentance and a return to God on the part of the people. But it is not to be merely a formal, external return.
With all your heart — In Hebrew thought the heart is the seat not only of the emotions, but of all the powers of personality, intellect, sensibility, and will (Delitzsch, System of Biblical Psychology, 292ff.). It includes the entire activity of the human spirit; all thoughts, all affections, all volitions. These are to be centered upon Jehovah. In Deuteronomy the same thought is expressed by the phrase “with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deu_4:29; Deu_6:5, etc.). The heart turning manifests itself in outward signs of grief for past sins:
Fasting (Joe_1:14),… weeping,… mourning — The last literally, beating the breast (Joe_1:9; Joe_1:13-14). In the emphasis on externals Joel differs greatly from the earlier prophets. To them fasting and the entire external ceremonial was of very little or no importance; but the statement, “It comes in the end to this, that to repent is equivalent to to hold a day for fasting and prayer; and that is the real goal of Joel in Joe_2:1-17, and Joe_1:1-20; certainly along with it comes the exhortation: rend your heart, and not your garments; water alone cannot do it” (Wellhausen), does not recognize sufficiently the emphasis of the prophet upon heart repentance. He does not place exclusive emphasis upon externals. Lest the people should be satisfied with external, formal turning, the prophet repeats (Joe_2:13) his summons to repentance, with even greater emphasis on the inner change.
Rend your heart, and not your garments — The rending of the garment was among many ancient nations an expression of deep grief or terror. It was practiced in bereavement, as soon as the report of the death was received; the custom was weakened afterward to a conventional tearing of the garment at the breast for a hand’s breadth (Jos_7:6; 2Sa_3:31; compare Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, article “Mourning”). The mere tearing of the garments is not sufficient; for this reason the prophet insists most strongly on the spiritual conditions accompanying it. The rending of the heart signifies true contrition (Psa_51:19; Eze_36:26; Jer_4:4).
They should be moved to such repentance by past experience, for Jehovah has shown himself to be gracious — Literally, inclined, that is, to pardon the repentant sinner.
Merciful — Possessing mercy in abundance; equivalent to full of compassion, indicating the benevolent attitude of Jehovah toward all mankind, worthy and unworthy; his sympathy with man’s miseries.
Slow to anger — Literally, long as to the breathing of the nostrils, that is, in anger. He does not allow his anger to break forth immediately on the discovery of sin and shortcoming; he waits to see whether the sinner will repent and do better.
Of great kindness — R.V., “abundant in loving-kindness.” Hebrews hesedh; used (1) of the love of God toward man, (2) of the love of man toward God, (3) of the love of man toward man (see on Hos_2:19); here, in the first sense, might be reproduced by paternal affection. It indicates the chief characteristic of God’s dealings with men, especially with those who are needy and helpless, and thus it includes all the virtues spoken of before. Think, says the prophet, of the paternal affection manifested by Jehovah toward you in all your past history, and let that thought become so vivid that it will lead you to repentance. This description of the character of God is taken from Exo_34:6.
Repenteth him — Continuation of the description of the character of Jehovah. Better taken as a participle, translated by a relative clause, “and one who repents.” The usual meaning of the verb niham, “to repent,” is “to change one’s mind or purpose out of pity for those whom one’s actions have affected, or because the results of an action have not fulfilled expectations.” That God repents is often stated in the Old Testament; this does not mean, however, that God ever changes his absolute will because he has been mistaken, or that he ever substitutes a worthier idea for one unworthy of his dignity. His essential attitude does not change, but the expression of God’s character toward man depends upon man’s attitude toward God. Now, since the announcement of a future manifestation of God is always conditional, its fulfillment depending upon the future attitude of man, cases may occur in which the announcement results in a complete change of attitude on the part of those doomed to destruction (compare Jonah and Nineveh). In such a case God may revoke the punishment in perfect accord with the immutability of his character. Such change on the part of the people is presupposed here. An unphilosophical, primitive people, whose apprehension of the infinite God was limited, must use expressions whose contents could be understood, though they were not literally true of God (Jer_18:5-12; Jon_3:10).
The evil — The evil that Jehovah has threatened to send as punishment of their guilt. In view of the merciful character of Jehovah the prophet hopes that even in this crisis there may be a withholding of further judgment, and the change of the present calamity into a blessing. 14.
Who knoweth — Equivalent to perhaps. “He speaks after the manner of a terrified conscience that is lifted up again with difficulty after a season of affliction and begins to aspire after hope and the mercy of God.… The expression does not indicate doubt, but rather affirmation coupled with desire; as if we were to say, God will, if it please him, turn again” (Luther). A more confident expression might have made the people even more reckless.
Return — Turn back from the judgment upon the execution of which he has already entered (Joe_2:11).
Repent — See on Joe_2:13. That instead of devastation and ruin he will leave behind him a blessing can mean in this connection only removal of the locusts, cessation of the drought and the fire, and restoration of fertility. But the true significance of the new fertility lies not in supplying means for the sustenance of life, but in that it will make possible the resumption or continuation of the daily sacrifices and thus assure the continued presence of Jehovah (Joe_1:9). The restoration of the daily sacrifice seems to be the greatest blessing desired. Fertility, harvest, vintage, are always in the Old Testament regarded as direct gifts from God (Hos_2:5 ff.).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv12–1312. turn ye even to me] come back from…
12. turn ye even to me] come back from your self-chosen course of sin, return to Me. On the idea of turning (or returning) to God in the Old Testament (from which the theological idea of “conversion” was ultimately developed), see on Amo_4:6.
with all your heart] with the entire force of your moral purpose. The Deuteronomic phrase is “with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deu_6:5, and elsewhere), i.e. with the intellect and the affections combined[39]; but the heart alone is often mentioned (e.g. 1Sa_12:20; 1Sa_12:24, Jer_29:13; and, as here, with turn, 1Sa_7:3, Jer_24:7). The heart is in Hebrew psychology not (as with us) the organ of the affections, but the organ of the intellect (see e.g. Hos_7:11); here, the organ of moral purpose and resolve.
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[39] See the writer’s Commentary on Deuteronomy, pp. 21 n., 73, 91.
with fasting, and with weeping, and with wailing] i.e. with grief for sin, of which these are to be the external signs. On fasting, as a mark of penitence, see on Joe_1:14 : on weeping, as its concomitant, Jdg_20:26, Psa_69:10, Zec_7:3; cf. 2Ki_22:19, Isa_22:12, Ezr_10:1.
12–14. Nevertheless, it is still not too late to avert the judgement by earnest penitence; for God is gracious and compassionate, and ready to pardon those who turn to Him with their whole heart. Cf. Jer_4:14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv12–13(12) Saith the Lord.—The word saith is here no…
(12) Saith the Lord.—The word saith is here no common word in the Hebrew. It implies an authoritative and most weighty utterance, as in Psa_110:1, “The Lord said unto my Lord.” “The word is used in almost every instance of the immediate utterance of God Himself; more rarely of that of the prophet or inspired organ of the Divine revelations” (Perowne, Commentary on the Psalms, vol. ii., p. 300).
Turn ye even to me.—The question, “Who can abide it?” is left unanswered. But the only possible reply is inferred in the touching appeal which the prophet is inspired by Jehovah to make, that His righteous anger may be averted.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv12–13Vers. 12-14. The judgment of the locusts was typical…
Vers. 12-14. The judgment of the locusts was typical of the great day of judgment. The tartars of that day were designed to bring the people to repentance. Thus judgment was mingled with mercy.
Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with great fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. At this period of sore judgment God, by the prophet, calls upon the people to return and repent, to fast and to weep, to grieve inwardly and mourn outwardly for sin. He also instructs them how to engage in the duty of humiliation aright and acceptably. The humiliation was to be that of the heart sorrow of heart for the sins by which they had offended God, inward shame on account of those iniquities by which they had wronged their own souls and marred their own best interests. But while there behoved to be this inward contrition, outward expressions of it were also required. Genuine sorrow and shame for sin were to be accompanied by fasting, tears of penitence, and other indications of mourning. With all your heart. Kimchi comments thus: "That your repentance be not with a heart and a heart.
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Vers. 12-17. These verses summon the peopleTo humiliation for sin, and thanksgiving for mercy.
God, by his prophet, does not forbid the outward sign of sorrow, so customary among Orientals and common among the Jews; he rather insists upon the presence of the thing signified, without which the sign was more a mockery than a reality.
I THE OCCASION OF THE HUMILIATION. It Was an earnest time with the people of the southern kingdom. Terrible desolation had been made in the land of Judah. An army of locusts had been the agents of Divine vengeance; sin had been the cause; the author of the punishment was God. "The prophet had described at length the coming of God"s judgments as a mighty army. But, lest amid the judgments men should (as they often do) forget the Judge, he represents God as commanding this his army, gathering, ordering, marshalling, directing them, giving them the word when and upon whom they should pour themselves. Their presence was a token of this. They should neither anticipate that command nor linger. But as an army awaits the command to move, and then, the word being given, rolls on instantly, so God"s judgments await the precise moment of his will, and then fall.
II THE NATURE OF THE HUMILIATION.
III THE MOTIVES TO HUMILIATION.
IV THE METHOD OF THEIR HUMILIATION.
1. A great variety of circumstances is to be attended to.
(1) There is the signal to be given: "Blow the trumpet in Zion.
(2) Serious preparation made for a fast: "Sanctify a fast.
(3) The summoning of a solemn assembly: "Call a solemn assembly.
(4) The convocation of the people: "Gather the people" ("am); and,
(5) when they were thus convened and in consequence came together, they were consecrated into a solemn assembly (qahal): "Sanctify the congregation.
(6) The constituent elements of the assembly embraced the oldest and the youngest, with ages intermediate elders and sucklings, and even children of tender years; nor could the newly married, who at other times were exempted from war or pressing duties, claim exemption now; nay, on the very day of their bridal, the bridegroom was called forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet to join the multitude of mourners, and share in the public humiliation and national sorrow.
2. The services of the occasion were to be conducted in an orderly and becoming manner. Everything connected with the house and service of God requires to be done decently and in good order. Thus, in the passage before us, nothing is left to haphazard; nor did anything remain to be improvised on the spur of the moment, and after the assembly met.
(1) The persons who were to conduct the solemn service were appointed the priests, the ministers of the Lord;
(2) the place they were to occupy was pointed out between the porch and the altar;
(3) the part they were to take in the duties of the day was assigned them weeping for their own sins and the sins of the people;
(4) the prayer they were to pray was prescribed to them.
3. The prayer itself
(1) pleads for sparing mercy re-echoed in the petitions of the Litany, "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever." The second petition of the prayer deprecates the prospect of God"s heritage becoming a reproach, and being ultimately enslaved by their heathen neighbours through feebleness and destitution which had been occasioned by the famine.
(2) The plea suggested by the prophet to the people is twofold, and forms the ground of each petition. It is thy people, O Lord; thy heritage. " They were still God"s people, punished, severely punished, and, it must be added, severely punished for their sins, but now penitent and petitioning for pardon. They were still more; they were God"s heritage, his peculiar treasure, segregated from the surrounding nations and set apart for the communication of his revelations, and to be the conservators of his oracles. Nor was there any presumption in reminding God of this; they were only acting as God"s remembrancers in relation to both his purpose and his promise. The glory of God as well as the good of his people was imperilled. "Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" In this way the heathen used to boast, as we learn from the boastful words of Sennacherib when he asks, "Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?" Even such are the words of Jehovah himself when he asks, in relation to the vanities of the heathen, "Where are now their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?
Conversion.
God is not satisfied to utter threatenings and to foretell evil It is truly characteristic of him that he adds words of gracious entreaty, expostulation, and counsel. He would be deserving of our adoring gratitude did he merely express his willingness to receive the returning sinner; but in this passage he deigns to invite and beseech those who have rebelled and who are in danger of perdition, that they convert and repent.
I WHO ARE THEY WHO ARE THUS ADMONISHED? They are such as have been highly favoured, and have nevertheless disobeyed the Father who has cared for them, rebelled against the King who has been gracious to them. Who amongst men must not be included in this class?
II TO WHOM ARE THEY INSTRUCTED TO RETURN? "To me," saith the Lord. It is the offended One, who himself condescends to invite transgressors to reverse their steps, to renounce their disobedience, to cleave unto himself. This is a miracle of grace.
III WHAT KIND OF CONVERSION DOES GOD REQUIRE? In this passage we have as clear a statement as even the New Testament can supply of the spirituality of true religion. God does not ask for verbal, formal submission; he asks for the return of the heart. Here is involved true penitence heart-sorrow for sin. Here is involved true faith heart-attachment to God. The heart is emphatically God"s, and it is the heart he asks.
IV WHAT TOKENS OF SINCERITY IN CONVERSION DOES GOD EXPECT? The true conversion is within; but there will be appropriate evidences that sin is loathed and forsaken. For this purpose the tears and mourning, etc., here described, are to be desired by God and presented by man. T.
Vers. 12, 13. Soul-reformation.
"Therefore also now," etc. Observe here three things in relation to soul-reformation.
I ITS PROCESS. Turning to the Lord, "Turn ye unto the Lord your God." The unregenerate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his Father"s house and gone into the "far country" of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul-reformation is not turning from one doctrine, or Church, or habit to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; there is "fasting," and "weeping," and "mourning," and the "rending of the heart." Soul-reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins. "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight.
II ITS URGENCY. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord." Yes, now is the time; there is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now:
1. Because the work is of the most paramount importance.
2. Because the time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your soul"s sake adjourn not this for a single hour.
III ITS ENCOURAGEMENT. "For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." The word deprecateth would be better than "repenteth." The inflicting of sufferings on his creatures is repugnant to his nature. "He desireth not the death of the sinner." What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate father! D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v12Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even…
Joe_2:12-14
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.
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The characteristics and encouragements of true repentance
I. That true repentance consists in the immediate turning of the soul to God, in a mood of deep sorrow for sin. This turning to God must be--
1. Immediate. The prophet tells the people of Judah that they must turn also now to the Lord. These little words are full of emphasis, and signify that even though the people had so long abused the Divine forbearance, and although the opportunity of mercy was passing away, yet if they would at once pay heed to the words of warning they should be saved. There was no time for delay.
2. Sincere. The prophet says to the people of Judah, turn unto the Lord with all your heart. They were not to simulate a repentance they did not truly feel; it was not to be half-hearted. They were to turn to God in their thoughts, in their affections, in their wills, and in every faculty and capability of their souls,
3. Inward. The prophet says to the people of Judah, Rend your heart, and not your garments. Sin is an inward thing, and so must be the repentance which puts it away.
4. Sorrowful. The people of Judah were to turn to the Lord with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. A true turning of the soul to God is always accompanied by intense sorrow because the law of God has been broken, because the soul has been injured by sin, because time has been lost in which good might have been done, because it has enfeebled the moral manhood, and because it has moved the anger of God.
II. That true repentance is encouraged by our knowledge of the Divine nature, and by a hope of the Divine blessing. 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. Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? Here we have the greatest encouragements to repentance--
1. From our knowledge of the Divine character. The prophet here gives a very beautiful revelation of the nature and character of God to the inhabitants of Judah, which they would perhaps hardly regard as consistent with His previous threats of judgment. And we have throughout the Bible such a revelation of the Divine mercy as should be an encouragement to the penitent. It is natural for God to have mercy upon the repentant soul, even as it is natural for fire to burn.
2. From our hope of the Divine blessing. It seems as though the prophet wished to leave the Jews in some uncertainty as to whether God would return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him, in order that he might not weaken any impression which his former denunciations had made. God often leaves behind Him a blessing in the repentant soul, even a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Lessons--
1. That men should turn to God with full purpose of heart.
2. That they should do so while it is called to-day.
3. That they should thus seek His mercy and expect His blessing. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The first day of Lent
From very ancient times Ash Wednesday has been kept by Christians with great strictness. Our Church too marks this day as a specially solemn day, by providing a special service for it, namely, the Commination, or denouncing of Gods anger and judgments against sinners--a service well fitted to stir up our dull minds to the thought of our sins, and to rouse our slumbering con sciences to the feeling of our guilt. Now the great use of special days like this is to fill our hearts and minds with some special thought or feeling, to fix it firmly in our memory, to press and stamp it in so deeply that it will not easily be rubbed out by the wear and tear of the world: and on Ash Wednesday the thought that should fill our mind is the thought of our sinfulness; the feeling that should be uppermost in our hearts is the feeling of our deep guilt in the sight of God. This thought and feeling should rise with us in the morning, should go forth with us to our daily toil or business, should be with us wherever we are, and go with us wherever we go, if we would spend this day as it is meant to be spent, as a day of deep and earnest penitence. The very reason why most peoples religion is so poor and weak is because their religious feelings are so shallow, their religious acts so hasty and formal. A day like this is meant to correct the fault. It is meant to deepen the feelings, to give occasion for a more real and searching penitence. It is meant to be a day of much strict self-examination, of much humble confession of sin, of much earnest prayer, of much godly sorrow, of much hearty resolve. To fast on this day, and deny ourselves outwardly, is a mere mockery and snare, tempting us to think well of ourselves, and to fancy we are doing great things, if we have not the inward spirit of fasting, which is the humbling of the soul in secret shame and sorrow before God. Let this be what we aim at, and then we shall be thankful for every aid, such as fasting is, to so good an end. Only we must remember the end is greater than the means. Let us not, then, despise a day and a service which may be so blest to us, and which have been so blest to thousands and thousands of Christian people. Nay, till we can say that our sense of sin cannot be made deeper, that our confessions cannot be more earnest, that our knowledge of self cannot be increased, that our repentance cannot be more sincere,--have we any right to despise these helps? (W. Walsham How, D. D.)
National and personal fasting
It is not always that the voice of the Church hits the mood of the world. Just now there is no thoughtful man, whatever his personal condition, whose spirit is altogether untouched by sadness. We are all breathing an atmosphere of uneasiness, humiliation, and perplexity; our hearts are heavy, and there is much to weigh them down. How can we use the resource which the text proclaims? It is by no lip-uttered penitence that we can so turn unto God. It is by no mere confession of faults which we think others have committed, and petitions that they may be repaired. We may individually feel a sense of impotence in the presence of movements and measures which we cannot control. But, remember, that the whole is made up of parts; several items construct the whole. Every one who honestly tries to see himself and his wishes in the light of the Lord of righteousness, aids in the solution of national and social problems, whatever they may be, whether they concern order, home distress, or troubles beyond the seas. The individual is the unit of humanity. A sense of general vexation must never blot out that of personal responsibility. As each sweeps before his own door, the street is clean. As each honestly turns to the Lord, the attitude of the whole is corrected. Our business is to see to the items of our own conduct, leaving the total to accumulate by inevitable law. How may we individually use the tide of national anxiety in obeying the summons of the Lenten season? We have a common fault, a hectoring tone towards supposed inferiors. If there is anything which should cultivate Christian society and Christian households, it is goodwill and kindliness. Let not the summons of the text demand a mere epoch of religious procedure, when we kneel in the congregation or in the chamber. Let it touch our lives. A turning to the Lord is a turning from self, from its lower passions, aims, and habits. It comes out in audible, visible, material results. It is seen in many a thing; it is perceived in the tone of the voice, and in the look of the eye; it is seen in the fair conduct of commonplace business; it is seen in our correspondence; in the office and the shop; in the amenities of home, and in the rectitude of public life; in the details of our personal conversation, and in the nature of our familiar habits. Pause at one point--with fasting. This arrow hits a national and personal blot. Some people fast too much, through poverty. Some people eat too much, through self-indulgence. There are many who need to fast, who need to use such abstinence that the flesh may, as it should, obey the mind, obey the spirit, not on the lowest, but on the highest grounds, that they may be, physically and intellectually, in body and soul, such as God intends them to be. Treat the summons of the Lenten season as a wholesome, reasonable, godly, human call to consider our ways, as in the presence of the Lord in whom we live, and move, and have our being. (Harry Jones.)
