"Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, 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 2:17
Joel (God) posits that it should be the priests and ministers that should lead a call to repentance and they are to do so between the portico and altar (where all could see). It was on their watch that Judah slid away from God into apostasy. The priest’s and minster’s were spiritually negligent. They should’ve been the main line of defense against this happening because they are charged with the spiritual well-being of the people and are the mediators to God for the people. But all must meet with God and listen to His commandments and act on them. They were to beg God to spare them for their own good but also so God’s name would not become a mockery among the nations and peoples because of His people being idiots. We in this day in age as Christians could stand to learn a lot from Joel’s argument. Our behavior as Christians has a direct bearing on how non-Christians view God. If today’s examples are any indication, I’d say we are in trouble. True Christians are repentant Christians.
As believers we often fail to understand that everything we do as Christians reflects good or bad on God. Nothing we do goes off radar. If we are to stand as tools of the Living God in the world as beacons of light and hope for an unbelieving word it behooves us to not beckon them into the rocks in the storms of their life. What good is a lighthouse that draws people into shallow treacherous waters littered with obstacles we put there? We are to act as guides to the One True God, not act like hypocritical backsliding imbeciles.
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