Today's Devotion: Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.e He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. (e Or / the teacher for righteousness: The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Joe 2:23) According to The Teacher's Commentary, Joel speaks of revival in Jerusalem and Judea before the Babylon captivity, but after a plague of locusts, that struck Judah. Joel warns that calamity is the result of turning away from God, but he promises that God will return to His people in their true revival and that they will be blessed by God.

Today's Comments: The key here is true revival. Many times before, Judah's kings began revival in their people. Yet, always, revival faltered and the people turned away from God and back to their old ways. The result, after Joel's time, was exile to Babylon. Today, we can only speculate as to what the results of our secularization and pluralism, as we turn away from God, will be.