Huge Hope: Major Power in the Minor ProphetsSample

In today’s passage, we read from the prophet Joel about a nation that was being besieged by an occupying force, and how God goes about rescuing His people.

Basically, in this passage, it gets worse before it gets better. It’s fire. It’s desolation. It’s darkness. It’s total domination.

But then…

There’s grain, there’s wine, there’s oil. There’s satisfaction at long last.

There’s a promise that all that has been lost will be given back. Everything that has been stolen will be returned. There are words of peace and calm spoken not just to people but to animals and to the land itself. It is a complete and total restoration from the ground up.

And finally, there is this everlasting promise in verse 27: “…[M]y people shall never again be put to shame.”

The roller coaster ride will end. The cycle of hope and dismay will be over. We will get off the merry-go-round and stand once more on solid ground.

This is the kind of hope we can find if we just care to open our eyes long enough to see it.