The Day of the Lord: Judgment, Mercy, and Restoration

In the Field Audio Bible: 3:54

Today we step Today into the thunderous and redemptive words of Joel 2 chapter where judgment marches like an unstoppable army, yet mercy waits just beyond the smoke. God calls his people to rend their hearts, not just their garments, offering restoration, revival and hope in the shadow of the coming day of the Lord. The streets are quiet now, but not in peace. It's the kind of quiet that presses against your chest. You walk them beside Joel the prophet. His cloak dust stained, his eyes heavy with what he has seen and what he still hears. He doesn't rush. He walks slowly, deliberately, because every step, every street corner carries memory and meaning. He speaks little at first, but you can tell his mind is full, full of the cries of his people, full of the silence left by the locust, full of the sound of the Lord's voice still echoing like thunder in his soul. And then he speaks, not to you directly, but to the city, to the land itself. Blow the trumpet in Zion. His voice isn't angry, it's urgent, grieved. He's heard the warning, seen the vision. What's coming is bigger than locusts. This time it's the day of the vision. What's coming is bigger than locusts. This time it's the day of the Lord, A day not just for Judah but for all nations. You walk with him past the temple ruins, through fields still barren from the last devastation. He pauses, places a hand on the wall of a home where children used to laugh. You see it in his face.

This is not just prophecy, it's personal. You sit behind him later at a rough-hewn table. As he pours over the words he's writing, his hands tremble not from fear but from awe. He doesn't fully understand it yet, but something stirs in him this day of the Lord. It's not only about judgment. It's about Jesus. He can't name him yet, but the Spirit breathes the shape of it through his pen. A promise of the Spirit poured out all on flesh Of salvation, available to anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, of a future where devastation is not the final word.

Joel leans back and looks at you, not with answers but with questions. Do they hear it? Do they know how much God still longs to restore them? Can they see the mercy beneath the fire? Will they return? Now you walk the streets beside him, not from the outside looking in, but as part of it all.

Dust clings to your sandals. The air is thick with the weight of what's been lost and what could still be redeemed. You feel it, the holy reckoning rising beneath your feet. You pass a doorway, once filled with laughter, now it stands silent and something stirs in you, a question, unspoken but loud. You slow your steps. What would it take for you to stop, truly stop, to let your heart break open, instead of simply adjusting your routines, to tear down the safe habits and offer God the raw, trembling pieces of your soul? You see the places in your own life, places that have grown cold, cracked, overgrown with despair. You had written them off. But now, now you wonder, because there's something in the wind, not just judgment, something softer a whisper you hear it. Softer a whisper, you hear it. Fate but real, the sound of restoration, the stir of hope and the question that hovers in the silence. Are you ready to return?

As we prepare to hear Joel 2, step into the trembling hush before the storm breaks, where the ground shakes, the skies darken and the day of the Lord rushes near like an army in formation. This chapter holds both terror and tenderness as God's righteous judgment draws near. Yet his heart longs to restore. Joel cries out not for shallow ritual, but for true repentance, a tearing of hearts, not garments, and in that surrender, God promises to renew what was lost, to pour out his spirit and to awaken hope in every generation. Let these words remind us that divine mercy often meets us at the edge of ruin and that revival begins not with strength but with returning. Now let's take a moment to quieten our hearts and listen to the word itself. Let these words sink deep into your spirit, bringing comfort, conviction and encouragement, whether you're sitting in a quiet place or out in the world. Allow scripture to meet you right where you are. I hope you have your favorite cup of tea or coffee. Sit back, relax and let's step into the sacred text of the book of Joel 2.

The Book of Joel 2. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is near a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like blackness spread upon the mountains. A great and powerful army comes their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come. Fire devours in front of them and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

Them, a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses and like war horses they charge as with the rumbling of chariots. They leap on the tops of the mountains like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle Before them. Peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale. Like warriors, they charge Like soldiers. They scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course. They do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another. Each keeps to its own track. They burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses. They enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord utters His voice at the head of His army. How vast is His host. Numberless are those who obey His command Truly. The day of the Lord is great, terrible indeed. Who can endure it? Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the aged. Gather the children, even infants, at the breast. Let the bridegroom, leave his room and the bride her canopy Between the vestibule and the altar. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.

Let them say spare your people, o Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples? Where is their God? Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. In response to his people, the Lord said I am sending you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a mockery among the nations. I will remove the northern army, far from you and drive it into a parched and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea and its rear into the western sea. Its stench and foul smell will rise up.

Surely he has done great things. Do not fear O soil, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Do not fear you, animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green, the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord, your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication. He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten the hopper, the destroyer and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other, and my people shall never again be put to shame. Then afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your younger men shall see visions, even on the male and female slaves. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit, I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

As we draw this time together to a close, imagine walking beside me now Joel, in the thick of the darkness. The skies are heavy, the air tense with the sound of approaching footsteps, the day of the Lord on the horizon. What began as a warning in chapter 1 has now become a call to action. The locusts have done their work and now we stand at the edge of something far greater, something much more forbidding. The earth trembles beneath us as judgment approaches, but with it there's something else Mercy. In the midst of this storm there is an invitation to return, not just a return to ritual, not to mere outward acts of sorrow, but a return to God's heart, a true, full surrender of all that we are.

As I speak to the people, I am not just a prophet delivering words, but a voice trembling with the urgency of what is to come. The locusts may have stripped the land, but there is still a way forward, a path that leads to restoration. Rend your hearts I say not just your garments, your hearts, I say not just your garments. Tear open the facade, the pride, the complacency, and come before God with a broken heart. The locusts are gone, but the heart of God, broken for his people, it remains. He is calling us to a deep, intimate renewal and he promises that if we return to him he will pour out his spirit. He will restore the years the locusts have eaten, the fields will bloom again.

But what does that mean for you right here, right now, as we stand in the shadow of this day of the Lord, I ask you to reflect. Where in your life have you allowed the locusts to come in and steal away what was once fertile and full? Maybe it's your passion for God, slowly eaten away by distractions or complacency. Maybe it's relationships that have withered or dreams that have been overshadowed by fear. Where in your heart have you built up walls, thinking you could go on without God, thinking you could handle the storm on your own?

The call is clear, but it's not easy. It requires vulnerability. It demands that we look at the places within us that we'd rather leave untouched, those places of pride, of bitterness, of self-sufficiency. And here's the question that stings Are you ready to tear open your heart and offer it to God in full surrender? What are you holding back? What is preventing you from coming to Him with everything you've been carrying?

In Joel's words there is an incredible promise. I will restore you to the years that the locusts have eaten. It is a promise of redemption, but redemption only comes when we truly return, when we come with hearts that are broken, not just for the things we've lost but for the ways we've wondered, from the one who is our true source of life. As you reflect on your own life, consider this what are the places in your heart that need restoration? What parts of your life need to be surrendered to God so he can breathe new life into them? The locusts may have come, but the Lord's restoration is greater still. The day of the Lord is coming, but so too is the promise of His mercy, his grace and His restoration.

Thank you for joining me today as we journey through the book of Joel 2. I pray that you carry these reflections with you into your day, into your week, and that you find strength in knowing God is with you in every trial, every temptation and every step of obedience. If this time in God's word has encouraged you, take a moment to share it with someone who might need it, and be sure to join me next time as we continue walking through the scriptures, learning, learning, growing and staying faithful in the field of life. Until next time, may you find peace in the quiet trust in God's call and rest in His unchanging love. This is In the Field Audio Bible, where we Listen to the Bible One Chapter at a Time.