I joined the modern age of backup cameras in cars a few years ago. My latest car is the first one I’ve driven to have this feature, so my tendency is still to put the car in reverse, throw my right arm over the back of the passenger seat, twist my body around, and watch the driveway behind me as I back out. It took months to remember to look forward to see the dashboard screen’s display from the backup camera. After a few months of trying to only look forward at the screen, I gave up. The helpful red/yellow/green lines indicating my trajectory seem to just add to my disorientation, so unless I hear the “beep beep” indicating that I’m too close to something, I just turn my head toward the back of the car and look out the rear window. Old school? You betcha. On the other hand, I haven’t run over anything.

Our passage in Joel made me think of looking behind you in order to steer in the direction you want to go. Looking through the back window is helpful in reverse, but the only way to move forward is to look ahead. Yet I have to look back to get away from the house, so every trip starts that way. It was the same with the tiny nation of Judah as they were being assaulted from a terrible army from the North. Their own apostasy had pulled them farther and farther away from God and their position as God’s inheritance was in jeopardy due to their sins. Before they could move forward, God forced them to look back.

Joel 2 (Common English Bible)

Between the porch and the altar
        let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep.
    Let them say, “Have mercy, Lord, on your people,
        and don’t make your inheritance a disgrace,
        an example of failure among the nations.
    Why should they say among the peoples,
        ‘Where is their God?’”

The priests were instructed to pray “between the porch and the altar,” indicating that they were to lead the people in a prayer of repentance as they cried out to God for mercy. This prayer needed to happen before the priest even entered the Temple, as he was crossing the “porch” where the people waited to get in. Joel 2 is often used at the beginning of Lent when the church is called to gather together for forty days. We are invited to return to God with all our hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow. The Hebrew word for “repent” is the same as the Hebrew word for “to turn.” We understand repentance as a turning completely away from the sin you have been involved in and turning toward God. Joel instructs the people to repent, and then envisions the Lord responding with passion and pity. The people and the land will be restored.

¹⁸ Then the Lord became passionate about this land, and had pity on his people.

¹⁹ The Lord responded to the people:
See, I am sending you
    the corn, new wine, and fresh oil,
        and you will be fully satisfied by it;
    and I will no longer make you
        a disgrace among the nations.
²⁰ I will remove the northern army far from you
    and drive it into a dried-up and desolate land,
        its front into the eastern sea,
        and its rear into the western sea.
    Its stench will rise up;
        its stink will come to the surface.
The Lord is about to do great things!

Everything will be restored: The corn, the new wine, the reputation among nations they had enjoyed, the bounty of the land … God will not withhold anything.
²¹ Don’t fear, fertile land;
    rejoice and be glad,
    for the Lord is about to do great things!

This is exactly what happens when we look behind us for any remaining sin, confess it and repent, and then look forward to God’s forgiveness. What unspoken sin are you holding on to today?

What unspoken sin is holding on to you today?

Give it up, Turn and return to your merciful, loving, and forgiving God. The Lord is about to do great things!

Great Things by Michelle Robertson