"With All Your Heart" - Joel

One of the things I have been enjoying lately is observing the timelines in Scripture.

Sometimes we read a prophet in thirty minutes and assume everyone who first heard that message either obeyed or rejected it immediately. Yet the Bible often tells a very different story.

As I have been reviewing the prophecy of Joel, I have been struck by the realization that it took roughly 150 years before the central call of that prophecy was fully embraced.

Joel's message was simple: "Return to Me with all your heart..." (Joel 2:12). Simple to read but incredibly difficult to live.

The first significant response came only a few years later when Athaliah was overthrown and covenant worship was restored. That was an important step, but it was only the beginning.

The kings who followed each accomplished something good. Joash repaired the temple. Amaziah sought the Lord for a season. Uzziah brought stability and prosperity. Jotham strengthened the kingdom.

Yet one phrase continues to appear throughout their stories: "The high places were not removed."

There was obedience, but not wholehearted obedience. There was reform, but not complete repentance. Then came Ahaz, and everything deteriorated again.

Finally, Hezekiah ascended the throne. This time something was different. He did not merely repair buildings. He humbled himself before God. He called the nation back to covenant faithfulness with sincerity. Scripture repeatedly describes him as serving the Lord "with all his heart."

Then God responded (Prophesied in Joel 2:18-32). In a single night, the Assyrian army was shattered. One hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers fell (2 Kings 19:35).

Reading that timeline made me pause.

It appears as though God had been waiting—not because He was unwilling to save, but because He was pursuing something deeper than external reform. He wanted hearts.

Then I looked at me/us.

We often preach one forty-five-minute sermon, give an altar call, and expect complete surrender before everyone leaves the building. We speak as though loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is as simple as making a decision.

But is it?

The more I think about that word all, the heavier it becomes.

All my heart? All my strength!? All my mind!

Jeremiah asks, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

If our own hearts deceive us, how can they suddenly produce wholehearted love for God?

Perhaps that is exactly the point.

God commands what fallen humanity cannot naturally produce. Not because He delights in impossible demands but because He intends to reveal our desperate need for Him.

The Law exposes, grace supplies.

This is why the story does not end with Joel or with Hezekiah. Not even with the prophets. It leads us to Christ.

Under the new covenant, God promises, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you." (Ezekiel 36:26) Joel himself looked forward to the day when God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). Jesus fulfilled that promise.

Only God can give a heart capable of loving God.

The command, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart," was never meant to convince us that we were capable, but that we were not and once we reach the end of ourselves, we discover that the One who asks for our whole heart is also the One who gives us a new one.

Perhaps that is why Jesus did not simply tell His disciples to try harder. He said, "Abide in Me... apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

The believers life is not sustained by greater effort but by deeper union. Maybe that is one of the greatest lessons hidden in those one hundred and fifty years.

God was not slow. He was patient. He was allowing history to demonstrate what humanity could never accomplish on its own. Without Him, "all" is impossible. With Him, what He commands, He also enables.

Selah.