joel

joel's hard for me to get into, with all the worms right off the bat, and destruction.
theres removal of provision, and shame, and a call to cry out to the Lord.
he doesnt come and restore them yet.
then, a crazy strong army comes, totally insurmountable and its a darkness you cant get away from.
then the Lord comes. and its a different darkness, of power. but theres also kindness, and a call again to cry out to Him. ::in a deeper place, maybe?
theres a truth- we must continually turn to Him in our needs. come to me, come to me, oh yes, and weep and mourn before me. dont numb out or be "satisfying" your hurts, stroking them and saying its not that bad, i can cope and we'll get through this.

and then the Lord comes quickly in his response- i will restore all these things, and this huge army, that wasnt defeatable? i go that.
v.20 ch.2 "but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, because he hath done great things."

so, the bad things were so great, theyre going to be a rememberance, even from far away.
but.
v. 21 "fear not, o land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things."
BaM!
He's our Covering, our Restorer. His presence, full and complete in our lives brings on a forgetfullness of the evil- wiping away the pain of the past from our eyes, until one day we see Him clearly! those great things covered, are covering, and will continue to cover.