“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! (Joel 2:21)
Fear Not because of Yesterday
I didn’t trust my 1978 Jeep Cherokee. The only reliable thing about it was the fact that it was unreliable. No matter the season, the weather, or how long it had been since I’d driven it, I was afraid it wouldn’t start. Or that it would stall. Or that it would make this strange noise (a sort of gurgley-bang) and suddenly accelerate. The headlights would sometimes blink, and the interior lights were usually on.
But I trust my Honda Accord. The engines purrs to life exactly when I need it to. It has never stalled. The accessories accessorize. The headlights, turn-signals, heater, and the interior lights adjust to a finger’s touch. The features… feat?
I trust the Accord (and didn’t trust the Cherokee) for one reason: yesterday. I didn’t wake up suddenly with trust (or mistrust.) Yesterday’s activities cause tomorrow’s trust. And yesterday’s activities cause tomorrow’s fear.
The history of God is, simply, that the Lord has done great things. When the prophet Joel recalls God’s great things, he probably would prefer we would capitalize the words like this: The Lord has done GREAT THINGS.
The Creation of all things out of nothing, from galaxies to quarks. The Grace and Mercy of Adam’s fall and promise of Redemption. Astonishingly, God’s promise to Adam was fulfilled thousands of years before the death needed to pay for Adam’s sin occurred. Adam was saved on credit! God’s formation, protection, and development of a people before it was cool to BE a nation. He guided Israel through wealth to slavery to freedom to training to coming home to peace to prosperity to power to POWER through rebellion through patience through prophets through last chances to the end of last chanches to exile… through waiting… to return to fulfillment to FULFILLMENT to a new type of nation to you.
And I skipped a lot of things.
But I am not sure that Joel was merely thinking of that history (some of which he hadn’t experienced, of course.) But I expect Joel was thinking about what God had done personally to Joel. And locally around Joel. And in sight of Joel. And in Joel’s hearing.
Joel had seen that God was good. All the time. And all the time, God was good.
When sometimes it doesn’t seem like it, that fear can be met with our knowledge of yesterday. Whether our own yesterday, or yesteryear. God has done GREAT THINGS.
So fear not.