Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 179 · June 28
Rend Your Heart
“And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”
What did we actually do, the last time we were sorry?
In Joel's world, tearing your clothes was the public sign of grief and repentance. Joel does not forbid the outward signs. The verse before keeps every one of them: "turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." He keeps the fast, and he moves the tearing inside: "rend your heart, and not your garments." To rend is to tear.
We know the substitutes, because we are good at them. We send the apology the same day, before anything has had to change. We criticise ourselves loudly in front of a group, which costs less than one quiet talk with the person we hurt. We start a fast and make sure people know. Every one of these can be seen, and that is why we like them. A torn shirt can be seen from the back of the room, while a torn heart cannot be seen at all.
The ground Joel stands on is something God said long before. The reason in the second half of the verse, "for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness," echoes what God proclaimed about Himself at Sinai, just after the golden calf. Jonah later threw those same words back at God as a complaint, because he had run away knowing God was like this. Nehemiah's Levites recited them over centuries of a nation saying no to God. None of them invented this picture of God, and neither do we.
Then Joel will not promise an outcome: "Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?" He calls a whole country to fast with nothing to stand on but God's character and a "who knoweth." We would like the result settled first.
The next thing he does is public: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly." He gathers the elders and the children, and even the bride and bridegroom. Tearing the heart did not make repentance a private matter, even though we would rather keep it out of sight.
So the shirt stays on, and we wear it to the assembly like everybody else. Nobody there can tell which of us tore anything inside, but God can, and Joel tells us what He did when His people turned: "Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people." He is still gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and He sees the tear that no one else can see.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 179 is Delivered and Preserved (2 Timothy 4:18).