Thoughts for Lent
Ash Wednesday is neither a saints day, nor a festival. It is simply the first of the forty days of Lent. On this day we read the seven penitential Psalms, and the Commination Service, and thus the day assumes a severe penitential character of its own. The text reminds us that at this time we have an inward and an outward duty to fulfil. The inward duty is, the turning of the heart to God. The outward is, the mortification of our bodily appetites.
1. Fasting is a matter very little discoursed about, and very little practised. Fasting is not for the weak, the sickly, the very young, or the very poor. Fasting is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Fasting should be observed to God. Its essence is mortification,--not the mere act of abstaining from food. The fasting we should all aim at is rather the denying ourselves in respect of whatever we know to be a superfluity. A check imposed on the curiousness of appetite; a curb submitted to in respect of the quantity eaten, this is true fasting.
2. The inward conversion of the heart to God. This is the great duty of the Lenten season. To think over ones past life, and ones present state; to review ones sins, and to loathe and forsake them; to make reparation where it is possible, and to confess ones fault when one cannot repair it--this is the fast which the Lord approveth. (J. Burgon, M. A.)
The right use of calamities
Two exhortations, whereof the first is, that they should set about sincere repentance and humiliation, testified by holy private fasts and unfeigned sorrow, and so prove that they are really converted to God, and reconciled to Him through faith in the Mediator (verse 12). And that they should study rather to be afflicted for sin, than by performance of external ceremonies to pretend to it only (verse 13). Unto this exhortation two reasons are subjoined, the first whereof is taken from the properties of God, who is merciful and gracious; not easily provoked, rich in kindness, and who, upon sinners repentance, is ready to recall His threatenings that they be not executed. Doctrine.
1. Were there never so many plagues on sinners, yet God is not bound to take notice of them so long as they repent not. Were there never so much terror and affliction of spirit upon men, under feared or felt judgments, yet all these serve to no purpose if they stir not up to repentance; and they must be mad who, being in such a condition, yet do not set about that duty. Therefore after all the representation of plagues, and of terror upon men, they are called to this as the only remedy and way to an issue, and as the duty which they cannot but mind who are seriously affected with such a condition. Therefore, turn ye.
2. When God is threatening most sadly, and proceeding most severely, He would be still understood as inviting by these to repentance, and willing to accept of it. For the Lord who threatens, doth exhort, and He brings it in with a therefore, or upon the back of the former discourse, to show that this is His scope in all of it.
3. Such as have been so long abusers of Gods patience, as matters seem irremediable, and strokes are either imminent or incumbent, should not, for all that, look upon the exercise of repentance as too late and out of season, but ought to judge that it is good even then to set about it, and that it will do good, however matters go. Therefore, notwithstanding they were in this sad plight, yet the Lord exhorts them even now also to turn.
4. Such as do mind repentance, especially when God declareth Himself angry, would not linger or delay to set about it. So much also may be imported in that now also they should turn.
5. Whatever doubts such as are humbled by judgments may have, that their repentance will not be accepted; yet they are bound to answer all these from Gods naked word who giveth the invitation to such.
6. Repentance for particular sins, under sad judgments, will neither be right nor acceptable so long as men do not mind conversion to God, and a change of their state by regeneration; that so, the tree being good, the fruits may be answerable. Therefore doth He begin with, Turn ye unto Me, where the exhortation doth not import any power in man, but only points out his duty, and showeth that exhortation is a mean which God blesseth to His elect, and not only deals thereby with them as rational creatures, but therewith imparts strength that they may obey.
7. In turning unto God men would beware of being faint or feigned, but would study to be sincere and single, since they cannot attain to perfection, for this, in a Gospel sense, is to turn even to Me with all your heart.
8. As men would begin at conversion to God, so they would therewith study to be deeply affected for sin and bygone evils, and under the judgments procured thereby; and would evidence their affliction of spirit by sorrow and humiliation suitable (in some measure) to their condition. Therefore is it added, as an evidence and companion of the former, turn ye with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning; or with such sorrow as is usual in mourning for the dead, and expressed not only by wailing, but by smiting on the breast, and the like gestures. It is a change to be suspected where men please themselves with their present good condition, and do lightly pass over their former miscarriages. And albeit signs and expressions of sorrow be not always at command when men are most afflicted, yet repentance for gross and long continuance in iniquity, and under extra ordinary judgments, should not be passed over in an ordinary and common way.
9. God is not pleased, nor will a true penitent be pleased, with external performances and ceremonies, neglecting substance; for saith He, Rend your hearts and not your garments.
10. Whatever the Lord be, or will say or do, to the impenitent, yet there is nothing in Him to be terrible to a convert and a penitent. Without the sight of this, conviction and contrition would but end in despair. Therefore, notwithstanding all the former threatenings, this is subjoined to the exhortation, by way of reason and encouragement, Turn ye, for He is gracious, etc. (George Hutcheson.)
The day of humiliation a national obligation
Joel, having forewarned the people of Judah of the impending calamities that threatened to overwhelm them, proceeds to point out the necessary instructions for them to follow in the prospect of such an awful national crisis.
I. The various duties suitable to a period of national calamity.
1. The appointment of a day of national humiliation. Joel orders them to assemble the people together in the courts of the temple, where by external purifications and proper instructions they might be fitted for the profitable solemnisation of the same. Is there less obligation on Christian communities to set apart a day of humiliation under similar afflictive dispensations of providence? Properly observed, such seasons of public demonstration are undoubtedly acceptable to God. The assembling of ourselves together will sharpen the desire of the Christian for more devout secret communion with God in the closet of prayer.
2. The first duty is turning unto the Lord. The Israelites were to attend the temple not only in a suitable manner outwardly, but with a deep inward impression of Gods judgments. Their affections were to be estranged from the concerns of this world, and set on the God whom they had offended. Such a solemn day calls for nothing less than the whole heart. Away with frivolity, trifling, indifference. It is a day that calls for the implicit surrender of the inner man.
3. The duty of fasting. The Christian may perform this act if his conscience suggest it as incumbent upon him. But he must remember the Redeemers admonition in relation to it. There is a notion that fasting consists in abstinence from particular kinds of flesh. Such an idea is as truly absurd as it is derogatory to that part of the Christian community which entertains it. We must fast in the spirit. It is the motive alone can render fasting acceptable in the eyes of the Creator.
4. The duty of weeping and mourning. The Christian dispensation does not demand outward demonstrations of grief. External signs of grief and humiliation are but faint emblems of the shame experienced by the contrite soul. Our repentance must be accompanied with a change of heart and life; it must exercise a converting influence upon us within. The sorrow we feel must be manifested in reformation of life.
II. The encouragement to this performance. For the Lord is gracious, etc. It is on account of His infinite mercies that we are not consumed. From a consideration of this kind we may draw much consolation. The Divine ear will be open to the prayers of all those who call upon Him in sincerity. Let the many mercies of God experienced during the past encourage us to put our trust in His mercy now in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Let us praise Him to-day for all that is past; let us depend upon Him for all that is to come. (Richard Jones, B. A.)
Fasting, and duties connected with it
Let me exhort you diligently to examine into the state of your souls at this particular season. A business man has his seasons for taking stock. And are our souls of less consequence than our bodies? It is impossible to determine exactly what must be the outward ceremonies or signs attending our penitential sorrow, so various are the tempers and dispositions of men. Yet nature points at the rule to each individual, namely, his own feelings; since there can be no true compunction for sin, and consequently no repentance, without pain and grief felt on the part of the sinner. If sins arise from the over indulgence of sensual appetites, abstinence and temperance always, and fasting on occasion, may be efficient aids in bringing such appetites into subjection. No man is so little a sinner as not to be capable of advancing his souls health by a duo and religious observance of appointed fasting days. The prophet says we are to turn to the Lord with weeping. Tears are generally esteemed the signs of grief, but there are tears of joy. They are rather to be esteemed the effects of a violent perturbation, either of body or mind, proceeding from various causes--from grief, joy, envy, anger, or the exertion of any strong passion. To judge of a mans repentance solely by the quantity of tears he sheds would be to judge very rashly of it. Tears not being altogether in our own power, can never be essential sign of repentance. A third circumstance mentioned by the prophet is mourning. That expression of grief which breaks forth into lamentation and woe, and is accompanied with tearing open the garments to smite on the naked breast: an external appearance of great humility and repentance, but which receives its whole merit from the sincerity of the performer. Weeping, fasting, and mourning receive all their worth from the inward man; they are sanctified by the integrity and sincerity of the heart. The prophet further says, Rend your heart, and not your garments. Rend your hearts, herein lies the essence of true penitential sorrow; from hence will all the necessary acts of outward mortification and self-denial unavoidably ensue. Tear open, as it were, the inmost recesses of your heart, spare not till you have discovered every stain and blemish, wash it away with unremitted diligence, that so you may present it pure and spotless before the Lord. Examine the state of your souls fairly and honestly. (C. Moore, M. A.)
Exhortation to repentance
I. A duty enjoined. Here is at once implied our alienation from God. To say we are turned from Him is to say that we are fallen, depraved, and sinful creatures. We are not to turn from one evil way to another, from one idol to another, from one religious profession to another, but unto God. We cannot turn of ourselves. We need to pray for Gods special and enabling grace. The impossibility is not natural but moral, consequently our inability to turn our selves to Him does not lessen our obligation to do so.
II. The manner of its performance. With the heart. No mere change of opinion, or reformation of life, or outward profession of godliness will suffice. With our whole heart. God will brook no rival. When the heart, with all its affections, motives, and desires, returns to its rightful owner, there is nothing which delights its owner more than to see it touched with tender contrite sorrow. With fasting. We approve of using such abstinence as will tend, through grace, to bring the body into subjection to the Spirit. Self-denial is a primary requisite in the religion of Jesus Christ
III. Our encouragement to fulfil it. Gracious--merciful--slow to anger, and of great kindness, is the Lord our God. Therefore none need be discouraged. (W. Mudge.)
On national repentance
I. The exhortations to the people to return unto the Lord. Turn ye even unto Me. What is the nation to turn from? Its evil ways. When we speak of the nation we speak of the individuals that compose the nation. The exhortation implies that the people had turned from God. Notice some of mens evil ways.
1. Ungodliness. Not one half of our nation makes any profession of godliness. And of those who name the name of Jesus, how few depart from iniquity!
2. Hear the blasphemy which pervades the land. Gods solemn message to man is mocked, His Word denied, His sanctuaries too much neglected. From all these evil ways we are called to return unto the Lord.
II. The direction for returning to the Lord. With all your heart. Here lies the main business--the heart. It must be solemnly and unreservedly dedicated to God. Without this internal movement, all outward show of obedience, or sorrow for sin, or repentance, or fasting, or prayer will avail nothing. This return of the heart is to be expressed by suitable outward signs. With fasting. With weeping and mourning.
III. The encouragement presented to the people to return to God. He is merciful and gracious. Every moment of the worlds prolonged existence is a demonstration of Gods long suffering and patience--is a practical commentary on His own Word. (E. Edwards.)
Turning to the Lord
I. Repentance as a turning. Repentance is sometimes represented as renewing from a decay. Refining from dross. Recovering from a malady. Cleansing from soil. Rising from fall. Here the figure is turning. To turn is properly applied to them that are out of their right way. Whether a way be good or no, we principally pronounce by the end. Our end, or sovereign good, we call happiness. As we cannot find that here, we are to seek it with God. From God we ought never to turn our steps. The way of sin, of seeking our own pleasure or profit, is the way of turning from God. We are to turn to God. Whither should we turn from sin but to God? Many simply turn from one sin to another. We are to turn with the heart. There is a turning of the brain only. An alteration is required not of the mind only, but of the will, a change too of the affections of the heart. Not of bodily relations only; heart and all must turn. It must be with the whole heart. Not dividing the heart from the body, and not dividing the heart in itself.
II. The manner of it. With fasting. Not only by way of regimen to keep the body low, but as a chastisement for sin already past. To be abridged of that which otherwise we might freely use hath in it the nature of a punishment. How must we fast? Two kinds of fasting in Scripture.
1. Davids. No meat at all. That is too hard.
2. Daniels fast. He ate no meats of delight. The Church mitigates all she may. Content to sustain nature, not to purvey the flesh, to satisfy the lusts thereof. With weeping. Thinking of the sins of our past might well make us weep. If we cannot weep, mourn we can, and mourn we must. Mourning is the sorrow which reason itself can yield. We can wish; we can pray; we can complain and bemoan ourselves. Rend your hearts. If it is not done with the heart, nothing is done. As in conversion, the purpose of amendment must proceed from the heart; so in our contrition, the sorrow, the anger, for our turning away must pierce to the heart. Rending doth not so properly pertain to the passion of sorrow as to the passion of anger. The apostle puts into his repentance indignation and revenge, as well as sorrow. To say the truth, they are to go together. If we be truly sorry for our sin, we shall be angry with ourselves the sinners. (Bishop Andrewes.)
Conversion unto God
Such was the call of God to Israel of old, when His sore judgments lay heavy upon them, and more were impending. Turn unto the Lord your God. Let there be in each one of us an unfeigned repentance towards God.
I. When shall we turn unto Him? Now. Lent is appointed to call us to special repentance, and humbling of ourselves before God. Of all deceits the most common and most dangerous is delay. We all look forward to some time when we intend to be religious. Of what importance, then, is that word Now.
II. How must we turn unto God? Outward indications of sorrow are mentioned in the text. They are helpful. But the Spirit of God warns us against resting in the outward show, in any mere signs of sorrow. We must rend our hearts on account of our sins. Repentance must begin in godly sorrow. Can we offer God less than a heart broken and contrite, a heart hating the sins which have dishonoured God, set at nought the Saviour, grieved His Spirit, and wounded our own souls? Will He accept less than all our heart? Let there be deep sincerity. Let there be steadfast resolution.
III. Motives for turning to God. We may declare the terrors of the Lord. The motives of the text are the graciousness and mercifulness of God. Judgment is His strange work, mercy is His delight. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Soul-reformation
Three things.
I. Its process. Turning to the Lord. The unregenerate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his fathers house, and gone into the far country of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul-reformation is not turning from one doctrine or church, or habit, to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to Him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; fasting, and weeping, and mourning, and rending of the heart. Soul-reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins.
II. Its urgency. Therefore also now, saith the Lord. There is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now, because--
1. The work is of the most paramount importance.
2. The time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your souls sake adjourn not this for a single hour.
III. Its encouragement. For He is gracious and merciful,. . . repenteth Him of the evil. The word deprecateth would be better than repenteth. The inflicting of sufferings on His creatures is repugnant to His nature. He desireth not the death of the sinner. What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate Father. (Homilist.)
Gods design in sending affliction
This exhortation is addressed to all who, like the Israelites in the time of Joel, are living in opposition to the authority of Jehovah. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, and He enforces His Divine command by the solemn threatenings which His law has denounced against sin. Some can only be reached by arousing apprehension and alarm. But even when we speak the threatenings of Divine law, it must always be in accents of tenderness and love, entreating men to be reconciled unto God. Repentance is a turning unto God. It is an exercise of free and deliberate choice. It is not a partial, but a total change of character. What are its external manifestations? Fasting was an ordinance in the Jewish economy designed as an expression of the feelings of sorrow, and as a means of exciting and confirming these feelings in the hearts of the worshippers. Frequently the sorrow of the world makes a man afflict himself in secret. The accumulation of terms, with fasting and weeping and mourning, may be viewed as a Hebrew superlative designed to set forth the earnestness and intensity of the grief which fills the heart of the penitent. It is to obtain a season for solemn thought, that the Christian sets apart his times of fasting. Rend your heart, etc. The rending of the garments is in Eastern countries a token of grief. In connection with religious worship, it might be dictated by a sense of humility before God. It was, however, by no means an infallible mark of genuine emotion. Dubious marks of penitence are not enough for those who would turn with acceptance to the Lord their God. A broken heart is the emblem of deep anguish. Those who will not yield to threats of judgment, the prophet endeavours to persuade by kindness and love. He tells of God that He is merciful and gracious, etc. Gracious, as bestowing His favours upon those who have no inherent claim upon His bounty. Merciful, extending His kindness even to those who, by their sins, have merited His wrath. Slow to anger, bearing from time to time with those who are living in rebellion against Him. Of great kindness, not impoverished by the mercies bestowed on a few, ever enough, and more than enough, for the wants of all who humbly and believingly ask it. Repenteth him of the evil. Not that He will positively alter His Divine purposes, but even when the cup of their iniquity is almost filled, if they turn to Him in sorrow and penitence, the threatened wrath will be averted. The believing view of Gods mercy, and the apprehension of Gods wrath, are both, in their own place, instrumental in leading men to repentance. Learn to make a right improvement of our afflictions. Whatever inquiries we may institute in regard to their secondary causes, let us not forget that their great first cause is God; that they are sent upon us for moral purposes; that they speak to us with the authority of heaven-appointed messengers, saying, in Gods name, Turn ye even unto Me. (William Beckett.)
Humiliation and confession
The pride of the human heart is sometimes fearful. The sinner will justify or excuse his course and carry a high look, till the Holy Spirit actually conquers His pride and overwhelms his soul with a sense of self-convicted guilt and ruin.
I. Humiliation before God and man is both proper and requisite.
1. Proper, that is, right, enjoined by the fitness of things. The impenitent sinner is openly arrayed against God; his attitude is one of radical, persistent hostility.
2. Requisite. God absolutely requires it, and will not treat with the sinner or pardon him till he penitently surrenders, submits to Gods terms, and truly and openly exhibits his penitence.
II. Confession of sin follows humiliation, and is intimately allied to it. Confession is the language of penitence. The burden of sin is very heavy. The man who is unwilling to confess freely--not only in his closet to God, but openly before men, his heart of enmity, his life of guilt, alienation, and disobedience is a stranger to true penitence. See characteristics of true confession.
