The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Joel 2:32,
"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls."
In the midst of the prophecy given to Joel, a great news is provided: deliverance! Where the dark gloom of the Lord's day approaches, bringing its attending judgment of all who have ever sinned, the Lord provides the wonderful news of salvation for all who will call on him!
On May 5, 1888, Charles Spurgeon gave a sermon on this passage. In it he said, "In the worst times that can ever happen, there is still salvation for men. When day turns to night, and life becomes death, and the staff of life is broken, and the hope of man has fled, there still remains in God, in the person of his dear Son, deliverance to all those who will call upon the name of the Lord. We do not know what is to happen: reading the roll of the future, we prophesy dark things; but still this light shall always shine between the rifts of the cloud-wrack: 'Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.'"
What wonderful news! As observed earlier in this prophecy, "Surely he has done great things. Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things." Joel 2:20-21. The great and magnificent thing was the Lord Jesus Christ taking upon himself the punishment of all sin for all time as he hung on a cross! He has wrought our salvation. All we need do is to call on him to have that payment credited to our account! To call, one has to believe. As Paul asks in Romans 10:9, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?" There Paul tells us that faith is manifested in our response to the gospel message, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Romans 10:17. There Paul tells us directly, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9.
There is another call in Joel's prophecy. Deliverance will be for those the Lord calls. So who is it the Lord has called? We read in Acts 17:30, "now he [God] commands all people everywhere to repent." Why does he command all people everywhere to repent? "God our Savior... wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3-4. God wants us all and he calls us all. We all have an invitation through the gospel message. God is populating his kingdom and he wants you and me!
Deliverance has been wrought by our God! He calls us to himself! "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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