Joe 1:8-12 | KingComments | STEP | The people are called upon to wail. Their sorrow must be shown by the wearing of a sackcloth. The misery that has come upon Judah and that must lead to sadness is compared to the misery that is caused by the breaking of a love relationship. The cause of the sorrow the prophet presents in the picture of a wailing bride whose beloved was torn out of life shortly before marriage. Both the unexpected and the intensely painful are drawn here. The fate of Judah and Jerusalem is compared to the fate of a bride who has to do without the fellowship with her husband. Judah and Jerusalem also have no more fellowship with the LORD because of the emergency situation, as it was experienced before in the sacrificial service. The means of sacrifice are given to the people as a proof of their allegiance to the LORD. Because all their hope is connected with earthly blessings, the loss of them can only have great sorrow as a consequence. In a general sense we can connect to this the lesson that whoever works only for the food that perishes ( ) will come out cheated in his work. All earthly prosperity can suddenly disappear. In that case, it is to be hoped, as here with Israel, that this grievous matter will bring about a sorrow that is in accordance with God and not just a sorrow for the blessings that have been lost ( ).

‏ Joel 1:8-12

Sorrow for Loss of a Loved One

The people are called upon to wail. Their sorrow must be shown by the wearing of a sackcloth. The misery that has come upon Judah and that must lead to sadness is compared to the misery that is caused by the breaking of a love relationship. The cause of the sorrow the prophet presents in the picture of a wailing bride whose beloved was torn out of life shortly before marriage. Both the unexpected and the intensely painful are drawn here.

The fate of Judah and Jerusalem is compared to the fate of a bride who has to do without the fellowship with her husband. Judah and Jerusalem also have no more fellowship with the LORD because of the emergency situation, as it was experienced before in the sacrificial service. The means of sacrifice are given to the people as a proof of their allegiance to the LORD. Because all their hope is connected with earthly blessings, the loss of them can only have great sorrow as a consequence.

In a general sense we can connect to this the lesson that whoever works only for the food that perishes (Jn 6:27) will come out cheated in his work. All earthly prosperity can suddenly disappear. In that case, it is to be hoped, as here with Israel, that this grievous matter will bring about a sorrow that is in accordance with God and not just a sorrow for the blessings that have been lost (2Cor 7:10).

No Grain Offering nor Drink Offering

The first consequence of the destruction of the harvest is that no more grain offering and drink offering can be brought into the temple. It seems that the Judeans did bring offerings until the disaster came, because the removal of the offerings is attributed to the locusts. This could mean that until then the people have fulfilled their religious obligations to bring the prescribed offerings. But as they fulfill their duties to God, they also fill up the measure of their iniquity and God’s judgment comes on it. A person can perform the external actions that are part of his religion with great care without his heart being involved.

The loss of offerings is a major disaster. Grain offering and drink offering are mentioned because they are vegetal and are therefore directly affected by the locust plague. A description of the grain offering can be read in Leviticus 2. Like all offerings, the grain offering is a picture of the Lord Jesus. Animal sacrifices are a picture of the work the Lord Jesus did on the cross. The grain offering is not a bloody offering. It therefore speaks of Him as Man on earth, Who in His life preceding His work on the cross has devoted Himself completely to God. The drink offering is a sacrifice of wine which is poured out over another offering, the main offering (Num 28:7 ; 14; cf. Phil 2:17). It speaks of joy – of which wine is a picture – with which the Lord Jesus offered Himself to God.

The spiritual meaning is important to us. The disappearing of the mentioned offerings means that a situation could arise among the people of God, that they no longer realize Who the Lord Jesus is for God. There is no longer any awareness of the Lord Jesus’ complete devotion to God, as presented in the grain offering. It is also no longer thought of the fact that it was His joy to do the will of His Father, as the drink offering shows.