1. Sincere. It must come from the heart.
2. It must be radical.
3. It must relate chiefly to God.
4. It must cover up, keep back nothing. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Fasting
1. Fasting was a frequent service of old--a principle of Divine original and practical recognition. Instances in the Old Testament, in the New Testament; in the primitive Church, and in the reformed Church.
2. The proper method of fasting. No uniform system has ever obtained. They are regulated by the character of the cause that calls them forth: by the spiritual condition of the State; and by the idiosyncrasies of individuals. Do not presume on the plenty of your spiritual health, nor make an excuse of the poverty of your bodily health.
3. Seasonable suggestions for a fast-day. On no account convert the fast into a festival. On the other hand, do not think, by a simple, stiff, or formal fast you will gain either heavenly rest for yourselves, or earthly relief for your suffering brethren; do not fancy that for an austere demeanour, and a rigid restraint of your appetites and affections, you will merit aught at the hands of God. Reflect on your individual and our national sins; confess and repent. (William Fisher, B. A.)
And rend your heart, and not your garments.--
The rent heart better than the rent garment
Rend your heart and not your garments. Above all, important that repentance should be real--the weeping the sign of inward sorrow; the fasting the result of lower desires kept in abeyance by higher. There was danger of a superficial, evanescent revival.
I. Explain the allusion to the rending of the garment. Many signs and symbols among Jews by which they professed to express feeling, desire.
(1) In prayer--kneeling, prostration, standing, lifting the hands, hiding the face, smiting upon the breast.
(2) Rending garment. This expressed strongest, most intense emotion of sorrow, or terror, or horror. (Gen_37:29; Gen_37:34; 2Sa_3:31; 1Ki_21:27; Jer_36:24; Mat_26:65; Act_14:14.) The emotion professedly expressed in Judah at that time--the deepest sorrow for sin; the most earnest contrition and repentance.
II. Remembering the sign and emotion signified, notice different classes of men.
1. Some neither rend their hearts nor their garments. No outward sign of sorrow, and no sorrow without sign. Describe what should lead all to sorrow for sin. The history of sin, its present existence in the world, in us. Gods revelation of His hatred of sin. Gods revelation of love to the sinner. The life of Christ--Gethsemane, Calvary. The voice of conscience; the pleadings of the Holy Ghost. Draw the contrast between what should be and what is. Indifference, coldness of multitudes. Mad delight of many in the worlds great source of misery.
2. Some rend their garments, and not their hearts. The outward sign, but no inward reality. The untruthful, hypocritical. Notice the religion of formal custom. The services of the present day--devout attitudes in prayer--observance of fasts--celebration of feasts--revival services. The danger--the lack of inward reality.
3. Some rend their hearts and not their garments. The inward reality, and not the outward sign. Men of reserve, emotion kept concealed in the hearts shrine. They shrink from demonstration, from the show of religious feeling, and so apparently they are cold, but not really so. Picture the earnestness of private communion; sorrows deep wound which only God can see; sorrow which words, looks, cannot express--too deep for human sympathy.
4. Some rend their hearts and their garments. The inward sorrow; the outward expression. Room in the world for demonstrative and undemonstrative. Notice the tendency of reserved to misjudge those not like them, and the injustice of calling religious excitement worthless. Illustrations: The publicans outward demonstration; the bitter weeping of Peter. Some must rend their garments when their hearts are rent.
III. Learn the requirement of God.
1. That it is necessary for us to rend our hearts. Repentance for sin a necessity. This the fruit of the law; this the germ of the Gospel. The Baptists cry; the Saviours cry; the cry of the apostles--Repent.
2. As to the rending of the garment. Rend your hearts, etc. The text means, not only your garments. Other similar expressions.
(1) From the Bible. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. The meaning, mercy rather than sacrifice.
(2) From ordinary conversation. Give us deeds, not words. The meaning, that deeds are more important than words. Customary, demonstrative, peculiar experience of feeling was not forbidden. Reality as opposed to mere form insisted on.
3. God does require the pure and holy life. The rent heart the open heart. Christ enters, abides, makes pure. The pure heart expressed by the pure life. The heart made clean, the garment also is made white. This agreement must be. There cannot be the changed heart without the converted life. (J. M. Blackcie, LL. B.)
Repentance
This chapter is not so much a peremptory prediction, what God absolutely intends, as a communication only, what conditionally He threateneth. Man, in his anger, threatens when he means to strike; God threatens, that He might not strike, but that we might be forewarned and ward off His blow. The Gospel, that offers all mercy and love, strictly exacts and requires repentance. The text is a vehement exhortation to sorrow and repentance; and a direction how and in what manner we should repent.
I. The precept of repentance.
1. An exhortation to contrition. Observe the act expressed in the word rend; and the object, which is presented affirmatively. We must rend our heart. And negatively. We must not rend our garments.
2. An exhortation to conversion. Return unto the Lord your God. Return implies a motion.
(1) The kind of motion. A returning.
(2) That whereunto we must return, The Lord.
(3) That habitude and relation which guides and biasses us unto the term; in the words following, Your God.
This is twofold. There is an attraction in the term and place to which the motion tends. And that which carries and disposes the thing moved towards it.
II. The motive to repentance. In these words, For He is gracious, etc.
1. The kind and nature of the motive. God contents not Himself by putting us in mind of our duty. He uses no threatenings, intermingles no curses. He urges mercy and favour. Observe the degrees of the motive. They are all set and purposed to prevent and remove all the fears and discouragements that a timorous guilty conscience can forecast to itself. We are here called upon to present ourselves unto the Lord, to hope for and expect His love and favour. But we are not worthy of such favour. True, but He is a gracious God. We have to admit that our lives have been demeritorious, sinful, offensive. True, but He is merciful and compassionate. We daily provoke Him by our rebellions, grieving His Spirit, and increasing His wrath by our offences. True, but He is a patient God, and slow to anger. The cry of our sins has already ascended up to heaven. Yet He is easy to be entreated, and of great kindness. His wrath hath smoked out against us; His prophets have denounced His judgments. Yet there is hope of mercy, for He repenteth of the evil. Then do thy sins discourage thee? Let the offer and invitation of His mercy assure thee. Doth the number and variety of thy transgressions dishearten thee? Consider the multitude of His mercies. Doth the measure and heinousness of thy rebellions affright thee? Let the degrees and plenty of His compassions comfort thee. Consider the duty of contrition. The act and practice of repentance is no less than a rending. And that implies stiffness and obduration in the object to be wrought upon. Hardness and difficulty in the act to be exercised--repentance. And it requires all the strength and might of him that undertakes it. Consider the object upon which repentance must work and exercise itself. In the affirmative sense, your heart. If thy heart be not contrite and sorrowful, it is not true repentance. Except thy sorrow work upon the heart, there is no use or profit in thy repentance. Except thy heart be humble and cast down for sin, it is no pleasing or acceptable repentance. In the negative sense,--Rend not your garments. In this counsel the Lord checks and reproves our outward superstition. All outward ceremonious practice of piety, if divided and severed from inward devotion, is rejected of God. Ceremonies, if accompanied with the heart, are useful and acceptable; if divided from it, are sinful and abominable. But the words may be read, your hearts rather than your garments, by way of comparison. The contrition of the heart is more necessary and useful than any outward bodily affliction. (Bishop Brownrigg.)
Penitence and conversion
I. A real sorrow for sin.
1. Heartfelt. Rend your heart, and not your garments. Rending stands for the outward expression of sorrow or penitence. The prophet does not intend by the contrast hearts not garments, to condemn such outward signs, but to insist upon the inward rather than the outward. We are not to affect sorrow, to display penitence. Outward usages are valuable, not as satisfying conscience or pleasing God, but as helps to realise a right spirit.
2. Deliberate. To rend garments is a sudden impulse. To rend the heart is a far harder and slower matter.
3. Intense. Rend--implying a breaking of the heart,--breaking by the irresistible force of conviction. This implies a personal sense of sin, and a holy hatred of sin.
III. A true conversion to God. It is, Turn unto the Lord. A broken heart without this would be mere despair. This implies--
1. A change in will. Turn.
2. An acceptance of Gods call. Turn unto the Lord.
3. An act of faith in Him. Your God. An acknowledgment of Gods claim on us. How are we to turn? The prayer of the Lenten season suggests the answer, Turn Thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. (John Ellerton, M. A.)
Repentance, a rending of the heart
I. The exhortation or advice given. Rending the garments was a sign of great sorrow and amazement. This custom, when a sense of the evil of sin and true sorrow for it were wanting, degenerated into a hypocritical form. Therefore comes the command, Rend your hearts. From what must they be rent? From sin, especially your besetting sin. From earth and earthly things. From all creatures. From yourselves. From hypocrisy and formality, pride and self-confidence, unbelief, improper diffidence and distrust. How must they be rent? By godly consideration and self-examination; by conviction and humiliation, by shame and sorrow, by confession and abhorrence. Rend your hearts. The conscience must be pierced, the will conquered, the spirit humbled, the affections moved, and the old, hard heart made soft. The broken heart is Gods sacrifice. And turn unto the Lord. Do this by contemplation and thought, desire and prayer, faith and confidence, expectation and delight, gratitude and love. Turning we cannot do of ourselves. For what are we to turn? For illumination. For pardon. For Divine favour, communion, and fellowship.
II. The motives which enforce it. Evil is gone forth to chastise or punish sin. God is good, not only to repent of the evil, and do it not, but to do good. That He is of great kindness witness a dying Jesus, an entreating ministry, so many sweet promises and alluring mercies. Apply to the unconverted, backsliders, and the godly. (J. Benson.)
For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger.
The perfection of the mercy of God
Nothing is more true of God than that He is the first and chiefest good; His prime perfection is goodness, and our truest notion of Him is, that He is almighty goodness.
I. By way of vindication. And to give satisfaction to objections that arise against this great truth. Three objections.
1. Several instances of Gods severity are found recorded in Scripture: e.g., the Deluge; Destruction of Canaanites, etc. To this answer--
(1) When necessaries for our good are afforded, and by any neglected, the blame lies upon them.
(2) Sometimes the sins of nations and persons are come to their height, and God is forced to punish.
(3) The judgments of God in this life are exemplary and disciplinary: and better a mischief should fall on particular persons, than that a general inconvenience should follow.
(4) God sometimes lets us feel something of hell here, to prevent it hereafter.
(5) There may be a particular account given of several scriptural cases; e.g., Nadab and Abihu, and Ananias and Sapphira.
(6) Though we do not know what time or leisure God will allow to sinners to repent, yet we certainly know God will grant forgiveness to penitents.
(7) There is no other way for Gods forgiveness but the way of repentance. This is the tenor of the grace of God.
(8) We cannot competently judge the proceedings of God to His creatures.
2. God is represented as severe, in giving men up to a reprobate sense, stupidity, and hardness of heart. Answer--
(1) This case hath no promise.
(2) It is not fit for the exercise of grace or mercy, for this case is not compassionable. If some think that God, by an irresistible power, might have prevented all sin and misery, it may be answered,--Is it reasonable that God, having made voluntary and intelligent agents, should force them? Then there could be no exercise of virtue, for all virtue is in choice; and no happiness, for we should be under constraint. Of what use, in that case, would our natural faculties be? This would no longer be a probationary state. God draws; He does not force moral beings.
3. The necessity of justice in the case of sin. This objection will be resolved by a true explication of justice. Gods justice is the same with His integrity and uprightness. These consist with the reason of the thing, and the right of the case. It is not necessary that God should punish sin, but He may justly do it, for sin deserves punishment.
II. Explication of the phrases of the text. Five several words.
1. Gracious. Which imports to do good freely, without constraint: to go good above the measure of right and just; to do good without antecedent desert, or after-recompense.
2. Merciful. So as to compassionate His creatures in misery, so as to help them in respect of their infirmities, so as to pardon their iniquities.
3. Slow to anger. So as not to take advantage of His creatures, so as to overlook provocation; and so as to allow space for repentance.
4. Of great kindness. What He doth, He doth in pure good will, and for our good; not in expectation of being benefited by us; not according to the proportion or disposition of the receiver.
5. Repenteth Him of the evil. So as either it comes not at all; or it proves not what we fear and imagine; or it stays but a while if it do come; or He turns it into good.
III. Confirmation of the truth of the proposition of the text. Four names and titles given to God that make this out.
1. His creation in infinite goodness, wisdom, and power. The variety, order, and fitness of things to their ends, declare the wisdom of God.
2. Conservation, protection, and government, declare God to be good, and full of loving-kindness.
3. Restoration and recovery out of the state of sin and misery.
4. Future confirmation and settlement in glory and happiness.
IV. Caution is presented in the text. Seen in two particulars.
1. Not to abuse this declaration of Divine goodness, either by holding the truth in unrighteousness, or turning the grace of God into wanton ness.
2. Not to permit hasty or rash judgment. If anything seem harsh in the dispensation of providence, we may understand it in a little time; therefore he that believes should not make haste.
V. Application.
1. Here is matter of information. We have a true judgment of God when we think of His greatness in connection with His goodness.
2. Here is matter of imitation. We may resemble God.
3. Here is matter of consolation. To all that are willing to do well, and would be good. (B. Whichcote, D. D.)
Repentance recommended
I. The important direction given. The direction Turn unto the Lord your God presupposes--
1. A state of heedless inattention. The position from which they were to turn was one in which the back was upon God.
2. A state of careless and criminal negligence.
3. A state of obstinate disobedience. Rend your heart. The action of rending garments indicates--
1. Excessive grief.
2. Great loathing and abhorrence.
3. Deep humility and earnest deprecation.
II. The cheering assurance afforded. For He is gracious and merciful, etc.
1. This revelation warrants our approach. The words are expressive of the most melting compassion and tenderness.
2. This revelation requires your return to the Lord, your Proprietor, to whom you owe your all, and to whom you must account for all.
3. This revelation encourages your address. Ask, and receive now the effects of His grace and mercy. Pardon, healing, adoption, grace. All the present privileges of children. And finally, all their eternal enjoyments, (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Gods mercy
Like some black rock that heaves itself above the surface of a sunlit sea, and the wave runs dashing over it, and the spray as it falls down its sides is all rainbowed, and there comes down beauty into the grimness of the black thing; so a mans transgressions rear themselves up, and Christs great love coming sweeping over them, makes out of the sin an Occasion for the flashing more brightly of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned soul into a lille of beauty. (Sunday Magazine.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v12Joe_2:12. Therefore] repent with heart undivided, and with fasting,…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Joe_2:12. Therefore] repent with heart undivided, and with fasting, for heinous sins demand extraordinary penitence. Mourning] Lit. beating on the breast, like the publican (Luk_18:13; Luk_23:48).
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Joe_2:13. Not garments] as customary in great sorrow (Gen_37:29; Job_1:20). External repentance will avail nothing (Psa_51:19; Eze_36:26).
Joe_2:14. Knoweth] if the least chance, secure it. God may restore blessings sufficient to maintain his worship and supply our wants (Jon_3:9).
HOMILETICS
SPACE FOR PERSONAL REPENTANCE.—Joe_2:12-14
The design of chastisement is not destruction, but salvation. Mercy rejoiceth against judgment. The attainment of salvation is only by repentance and return to God. Hence the prophet in God’s name urges personal and national amendment. Personal repentance is described in these words.
I. Its nature. “Turn ye even to me.”
1. It is return to God. Return quite up to God, not half-way (Hos_14:2). Half conversion, and half amendment will not avail. The whole distance must be overcome and God must be gained. Many are near to Christ, but not in him. All are alienated from God; and true reformation is not forsaking one habit to form another; changing one church or creed for another; but turning round in thought and feeling and coming to God.
2. It is a sincere return. It is real, not affected. “With all your heart.” The mind and affections have been stolen from God, now all are centred upon him. Outward expressions are worthless, mere trappings of sorrow. “Rend your heart and not your garments.” Partial feeling and feigned sorrow God will not accept. He requires truth in the inward parts. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
3. It is a sorrowful return. “With fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” There may not always be striking outward signs. But deep sorrow and contrition of spirit are accompanied with humiliation, self-denial, and prayer. The penitent weeps, mourns, and strikes his breast like the publican. Signs of grief often stir up the heart to more grief, and indicate to others the sincerity of conversion. Penitence must not be slight and superficial, but deep and real. “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.”
II. Its motive. “For he is gracious and merciful,” &c. Hope of acceptance is held out. This hope is grounded on the gracious character of God, revealed on Sinai (Exo_34:6-7), and reproduced here to encourage repentance.
1. God is gracious and merciful. Though mercy has been despised and grace abused, he delights not in the death of sinners, but wishes all to turn and live. If he were not merciful we could not hope for pardon; and if he were only merciful and not gracious we could not expect to receive anything from him.
2. God is slow to anger and of great kindness. He can be angry and deal out punishment, but he pauses, lingers long, and gives opportunity to escape. His kindness is beyond human pity. He is longsuffering under the greatest provocations (Psa_103:15).
3. God repents of the evil. If he repents of the punishments inflicted, will they not be accepted when they repent and return? Evils are against his will, his strange work, therefore on the first tokens of sorrow he will take them away. “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto them that call upon thee.”
4. God is a covenant God. “Turn unto the Lord your God.” They had turned away from God, but they were still his people. He is interested in their welfare, and unchangeable in his love and purpose. God must be approached as a covenant God. His Divine nature and mercy, his covenant relations and promises, are all brought forth to urge men to return unto him. His goodness and mercy never fail. “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
III. Its necessity. “Therefore also now.” Now, though it be late it is not too late. Now, though the day is near and locusts are at hand. “Now is the day of grace, the visitation from God.” “Now or never.” Sinners should not delay. Time is precious, opportunities may not be given again. Repentance is a spiritual, a personal, an immediate duty. “Now is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation.” “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repentance.”
IV. Its possibility. “Who knoweth if he will return and repent,” &c. Judgments may be taken away, the meat-offering restored, and a blessing left behind. Space is given men for repentance. We are not to be too confident lest we be careless. But there is no doubt in the prophet’s mind. God will return. He never changes nor lies (1Sa_12:22). His favour is not like the shifting clouds, nor the winter’s sun casting occasional light, but withholding heat and joy. If we return to God he will return to us. “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Joe_2:12. Although all sorrow for sin hath not the same expression, nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble, yet it is not a godly sorrow unless it really produces these effects, i.e.
(1) that it makes us really to hate and
(2) actually to decline sin; and
(3) produces in us a fear of God’s anger, a sense of the guilt of his displeasure;
(4) and then such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure [Jeremy Taylor].
Repentance is—
1. A change of mind, a turning of the soul to God.
2. A real turning, not resting in shadows, not renting the mantle only, but the offering of the heart to God.
3. This is a personal duty. It cannot be done by representation or in the mass; but by each alone, the children alone, the parents alone, and the priests alone.
4. God will be satisfied with this, but with nothing less.
Joe_2:13. God’s character in its relation to our character and condition. Grace to the unworthy, mercy to the miserable, long-suffering to provocation, truth to the promise, and change towards the penitent. “Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Psa_86:15).
Joe_2:14. Prospects opened up by repentance.
