Joel 1:14

Joel 1:14 says, Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,  Here, the people of God were being told the remedy for their rebellion.  They needed to return to God, individually and as a nation.  We today need to follow that advice.  If we want our nation, whatever nation that might be, to be great, then we must call on God and then listen to Him when He answers.  One thing is certain, God will answer us when we sincerely call on Him if we are His people.  The real question then becomes whether or not we will listen to God.  Verse fifteen adds, Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.  This was a stern warning and not a questionable statement. When God declares something to be true, we can be certain that it is true.  As followers of Christ, we know that God has declared that one day judgment is going to come to the lost world and Christ is going to be either a redeemer or a judge to everyone.  Those who have not accepted Christ and those things not done for God will be destroyed.  The destruction of the lost will be everlasting separation from God.  Verse sixteen adds, Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?  The people already had evidence of the result of not following God.  There was no meat on their tables.  Those idols they worshipped were unable to provide for them.  Also, there was no joy in God's house.  As followers of Christ, if we are out of fellowship with Him, nothing is going to satisfy us and we are going to get no joy from being in His house.  Empty worship never satisfies.  Verse seventeen states, The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. Without God's provision for them, everything was failing.  Their crops failed so the barns weren't needed.  Verse eighteen adds, How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.  The bottom line was, due to their failure to obey God, complete destruction awaited them.  This is still true today.  We will never find lasting salvation outside of God's will.  No matter how successful we may be in the eyes of the world, anything we have obtained through disobedience to God will be destroyed.  Verse nineteen continues, O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. Though God's people may have turned away from Him, even in their desolation there was hope if they returned to Him.  Verse twenty concludes, The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.  All of nature seemed to be failing.  When we look around at so many things that seem to be destructive today, we need to make sure that our faith is in God alone.