After the destruction we read about in the last section, we read of a call to repentance. Notice that the repentance in this case isn’t necessarily a repentance of sin, but a return to God. Perhaps the sin of the people was an over active sense of self-reliance. Perhaps the previous years had been abundant and the people had turned their back on God. When their wealth was stripped away, when they were not even able to provide to meet their own basic need of food, there was only one place left to turn – to the Lord.
Doesn’t that kind of remind you of 21st century America? We have everything we need AND want. We have become reliant upon ourselves for everything, and forget that God has given us everything. And when it’s taken away, as in the horrible tornados in the south the past couple days, we often blame God, or think that He’s punishing us. Yet we can take a hint from God’s Word found in Joel. Maybe we need to have a time of repentance, a time of returning to Him, remembering that HE is the giver of all good things.