1. Remission of temporal calamities.
2. Restoration of fruit and subsistence.
3. Spiritual blessings left behind dreadful curses. The storm will pass away and the sun will shine again; flowers and fruit shall come, birds shall sing, and joy and peace crown the land. “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joe_2:12-14. Fasting and penitence. Men accused in times past were wont humbly to abase themselves before the judge, with long beards, uncombed hair, and black array, that they might secure his mercy. So when pestilence, famine, or war begin to rage, or any calamity hangs over us, it becomes us to present ourselves in piteous array, with fasting and prayer, before the Judge of all the earth, that his anger may be turned away from us [Cawdray]. But no amount of fasting will do without true penitence. Lifeless repentance is fruitless. No outward propriety and offerings will wash away the stain of sin. We must not only confess but forsake our sins and turn unto God. God will have mercy upon the penitent.
The fruitless showers of worldly woe
Fall dark to earth and never rise;
While tears that from repentance flow,
In bright exhalement reach the skies.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v13(See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
repenteth
(See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v12Return to me with all your heart
Return to me with all your heart
The heart is a metonym for what the person thinks and loves. AT: "Turn away from your sins and be totally devoted to me" (See: Metonymy)
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Tear your heart and not only your garments
The heart is a metonym for what the person thinks and loves. Tearing one's clothes is an outward act of shame or repentance. AT: "Change your way of thinking; do not just tear your garments" (See: Metonymy)
abundant in covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithful" or "faithfully." AT: "always faithful to his covenant" or "always loves faithfully" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv12–132:12-17 Joel calls on the people to repent and…
2:12-17 Joel calls on the people to repent and throw themselves on the mercy of their compassionate God.
2:12 This verse begins with the words the Lord says, a phrase that frequently accompanies divine speeches in the prophets. This is the only time that it occurs in Joel (“says the Lord” in 3:1 is supplied by the translators), and it indicates that this gracious invitation came directly from God. • Turn to me now, while there is time: The Lord implored his people to repent because the day of judgment was near. There was still opportunity to avoid the coming destruction if they returned to the Lord their God with true repentance. • Unlike other prophets, Joel never catalogs the sins committed by the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Perhaps they were so obvious that he did not feel the need to list them.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv12–13 The Prophet, having proclaimed the dreadful judgment which we…
The Prophet, having proclaimed the dreadful judgment which we have noticed, now shows that he did not intend to terrify the people without reason, but, on the contrary, to encourage them to repentance; which he could not do without offering to them the hope of pardon; for as we have said before, and as it may be collected from the whole of Scripture, men cannot be restored to the right ways except they entertain a hope of God’s mercy inasmuch as he who has been ungodly, when he despairs, wholly disregards himself, observing no restraint. Hence the Prophet now represents God as propitious and merciful, that he might thus kindly allure the people to repentance.
He says first, And even now the Lord says, Turn ye to me. The Prophet exhorts the people, not in his own name, but speaks in the person of God himself. He might indeed have borne witness to the favor which he proclaimed; but the discourse becomes more striking by introducing God as the speaker. And there is a great importance in the words, even now; for when one considers what we have noticed in the beginning of the chapter, a prospect of relief could hardly have been deemed possible. God had, indeed, in various ways, tried to restore the people to the right way; but, as we have seen, the greater part had become so void of feeling, that the scourges of God were wholly ineffectual; there remained, then, nothing but the utter destruction which the Prophet threatened them with at the beginning of the second chapter. Yet, in this state of despair, he still sets forth some hope of mercy, provided they turned to him; even now, he says. The particles וגם ugam are full of emphasis, “even now” that is, “Though ye have too long abused God’s forbearance, and with regard to you, the opportunity is past, for ye have closed the door against yourselves; yet even now, — which no one could have expected, and indeed what ought to be thought incredible by yourselves, — even now God waits for you, and invites you to entertain hope of salvation.” But it was necessary that these two particles, even now, should be added; for it is not in the power of men to fix for themselves, as they please, the season for mercy. God here shows the acceptable time, as Isaiah says (Isaiah 49:8) to be, when he has not yet rejected men, but when he offers to be propitious. We must then remember that the Prophet gives not here liberty to men to delay the time, as the profane and scorners are wont to do, who trifle with God from day to day; but the Prophet here shows that we must obey the voice of God, when he invites us, as also Isaiah says, ‘Behold now the time accepted, behold the day of salvation: seek God now, for he is near; call on him while he may be found.’ So then, as I have reminded you, these two particles, even now, are added, that men may be made attentive to the voice of God when he invites them, that they may not delay till tomorrow, for the Lord may then close the door, and repentance may be too late. We at the same time see how indulgently God bears with men, since he left a hope of pardon to a people so obstinate and almost past recovery.
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Even now, he says, turn ye to me with your whole heart. The Prophet here reminds us that we must not act feignedly with God; for men are ever disposed to trifle with him. We indeed see what almost the whole world is wont to do. God graciously meets us and is ready to receive us unto favor, though we have a hundred times alienated ourselves from him; but we bring nothing but hypocrisy and disguise: hence the Prophet declares here distinctly, that this dissimulation does not please God, and that they can hide nothing, who only pretend some sort of repentance by external signs, and that what is required is the serious and sincere feeling of the heart. This is what he means by the whole heart; not that perfect repentance can be formed in men, but the whole or complete heart is opposed to a divided heart: for men well understand that God is not ignorant; yet they divide their heart, and when they bestow some portion on God, they think that he is satisfied; and in the meantime there remains an interior and some hidden perverseness, which separates them far from God. This vice the Prophet now condemns, when he says, Turn with the whole heart. He then shows that it is an hypocrisy abominable to God, when men keep the greater part of their heart, as it were, closed up, and think it enough, if only they bring, so to speak, some volatile feeling.
He afterwards adds, fasting, and weeping, and mourning; and by these words he shows how grievously they had sinned; as though he said, that they deserved not only one kind of destruction, but were worthy of hundred deaths; that God therefore would not now be content with any common repentance, and except they came suppliantly and deeply felt their own guilt. It is indeed true, that we ought daily and even constantly to sigh, because we continue almost every hour to provoke God’s wrath against us; but the Prophet here speaks of solemn fasting, because the people had so grievously offended God that there was required some extraordinary confession, such as he here describes. Come then to me with fasting, and weeping, and wailing” that is “Show at length that you are guilty and submissively deprecate the vengeance which ye have through your wickedness deserved.” He speaks like a judge, when he tells the criminal, not to act dissemblingly, but simply to confess his fault. The guilty are indeed wont to weave many excuses to avoid punishment; but when the judge deems a man guilty, and he is abundantly proved to be so, he says, “What good can you do? for these your shuffling and subterfuges make your case worse: for now I hold you bound, and you cannot escape by these shifts, and will only the more provoke my displeasure. If then you wish me to show you favor, own how grievously you have offended, and without any coloring; confess now that you are worthy of death, and that nothing else remains for you, except I mercifully pardon you: for if you try to extenuate your crime, if you attempt by some excuse to seek reprief, you will gain nothing.” So now does the Lord deal with this people: Turn to me, he says; first, sincerely; then with fasting, with weeping, and with wailing; that is, “Let it appear that you suppliantly deprecate the destruction which ye have deserved, for moderate repentance will not do, inasmuch as ye are guilty before me of so many crimes.” We now apprehend the Prophet’s meaning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v13 Mortify your affections and serve God with pureness of…
Mortify your affections and serve God with pureness of heart, and not with ceremonies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Joe 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn…
Joe 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:
Ver. 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord] Now, though it be late first, and, as you may think, too late, Nunquam sero si serio. Now, though the dreadful day of the Lord be very near at hand; yea, though the locusts be already come, as Kimchi senseth it. Oh that ye would know at the last in this your day of grace, the things that belong to your peace, before the gate be shut, the drawbridge taken up, the taper burnt out, &c. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," 2Co 6:2. The apostle (after the prophet Isaiah) purposely beateth upon the το νυν, as if he should say, Now, or never; since thou mayest, the very next minute, be cut off by the stroke of death from all further time of repentance and acceptation. Up, therefore, and be doing. It is the Lord himself that thus saith,
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Turn ye even to me] Usque ad me, altogether as far as to me; give not the half turn only; begin not to repent, and then give over the work. Some are ever about to repent, but they can never find time and hearts to set seriously about it, to do it in good earnest, stultitia semper incipit vivere folly always begins to live (Sen.). Some wamblings they have, as I may say, and some short-winded wishes, some kind of willingness and velleity, but it doth not boil up to the full height of resolution to return. The prodigal changed many places ere he came home. Many came out of Egypt that yet never came into Canaan.
With all your heart] With the heart, Jer 4:14 Pro 23:26, and with the whole heart, in opposition to a divided heart, Hos 10:2, a double heart, Jas 4:8, a heart and a heart, Psa 12:2. This whole heart is elsewhere called a true heart, Heb 10:22, a perfect heart, 2Ch 16:10, truth in the inwards, Psa 51:6, where there is an unfeigned faith, 1Ti 1:5, laborious love, 1Th 1:3, sound and cordial repentance, as here, undissembled wisdom, Jas 3:17, such holiness as rendereth a man like to a crystal glass with a light in the midst of it, doing the truth, Joh 3:21, and having his works full, Rev 3:1-2, being a true worshipper, Joh 4:24, an Israelite indeed, Joh 1:47. God he knows to be just and jealous: he will not endure co-rivals or co-partners in the kingdom. His jurisdiction is without peculiar: he will not divide with the devil. Be the gods of heathen good fellows? saith one; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. He must be served truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving.
And with fasting, weeping, and with mourning] With deep and downright humiliation, suitable to your sins, as Ezr 9:6. Ye have inveterate stains; such as will not be gotten out till the cloth be almost rubbed to pieces. Satan hath intrenched himself in your hearts, and will not be gotten out but by fasting and prayer. Fasting is of itself but a bodily exercise, and meriteth nothing; for religion consisteth not in meat and drink; in the belly, full or empty, Rom 14:17 Col 2:23; but fasting is a singular furtherance to the practice of repentance and the enforcing of our prayers. See Ezr 8:21. As full feeding increaseth corruption, Jer 5:7-8, so religious abstinence macerateth, tameth, and subdueth the rebel flesh, 1Co 9:27, giving it the blue eye, υπωτιαζω, as there and 2Co 7:11, so that not the body so much as the soul is made more active by emptiness. Fasting days are soul fatting days, they fit men for conversion, as here, and make much to the humbling of the spirit; hence they are called days of humiliation and of self-affliction, Lev 16:31; Lev 23:37.
And with weeping] Drown your sins in a deluge of tears; cleanse your wounds by washing in this precious water; quench hell fire with it, kill the worm, fetch out sin’s venom: there is a healing property in these troubled waters. Tears of vine branches are said to cure the leprosy, and the olive is reported to be most fruitful when it most distilleth. These April showers bring on May flowers, and make the heart as a watered garden; or as some faces appear most oriently beautiful when most bedewed with tears. Peter never looked so sweetly as when he wept bitterly; David never sung more pathetically than when his heart was broken most penitentially, Psa 6:1-10 Psa 51:1-19. when tears instead of gems were the ornament of his bed, as Chrysostom speaketh. Mary Magdalene (that great weeper), as she made her eyes a fountain to wash Christ’s feet in, so she had his wounds as a fountain to bathe her soul in; yea, she had afterwards the first sight of the revived Phoenix, whom she held fast by those feet that had lately trod upon the lion and the adder.
And with mourning] This is added, as a degree beyond the former. Men may fast, and yet find their pleasures, Isa 58:13, weep out of stomach, as Esau, or compliment, as Phryne the harlot, who was surnamed κλαυσιγελως, weep-laugh, because she could easily do either: and as among the Brasilians tears are for a present salutation, and as soon gone as if they had said, How do ye? Ut flerent oculos erudiere suos (Ovid). What is a humbling day without a humbled heart? not only a religious incongruity, but a high provocation; like Zimri’s act, when all the congregation were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. Here, therefore, the Lord calleth to mourning, funeral mourning, as the word signifieth: with tabering upon the breast, Nah 2:7, smiting on the thigh, Jer 31:19, beating on the head, face, and other parts, sicut mulierculae in puerperio facere solent, saith Luther there. Nudaque marmoreis percussit pectora palmis (Ovid). See Isa 32:11; Isa 22:12. Sorrow for sin must not be slight and sudden, but sad and soaking: the heart must be turned into a Hadadrimmon, Zec 12:10-11, where the prophet seems, in a sort, to be at a stand for comparisons fit enough and full enough to set forth their sorrow, who, looking upon Christ, whom they had pierced, felt the very nails sticking in their own hearts as so many sharp daggers, or stings of scorpions. The good soul (say the school-men) seeth more cause of grief for sinning than for the death of Christ: because therein was aliquid placens, something that pleaseth: but sin is simpliciter displicens, simply displeasing. So that God’s mourners need not send for mourning women to teach them to mourn, as Jer 9:17, but rather have need to be comforted, lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch grief, 2Co 2:7, and lest Satan get an advantage against them, 2Co 2:11, by mixing the detestable darnel of desperation with the godly sorrow of a pure penitent heart, as Mr Philpot, martyr, speaketh.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Therefore, since so great displeasure is conceived against you…
Therefore, since so great displeasure is conceived against you for your sins, and so terrible execution is shortly to be made upon you, and there is no way of resistance or escape left,
turn ye even to me; repent of your sins whereby you have departed from me; all this preparation made against you is made not to destroy you utterly, but to awaken you to repentance; whilst you may find mercy upon repentance, be advised to it, and prevent your final desolation.
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With all your heart; not hypocritically, with divided heart, but sincerely and with full purpose of amendment: let your heart, your whole heart, first be turned to me your God and Sovereign.
With fasting; public fasting as well as private, such fasting as is required, Joe 1:14,
With weeping; make it appear that you are sensible of, and deeply affected with, your former sins in the jollity of your sensual life, now weep for it.
And with mourning; tears do well become a fast, but they must not be tears only, but a mournful frame of heart within, a fountain of these tears, is expected, and indeed required.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred…
We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred from that desolating judgment described and threatened in the foregoing verses: Therefore now turn you to the Lord. 1. "Thus you must answer the end and intention of the judgment; for it was sent for this end, to convince you of your sins, to humble you for them, to reduce you to your right minds and to your allegiance." God brings us into straits, that he may bring us to repentance and so bring us to himself. 2. "Thus you may stay the progress of the judgment. Things are bad with you, but thus you may prevent their growing worse; nay, if you take this course, they will soon grow better." Here is a gracious invitation,
I. To a personal repentance, exercised in the soul, every family apart, and their wives apart, Zac 12:12. When the judgments of God are abroad, each person is concerned to contribute his quota to the common supplications, having contributed to the common guilt. Every one must mend one and mourn for one, and then we should all be mended and all found among God's mourners. Observe,
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1. What we are here called to, which will teach us what it is to repent, for it is the same that the Lord our God still requires of us, we having all made work for repentance. (1.) We must be truly humbled for our sins, must be sorry we have by sin offended God, and ashamed we have by sin wronged ourselves, both wronged our judgments and wronged our interests. There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame, fasting, and weeping, and mourning; tears for the sin that procured it. But what will the outward expressions of sorrow avail if the inward impressions be not agreeable, and not only accompany them, but be the root and spring of them, and give rise to them? And therefore it follows, Rend your heart, and not your garments; not but that, according to the custom of that age, it was proper for them to rend their garments, in token of great grief for their sins and a holy indignation against themselves for their folly; but, "Rest not in the doing of that, as if that were sufficient, but be more in care to accommodate your spirits than to accommodate your dress to a day of fasting and humiliation; nay, rend not your garments at all, unless withal you rend your hearts, for the sign without the thing signified is but a jest and a mockery, and an affront to God." Rending the heart is that which God looks for and requires; that is the broken and contrite heart which he will not despise, Psa 51:17. When we are greatly grieved in soul for sin, so that it even cuts us to the heart to think how we have dishonoured God and disparaged ourselves by it, when we conceive an aversion to sin, and earnestly desire and endeavor to get clear of the principles of it and never to return to the practice of it, then we rend our hearts for it, and then will God rend the heavens and come down to us with mercy. (2.) We must be thoroughly converted to our God, and come home to him when we fall out with sin. Turn you even to me, said the Lord (Joe 2:12), and again (Joe 2:13), Turn unto the Lord your God. Our fasting and weeping are worth nothing if we do not with them turn to God as our God. When we are fully convinced that it is our duty and interest to keep in with him, and are heartily sorry we have ever turned the back upon him, and thereupon, by a firm and fixed resolution, make his glory our end, his will our rule, and his favour our felicity, then we return to the Lord our God, and this we are all commanded and invited to do, and to do it quickly.
2. What arguments are here used to persuade this people thus to turn to the Lord, and to turn to him with all their hearts. When the heart is rent for sin, and rent from it, then it is prepared to turn entirely to God, and to be devoted entirely to him, and he will have it all or none. Now, to bring ourselves to this, let us consider, (1.) We are sure that he is, in general, a good God. We must turn to the Lord our God, not only because he has been just and righteous in punishing us for our sins, the fear of which should drive us to him, but because he is gracious and merciful, in receiving upon us our repentance, the hope of which should draw us to him. He is gracious and merciful, delights not in the death of sinners, but desires that they may turn and live. He is slow to anger against those that offend him, but of great kindness towards those that desire to please him. These very expressions are used in God's proclamation of his name when he caused his goodness, and with it all his glory, to pass before Moses, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7. He repents him of the evil, not that he changes his mind, but, when the sinner's mind is changed, God's way towards him is changed; the sentence is reversed, and the curse of the law is taken off. Note, That is genuine, ingenuous, and evangelical repentance, which arises from a firm belief of the mercy of God, which we have sinned against, and yet are not in despair. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The goodness of God, if it be rightly understood, instead of emboldening us to go on in sin, will be the most powerful inducement to repentance, Psa 130:4. The act of indemnity brings those to God whom the act of attainder frightened from him. (2.) We have reason to hope that he will, upon our repentance, give us that good which by sin we have forfeited and deprived ourselves of (Joe 2:14), that he will return and repent, that he will not proceed against us as he has done, but will act in favour of us. Therefore let us repent of our sins against him, and return to him in a way of duty, because then we may hope that he will repent of his judgments against us and return to us in a way of mercy. Now observe, [1.] The manner of expectation is very humble and modest: Who knows if he will? Some think it is expressed thus doubtfully to check the presumption and security of the people, and to quicken them to a holy carefulness and liveliness in their repentance, as Jos 24:19. Or, rather, it is expressed doubtfully because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident as we can that, in general, God is gracious and merciful. There is no question at all to be made but that if we truly repent of our sins God will forgive them, and be reconciled to us; but whether he will remove this or the other affliction which we are under may well be questioned, and yet the probability of it should encourage us to repent. Promises of temporal good things are often made with a peradventure. It may be, you shall be hid, Zep 2:3. David's sin is pardoned, and yet the child shall die, and, when David prayed for its life, he said, as here, Who can tell whether God will begracious to me in this matter likewise? Sa2 12:22. The Ninevites repented and reformed upon such a consideration as this, Jon 3:9. [2.] The matter of expectation is very pious. They hope God will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, not as if he were about to go from them, and they could be content with any blessing in lieu of his presence, but behind him, that is, "After he has ceased his controversy with us, he will bestow a blessing upon us;" and what is it? It is a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord our God. The fruits of the earth are called a blessing (Isa 45:8) because they depend upon God's blessing and are necessary blessings to us. They had been deprived of these, and that which grieved them most while they were so was that God's altar was deprived of its offerings and God's priests of their maintenance; that therefore which they comfort themselves with the prospect of in their return of plenty is that then there shall be meat-offerings and drink-offerings in abundance brought to God's altar, which they more desired than to see the wonted abundance of meat and drink brought to their own tables. Thus when Hezekiah was in hopes that he should recover of his sickness he asked, What is the sign that I shall go up, not to the thrones of judgment, or to the councilboard, but to the house of the Lord? Isa 38:22. Note, The plentiful enjoyment of God's ordinances in their power and purity is the most valuable instance of a nation's prosperity and the greatest blessing that can be desired. If God give the blessing of meat-offering and the drink-offering, that will bring along with it other blessings, will sanctify them, sweeten them, and secure them.
