Locusts!

Daily Reading: Joel 1

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! ... Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1.13-14)

Devotional Thought: Locust swarms were serious business.  The relentless destroyers would descend upon an area like a whirling black cloud, with a great roar of hundreds of thousands of wings.  They would devour all the green leaves, stripping the trees and other plants bare.  When the leaves were gone, even the bark of trees would be eaten.  Nothing would be left. 

It was in the aftermath of a locust swarm that Joel called the people to repent, beginning with the priests and ministers.  Wearing sackcloth (the garb of mourners), these spiritual leaders were to conduct all night prayer meetings, seeking the return of God’s presence and pleasure.  The spiritual leaders, however, were not to conduct this vigil alone.  All the people were called to pray and seek God:

·       Consecrate a fast.  At times, I have been questioned for calling public fasts.  “Fasting is supposed to be private and personal,” I am told.  Joel apparently didn't think so.  Jesus himself said that his disciples would fast together after he departed.  We read in the book of Acts when local churches fasted together.

·       Call a solemn assembly.  “Can’t we just pray at home?”  We could, but “When 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there I will be in the midst of them…”

·       Cry out to the Lord.  Recently, a friend of mine commented to me that we need God to restore the tears of prayer.  I echo that sentiment.

We don't see literal swarms of locusts sweeping across America, but are there not plagues just as deadly?  Would a pandemic apply?  What about the anger and hatred dividing our country?  The blurring of moral lines?  These are serious plagues.  How will we respond?

Prayer: Lord, we live in times of great turmoil and confusion, days of moral and spiritual and physical death.  But we are not without recourse.  I commit myself to pray and seek your face until you come and shower revival on our land.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 69.29-36

29 But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

30 I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31 This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

32 When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

33 For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

35 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;

36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.