Daily Devotional for Monday, May 19

The Devastation

   “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come,” Joel 1:15.

By the evening of September 11, 2001, people were gathering in churches across the nation. Whether regular attenders or not, people came together to lament the events of that morning. Everyone prayed for those effected and for those helping. Sermons and devotionals urged God’s people to pray for our nation. Second Chronicles 7:14 was repeated again and again. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Christians recognized the events as God’s judgment. It was a time of national lament.

In the aftermath of destruction, the prophet Joel called for a national lament. One commentator said, “It is Joel’s responsibility to relate the human catastrophe to the purpose of God.” God’s hand of judgment was upon them. Joel called the elders and the inhabitants of the land to lament and mourn. The devastation involved everything and everyone. No one was exempt.

Joel was quite descriptive with his words. The tone carried a deep sense of loss. It was time to wake up as a nation. They should be in deep sorrow, like a bride-to-be who just lost her bridegroom or like devoted priests standing at empty altars. Not only is the destruction vast, but the resulting consequences are long lasting. The day of the Lord is near. In the same way that this destruction had come, so will the day of the Lord come: swiftly and without mercy.

THOUGHT

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens” (Lamentations 3:40, 41).

Kelli Reynolds