II. They are here called to a public national repentance, to be exercised in the solemn assembly, as a national act, for the glory of God and the excitement of one another, and that the neighbouring nations might know and observe what it was that qualified them for God's gracious returns in mercy to them, which they would be the admiring witnesses of. Let us see here, 1. How the congregation must be called together, Joe 2:15, Joe 2:16. The trumpet was blown (Joe 2:1), to sound an alarm of war; but now it must be blown in order to a treaty of peace. God is willing to show mercy to his people if he do but find them in a frame fit for it; and therefore, Call them together; sanctify a fast. By the law many annual feasts were appointed, but only one day in the year was to be observed as a fast, the day of atonement, a day to afflict the soul; and, if they had kept close to God and their duty, there would have been no occasion to observe any more; but now that they had by sin brought the judgments of God upon them they are often called to fasting. What was said Joe 1:14 is here repeated: "Call a solemn assembly; gather the people (press them to come together upon this errand); sanctify the congregation; appoint a time for solemn preparation beforehand and put them in mind to prepare themselves. Let not the greatest be excused, but assemble the elders, the judges and magistrates. Let not the meanest be passed by, but gather the children, and those that suck the breasts." It is good to bring little children, as soon as they are capable of understanding any thing, to religious assemblies, that they may be trained up betimes in the way wherein they should go; but these were brought even when they were at the breast and were kept fasting, that by their cries for the breast the hearts of the parents might be moved to repent of sin, which God might justly so visit upon their children that the tongue of the sucking child might cleave to the roof of his mouth (Lam 4:4), and that on them God might have compassion, as he had on the infants of Nineveh, Jon 4:11. New-married people must not be exempted: Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet; let them not take state upon them as usual, not put on their ornaments, nor indulge themselves in mirth, but address themselves to the duties of the public fast with as much gravity and sadness as any of their neighbours. Note, Private joys must always give way to public sorrows, both those for affliction and those for sin. 2. How the work of the day must be carried on, Joe 2:17. (1.) The priests, the Lord's ministers, must preside in the congregation, and be God's mouth to the people, and theirs to God; who should stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God but those whose business it was to make intercession upon ordinary occasions? (2.) They must officiate between the porch and the altar. There they used to attend about the sacrifices, and therefore now that they have no sacrifices to offer, or next to none, there they must offer up spiritual sacrifices. There the people must see them weeping and wrestling, like their father Jacob, and be helped into the same devout frame. Ministers must themselves be affected with those things wherewith they desire to affect others. It was between the porch and the altar that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was put to death for his faithfulness; that precious blood God would require at their hands, and therefore, to turn away the judgment threatened for it, there they must weep. (3.) They must pray. Words here are put into their mouths, which they might in their prayers enlarge upon. Their petition must be, Spare thy people, O Lord! God's people, when they are in distress, can expect no relief against God's justice but what comes from his mercy. They cannot say, Lord, right us, but, Lord, spare us. We deserve the correction; we need it; but, Lord, mitigate it. The sinner's supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. Their plea must be taken from the relation wherein they stand to God ("They are thy people, and thy heritage, therefore have compassion on them"), but especially from the concern of God's glory in their trouble - "Lord, give not thy heritage to reproach, to the reproach of famine; let not the land of Canaan, that has so long been celebrated as the glory of all lands, now be made the scorn of all lands; let not the heathen rule over them, as they will easily do when thy heritage is thus impoverished and disabled to subsist. Let not the heathen make them a proverb, or a by-word" (so some read it); "let it never be said, As poor and beggarly as an Israelite." Note, The maintaining of the credit of the nation among its neighbours is a blessing to be desired and prayed for by all that wish well to it. But that reproach of the church is especially to be dreaded and deprecated which reflects upon God: "Let them not say among the people, Where is their God - that God who has promised to help them, whom they have boasted so much of and put such a confidence in?" If God's heritage be destroyed, the neighbours will say, "God was either weak and could not relieve them or unkind and would not." Deu 32:37, Where are now their gods in whom they trusted? And Sennacherib thus triumphs over them. Where are they gods of Hamath and Arpad? But it must by no means be suffered that they should say of Israel, Where is their God? For we are sure that our God is in the heavens (Psa 115:2, Psa 115:3), is in his temple, Psa 11:4.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Therefore also now, saith the Lord,.... Before this terrible…
Therefore also now, saith the Lord,.... Before this terrible and intolerable day, which is near at hand, comes; before these judgments and calamities threatened take place, though just at hand; serious repentance is never too late, now is the accepted time; see Luk 19:42;
turn ye even to me with all your heart; against whom they had sinned, and who had prepared his army against them, and was at the head of it, just ready to give the orders, and play his artillery upon them; and yet suggests, that even now, that if they turned to the Lord by true repentance, not, feignedly and hypocritically, but cordially and sincerely, with true hearts, and with their whole hearts, he was ready to receive and forgive them. The Targum is,
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"turn ye to my worship with all your heart:''
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; external signs of inward grief and sorrow, testifying their hearty return to the Lord; which, though, without the heart, signify nothing, yet should be shown where hearty repentance is, for the honour and glory of God.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v13 And repenteth him - He turneth from executing the…
And repenteth him - He turneth from executing the fierceness of his wrath.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Verse 12. Turn ye even to me] Three means…
Verse 12. Turn ye even to me] Three means of turning are recommended: Fasting, weeping, mourning, i.e., continued sorrow.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v12 Joe 2:12-14. Therefore, also now, &c. — Or, Nevertheless,…
Joe 2:12-14. Therefore, also now, &c. — Or, Nevertheless, also now, saith the Lord, &c. — Here a method is pointed out, whereby they might still have hopes of avoiding the calamity denounced against them, namely, by turning to God sincerely, and publicly testifying their inward repentance and grief for their sins, by outward expressions of sorrow and humiliation. And rend your heart — Rending of the garments was customary in times of great sorrow and affliction, not only among the Jews and Israelites, but among almost all the ancient nations. The prophet here does not absolutely forbid their using this outward sign of sorrow, but exhorts them to attend more to inward contrition and humiliation, without which the outward signs of them were of no signification before God. The Hebrew writers often signify the preference that is due to one thing above another in terms which express the rejecting of that which is less worthy. Thus we read, Hos 6:6, I will have mercy and not sacrifice; that is, I require mercy rather than sacrifice. In the same sense we are to understand the text before us. God prefers a broken and a contrite heart far before all outward expressions of humiliation and grief. For he is gracious and merciful, &c. — These words allude to God’s own declaration of himself, Exo 34:6, on which they might with good reason ground hopes of forgiveness on their repenting unfeignedly of their sins, and bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance. And repenteth him of the evil — That is, of the evil which he had threatened to inflict in case those, against whom his threatenings were denounced, did not turn to him in true repentance. God is in Scripture said to repent when the humiliation of sinners and the reformation of their conduct make it unfit that he should inflict the punishment threatened by him. Who knoweth if he will return, and repent — God’s own nature, and the former instances we have found of his merciful disposition, encourage us to hope, that our sincere repentance may avail to avert his wrath, and engage him to restore his blessings upon us and our land. The prophet expresses himself between hope and fear of what might be the event, lest he should fill them with too much security on one hand, or drive them on the other, by a despair of pardon, to have no thoughts of repentance or amendment, but to go on still in their sins. Even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God — At least sufficient provision to supply the necessary parts of God’s public worship, which since the dearth had been necessarily omitted.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Therefore - (And) now also All this being so,…
Therefore - (And) now also All this being so, one way of escape there is, true repentance. As if God said , “All this I have therefore spoken, in order to terrify you by My threats. Wherefore “turn unto Me with all your hearts,” and show the penitence of your minds “by fasting and weeping and mourning,” that, fasting now, ye may “be filled” hereafter “weeping now,” ye may laugh hereafter; mourning now, ye may hereafter “be comforted” Luk 6:21; Mat 5:4. And since it is your custom “to rend your garments” in sorrow, I command you to rend, not them but your hearts which are full of sin, which, like bladders, unless they be opened, will burst of themselves. And when ye have done this, return unto the Lord your God, whom your former sins aleinated from you; and despair not of pardon for the greatness of your guilt, for mighty mercy will blot out mighty sins.”
: “The strict Judge cannot be overcome, for He is Omnipotent; cannot be deceived, for He is Wisdom; cannot be corrupted, for He is justice; cannot be sustained, for He is Eternal; cannot be avoided, for He is everywhere. Yet He can be entreated, because He is mercy; He can be appeased, because He is Goodness; He can cleanse, because He is the Fountain of grace; He can satisfy, because He is the Bread of life; He can soothe, because He is the Unction from above; He can beautify, because He is Fullness; He can beatify because He is Bliss. Turned from Him, then, and fearing His justice, turn ye to Him, and flee to His mercy. Flee from Himself to Himself, from the rigor of justice to the Bosom of mercy. The Lord who is to be feared saith it. He who is Truth enjoins what is just, profitable, good, “turn ye to Me,” etc.”
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Turn ye - even “to Me,” i. e., so as to return “quite to” (see the note at Hos 14:2) God, not halting, not turning half way, not in some things only, but from all the lusts and pleasures to which they had turned from God. : “Turn quite to Me,” He saith, “with all your heart,” with your whole mind, whole soul, whole spirit, whole affections. For I am the Creator and Lord of the heart and mind, and therefore will, that that whole should be given, yea, given back, to Me, and endure not that any part of it be secretly stolen from Me to be given to idols, lusts or appetites.” “It often happens with some people,” says Gregory , “that they stoutly gird themselves up to encounter mine vices, but neglect to overcome others, and while they never rouse themselves up against these, they are re-establishing against themselves, even those which they had subdued.”
Others, “in resolve, aim at right courses, but are ever doubling back to their wonted evil ones, and being, as it were, drawn out without themselves, they return back to themselves in a round, desiring good ways, but never forsaking evil ways.” In contrast to these half conversions, he bids us turn to God with our whole inmost soul, so that all our affections should be fixed on God, and all within us, by a strong union, cleave to Him, for “in whatever degree our affections are scattered among created things, so far is the conversion of the heart to God impaired.” “Look diligently,” says Bernard , “what thou lovest, what thou fearest, wherein thou rejoicest or art saddened, and under the rags of conversion thou wilt find a heart pervered. The whole heart is in these four affections; and of these I think we must understand that saying, “turn to” the Lord “with all thy heart.”
Let then thy love be converted to Him, so that thou love nothing whatever save Himself, or at least for Him. Let thy fear also be converted unto Him, for all fear is perverted, whereby thou fearest anything besides Him or not for Him. So too let thy joy and sorrow equally be converted unto Him. This will be, if thou only grieve or joy according to Him.” : “There is a conversion with the whole heart, and another with a part. The conversion with the whole heart God seeketh, for it suffices to salvation. That which is partial he rejecteth, for it is feigned and far from salvation. In the heart, there are three powers, reason, will, memory; reason, of things future; will, of things present; memory, of things past. For reason seeks things to come; the will loves things present; memory retains things past. Reason illumines; will loves; memory retains. When then the reason seeks that Highest Good and finds, the will receives and loves, the memory anxiously keeps and closely embraces, then the soul turns with the whole heart to God. But when the reason slumbers and neglects to seek heavenly things, or the will is tepid and cares not to love them, or the memory is torpid and is careless to retain them, then the soul acts false, falling first into the vice of ignorance, secondly into the guilt of negligence, thirdly into the sin of malice.
In each, the soul acts false; else ignorance would be expelled by the light of reason, and negligence be excluded by zeal of will, and malice be quenched by diligence of memory (of divine things). Reason then seeking begetteth knowledge; will embracing produceth love; memory holding fast, edification. The first produceth the light of knowledge, the second, the love of righteousness; the third preserveth the treasure of grace. This is that conversion of heart, which God requireth; this is that, which sufficeth to salvation.”
And with fasting - o: “In their returning to Him, it is required in the first place, that it be with the heart in the inward man, yet so that the outward man is not left unconcerned, but hath his part also, in performance of such things whereby he may express, how the inward man is really affected; and so by the concurrence of both is true conversion made up. “With fasting,” which shall make for the humbling of the heart, which pampering of the flesh is apt to puff up and make insensible of its own condition, and forgetful of God and His service, as Jeshurun who, being “waxed fat, kicked, and forsook the God which made him and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation Deu 32:15. To waiting then on God’s service and prayer, it is usually joined in Scripture, as almost a necessary accompaniment, called for by God, and by holy men practiced.”
And with weeping and with mourning - that is, by “beating” on the breast, (as the word originally denoted,) “as the publican smote upon his breast” Luk 18:13, and “all the people that came together to that sight” (of Jesus on the Cross), “beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts” Luk 23:48. : “These also, in themselves signs of grief, stir up in the heart more grief, and so have their effects on the person himself, for the increase of his repentance, as well as for shewing it.” It also stirs up in others like passions, and provokes them also to repentance.” : “These things, done purely and holily, are not conversion itself, but are excellent signs of conversion.” : “We ought “to turn in fasting,” whereby vices are repressed, and the mind is raised. We ought to “turn in weeping,” out of longing for our home, out of displeasure at our faults, out of love to the sufferings of Christ, and for the manifold transgressions and errors of the world.” “What avails it,” says Gregory , “to confess iniquities, if the affliction of penitence follow not the confession of the lips? For three things are to be considered in every true penitent, conversion of the mind, confession of the mouth, and revenge for the sin. This third sort is as a necessary medicine, that so the imposthume of guilt, pricked by confession, be purified by conversion, and healed by the medicine of affliction. The sign of true conversion is not in the confession of the mouth, but in the affliction of penitence. For then do we see that a sinner is well converted, when by a worthy austerity of affliction he strives to efface what in speech he confesses. Wherefore John Baptist, rebuking the ill-converted Jews who flock to him says, “O generation of vipers - bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external…
Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external works are requisite, at least in will: if they be wilfully omitted, it is a sure sign that the heart is not moved. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv12–13 With such judgments impending over the Jews, Jehovah Himself…
With such judgments impending over the Jews, Jehovah Himself urges them to repentance.
also now--Even now, what none could have hoped or believed possible, God still invites you to the hope of salvation.
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fasting . . . weeping . . . mourning--Their sin being most heinous needs extraordinary humiliation. The outward marks of repentance are to signify the depth of their sorrow for sin.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v12 12-14. There is still hope. The door of mercy…
12-14. There is still hope. The door of mercy is open, and if the people turn to Jehovah in a spirit of penitence he may yet pardon. 12.
Therefore also now — Better, R.V., “Yet even now.” At the eleventh hour, when destruction seems imminent.
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Saith Jehovah — Literally, whisper of Jehovah. A very solemn asservation, giving to the utterance special weight and demanding earnest attention. The expression is common in the prophetic books. “Whisper,” Hebrews na’um, is a passive participle from a root “to utter a low sound”; hence, the whispered or murmured utterance of revelation that falls upon the mental ear.
Turn ye… to me — Leave your self-chosen paths of rebellion, come to your senses, recognize me as your God, and follow my instruction. This is the appeal of all the great prophets (compare Hos_14:1; Isa_1:2; Amo_4:6, etc.). Turn emphasizes the idea of conversion in its practical aspect. The exhortation indicates clearly the purpose of all the prophets in delivering their dark messages of judgment. The judgments themselves were primarily disciplinary; and the interpretations of these judgments by the prophets had for their sole object repentance and a return to God on the part of the people. But it is not to be merely a formal, external return.
With all your heart — In Hebrew thought the heart is the seat not only of the emotions, but of all the powers of personality, intellect, sensibility, and will (Delitzsch, System of Biblical Psychology, 292ff.). It includes the entire activity of the human spirit; all thoughts, all affections, all volitions. These are to be centered upon Jehovah. In Deuteronomy the same thought is expressed by the phrase “with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deu_4:29; Deu_6:5, etc.). The heart turning manifests itself in outward signs of grief for past sins:
Fasting (Joe_1:14),… weeping,… mourning — The last literally, beating the breast (Joe_1:9; Joe_1:13-14). In the emphasis on externals Joel differs greatly from the earlier prophets. To them fasting and the entire external ceremonial was of very little or no importance; but the statement, “It comes in the end to this, that to repent is equivalent to to hold a day for fasting and prayer; and that is the real goal of Joel in Joe_2:1-17, and Joe_1:1-20; certainly along with it comes the exhortation: rend your heart, and not your garments; water alone cannot do it” (Wellhausen), does not recognize sufficiently the emphasis of the prophet upon heart repentance. He does not place exclusive emphasis upon externals. Lest the people should be satisfied with external, formal turning, the prophet repeats (Joe_2:13) his summons to repentance, with even greater emphasis on the inner change.
Rend your heart, and not your garments — The rending of the garment was among many ancient nations an expression of deep grief or terror. It was practiced in bereavement, as soon as the report of the death was received; the custom was weakened afterward to a conventional tearing of the garment at the breast for a hand’s breadth (Jos_7:6; 2Sa_3:31; compare Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, article “Mourning”). The mere tearing of the garments is not sufficient; for this reason the prophet insists most strongly on the spiritual conditions accompanying it. The rending of the heart signifies true contrition (Psa_51:19; Eze_36:26; Jer_4:4).
They should be moved to such repentance by past experience, for Jehovah has shown himself to be gracious — Literally, inclined, that is, to pardon the repentant sinner.
Merciful — Possessing mercy in abundance; equivalent to full of compassion, indicating the benevolent attitude of Jehovah toward all mankind, worthy and unworthy; his sympathy with man’s miseries.
Slow to anger — Literally, long as to the breathing of the nostrils, that is, in anger. He does not allow his anger to break forth immediately on the discovery of sin and shortcoming; he waits to see whether the sinner will repent and do better.
