Joe 1:14 | KingComments | STEP | 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 ( ). Fasting is needed (cf. ). 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 , 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 ( ). 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.

‏ Joel 1:14

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.