Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning;
Joel has just sounded the alarm of the day of the LORD and described the invading army. Now, before the blow falls, God opens a door — so what does He want from a people already under judgment, and do fasting and tears count for anything with Him?
One writer sets this appeal inside a picture of national disaster that runs on to the last judgment. The same chapter carries both the sentence and the offer of mercy:
In the second chapter we have again a list of national miseries, but now with a near approach to that great, final, judicial day… The call to repentance is repeated, with the hope that God's anger may be turned away… Calamity comes as the judgment of the Lord in righteousness; repentance comes as the fruit of the Spirit in grace.
So the turning God asks for is itself something He produces, and "yet even now" means the offer still stands.
Returning with the whole heart is not self-improvement. It starts with God:
There is no such leveller as sin, or as death, which is the consequence of sin. But it is a blessed thing when the gracious call of God works repentance, which really means the heart taking the place of owning our own evil and accepting what God then has to say to us. There is nothing more admirable for a soul, unless it be the grace of God which produces it.
Fasting, weeping and mourning were the ordinary language of grief in Israel, and the customs went further still. God's problem was never with the feeling itself:
It was the custom of the Hebrews, as it still is in the East, to make a great display of their mourning. They would beat their breasts, cover their heads, fast, put dust and ashes on their heads, tear their clothes, wear sackcloth, and so on… God does not want those who are bereaved to be without feeling — the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus — but He would have reality in everything. He had to say to His people, "Rend your hearts and not your garments."
Commentators read this call as reaching beyond Joel's own day to a repentance still future for Israel, with two very different outcomes:
Here is the Lord calling to His people to return to Him with true repentance… During that great tribulation one part of the people will truly repent and turn to Him in the way described in this chapter. God will save this remnant in that day, while the part that does not repent will be cut off in judgment… This mourning and prayer for deliverance comes before the visible appearing of the Lord in the day of His coming.
Their turning leads to more than rescue, and part of this promise has already touched history:
When they repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them and upon all flesh. Peter quoted this in Acts 2, but the nation did not repent then. Only a remnant turned to the Lord and entered into the blessing God was giving. That blessing was not the outward, visible kind it will be in the future.
One king of Judah shows what this verse looks like in a single life:
Manasseh humbled himself, judging his whole way of life before God, and God brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom… Joel, who prophesied under Manasseh, seems to point to this event… It was not a revival in the proper sense of the word. It was a return to God through the affliction that made this wretched man cry to Him and receive deliverance from all his distress… What a blessed thought, that the hearts of the most hardened may become the objects of grace!
The same door stands open beyond one nation and one crisis:
From the moment the remnant take the place where God put them, He listens to their cry. Faith takes the place of the sinner and humbles itself, and then God answers. If the church is in a sad state, faith knows the state the church is in. Faith owns it, humbles itself, and God can answer… Faith makes us conscious of the ruin that sin has placed us in.
- Yet even now. God announces judgment and offers a way back in the same chapter.
- Grace first. Disaster comes as God's righteous judgment. The repentance that answers it is the fruit of the Spirit — God works what He asks for.
- All your heart. Repentance is the heart owning its own evil and accepting what God says. No gesture can replace it.
- Reality, not display. Fasting, weeping and mourning belong to real grief, but God says to tear the heart, not the clothes.
- Then the blessing. Manasseh humbled himself, and God restored him. A future remnant will turn the same way, and God will pour out His Spirit on them.
and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving-kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Joel's call comes while an invading army darkens the sky and the day of the Lord presses close. God's answer to the crisis is not a strategy but a summons to turn back to Him. So the verse raises two questions: what does God want from a mourning people, and what is He like when they come?
Tearing your clothes was the standard public sign of grief in Israel. This verse cuts straight through it. One writer lists the mourning customs, then notes that God never asks people to feel less, only to feel truly:
They would beat their breasts, cover their heads, fast, put dust and ashes on their heads, tear their clothes, wear sackcloth, and so on... God does not want grieving people to feel nothing: the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, but He would have reality in all things. He had to say to His people, "Rend your heart, and not your garments."
What replaces the torn cloth is not a lesser thing but a harder one. One commentator describes what that torn heart looks like in a person who has turned:
For the converted soul, the tearing is of the heart, not of the garments. He truly accepts the dishonour his sins have brought, bitter as that is, instead of claiming honour for his "head"... He owns himself defiled beyond his own repair. He goes off alone to confess, instead of presuming to mingle with the faithful.
The verse gives a reason to turn, and the reason is God Himself. Jonah said the same about God. One writer draws out what that guarantees for anyone who comes back:
So, whether it is an individual, a city, or a nation, if there is a true turning to God, as there was in Nineveh, God cannot do anything other than have mercy and "abundantly pardon." Otherwise, He would not be true to His character — "You are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and You relent from doing harm."
The last clause has puzzled readers: does God change His mind? Older translations read "repents Him of the evil" where the ESV has "relents over disaster." One writer answers that the change is in the action, not in the heart behind it:
It does not mean a change of mind on God's part, but a change of action caused by a change of mind on man's part. God sends warnings to man, so that man may change his mind and repent. Then God may change His action from judgment to mercy. God has not changed His mind. God's mind has always been toward mercy... but man's sin must bring down the righteous judgment of God, even though He is slow to anger.
The moment people take the low place God gives them, He moves. One writer takes verses 12 to 14 as the pattern for anyone in ruin:
From the moment the remnant take the place where God put them, He listens to their cry. Faith takes the place of the sinner and humbles itself, and then God answers. If the church is in a sad state, faith is aware of that state. Faith owns it, humbles itself, and God can answer.
Manasseh was one of the worst sinners in Israel's history, and he prayed for pardon from a prison in Babylon. One writer points to him as proof of what this verse promises:
Even such a sinner as Manasseh may receive a free and full pardon from the God of Israel. God valued that prayer for pardon, prayed in the prison in Babylon, so highly that He had it recorded. He recorded it to encourage other repentant sinners who would come back again to the same God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and of great kindness, and relents from doing harm... the way back is wide, wide open; with the Father's kiss of pardon waiting for you; and not one single word of reproach.
- Turn — the verse commands a return, and it comes when judgment is nearest. God's answer to disaster is a summons to Himself.
- Torn — He asks for a torn heart, not torn clothing. Grief is welcome; display without reality is not.
- True — a torn heart owns its own defilement instead of defending its honour. It confesses instead of covering.
- Trustworthy — the reason to turn is God's own character. Where turning is real, mercy is certain, because God cannot act against what He is.
- Turned back — He does not change His mind. He changes His action when we change ours. Manasseh, praying in a Babylonian prison, proves the way back stays wide open.