Broadening Your Witness I

What is a witness? In contemporary legal terms, a witness is someone who offers testimony to an event which they have seen personally. But the biblical word for witness is that and a whole lot more. The Greek word is marturos, a word we would better translate as "martyr." A Christian witness was one who testified of Jesus and offered up his or her own life in His service. To be a witness for Christ is to love people and, at the same time, have a lover's quarrel with the world in which we live. To be a witness is to be a living demonstration of God's Kingdom, God's alternative society built on holiness, justice and love. To be a witness is to point to God's love in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate answer to what the world needs.

Such a task is daunting, actually quite impossible without the Spirit of God. Jesus said to his disciples in Acts 1:8,

"But you will receive power [dunamis, the word from which we get dynamic and dynamite] when the Holy Spirit [pneuma from which get the word pneumatic - air driven or wind-driven, consistent with the Hebrew ruach - meaning breath or wind] comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses [yes, martyrs - only one died a natural death and he died in exile (John)] in Jerusalem [where they were], Judea [the surrounding region], Samaria [to the people no one else would go to], and to the ends of the earth."

The job is huge, so big that we can never do it on our own. We must become a work of God and then carry out a work of God in partnership with Him.

Joel 1:1-2:17

Every once in a while, in West Texas, we get besieged by locusts. So it was in the days of Joel. But Joel uses the locusts as a metaphor for the growing threat of the Assyrians (who invade but do not take over) and then the Babylonians (who finish off the south where Joel prophesied - his form of witness). Verses 2-12 describe the devastation of the land of Israel after the Babylonians destroyed and took all the leadership into exile. But Joel points to an even greater invading army. We have a similar picture in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

"He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. O be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant my feet. While God is marching on."

The "Day of the Lord" is a powerful image in Jewish and early church history for God's judgment in wrath on the sins of the earth, including Israel's enemies and including Israel herself if she does not repent. The same picture is a major theme in II Peter. We don't talk much about God's wrath and judgment, but the Bible is careful to show that God's holiness and love are held in tension. There is grace and mercy, but there is also judgment and consequences. It's as if Joel is saying, "If you think the Babylonians were something to fear, wait till you see the judgment army of God."
Joel
2:12-17 holds out the possibility that the disaster of God's judgment can be avoided through repentance. The prophet repeatedly urges the people to "return." He calls (the sounding of the shofar as a sign of urgency) for a time of repentance including public worship for confession (a solemn assembly), a fast (for the purification of individual hearts), and sanctification (a cleansing of the congregation). Might this passage have any bearing on the events of our own day? If so, how? What does it mean to be God's witness in days of moral compromise and self-idolatry? Are we willing to be that controversial? We may find that in our day martyrdom might be more common, right here in the USA. More personally, what do you need to turn away from so that you can re-turn to the LORD. Have a great day in our Lord Jesus Christ.