Joe 1:13-14 | KingComments | STEP | In it is said of the priests that they mourn. There they are in connection with the LORD and with the house of the LORD. LORD or Yahweh is the Name of God that indicates that He has a special relationship with His chosen people Israel. Yahweh is the Name of the God of the covenant with Israel. But the people have broken the covenant with Him. If God now calls the priests to lament and wail, to spend the night in sackcloth, He does so as the One for Whom man must account for his unfaithfulness. God is the three times holy God, Who is not to be mocked. That is why we speak here of “ministers of my God” and “the house of your God”. The priests must be the first to be able to realize how great the dishonor that has been done to God is. After all, they may be expected to know what is due to God and that it is a great shame that God does not receive what is due to Him. As “ministers of the altar” they are now unemployed. There is nothing to bring to the altar. Grain offering and drink offering come from the harvest of wheat and grapes and those harvests are destroyed. Joel called the priests “ministers of my God”. He presents himself as the prophet of his God, on behalf of Whom he could say that God will hear when they come to Him. It seems that this means that it is no longer the priests who stand for God as mediators on behalf of the people, but that the prophet is now as a loner the mediator through whom God speaks to the people. He speaks to them of “your God” when he speaks of the house of God. That is the confession they hold in respect of the temple. He joins this when he speaks in of “the house of our God”. He now calls them, of whom one of the duties is to sing in the temple, to lament. Spending the night in sackcloth is done as a sign of great sorrow, but also as an intense and long lasting act of humiliation before the LORD ( ; ).

‏ Joel 1:13-14

Call to the Priests

In Joel 1:9 it is said of the priests that they mourn. There they are in connection with the LORD and with the house of the LORD. LORD or Yahweh is the Name of God that indicates that He has a special relationship with His chosen people Israel. Yahweh is the Name of the God of the covenant with Israel. But the people have broken the covenant with Him. If God now calls the priests to lament and wail, to spend the night in sackcloth, He does so as the One for Whom man must account for his unfaithfulness.

God is the three times holy God, Who is not to be mocked. That is why we speak here of “ministers of my God” and “the house of your God”. The priests must be the first to be able to realize how great the dishonor that has been done to God is. After all, they may be expected to know what is due to God and that it is a great shame that God does not receive what is due to Him. As “ministers of the altar” they are now unemployed. There is nothing to bring to the altar. Grain offering and drink offering come from the harvest of wheat and grapes and those harvests are destroyed.

Joel called the priests “ministers of my God”. He presents himself as the prophet of his God, on behalf of Whom he could say that God will hear when they come to Him. It seems that this means that it is no longer the priests who stand for God as mediators on behalf of the people, but that the prophet is now as a loner the mediator through whom God speaks to the people.

He speaks to them of “your God” when he speaks of the house of God. That is the confession they hold in respect of the temple. He joins this when he speaks in Joel 1:16 of “the house of our God”. He now calls them, of whom one of the duties is to sing in the temple, to lament. Spending the night in sackcloth is done as a sign of great sorrow, but also as an intense and long lasting act of humiliation before the LORD (1Kgs 21:27; 2Sam 12:13-23).

Consecration of a Fast

After the call to lament and wail as a result of the locust plague, it is said along which channel this should happen. This channel is called ‘humbling and conversion to God’. The call is further elaborated in the following chapter (Joel 2:15-17). Fasting is needed (cf. Jona 3:7). It seems easy to fast in a time of famine, but this is very difficult. Hunger is gnawing. There is hardly any food and what there is may not be touched to turn to God. But with this fasting one joins God, Who in this time does not receive any ‘food’ either.

Fasting is usually accompanied by confession of guilt, but this is not mentioned here. It is often used as an expression of humiliation to obtain from God reconciliation of guilt or to avoid dooming. It serves to underline the power of prayer or intercession.

If we encounter special trials and events in our lives that bewilder us, we should withdraw from the ordinary course of life. Then we can expose our hearts completely before the Lord, to see what He has to say to us with those events. In such situations, you do not even think of eating. You focus all your attention on the Lord and learn to know His will in the circumstances He has sent.

As in Joel 1:2, the elders and all inhabitants are also mentioned here. Everyone is called and involved. Everyone has to come to the temple to call out to the LORD. They have to cry out for deliverance from distress. The call to God must be a national call because it is a national disaster. In Nehemiah 9 we also find such a national fast (Neh 9:1-3). Here, too, it is a matter for the whole people. If this call is answered, will the LORD not hear and give restoration? He hears and answers every sincere call. Only we must leave it to Him how and when He answers.