Of great kindness — R.V., “abundant in loving-kindness.” Hebrews hesedh; used (1) of the love of God toward man, (2) of the love of man toward God, (3) of the love of man toward man (see on Hos_2:19); here, in the first sense, might be reproduced by paternal affection. It indicates the chief characteristic of God’s dealings with men, especially with those who are needy and helpless, and thus it includes all the virtues spoken of before. Think, says the prophet, of the paternal affection manifested by Jehovah toward you in all your past history, and let that thought become so vivid that it will lead you to repentance. This description of the character of God is taken from Exo_34:6.
Repenteth him — Continuation of the description of the character of Jehovah. Better taken as a participle, translated by a relative clause, “and one who repents.” The usual meaning of the verb niham, “to repent,” is “to change one’s mind or purpose out of pity for those whom one’s actions have affected, or because the results of an action have not fulfilled expectations.” That God repents is often stated in the Old Testament; this does not mean, however, that God ever changes his absolute will because he has been mistaken, or that he ever substitutes a worthier idea for one unworthy of his dignity. His essential attitude does not change, but the expression of God’s character toward man depends upon man’s attitude toward God. Now, since the announcement of a future manifestation of God is always conditional, its fulfillment depending upon the future attitude of man, cases may occur in which the announcement results in a complete change of attitude on the part of those doomed to destruction (compare Jonah and Nineveh). In such a case God may revoke the punishment in perfect accord with the immutability of his character. Such change on the part of the people is presupposed here. An unphilosophical, primitive people, whose apprehension of the infinite God was limited, must use expressions whose contents could be understood, though they were not literally true of God (Jer_18:5-12; Jon_3:10).
The evil — The evil that Jehovah has threatened to send as punishment of their guilt. In view of the merciful character of Jehovah the prophet hopes that even in this crisis there may be a withholding of further judgment, and the change of the present calamity into a blessing. 14.
Who knoweth — Equivalent to perhaps. “He speaks after the manner of a terrified conscience that is lifted up again with difficulty after a season of affliction and begins to aspire after hope and the mercy of God.… The expression does not indicate doubt, but rather affirmation coupled with desire; as if we were to say, God will, if it please him, turn again” (Luther). A more confident expression might have made the people even more reckless.
Return — Turn back from the judgment upon the execution of which he has already entered (Joe_2:11).
Repent — See on Joe_2:13. That instead of devastation and ruin he will leave behind him a blessing can mean in this connection only removal of the locusts, cessation of the drought and the fire, and restoration of fertility. But the true significance of the new fertility lies not in supplying means for the sustenance of life, but in that it will make possible the resumption or continuation of the daily sacrifices and thus assure the continued presence of Jehovah (Joe_1:9). The restoration of the daily sacrifice seems to be the greatest blessing desired. Fertility, harvest, vintage, are always in the Old Testament regarded as direct gifts from God (Hos_2:5 ff.).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–13 12. turn ye even to me] come back from…
12. turn ye even to me] come back from your self-chosen course of sin, return to Me. On the idea of turning (or returning) to God in the Old Testament (from which the theological idea of “conversion” was ultimately developed), see on Amo_4:6.
with all your heart] with the entire force of your moral purpose. The Deuteronomic phrase is “with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deu_6:5, and elsewhere), i.e. with the intellect and the affections combined[39]; but the heart alone is often mentioned (e.g. 1Sa_12:20; 1Sa_12:24, Jer_29:13; and, as here, with turn, 1Sa_7:3, Jer_24:7). The heart is in Hebrew psychology not (as with us) the organ of the affections, but the organ of the intellect (see e.g. Hos_7:11); here, the organ of moral purpose and resolve.
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[39] See the writer’s Commentary on Deuteronomy, pp. 21 n., 73, 91.
with fasting, and with weeping, and with wailing] i.e. with grief for sin, of which these are to be the external signs. On fasting, as a mark of penitence, see on Joe_1:14 : on weeping, as its concomitant, Jdg_20:26, Psa_69:10, Zec_7:3; cf. 2Ki_22:19, Isa_22:12, Ezr_10:1.
12–14. Nevertheless, it is still not too late to avert the judgement by earnest penitence; for God is gracious and compassionate, and ready to pardon those who turn to Him with their whole heart. Cf. Jer_4:14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–13 (12) Saith the Lord.—The word saith is here no…
(12) Saith the Lord.—The word saith is here no common word in the Hebrew. It implies an authoritative and most weighty utterance, as in Psa_110:1, “The Lord said unto my Lord.” “The word is used in almost every instance of the immediate utterance of God Himself; more rarely of that of the prophet or inspired organ of the Divine revelations” (Perowne, Commentary on the Psalms, vol. ii., p. 300).
Turn ye even to me.—The question, “Who can abide it?” is left unanswered. But the only possible reply is inferred in the touching appeal which the prophet is inspired by Jehovah to make, that His righteous anger may be averted.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Vers. 12-14. The judgment of the locusts was typical…
Vers. 12-14. The judgment of the locusts was typical of the great day of judgment. The tartars of that day were designed to bring the people to repentance. Thus judgment was mingled with mercy.
Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with great fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. At this period of sore judgment God, by the prophet, calls upon the people to return and repent, to fast and to weep, to grieve inwardly and mourn outwardly for sin. He also instructs them how to engage in the duty of humiliation aright and acceptably. The humiliation was to be that of the heart sorrow of heart for the sins by which they had offended God, inward shame on account of those iniquities by which they had wronged their own souls and marred their own best interests. But while there behoved to be this inward contrition, outward expressions of it were also required. Genuine sorrow and shame for sin were to be accompanied by fasting, tears of penitence, and other indications of mourning. With all your heart. Kimchi comments thus: "That your repentance be not with a heart and a heart.
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Vers. 12-17. These verses summon the peopleTo humiliation for sin, and thanksgiving for mercy.
God, by his prophet, does not forbid the outward sign of sorrow, so customary among Orientals and common among the Jews; he rather insists upon the presence of the thing signified, without which the sign was more a mockery than a reality.
I THE OCCASION OF THE HUMILIATION. It Was an earnest time with the people of the southern kingdom. Terrible desolation had been made in the land of Judah. An army of locusts had been the agents of Divine vengeance; sin had been the cause; the author of the punishment was God. "The prophet had described at length the coming of God"s judgments as a mighty army. But, lest amid the judgments men should (as they often do) forget the Judge, he represents God as commanding this his army, gathering, ordering, marshalling, directing them, giving them the word when and upon whom they should pour themselves. Their presence was a token of this. They should neither anticipate that command nor linger. But as an army awaits the command to move, and then, the word being given, rolls on instantly, so God"s judgments await the precise moment of his will, and then fall.
II THE NATURE OF THE HUMILIATION.
III THE MOTIVES TO HUMILIATION.
IV THE METHOD OF THEIR HUMILIATION.
1. A great variety of circumstances is to be attended to.
(1) There is the signal to be given: "Blow the trumpet in Zion.
(2) Serious preparation made for a fast: "Sanctify a fast.
(3) The summoning of a solemn assembly: "Call a solemn assembly.
(4) The convocation of the people: "Gather the people" ("am); and,
(5) when they were thus convened and in consequence came together, they were consecrated into a solemn assembly (qahal): "Sanctify the congregation.
(6) The constituent elements of the assembly embraced the oldest and the youngest, with ages intermediate elders and sucklings, and even children of tender years; nor could the newly married, who at other times were exempted from war or pressing duties, claim exemption now; nay, on the very day of their bridal, the bridegroom was called forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet to join the multitude of mourners, and share in the public humiliation and national sorrow.
2. The services of the occasion were to be conducted in an orderly and becoming manner. Everything connected with the house and service of God requires to be done decently and in good order. Thus, in the passage before us, nothing is left to haphazard; nor did anything remain to be improvised on the spur of the moment, and after the assembly met.
(1) The persons who were to conduct the solemn service were appointed the priests, the ministers of the Lord;
(2) the place they were to occupy was pointed out between the porch and the altar;
(3) the part they were to take in the duties of the day was assigned them weeping for their own sins and the sins of the people;
(4) the prayer they were to pray was prescribed to them.
3. The prayer itself
(1) pleads for sparing mercy re-echoed in the petitions of the Litany, "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever." The second petition of the prayer deprecates the prospect of God"s heritage becoming a reproach, and being ultimately enslaved by their heathen neighbours through feebleness and destitution which had been occasioned by the famine.
(2) The plea suggested by the prophet to the people is twofold, and forms the ground of each petition. It is thy people, O Lord; thy heritage. " They were still God"s people, punished, severely punished, and, it must be added, severely punished for their sins, but now penitent and petitioning for pardon. They were still more; they were God"s heritage, his peculiar treasure, segregated from the surrounding nations and set apart for the communication of his revelations, and to be the conservators of his oracles. Nor was there any presumption in reminding God of this; they were only acting as God"s remembrancers in relation to both his purpose and his promise. The glory of God as well as the good of his people was imperilled. "Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" In this way the heathen used to boast, as we learn from the boastful words of Sennacherib when he asks, "Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?" Even such are the words of Jehovah himself when he asks, in relation to the vanities of the heathen, "Where are now their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?
Conversion.
God is not satisfied to utter threatenings and to foretell evil It is truly characteristic of him that he adds words of gracious entreaty, expostulation, and counsel. He would be deserving of our adoring gratitude did he merely express his willingness to receive the returning sinner; but in this passage he deigns to invite and beseech those who have rebelled and who are in danger of perdition, that they convert and repent.
I WHO ARE THEY WHO ARE THUS ADMONISHED? They are such as have been highly favoured, and have nevertheless disobeyed the Father who has cared for them, rebelled against the King who has been gracious to them. Who amongst men must not be included in this class?
II TO WHOM ARE THEY INSTRUCTED TO RETURN? "To me," saith the Lord. It is the offended One, who himself condescends to invite transgressors to reverse their steps, to renounce their disobedience, to cleave unto himself. This is a miracle of grace.
III WHAT KIND OF CONVERSION DOES GOD REQUIRE? In this passage we have as clear a statement as even the New Testament can supply of the spirituality of true religion. God does not ask for verbal, formal submission; he asks for the return of the heart. Here is involved true penitence heart-sorrow for sin. Here is involved true faith heart-attachment to God. The heart is emphatically God"s, and it is the heart he asks.
IV WHAT TOKENS OF SINCERITY IN CONVERSION DOES GOD EXPECT? The true conversion is within; but there will be appropriate evidences that sin is loathed and forsaken. For this purpose the tears and mourning, etc., here described, are to be desired by God and presented by man. T.
Vers. 12, 13. Soul-reformation.
"Therefore also now," etc. Observe here three things in relation to soul-reformation.
I ITS PROCESS. Turning to the Lord, "Turn ye unto the Lord your God." The unregenerate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his Father"s house and gone into the "far country" of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul-reformation is not turning from one doctrine, or Church, or habit to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; there is "fasting," and "weeping," and "mourning," and the "rending of the heart." Soul-reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins. "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight.
II ITS URGENCY. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord." Yes, now is the time; there is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now:
1. Because the work is of the most paramount importance.
2. Because the time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your soul"s sake adjourn not this for a single hour.
III ITS ENCOURAGEMENT. "For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." The word deprecateth would be better than "repenteth." The inflicting of sufferings on his creatures is repugnant to his nature. "He desireth not the death of the sinner." What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate father! D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even…
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Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.
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The characteristics and encouragements of true repentance
I. That true repentance consists in the immediate turning of the soul to God, in a mood of deep sorrow for sin. This turning to God must be--
1. Immediate. The prophet tells the people of Judah that they must turn also now to the Lord. These little words are full of emphasis, and signify that even though the people had so long abused the Divine forbearance, and although the opportunity of mercy was passing away, yet if they would at once pay heed to the words of warning they should be saved. There was no time for delay.
2. Sincere. The prophet says to the people of Judah, turn unto the Lord with all your heart. They were not to simulate a repentance they did not truly feel; it was not to be half-hearted. They were to turn to God in their thoughts, in their affections, in their wills, and in every faculty and capability of their souls,
3. Inward. The prophet says to the people of Judah, Rend your heart, and not your garments. Sin is an inward thing, and so must be the repentance which puts it away.
4. Sorrowful. The people of Judah were to turn to the Lord with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. A true turning of the soul to God is always accompanied by intense sorrow because the law of God has been broken, because the soul has been injured by sin, because time has been lost in which good might have been done, because it has enfeebled the moral manhood, and because it has moved the anger of God.
II. That true repentance is encouraged by our knowledge of the Divine nature, and by a hope of the Divine blessing. 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. Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? Here we have the greatest encouragements to repentance--
1. From our knowledge of the Divine character. The prophet here gives a very beautiful revelation of the nature and character of God to the inhabitants of Judah, which they would perhaps hardly regard as consistent with His previous threats of judgment. And we have throughout the Bible such a revelation of the Divine mercy as should be an encouragement to the penitent. It is natural for God to have mercy upon the repentant soul, even as it is natural for fire to burn.
2. From our hope of the Divine blessing. It seems as though the prophet wished to leave the Jews in some uncertainty as to whether God would return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him, in order that he might not weaken any impression which his former denunciations had made. God often leaves behind Him a blessing in the repentant soul, even a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Lessons--
1. That men should turn to God with full purpose of heart.
2. That they should do so while it is called to-day.
3. That they should thus seek His mercy and expect His blessing. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The first day of Lent
From very ancient times Ash Wednesday has been kept by Christians with great strictness. Our Church too marks this day as a specially solemn day, by providing a special service for it, namely, the Commination, or denouncing of Gods anger and judgments against sinners--a service well fitted to stir up our dull minds to the thought of our sins, and to rouse our slumbering con sciences to the feeling of our guilt. Now the great use of special days like this is to fill our hearts and minds with some special thought or feeling, to fix it firmly in our memory, to press and stamp it in so deeply that it will not easily be rubbed out by the wear and tear of the world: and on Ash Wednesday the thought that should fill our mind is the thought of our sinfulness; the feeling that should be uppermost in our hearts is the feeling of our deep guilt in the sight of God. This thought and feeling should rise with us in the morning, should go forth with us to our daily toil or business, should be with us wherever we are, and go with us wherever we go, if we would spend this day as it is meant to be spent, as a day of deep and earnest penitence. The very reason why most peoples religion is so poor and weak is because their religious feelings are so shallow, their religious acts so hasty and formal. A day like this is meant to correct the fault. It is meant to deepen the feelings, to give occasion for a more real and searching penitence. It is meant to be a day of much strict self-examination, of much humble confession of sin, of much earnest prayer, of much godly sorrow, of much hearty resolve. To fast on this day, and deny ourselves outwardly, is a mere mockery and snare, tempting us to think well of ourselves, and to fancy we are doing great things, if we have not the inward spirit of fasting, which is the humbling of the soul in secret shame and sorrow before God. Let this be what we aim at, and then we shall be thankful for every aid, such as fasting is, to so good an end. Only we must remember the end is greater than the means. Let us not, then, despise a day and a service which may be so blest to us, and which have been so blest to thousands and thousands of Christian people. Nay, till we can say that our sense of sin cannot be made deeper, that our confessions cannot be more earnest, that our knowledge of self cannot be increased, that our repentance cannot be more sincere,--have we any right to despise these helps? (W. Walsham How, D. D.)
National and personal fasting
It is not always that the voice of the Church hits the mood of the world. Just now there is no thoughtful man, whatever his personal condition, whose spirit is altogether untouched by sadness. We are all breathing an atmosphere of uneasiness, humiliation, and perplexity; our hearts are heavy, and there is much to weigh them down. How can we use the resource which the text proclaims? It is by no lip-uttered penitence that we can so turn unto God. It is by no mere confession of faults which we think others have committed, and petitions that they may be repaired. We may individually feel a sense of impotence in the presence of movements and measures which we cannot control. But, remember, that the whole is made up of parts; several items construct the whole. Every one who honestly tries to see himself and his wishes in the light of the Lord of righteousness, aids in the solution of national and social problems, whatever they may be, whether they concern order, home distress, or troubles beyond the seas. The individual is the unit of humanity. A sense of general vexation must never blot out that of personal responsibility. As each sweeps before his own door, the street is clean. As each honestly turns to the Lord, the attitude of the whole is corrected. Our business is to see to the items of our own conduct, leaving the total to accumulate by inevitable law. How may we individually use the tide of national anxiety in obeying the summons of the Lenten season? We have a common fault, a hectoring tone towards supposed inferiors. If there is anything which should cultivate Christian society and Christian households, it is goodwill and kindliness. Let not the summons of the text demand a mere epoch of religious procedure, when we kneel in the congregation or in the chamber. Let it touch our lives. A turning to the Lord is a turning from self, from its lower passions, aims, and habits. It comes out in audible, visible, material results. It is seen in many a thing; it is perceived in the tone of the voice, and in the look of the eye; it is seen in the fair conduct of commonplace business; it is seen in our correspondence; in the office and the shop; in the amenities of home, and in the rectitude of public life; in the details of our personal conversation, and in the nature of our familiar habits. Pause at one point--with fasting. This arrow hits a national and personal blot. Some people fast too much, through poverty. Some people eat too much, through self-indulgence. There are many who need to fast, who need to use such abstinence that the flesh may, as it should, obey the mind, obey the spirit, not on the lowest, but on the highest grounds, that they may be, physically and intellectually, in body and soul, such as God intends them to be. Treat the summons of the Lenten season as a wholesome, reasonable, godly, human call to consider our ways, as in the presence of the Lord in whom we live, and move, and have our being. (Harry Jones.)
Thoughts for Lent
Ash Wednesday is neither a saints day, nor a festival. It is simply the first of the forty days of Lent. On this day we read the seven penitential Psalms, and the Commination Service, and thus the day assumes a severe penitential character of its own. The text reminds us that at this time we have an inward and an outward duty to fulfil. The inward duty is, the turning of the heart to God. The outward is, the mortification of our bodily appetites.
1. Fasting is a matter very little discoursed about, and very little practised. Fasting is not for the weak, the sickly, the very young, or the very poor. Fasting is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Fasting should be observed to God. Its essence is mortification,--not the mere act of abstaining from food. The fasting we should all aim at is rather the denying ourselves in respect of whatever we know to be a superfluity. A check imposed on the curiousness of appetite; a curb submitted to in respect of the quantity eaten, this is true fasting.
2. The inward conversion of the heart to God. This is the great duty of the Lenten season. To think over ones past life, and ones present state; to review ones sins, and to loathe and forsake them; to make reparation where it is possible, and to confess ones fault when one cannot repair it--this is the fast which the Lord approveth. (J. Burgon, M. A.)
