A Promise of Restoration : Part 1

A Promise of Restoration Joel 2:18-27             Not far from where I live is an old house. I first saw this house more than 40 years ago. It wasn’t in very good shape. The roof was sagging, some windows were broken, and in some places, the stucco was coming off the walls. The yard and grounds weren’t well kept either.             An elderly man lived in that house and his appearance was somewhat like the condition of his house. He didn’t seem to have family connections and he was a bit of a recluse. He had served for years as the custodian at a local high school, just across the road from his house, but it had been closed as smaller schools were consolidated into a new building in a nearby town.             Eventually, the old man died, and the house continued to deteriorate. Then one day I noticed that it was being repaired. It was purchased by a person who had an interest in local history. He saw value in preserving that house for its history of it as well as reclaiming it for future use. I remember watching with interest the progress of the renovations on that old house.             As I recall, the first thing they did was to replace the sagging, leaky roof to preserve the structural soundness of the building. Then there were major renovations inside the house to bring it up to current building code specifications.             But the most dramatic change came when the new owner decided to remove the stucco from the exterior of the building. Underneath the dirty white stucco were beautiful brown sandstone walls. A crew of masons spent several weeks cleaning those stones and then repointing them. It was an amazing restoration and today it is a beautiful specimen of local architecture and building methods from an earlier time.             In the same community, just about a mile down the road is another house. This one is made of brick; not brick veneer, but solid brick walls. This one was the scene of a terrible fire a number of years ago. The owner of the property has simply abandoned it. There it sits, year after year, the structure falling in and the landscape being overtaken by weeds, briars, and trees. It’s in such bad shape that it can’t be restored, it would need to be torn down so a new house could be built on the site. It’s an eyesore in the community.             There’s a very marked and visible difference between these two properties. Why? Because someone intervened, someone took an interest in the one house, but not the other.             There is a parallel between those two houses and our lives as human beings. As sinners, we are all in a state of disrepair and brokenness. Our lives are on a downward spiral of decay and eventual destruction. But there is Someone who can intervene. There is Someone who sees beyond the brokenness, the destruction, and the weeds that describe our sinful existence. He sees the potential that He created in us and the glory we can bring to Him if we respond to His plea for repentance. That Someone is God.             In our previous study, we looked at Joel 2:12 to 17 and God’s plea for repentance to His ancient, chosen, earthly people, Israel. He reminded them of His lovingkindness, His mercy, and His gracious forgiveness of sin. He urged them to repent so He could bless them. We noted that this is the same God we serve today, and He hasn’t changed.             In our text for this teaching, we turn to Joel 2:18 to 27 to look at God’s promise of restoration to a repentant people. One of the things we learn quickly in reading the messages of these Old Testament prophets is that human nature hasn’t changed. Our circumstances today are differen