Understanding God's Wrath

Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. (Joel 1:2-3, ESV) We are confused about what God is like. We tend to split him down into parts. And to be honest, there are some parts about him that at best confuse us, or at worst, offend us. We like to think of God in all the most pleasant ways. But when we read through the scriptures, we bump against descriptions and actions of God that don't fit neatly in our categories. Often times, we would rather not think about those attributes of God because they are unpleasant and are the fodder for angry, backwoods preachers. But they are there in scripture. So what do we do? Over the next two weeks, we are going to wrestle with who God is by looking at the small, minor prophet book of Joel. This book describes God and his actions in judgment. But, in the midst of it, we also find that God's judgment not only describes him but shows other angles of him as well. Kevin Mays will be taking this time to breakdown this book. I want to encourage you to read through Joel several times over the coming weeks so that as Kevin explains and teaches the passages, you will be familiar with the text.