Ok, so here's what happened.

As we've been preparing to go to India, Sarah shared with us that Baptist Church Hyderabad, as a church body, has been focusing on a passage in Joel for 2009. Many of them are memorizing it and really calling on it corporately as their prayer this year. So we read it as a group and were a little bit bewildered by it. See what you think:

12 "Even now," declares the LORD,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."

13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

14 Who knows? He may turn and have pity
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the LORD your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.

16 Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.

17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
'Where is their God?' " (Joel 2:12-17)

A bit heavy, right? I can't imagine my church picking this as its theme chapter. So we've been pondering this and trying to find some way to relate to it.

Now, in my Bible study this semester we are doing Beth Moore's study on Esther. On Monday, I was reading the passage in the beginning of Esther 4, where Mordecai has learned of the edict that has sentenced every Jew in the Medo-Persian empire to death by massacre. Vs 1 says that Mordecai tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. Vs 3 says there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing.

As Beth begins to commentate on this passage, she says that the only other place in the Bible these exact words are used is in the book of Joel, chapter 2, vs 12-17. My ears sort of perk up at this. She said that the book of Joel precedes the book of Esther, and the words that Mordecai uses in his message to Esther would have certainly been a reference to this prophetic passage.

In Chapter 4, Verses 12-14, Mordecai answers Esther's excuse that trying to talk to the king without being summoned would put her very life at risk with these words. "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Beth suggests that Mordecai and the rest of the Jews were doing more than just lamenting their fate. By tearing their clothes and putting on sackcloth and ashes, fasting, weeping and wailing they were outwardly expressing to God their desire to return to Him and begging for His unfailing mercy. Because the Jews had been in Persia so long they were almost entirely assimilated into the culture. As my pastor says, people didn't have a problem with them for being different, but for not being different enough.

So go back and read Joel 2:12-17 in the context of Esther 4. The words "who knows?" just jump off the page. It's not so much a maybe as a phrase of hope.

Now picture being a Christian in India. You represent about 2 percent of the entire population, which is over a billion people. In many places there is an anti-Christian sentiment, and in some places even brutal persecution. There must be times when you feel that all hope for India becoming a Christian nation is completely futile. But you are serious about your faith and your desire to see that very thing happen is overwhelming. Suddenly, the words of Joel come to life in a whole new way.

I realize that may not blow anyone but me away. But here I have been struggling with a random passage in a tiny book of the prophets trying to decipher some relevance out of it, and Beth Moore just happens to commentate on that same very random passage? I was completely astounded and amazed, not only by the personal nature of it, but by the very words themselves.

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Don't outwardly profess grief over your actions unless you are going to get off your butt and turn from them. Return to the LORD for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.

Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing. Or perhaps He already has.