It means that we stop telling God – that is what ‘offering’ means to us – how wonderful the Lord Jesus served Him and that He always did so with joy. There is no longer any fellowship with God. God, with Whom everything is about His Son – Who He is, what He did and how He did it – is wronged. What a great loss for God. He who wrongs God also wrongs himself. Anyone who does not know the Lord Jesus as the true grain offering and drink offering, doesn’t know that his own life can be an offering. Someone who lives only for himself and his own pleasures knows nothing of the dedication to God and the joy it brings.

Priests who perceive such an attitude in God’s people can only weep for it. Priests are people who are used to being in the presence of God. They know what is fitting, they know God’s holiness, His love, and desires. They also share in His grief and the pain that causes the unfaithfulness of His people.

In Israel, only the descendants of Aaron are priests. In the church all believers are priests (1Pet 2:5). Yet there is a difference between being a priest and behaving as a priest or serving as a priest. Only believers who really live in fellowship with God will serve as priests and will sympathize with God. They know in what He is wronged when His people live only for themselves. In meetings where spiritual sacrifices are brought, that is, where God is honored, they will notice the nature and content of those sacrifices. They will notice whether sacrifices are brought that honor God, or that they are sacrifices that show only their own advantage.

Everything Is Great Misery

“The field” is the area on which the crop stands. It shows the harvest, the result of all the effort that preceded it. But there is no harvest, because there is no crop in the field. “The land” represents more the area of which you can expect to be harvested after plowing and sowing. But all the cultivation of the soil has been in vain. The earth gives the appearance of a mourning one. The words “dries up” and “fails” indicate that there is not only a plague of locusts but also a drought (Joel 1:17).

“Grain”, “new wine” and “oil” are the three main blessings of the land, that are often mentioned together in the Old Testament (Num 18:12; Deu 7:13; Hos 2:7). When these are taken away, it is as a result of a Divine punishment (Deu 28:51; Hag 1:11). They will be present again when the people have repented (Joel 2:19; Psa 65:10). The three products – grain, new wine and oil – successively represent reinforcement, joy and radiance (Psa 104:14-15).

Poor and Rich Meet Each Other

The groups addressed here are those most directly affected in their livelihood security. Wheat and barley are the main grains from which bread is baked. We can think of two types of people: rich and poor. Barley bread is the bread for the poor, while people who are better off can buy wheat bread. Barley is used as food for horses (1Kgs 4:28) and as food for people if wheat is not available or payable.

From 2 Kings 7 it appears that barley costs half of wheat (2Kgs 7:1 ; 16). The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his book The Fall of Jerusalem, mentions the same in his description of one of the sieges of Jerusalem: ‘Many rich gave all their wealth for a measure of wheat, the more poor for a measure of barley, after which they locked themselves in a hidden corner of their house and kneaded the grain or ate it ungrounded.’

In Revelation 6, the price of barley is one third of the price to be paid for wheat (Rev 6:6). But if both are no longer available, it does not matter if you are rich or poor. Rich and poor meet in the misery of hunger (Pro 22:2). When both come to the acknowledgment that they are to blame for the chastisement God had to bring because they did not recognize Him as their Maker, He has achieved His goal with that chastisement.

All Trees Are Gone

It is not only the farmers and vineyards who suffer. The whole people, all “sons of men”, share in the disaster. The five tree species, together with the wheat and barley of Joel 1:11, are seven in total. This indicates the total extent of the devastation. The palm tree is the date palm. The statement that “all the trees” have been withered, after a number of trees have already been named, completes the picture of desolation.

Trees are given by God at creation as a blessing for man. He was allowed to eat free of all trees, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). For the Jew, for whom these crops belong to the blessings of the land (Deu 8:6-10), taking them away is a disaster and also a judgment.

In addition to their economic value, the trees mentioned are also symbols of spiritual food and refreshment and of joy and fruit in the life of the faithful believer (Psa 92:13; Song 2:3). The full joy that could have characterized their lives as people of God has fled. Nothing is left of it.