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Joel 2:13

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he [is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Joel 2:13 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Joel 2:13

Theological / Devotional

Rend your heart. For a Jew to rend his garment was a sign of great grief. It signified that he had encountered some terrible calamity (Gen. 37:34; Lev. 13:45; 2 Chron. 34:27; Jer. 36:24). Since, however, it was possible to exhibit such external signs of grief without any real inward feeling of sorrow, the people were commanded to avoid such pretense by rending, instead, their hearts.

Gracious and merciful. See Ex. 34:6, 7; Neh. 9:17.

Repenteth him. On God’s repenting see on Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:11; see also PP 630. The discipline of the judgments would be unnecessary if the requisite change in character were wrought (see Jer. 26:3; Jonah 4:2). Prayer does not change the mind of God. With Him there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). But prayer changes the petitioner (see on Dan. 10:13). When the conditions of answered prayer are met, God can bestow rich blessings.

By SdaBc