Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 2:12

"Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:" — Joel 2:12 (ASV)

Therefore – And now, since all this is so, there is one way of escape: true repentance. It is as if God said, “I have spoken all this, therefore, to terrify you by My threats. For this reason, turn to Me with all your hearts, and show the penitence of your minds by fasting and weeping and mourning, so that, fasting now, you may be filled hereafter; weeping now, you may laugh hereafter; mourning now, you may hereafter be comforted (Luke 6:21; Matthew 5:4).

And since it is your custom to rend your garments in sorrow, I command you to rend not them, but your hearts, which are full of sin, and which, like bladders, unless they are opened, will burst of themselves. And when you have done this, return to the Lord your God, from whom your former sins alienated you; and do not despair of pardon for the greatness of your guilt, for mighty mercy will blot out mighty sins.”

“The strict Judge cannot be overcome, for He is Omnipotent; cannot be deceived, for He is Wisdom; cannot be corrupted, for He is Justice; cannot be withstood, for He is Eternal; cannot be avoided, for He is everywhere. Yet He can be entreated, because He is Mercy; He can be appeased, because He is Goodness; He can cleanse, because He is the Fountain of Grace; He can satisfy, because He is the Bread of Life; He can soothe, because He is the Unction from above; He can beautify, because He is Fullness; He can beatify because He is Bliss. Turned from Him, then, and fearing His Justice, turn to Him, and flee to His Mercy.

Flee from Himself to Himself, from the rigor of justice to the bosom of mercy. The Lord who is to be feared says it. He who is Truth enjoins what is just, profitable, good, “turn to Me,” etc.”

Turn – even “to Me,” that is, so as to return “quite to” God (see the note at Hosea 14:2), not halting, not turning halfway, not in some things only, but from all the lusts and pleasures to which they had turned from God.

“Turn quite to Me,” He says, “with all your heart, with your whole mind, whole soul, whole spirit, whole affections. For I am the Creator and Lord of the heart and mind, and therefore I will that the whole of it should be given—indeed, given back—to Me, and I do not endure that any part of it be secretly stolen from Me to be given to idols, lusts, or appetites.”

“It often happens with some people,” says Gregory, “that they stoutly gird themselves to encounter their vices, but neglect to overcome others; and while they never rouse themselves against these, they are re-establishing against themselves even those which they had subdued.”

Others, “in resolve, aim at right courses, but are always doubling back to their usual evil ones, and being, as it were, drawn away from themselves, they return to themselves in a cycle, desiring good ways, but never forsaking evil ways.”

In contrast to these half-conversions, He bids us turn to God with our whole inmost soul, so that all our affections should be fixed on God, and all within us, by a strong union, cleave to Him. For “in whatever degree our affections are scattered among created things, so far is the conversion of the heart to God impaired.”

“Look diligently,” says Bernard, “what you love, what you fear, in what you rejoice or are saddened, and under the rags of conversion you will find a perverse heart. The whole heart is in these four affections; and of these I think we must understand that saying, ‘turn to the Lord with all your heart.’ Let then your love be converted to Him, so that you love nothing whatever except Him, or at least for Him. Let your fear also be converted to Him, for all fear is perverted by which you fear anything besides Him or not for Him. So too let your joy and sorrow equally be converted to Him. This will be, if you only grieve or rejoice according to Him.”

“There is a conversion with the whole heart, and another with a part. The conversion with the whole heart God seeks, for it suffices for salvation. That which is partial He rejects, for it is feigned and far from salvation. In the heart, there are three powers: reason, will, memory. Reason concerns things future; will, things present; memory, things past. For reason seeks things to come; the will loves things present; memory retains things past.

Reason illumines; will loves; memory retains. When, then, reason seeks that Highest Good and finds, the will receives and loves, and memory anxiously keeps and closely embraces, then the soul turns with the whole heart to God. But when reason slumbers and neglects to seek heavenly things, or the will is tepid and does not care to love them, or memory is torpid and is careless in retaining them, then the soul acts falsely, falling first into the vice of ignorance, secondly into the guilt of negligence, thirdly into the sin of malice.

In each, the soul acts falsely; otherwise, ignorance would be expelled by the light of reason, negligence excluded by the zeal of will, and malice quenched by diligence of memory (of divine things). Reason then seeking begets knowledge; will embracing produces love; memory holding fast, edification. The first produces the light of knowledge; the second, the love of righteousness; the third preserves the treasure of grace. This is that conversion of heart which God requires; this is that which suffices for salvation.”

And with fasting – “In their returning to Him, it is required in the first place that it be with the heart in the inward man, yet so that the outward man is not left unconcerned, but also has its part in performing such things by which it may express how the inward man is really affected. True conversion is thus made up by the concurrence of both.

“With fasting,” which will contribute to the humbling of the heart—for pampering the flesh is apt to puff up the heart and make it insensible of its own condition and forgetful of God and His service—as Jeshurun who, being “waxed fat, kicked, and forsook the God which made him and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation” (Deuteronomy 32:15). Fasting is then usually joined in Scripture to waiting on God’s service and prayer, as an almost necessary accompaniment, called for by God and practiced by holy men.”

And with weeping and with mourning – that is, by “beating” on the breast (as the word for mourning originally denoted), “as the publican smote upon his breast” (Luke 18:13), and “all the people that came together to that sight” (of Jesus on the Cross), “beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts” (Luke 23:48).

“These also, being in themselves signs of grief, stir up more grief in the heart, and so have their effects on the person himself, for the increase of his repentance, as well as for showing it. It also stirs up similar passions in others and provokes them also to repentance.”

“These things, done purely and holily, are not conversion itself, but are excellent signs of conversion.”

“We ought “to turn in fasting,” by which vices are repressed and the mind is raised. We ought “to turn in weeping,” out of longing for our home, out of displeasure at our faults, out of love for the sufferings of Christ, and for the manifold transgressions and errors of the world.”

“What good does it do,” says Gregory, “to confess iniquities, if the affliction of penitence does not follow the confession of the lips? For three things are to be considered in every true penitent: conversion of the mind, confession of the mouth, and discipline for the sin. This third element is like a necessary medicine, so that the abscess of guilt, pricked by confession, may be purified by conversion and healed by the medicine of affliction. The sign of true conversion is not in the confession of the mouth, but in the affliction of penitence. For then we see that a sinner is truly converted when, by a worthy austerity of affliction, he strives to erase what in speech he confesses. Therefore John the Baptist, rebuking the poorly converted Jews who flocked to him, says, “O generation of vipers, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.””