Tremble // Joel 2:1
Today’s verse from Joel is a prophecy about the coming last days. God sent word to Joel to tell the people to get their lives back on God’s path because doom and destruction was coming. Similar messages have been shared ever since and seem just as applicable today. The world is upside-down and we’re living in what I like to call Isaiah’s inversion: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21, NIV).
Joel’s advice was for the people to “tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.” That advice isn’t just something from the Old Testament to be cast away, because we read the words of the Apostle Paul as found in Philippians 2:12 that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. All of this echoes Jesus’ words when He taught, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:4-5, NIV).
Are we giving God the healthy fear and respect He deserves? If not, I think we have reason to tremble lest we reduce the Lord to some token or talisman. I love the description C.S. Lewis gave of Aslan the Lion in “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, which is a direct reference to Jesus. We see that Aslan isn’t safe, but he is good. The same goes for God. Yes, God is good, and God is love, but that does not mean that God is safe, mushy. No, God is fierce, severe (Romans 11:22). We don’t typically think of the Lord that way, but it is part of love, isn’t it? A mother is most fearsome protecting her family. God is similar in nature. When forces of evil threaten God’s family, God is fierce. When God’s beloved get out of line, He disciplines to prepare us for future righteousness. All of these are reasons to tremble.
I think about one other way to tremble, and that’s how I want to close today. I have experienced transcendent trembling when I feel God’s power, recognize indescribable love, and see the Lord move. That, my friends, is a call to tremble, too! It isn’t merely about fearing getting out of line, but experiencing the awe of that which can only be accomplished, experienced, or observed by God’s amazing grace. So, we have reason to tremble. May we do so when we get out of line and live in Isaiah’s inversion. May we also tremble as we work out our salvation in the face of our sinfulness. But, best of all, may we tremble in awe-struck wonder as we see God move in ways that defy logic and reason. After all, He is awesome and amazing, so may we do as Psalm 33:8 suggests, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!”
