The Lord is calling his people Israel through Joel to return to the Lord with all their heart – with fasting, mourning, and weeping, rending their hearts, and not their garments – this is done by publicly calling everyone together to fasting and prayer, to seek deliverance from God. They have been told that a great plague of locusts is descending on them, a time of judgment, yet if they apply to God for mercy, he may relent.