The right use of calamities
Two exhortations, whereof the first is, that they should set about sincere repentance and humiliation, testified by holy private fasts and unfeigned sorrow, and so prove that they are really converted to God, and reconciled to Him through faith in the Mediator (verse 12). And that they should study rather to be afflicted for sin, than by performance of external ceremonies to pretend to it only (verse 13). Unto this exhortation two reasons are subjoined, the first whereof is taken from the properties of God, who is merciful and gracious; not easily provoked, rich in kindness, and who, upon sinners repentance, is ready to recall His threatenings that they be not executed. Doctrine.
1. Were there never so many plagues on sinners, yet God is not bound to take notice of them so long as they repent not. Were there never so much terror and affliction of spirit upon men, under feared or felt judgments, yet all these serve to no purpose if they stir not up to repentance; and they must be mad who, being in such a condition, yet do not set about that duty. Therefore after all the representation of plagues, and of terror upon men, they are called to this as the only remedy and way to an issue, and as the duty which they cannot but mind who are seriously affected with such a condition. Therefore, turn ye.
2. When God is threatening most sadly, and proceeding most severely, He would be still understood as inviting by these to repentance, and willing to accept of it. For the Lord who threatens, doth exhort, and He brings it in with a therefore, or upon the back of the former discourse, to show that this is His scope in all of it.
3. Such as have been so long abusers of Gods patience, as matters seem irremediable, and strokes are either imminent or incumbent, should not, for all that, look upon the exercise of repentance as too late and out of season, but ought to judge that it is good even then to set about it, and that it will do good, however matters go. Therefore, notwithstanding they were in this sad plight, yet the Lord exhorts them even now also to turn.
4. Such as do mind repentance, especially when God declareth Himself angry, would not linger or delay to set about it. So much also may be imported in that now also they should turn.
5. Whatever doubts such as are humbled by judgments may have, that their repentance will not be accepted; yet they are bound to answer all these from Gods naked word who giveth the invitation to such.
6. Repentance for particular sins, under sad judgments, will neither be right nor acceptable so long as men do not mind conversion to God, and a change of their state by regeneration; that so, the tree being good, the fruits may be answerable. Therefore doth He begin with, Turn ye unto Me, where the exhortation doth not import any power in man, but only points out his duty, and showeth that exhortation is a mean which God blesseth to His elect, and not only deals thereby with them as rational creatures, but therewith imparts strength that they may obey.
7. In turning unto God men would beware of being faint or feigned, but would study to be sincere and single, since they cannot attain to perfection, for this, in a Gospel sense, is to turn even to Me with all your heart.
8. As men would begin at conversion to God, so they would therewith study to be deeply affected for sin and bygone evils, and under the judgments procured thereby; and would evidence their affliction of spirit by sorrow and humiliation suitable (in some measure) to their condition. Therefore is it added, as an evidence and companion of the former, turn ye with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning; or with such sorrow as is usual in mourning for the dead, and expressed not only by wailing, but by smiting on the breast, and the like gestures. It is a change to be suspected where men please themselves with their present good condition, and do lightly pass over their former miscarriages. And albeit signs and expressions of sorrow be not always at command when men are most afflicted, yet repentance for gross and long continuance in iniquity, and under extra ordinary judgments, should not be passed over in an ordinary and common way.
9. God is not pleased, nor will a true penitent be pleased, with external performances and ceremonies, neglecting substance; for saith He, Rend your hearts and not your garments.
10. Whatever the Lord be, or will say or do, to the impenitent, yet there is nothing in Him to be terrible to a convert and a penitent. Without the sight of this, conviction and contrition would but end in despair. Therefore, notwithstanding all the former threatenings, this is subjoined to the exhortation, by way of reason and encouragement, Turn ye, for He is gracious, etc. (George Hutcheson.)
The day of humiliation a national obligation
Joel, having forewarned the people of Judah of the impending calamities that threatened to overwhelm them, proceeds to point out the necessary instructions for them to follow in the prospect of such an awful national crisis.
I. The various duties suitable to a period of national calamity.
1. The appointment of a day of national humiliation. Joel orders them to assemble the people together in the courts of the temple, where by external purifications and proper instructions they might be fitted for the profitable solemnisation of the same. Is there less obligation on Christian communities to set apart a day of humiliation under similar afflictive dispensations of providence? Properly observed, such seasons of public demonstration are undoubtedly acceptable to God. The assembling of ourselves together will sharpen the desire of the Christian for more devout secret communion with God in the closet of prayer.
2. The first duty is turning unto the Lord. The Israelites were to attend the temple not only in a suitable manner outwardly, but with a deep inward impression of Gods judgments. Their affections were to be estranged from the concerns of this world, and set on the God whom they had offended. Such a solemn day calls for nothing less than the whole heart. Away with frivolity, trifling, indifference. It is a day that calls for the implicit surrender of the inner man.
3. The duty of fasting. The Christian may perform this act if his conscience suggest it as incumbent upon him. But he must remember the Redeemers admonition in relation to it. There is a notion that fasting consists in abstinence from particular kinds of flesh. Such an idea is as truly absurd as it is derogatory to that part of the Christian community which entertains it. We must fast in the spirit. It is the motive alone can render fasting acceptable in the eyes of the Creator.
4. The duty of weeping and mourning. The Christian dispensation does not demand outward demonstrations of grief. External signs of grief and humiliation are but faint emblems of the shame experienced by the contrite soul. Our repentance must be accompanied with a change of heart and life; it must exercise a converting influence upon us within. The sorrow we feel must be manifested in reformation of life.
II. The encouragement to this performance. For the Lord is gracious, etc. It is on account of His infinite mercies that we are not consumed. From a consideration of this kind we may draw much consolation. The Divine ear will be open to the prayers of all those who call upon Him in sincerity. Let the many mercies of God experienced during the past encourage us to put our trust in His mercy now in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Let us praise Him to-day for all that is past; let us depend upon Him for all that is to come. (Richard Jones, B. A.)
Fasting, and duties connected with it
Let me exhort you diligently to examine into the state of your souls at this particular season. A business man has his seasons for taking stock. And are our souls of less consequence than our bodies? It is impossible to determine exactly what must be the outward ceremonies or signs attending our penitential sorrow, so various are the tempers and dispositions of men. Yet nature points at the rule to each individual, namely, his own feelings; since there can be no true compunction for sin, and consequently no repentance, without pain and grief felt on the part of the sinner. If sins arise from the over indulgence of sensual appetites, abstinence and temperance always, and fasting on occasion, may be efficient aids in bringing such appetites into subjection. No man is so little a sinner as not to be capable of advancing his souls health by a duo and religious observance of appointed fasting days. The prophet says we are to turn to the Lord with weeping. Tears are generally esteemed the signs of grief, but there are tears of joy. They are rather to be esteemed the effects of a violent perturbation, either of body or mind, proceeding from various causes--from grief, joy, envy, anger, or the exertion of any strong passion. To judge of a mans repentance solely by the quantity of tears he sheds would be to judge very rashly of it. Tears not being altogether in our own power, can never be essential sign of repentance. A third circumstance mentioned by the prophet is mourning. That expression of grief which breaks forth into lamentation and woe, and is accompanied with tearing open the garments to smite on the naked breast: an external appearance of great humility and repentance, but which receives its whole merit from the sincerity of the performer. Weeping, fasting, and mourning receive all their worth from the inward man; they are sanctified by the integrity and sincerity of the heart. The prophet further says, Rend your heart, and not your garments. Rend your hearts, herein lies the essence of true penitential sorrow; from hence will all the necessary acts of outward mortification and self-denial unavoidably ensue. Tear open, as it were, the inmost recesses of your heart, spare not till you have discovered every stain and blemish, wash it away with unremitted diligence, that so you may present it pure and spotless before the Lord. Examine the state of your souls fairly and honestly. (C. Moore, M. A.)
Exhortation to repentance
I. A duty enjoined. Here is at once implied our alienation from God. To say we are turned from Him is to say that we are fallen, depraved, and sinful creatures. We are not to turn from one evil way to another, from one idol to another, from one religious profession to another, but unto God. We cannot turn of ourselves. We need to pray for Gods special and enabling grace. The impossibility is not natural but moral, consequently our inability to turn our selves to Him does not lessen our obligation to do so.
II. The manner of its performance. With the heart. No mere change of opinion, or reformation of life, or outward profession of godliness will suffice. With our whole heart. God will brook no rival. When the heart, with all its affections, motives, and desires, returns to its rightful owner, there is nothing which delights its owner more than to see it touched with tender contrite sorrow. With fasting. We approve of using such abstinence as will tend, through grace, to bring the body into subjection to the Spirit. Self-denial is a primary requisite in the religion of Jesus Christ
III. Our encouragement to fulfil it. Gracious--merciful--slow to anger, and of great kindness, is the Lord our God. Therefore none need be discouraged. (W. Mudge.)
On national repentance
I. The exhortations to the people to return unto the Lord. Turn ye even unto Me. What is the nation to turn from? Its evil ways. When we speak of the nation we speak of the individuals that compose the nation. The exhortation implies that the people had turned from God. Notice some of mens evil ways.
1. Ungodliness. Not one half of our nation makes any profession of godliness. And of those who name the name of Jesus, how few depart from iniquity!
2. Hear the blasphemy which pervades the land. Gods solemn message to man is mocked, His Word denied, His sanctuaries too much neglected. From all these evil ways we are called to return unto the Lord.
II. The direction for returning to the Lord. With all your heart. Here lies the main business--the heart. It must be solemnly and unreservedly dedicated to God. Without this internal movement, all outward show of obedience, or sorrow for sin, or repentance, or fasting, or prayer will avail nothing. This return of the heart is to be expressed by suitable outward signs. With fasting. With weeping and mourning.
III. The encouragement presented to the people to return to God. He is merciful and gracious. Every moment of the worlds prolonged existence is a demonstration of Gods long suffering and patience--is a practical commentary on His own Word. (E. Edwards.)
Turning to the Lord
I. Repentance as a turning. Repentance is sometimes represented as renewing from a decay. Refining from dross. Recovering from a malady. Cleansing from soil. Rising from fall. Here the figure is turning. To turn is properly applied to them that are out of their right way. Whether a way be good or no, we principally pronounce by the end. Our end, or sovereign good, we call happiness. As we cannot find that here, we are to seek it with God. From God we ought never to turn our steps. The way of sin, of seeking our own pleasure or profit, is the way of turning from God. We are to turn to God. Whither should we turn from sin but to God? Many simply turn from one sin to another. We are to turn with the heart. There is a turning of the brain only. An alteration is required not of the mind only, but of the will, a change too of the affections of the heart. Not of bodily relations only; heart and all must turn. It must be with the whole heart. Not dividing the heart from the body, and not dividing the heart in itself.
II. The manner of it. With fasting. Not only by way of regimen to keep the body low, but as a chastisement for sin already past. To be abridged of that which otherwise we might freely use hath in it the nature of a punishment. How must we fast? Two kinds of fasting in Scripture.
1. Davids. No meat at all. That is too hard.
2. Daniels fast. He ate no meats of delight. The Church mitigates all she may. Content to sustain nature, not to purvey the flesh, to satisfy the lusts thereof. With weeping. Thinking of the sins of our past might well make us weep. If we cannot weep, mourn we can, and mourn we must. Mourning is the sorrow which reason itself can yield. We can wish; we can pray; we can complain and bemoan ourselves. Rend your hearts. If it is not done with the heart, nothing is done. As in conversion, the purpose of amendment must proceed from the heart; so in our contrition, the sorrow, the anger, for our turning away must pierce to the heart. Rending doth not so properly pertain to the passion of sorrow as to the passion of anger. The apostle puts into his repentance indignation and revenge, as well as sorrow. To say the truth, they are to go together. If we be truly sorry for our sin, we shall be angry with ourselves the sinners. (Bishop Andrewes.)
Conversion unto God
Such was the call of God to Israel of old, when His sore judgments lay heavy upon them, and more were impending. Turn unto the Lord your God. Let there be in each one of us an unfeigned repentance towards God.
I. When shall we turn unto Him? Now. Lent is appointed to call us to special repentance, and humbling of ourselves before God. Of all deceits the most common and most dangerous is delay. We all look forward to some time when we intend to be religious. Of what importance, then, is that word Now.
II. How must we turn unto God? Outward indications of sorrow are mentioned in the text. They are helpful. But the Spirit of God warns us against resting in the outward show, in any mere signs of sorrow. We must rend our hearts on account of our sins. Repentance must begin in godly sorrow. Can we offer God less than a heart broken and contrite, a heart hating the sins which have dishonoured God, set at nought the Saviour, grieved His Spirit, and wounded our own souls? Will He accept less than all our heart? Let there be deep sincerity. Let there be steadfast resolution.
III. Motives for turning to God. We may declare the terrors of the Lord. The motives of the text are the graciousness and mercifulness of God. Judgment is His strange work, mercy is His delight. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Soul-reformation
Three things.
I. Its process. Turning to the Lord. The unregenerate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his fathers house, and gone into the far country of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul-reformation is not turning from one doctrine or church, or habit, to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to Him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; fasting, and weeping, and mourning, and rending of the heart. Soul-reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins.
II. Its urgency. Therefore also now, saith the Lord. There is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now, because--
1. The work is of the most paramount importance.
2. The time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your souls sake adjourn not this for a single hour.
III. Its encouragement. For He is gracious and merciful,. . . repenteth Him of the evil. The word deprecateth would be better than repenteth. The inflicting of sufferings on His creatures is repugnant to His nature. He desireth not the death of the sinner. What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate Father. (Homilist.)
Gods design in sending affliction
This exhortation is addressed to all who, like the Israelites in the time of Joel, are living in opposition to the authority of Jehovah. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, and He enforces His Divine command by the solemn threatenings which His law has denounced against sin. Some can only be reached by arousing apprehension and alarm. But even when we speak the threatenings of Divine law, it must always be in accents of tenderness and love, entreating men to be reconciled unto God. Repentance is a turning unto God. It is an exercise of free and deliberate choice. It is not a partial, but a total change of character. What are its external manifestations? Fasting was an ordinance in the Jewish economy designed as an expression of the feelings of sorrow, and as a means of exciting and confirming these feelings in the hearts of the worshippers. Frequently the sorrow of the world makes a man afflict himself in secret. The accumulation of terms, with fasting and weeping and mourning, may be viewed as a Hebrew superlative designed to set forth the earnestness and intensity of the grief which fills the heart of the penitent. It is to obtain a season for solemn thought, that the Christian sets apart his times of fasting. Rend your heart, etc. The rending of the garments is in Eastern countries a token of grief. In connection with religious worship, it might be dictated by a sense of humility before God. It was, however, by no means an infallible mark of genuine emotion. Dubious marks of penitence are not enough for those who would turn with acceptance to the Lord their God. A broken heart is the emblem of deep anguish. Those who will not yield to threats of judgment, the prophet endeavours to persuade by kindness and love. He tells of God that He is merciful and gracious, etc. Gracious, as bestowing His favours upon those who have no inherent claim upon His bounty. Merciful, extending His kindness even to those who, by their sins, have merited His wrath. Slow to anger, bearing from time to time with those who are living in rebellion against Him. Of great kindness, not impoverished by the mercies bestowed on a few, ever enough, and more than enough, for the wants of all who humbly and believingly ask it. Repenteth him of the evil. Not that He will positively alter His Divine purposes, but even when the cup of their iniquity is almost filled, if they turn to Him in sorrow and penitence, the threatened wrath will be averted. The believing view of Gods mercy, and the apprehension of Gods wrath, are both, in their own place, instrumental in leading men to repentance. Learn to make a right improvement of our afflictions. Whatever inquiries we may institute in regard to their secondary causes, let us not forget that their great first cause is God; that they are sent upon us for moral purposes; that they speak to us with the authority of heaven-appointed messengers, saying, in Gods name, Turn ye even unto Me. (William Beckett.)
Humiliation and confession
The pride of the human heart is sometimes fearful. The sinner will justify or excuse his course and carry a high look, till the Holy Spirit actually conquers His pride and overwhelms his soul with a sense of self-convicted guilt and ruin.
I. Humiliation before God and man is both proper and requisite.
1. Proper, that is, right, enjoined by the fitness of things. The impenitent sinner is openly arrayed against God; his attitude is one of radical, persistent hostility.
2. Requisite. God absolutely requires it, and will not treat with the sinner or pardon him till he penitently surrenders, submits to Gods terms, and truly and openly exhibits his penitence.
II. Confession of sin follows humiliation, and is intimately allied to it. Confession is the language of penitence. The burden of sin is very heavy. The man who is unwilling to confess freely--not only in his closet to God, but openly before men, his heart of enmity, his life of guilt, alienation, and disobedience is a stranger to true penitence. See characteristics of true confession.
1. Sincere. It must come from the heart.
2. It must be radical.
3. It must relate chiefly to God.
4. It must cover up, keep back nothing. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Fasting
1. Fasting was a frequent service of old--a principle of Divine original and practical recognition. Instances in the Old Testament, in the New Testament; in the primitive Church, and in the reformed Church.
2. The proper method of fasting. No uniform system has ever obtained. They are regulated by the character of the cause that calls them forth: by the spiritual condition of the State; and by the idiosyncrasies of individuals. Do not presume on the plenty of your spiritual health, nor make an excuse of the poverty of your bodily health.
3. Seasonable suggestions for a fast-day. On no account convert the fast into a festival. On the other hand, do not think, by a simple, stiff, or formal fast you will gain either heavenly rest for yourselves, or earthly relief for your suffering brethren; do not fancy that for an austere demeanour, and a rigid restraint of your appetites and affections, you will merit aught at the hands of God. Reflect on your individual and our national sins; confess and repent. (William Fisher, B. A.)
And rend your heart, and not your garments.--
The rent heart better than the rent garment
Rend your heart and not your garments. Above all, important that repentance should be real--the weeping the sign of inward sorrow; the fasting the result of lower desires kept in abeyance by higher. There was danger of a superficial, evanescent revival.
I. Explain the allusion to the rending of the garment. Many signs and symbols among Jews by which they professed to express feeling, desire.
(1) In prayer--kneeling, prostration, standing, lifting the hands, hiding the face, smiting upon the breast.
(2) Rending garment. This expressed strongest, most intense emotion of sorrow, or terror, or horror. (Gen_37:29; Gen_37:34; 2Sa_3:31; 1Ki_21:27; Jer_36:24; Mat_26:65; Act_14:14.) The emotion professedly expressed in Judah at that time--the deepest sorrow for sin; the most earnest contrition and repentance.
II. Remembering the sign and emotion signified, notice different classes of men.
1. Some neither rend their hearts nor their garments. No outward sign of sorrow, and no sorrow without sign. Describe what should lead all to sorrow for sin. The history of sin, its present existence in the world, in us. Gods revelation of His hatred of sin. Gods revelation of love to the sinner. The life of Christ--Gethsemane, Calvary. The voice of conscience; the pleadings of the Holy Ghost. Draw the contrast between what should be and what is. Indifference, coldness of multitudes. Mad delight of many in the worlds great source of misery.
2. Some rend their garments, and not their hearts. The outward sign, but no inward reality. The untruthful, hypocritical. Notice the religion of formal custom. The services of the present day--devout attitudes in prayer--observance of fasts--celebration of feasts--revival services. The danger--the lack of inward reality.
3. Some rend their hearts and not their garments. The inward reality, and not the outward sign. Men of reserve, emotion kept concealed in the hearts shrine. They shrink from demonstration, from the show of religious feeling, and so apparently they are cold, but not really so. Picture the earnestness of private communion; sorrows deep wound which only God can see; sorrow which words, looks, cannot express--too deep for human sympathy.
4. Some rend their hearts and their garments. The inward sorrow; the outward expression. Room in the world for demonstrative and undemonstrative. Notice the tendency of reserved to misjudge those not like them, and the injustice of calling religious excitement worthless. Illustrations: The publicans outward demonstration; the bitter weeping of Peter. Some must rend their garments when their hearts are rent.
III. Learn the requirement of God.
1. That it is necessary for us to rend our hearts. Repentance for sin a necessity. This the fruit of the law; this the germ of the Gospel. The Baptists cry; the Saviours cry; the cry of the apostles--Repent.
2. As to the rending of the garment. Rend your hearts, etc. The text means, not only your garments. Other similar expressions.
(1) From the Bible. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. The meaning, mercy rather than sacrifice.
(2) From ordinary conversation. Give us deeds, not words. The meaning, that deeds are more important than words. Customary, demonstrative, peculiar experience of feeling was not forbidden. Reality as opposed to mere form insisted on.
3. God does require the pure and holy life. The rent heart the open heart. Christ enters, abides, makes pure. The pure heart expressed by the pure life. The heart made clean, the garment also is made white. This agreement must be. There cannot be the changed heart without the converted life. (J. M. Blackcie, LL. B.)
Repentance
This chapter is not so much a peremptory prediction, what God absolutely intends, as a communication only, what conditionally He threateneth. Man, in his anger, threatens when he means to strike; God threatens, that He might not strike, but that we might be forewarned and ward off His blow. The Gospel, that offers all mercy and love, strictly exacts and requires repentance. The text is a vehement exhortation to sorrow and repentance; and a direction how and in what manner we should repent.
I. The precept of repentance.
1. An exhortation to contrition. Observe the act expressed in the word rend; and the object, which is presented affirmatively. We must rend our heart. And negatively. We must not rend our garments.
2. An exhortation to conversion. Return unto the Lord your God. Return implies a motion.
(1) The kind of motion. A returning.
(2) That whereunto we must return, The Lord.
(3) That habitude and relation which guides and biasses us unto the term; in the words following, Your God.
This is twofold. There is an attraction in the term and place to which the motion tends. And that which carries and disposes the thing moved towards it.
II. The motive to repentance. In these words, For He is gracious, etc.
1. The kind and nature of the motive. God contents not Himself by putting us in mind of our duty. He uses no threatenings, intermingles no curses. He urges mercy and favour. Observe the degrees of the motive. They are all set and purposed to prevent and remove all the fears and discouragements that a timorous guilty conscience can forecast to itself. We are here called upon to present ourselves unto the Lord, to hope for and expect His love and favour. But we are not worthy of such favour. True, but He is a gracious God. We have to admit that our lives have been demeritorious, sinful, offensive. True, but He is merciful and compassionate. We daily provoke Him by our rebellions, grieving His Spirit, and increasing His wrath by our offences. True, but He is a patient God, and slow to anger. The cry of our sins has already ascended up to heaven. Yet He is easy to be entreated, and of great kindness. His wrath hath smoked out against us; His prophets have denounced His judgments. Yet there is hope of mercy, for He repenteth of the evil. Then do thy sins discourage thee? Let the offer and invitation of His mercy assure thee. Doth the number and variety of thy transgressions dishearten thee? Consider the multitude of His mercies. Doth the measure and heinousness of thy rebellions affright thee? Let the degrees and plenty of His compassions comfort thee. Consider the duty of contrition. The act and practice of repentance is no less than a rending. And that implies stiffness and obduration in the object to be wrought upon. Hardness and difficulty in the act to be exercised--repentance. And it requires all the strength and might of him that undertakes it. Consider the object upon which repentance must work and exercise itself. In the affirmative sense, your heart. If thy heart be not contrite and sorrowful, it is not true repentance. Except thy sorrow work upon the heart, there is no use or profit in thy repentance. Except thy heart be humble and cast down for sin, it is no pleasing or acceptable repentance. In the negative sense,--Rend not your garments. In this counsel the Lord checks and reproves our outward superstition. All outward ceremonious practice of piety, if divided and severed from inward devotion, is rejected of God. Ceremonies, if accompanied with the heart, are useful and acceptable; if divided from it, are sinful and abominable. But the words may be read, your hearts rather than your garments, by way of comparison. The contrition of the heart is more necessary and useful than any outward bodily affliction. (Bishop Brownrigg.)
Penitence and conversion
I. A real sorrow for sin.
1. Heartfelt. Rend your heart, and not your garments. Rending stands for the outward expression of sorrow or penitence. The prophet does not intend by the contrast hearts not garments, to condemn such outward signs, but to insist upon the inward rather than the outward. We are not to affect sorrow, to display penitence. Outward usages are valuable, not as satisfying conscience or pleasing God, but as helps to realise a right spirit.
2. Deliberate. To rend garments is a sudden impulse. To rend the heart is a far harder and slower matter.
3. Intense. Rend--implying a breaking of the heart,--breaking by the irresistible force of conviction. This implies a personal sense of sin, and a holy hatred of sin.
III. A true conversion to God. It is, Turn unto the Lord. A broken heart without this would be mere despair. This implies--
1. A change in will. Turn.
2. An acceptance of Gods call. Turn unto the Lord.
3. An act of faith in Him. Your God. An acknowledgment of Gods claim on us. How are we to turn? The prayer of the Lenten season suggests the answer, Turn Thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. (John Ellerton, M. A.)
Repentance, a rending of the heart
I. The exhortation or advice given. Rending the garments was a sign of great sorrow and amazement. This custom, when a sense of the evil of sin and true sorrow for it were wanting, degenerated into a hypocritical form. Therefore comes the command, Rend your hearts. From what must they be rent? From sin, especially your besetting sin. From earth and earthly things. From all creatures. From yourselves. From hypocrisy and formality, pride and self-confidence, unbelief, improper diffidence and distrust. How must they be rent? By godly consideration and self-examination; by conviction and humiliation, by shame and sorrow, by confession and abhorrence. Rend your hearts. The conscience must be pierced, the will conquered, the spirit humbled, the affections moved, and the old, hard heart made soft. The broken heart is Gods sacrifice. And turn unto the Lord. Do this by contemplation and thought, desire and prayer, faith and confidence, expectation and delight, gratitude and love. Turning we cannot do of ourselves. For what are we to turn? For illumination. For pardon. For Divine favour, communion, and fellowship.
II. The motives which enforce it. Evil is gone forth to chastise or punish sin. God is good, not only to repent of the evil, and do it not, but to do good. That He is of great kindness witness a dying Jesus, an entreating ministry, so many sweet promises and alluring mercies. Apply to the unconverted, backsliders, and the godly. (J. Benson.)
For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger.
The perfection of the mercy of God
Nothing is more true of God than that He is the first and chiefest good; His prime perfection is goodness, and our truest notion of Him is, that He is almighty goodness.
I. By way of vindication. And to give satisfaction to objections that arise against this great truth. Three objections.
1. Several instances of Gods severity are found recorded in Scripture: e.g., the Deluge; Destruction of Canaanites, etc. To this answer--
(1) When necessaries for our good are afforded, and by any neglected, the blame lies upon them.
(2) Sometimes the sins of nations and persons are come to their height, and God is forced to punish.
(3) The judgments of God in this life are exemplary and disciplinary: and better a mischief should fall on particular persons, than that a general inconvenience should follow.
(4) God sometimes lets us feel something of hell here, to prevent it hereafter.
(5) There may be a particular account given of several scriptural cases; e.g., Nadab and Abihu, and Ananias and Sapphira.
(6) Though we do not know what time or leisure God will allow to sinners to repent, yet we certainly know God will grant forgiveness to penitents.
(7) There is no other way for Gods forgiveness but the way of repentance. This is the tenor of the grace of God.
(8) We cannot competently judge the proceedings of God to His creatures.
2. God is represented as severe, in giving men up to a reprobate sense, stupidity, and hardness of heart. Answer--
(1) This case hath no promise.
(2) It is not fit for the exercise of grace or mercy, for this case is not compassionable. If some think that God, by an irresistible power, might have prevented all sin and misery, it may be answered,--Is it reasonable that God, having made voluntary and intelligent agents, should force them? Then there could be no exercise of virtue, for all virtue is in choice; and no happiness, for we should be under constraint. Of what use, in that case, would our natural faculties be? This would no longer be a probationary state. God draws; He does not force moral beings.
3. The necessity of justice in the case of sin. This objection will be resolved by a true explication of justice. Gods justice is the same with His integrity and uprightness. These consist with the reason of the thing, and the right of the case. It is not necessary that God should punish sin, but He may justly do it, for sin deserves punishment.
II. Explication of the phrases of the text. Five several words.
1. Gracious. Which imports to do good freely, without constraint: to go good above the measure of right and just; to do good without antecedent desert, or after-recompense.
2. Merciful. So as to compassionate His creatures in misery, so as to help them in respect of their infirmities, so as to pardon their iniquities.
3. Slow to anger. So as not to take advantage of His creatures, so as to overlook provocation; and so as to allow space for repentance.
4. Of great kindness. What He doth, He doth in pure good will, and for our good; not in expectation of being benefited by us; not according to the proportion or disposition of the receiver.
5. Repenteth Him of the evil. So as either it comes not at all; or it proves not what we fear and imagine; or it stays but a while if it do come; or He turns it into good.
III. Confirmation of the truth of the proposition of the text. Four names and titles given to God that make this out.
1. His creation in infinite goodness, wisdom, and power. The variety, order, and fitness of things to their ends, declare the wisdom of God.
2. Conservation, protection, and government, declare God to be good, and full of loving-kindness.
3. Restoration and recovery out of the state of sin and misery.
4. Future confirmation and settlement in glory and happiness.
IV. Caution is presented in the text. Seen in two particulars.
1. Not to abuse this declaration of Divine goodness, either by holding the truth in unrighteousness, or turning the grace of God into wanton ness.
2. Not to permit hasty or rash judgment. If anything seem harsh in the dispensation of providence, we may understand it in a little time; therefore he that believes should not make haste.
V. Application.
1. Here is matter of information. We have a true judgment of God when we think of His greatness in connection with His goodness.
2. Here is matter of imitation. We may resemble God.
3. Here is matter of consolation. To all that are willing to do well, and would be good. (B. Whichcote, D. D.)
Repentance recommended
I. The important direction given. The direction Turn unto the Lord your God presupposes--
1. A state of heedless inattention. The position from which they were to turn was one in which the back was upon God.
2. A state of careless and criminal negligence.
3. A state of obstinate disobedience. Rend your heart. The action of rending garments indicates--
1. Excessive grief.
2. Great loathing and abhorrence.
3. Deep humility and earnest deprecation.
II. The cheering assurance afforded. For He is gracious and merciful, etc.
1. This revelation warrants our approach. The words are expressive of the most melting compassion and tenderness.
2. This revelation requires your return to the Lord, your Proprietor, to whom you owe your all, and to whom you must account for all.
3. This revelation encourages your address. Ask, and receive now the effects of His grace and mercy. Pardon, healing, adoption, grace. All the present privileges of children. And finally, all their eternal enjoyments, (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Gods mercy
Like some black rock that heaves itself above the surface of a sunlit sea, and the wave runs dashing over it, and the spray as it falls down its sides is all rainbowed, and there comes down beauty into the grimness of the black thing; so a mans transgressions rear themselves up, and Christs great love coming sweeping over them, makes out of the sin an Occasion for the flashing more brightly of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned soul into a lille of beauty. (Sunday Magazine.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v12 Joe_2:12. Therefore] repent with heart undivided, and with fasting,…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Joe_2:12. Therefore] repent with heart undivided, and with fasting, for heinous sins demand extraordinary penitence. Mourning] Lit. beating on the breast, like the publican (Luk_18:13; Luk_23:48).
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Joe_2:13. Not garments] as customary in great sorrow (Gen_37:29; Job_1:20). External repentance will avail nothing (Psa_51:19; Eze_36:26).
Joe_2:14. Knoweth] if the least chance, secure it. God may restore blessings sufficient to maintain his worship and supply our wants (Jon_3:9).
HOMILETICS
SPACE FOR PERSONAL REPENTANCE.—Joe_2:12-14
The design of chastisement is not destruction, but salvation. Mercy rejoiceth against judgment. The attainment of salvation is only by repentance and return to God. Hence the prophet in God’s name urges personal and national amendment. Personal repentance is described in these words.
I. Its nature. “Turn ye even to me.”
1. It is return to God. Return quite up to God, not half-way (Hos_14:2). Half conversion, and half amendment will not avail. The whole distance must be overcome and God must be gained. Many are near to Christ, but not in him. All are alienated from God; and true reformation is not forsaking one habit to form another; changing one church or creed for another; but turning round in thought and feeling and coming to God.
2. It is a sincere return. It is real, not affected. “With all your heart.” The mind and affections have been stolen from God, now all are centred upon him. Outward expressions are worthless, mere trappings of sorrow. “Rend your heart and not your garments.” Partial feeling and feigned sorrow God will not accept. He requires truth in the inward parts. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
3. It is a sorrowful return. “With fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” There may not always be striking outward signs. But deep sorrow and contrition of spirit are accompanied with humiliation, self-denial, and prayer. The penitent weeps, mourns, and strikes his breast like the publican. Signs of grief often stir up the heart to more grief, and indicate to others the sincerity of conversion. Penitence must not be slight and superficial, but deep and real. “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.”
II. Its motive. “For he is gracious and merciful,” &c. Hope of acceptance is held out. This hope is grounded on the gracious character of God, revealed on Sinai (Exo_34:6-7), and reproduced here to encourage repentance.
1. God is gracious and merciful. Though mercy has been despised and grace abused, he delights not in the death of sinners, but wishes all to turn and live. If he were not merciful we could not hope for pardon; and if he were only merciful and not gracious we could not expect to receive anything from him.
2. God is slow to anger and of great kindness. He can be angry and deal out punishment, but he pauses, lingers long, and gives opportunity to escape. His kindness is beyond human pity. He is longsuffering under the greatest provocations (Psa_103:15).
3. God repents of the evil. If he repents of the punishments inflicted, will they not be accepted when they repent and return? Evils are against his will, his strange work, therefore on the first tokens of sorrow he will take them away. “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto them that call upon thee.”
4. God is a covenant God. “Turn unto the Lord your God.” They had turned away from God, but they were still his people. He is interested in their welfare, and unchangeable in his love and purpose. God must be approached as a covenant God. His Divine nature and mercy, his covenant relations and promises, are all brought forth to urge men to return unto him. His goodness and mercy never fail. “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
III. Its necessity. “Therefore also now.” Now, though it be late it is not too late. Now, though the day is near and locusts are at hand. “Now is the day of grace, the visitation from God.” “Now or never.” Sinners should not delay. Time is precious, opportunities may not be given again. Repentance is a spiritual, a personal, an immediate duty. “Now is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation.” “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repentance.”
IV. Its possibility. “Who knoweth if he will return and repent,” &c. Judgments may be taken away, the meat-offering restored, and a blessing left behind. Space is given men for repentance. We are not to be too confident lest we be careless. But there is no doubt in the prophet’s mind. God will return. He never changes nor lies (1Sa_12:22). His favour is not like the shifting clouds, nor the winter’s sun casting occasional light, but withholding heat and joy. If we return to God he will return to us. “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Joe_2:12. Although all sorrow for sin hath not the same expression, nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble, yet it is not a godly sorrow unless it really produces these effects, i.e.
(1) that it makes us really to hate and
(2) actually to decline sin; and
(3) produces in us a fear of God’s anger, a sense of the guilt of his displeasure;
(4) and then such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure [Jeremy Taylor].
Repentance is—
1. A change of mind, a turning of the soul to God.
2. A real turning, not resting in shadows, not renting the mantle only, but the offering of the heart to God.
3. This is a personal duty. It cannot be done by representation or in the mass; but by each alone, the children alone, the parents alone, and the priests alone.
4. God will be satisfied with this, but with nothing less.
Joe_2:13. God’s character in its relation to our character and condition. Grace to the unworthy, mercy to the miserable, long-suffering to provocation, truth to the promise, and change towards the penitent. “Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Psa_86:15).
Joe_2:14. Prospects opened up by repentance.
1. Remission of temporal calamities.
2. Restoration of fruit and subsistence.
3. Spiritual blessings left behind dreadful curses. The storm will pass away and the sun will shine again; flowers and fruit shall come, birds shall sing, and joy and peace crown the land. “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joe_2:12-14. Fasting and penitence. Men accused in times past were wont humbly to abase themselves before the judge, with long beards, uncombed hair, and black array, that they might secure his mercy. So when pestilence, famine, or war begin to rage, or any calamity hangs over us, it becomes us to present ourselves in piteous array, with fasting and prayer, before the Judge of all the earth, that his anger may be turned away from us [Cawdray]. But no amount of fasting will do without true penitence. Lifeless repentance is fruitless. No outward propriety and offerings will wash away the stain of sin. We must not only confess but forsake our sins and turn unto God. God will have mercy upon the penitent.
The fruitless showers of worldly woe
Fall dark to earth and never rise;
While tears that from repentance flow,
In bright exhalement reach the skies.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v13 (See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
repenteth
(See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v12 Return to me with all your heart
Return to me with all your heart
The heart is a metonym for what the person thinks and loves. AT: "Turn away from your sins and be totally devoted to me" (See: Metonymy)
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Tear your heart and not only your garments
The heart is a metonym for what the person thinks and loves. Tearing one's clothes is an outward act of shame or repentance. AT: "Change your way of thinking; do not just tear your garments" (See: Metonymy)
abundant in covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithful" or "faithfully." AT: "always faithful to his covenant" or "always loves faithfully" (See: Abstract Nouns)
turn from
stop
translationWords
Yahweh
heart
fast
God
grace
mercy
anger
love
punish
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12–13 2:12-17 Joel calls on the people to repent and…
2:12-17 Joel calls on the people to repent and throw themselves on the mercy of their compassionate God.
2:12 This verse begins with the words the Lord says, a phrase that frequently accompanies divine speeches in the prophets. This is the only time that it occurs in Joel (“says the Lord” in 3:1 is supplied by the translators), and it indicates that this gracious invitation came directly from God. • Turn to me now, while there is time: The Lord implored his people to repent because the day of judgment was near. There was still opportunity to avoid the coming destruction if they returned to the Lord their God with true repentance. • Unlike other prophets, Joel never catalogs the sins committed by the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Perhaps they were so obvious that he did not feel the need to list them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.