Pastor's Sermon Notes: A Time to Weep (Joel 1)

Joel 1

A Time to Weep

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. ² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? ³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. ⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. ⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. ⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. ⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. ¹⁰ The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. ¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. ¹² The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. ¹³ Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, ¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. ¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. ¹⁹ O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰ The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Introduction:

This is the first of four planned sermons on the prophecy of Joel.  In the Hebrew Scriptures the last five verses of chapter two in the English Bibles are chapter three, and chapter three in the English Bibles are chapter four in the Hebrew Scriptures.  That is how we are going to approach the book.  In other words, we will consider chapter 1, followed by chapter 2:1-27, then chapter 2:28-32 (chapter 3 in the Heb.), and finally chapter 3 (chapter 4 in the Heb.).

Background material for the book of Joel may be found in 2 Kings 11-2 and 2 Chr. 24.

Joel prophesied during the reign of Joash, king of Judah, c. 820 B.C.

If you are ever going to use a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, or a Bible handbook it will be in order to understand the Old Testament better.  For example, in Joel we will encounter locusts, Zion (2:1, 15; 3:16-17, 21), Mount Zion (2:32), Israel (2:27; 3:2, 16), Jerusalem (2:32; 3:1, 6, 16-17, 20), the Garden of Eden (2:3), Judah (3:1, 6, 8, 18-20), the Valley of Jeshoshaphat (3:2, 12), Tyre (3:4), Sidon (3:4), Philistia (3:4), Greeks (3:6), Sabeans (3:8), the Valley of Acacias (3:18), Egypt (3:19), and Edom (3:19).  Encountering these entities from the ancient world should drive us to our resources to learn as much about them as we possibly can in order to understand this little book of Joel from 29 centuries ago.

Outline:

I.  The Introductory Announcement of the Prophecy (1:1-4)

II.  The Commanded Responses to the Plague  (1:5-13)

III.  The Humble Repentance of the People (1:14-20)

I.  The Introductory Announcement of the Prophecy (1:1-4)

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. ² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?  ³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. ⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

Here is an introduction to the prophet, and a call to listen to and hand down the prophecy.

1.  The General Summation of the Content of the Book (1:1)

2.  The Personal Responsibility for the Content of the Book (1:2)

3.  The Ancestral Responsibility for the Content of the Book (1:3-4)

1.  The General Summation of the Content of the Book (1:1)

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

This book is the inspired Word of God on the very face of it.  It may not be considered otherwise except to the damnation of the hearers.  This is the Word of God.  It came to Joel.  It is not presented as the Word of Joel.  Anyone who handles this book as merely a human composition is hereby warned that they are dealing with the Word of the Lord, and cannot plead ignorance.  This is the divine imprimatur, the copyright of God, and it must be respected as such.

This book is one of the two oldest prophetic books in the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures.

Joel - "Yahweh is God"

Pethuel - "Vision of God"

What are we to do with Joel's prophecy?

  

2.  The Personal Responsibility for the Content of the Book (1:2)

² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

This is the first of 16 commands in this chapter.  This should be considered along with the next command as distinct from those that follow.

Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

Has this ever happened before?  No.  This is a unique, and therefore, an attention grabbing event.

3.  The Ancestral Responsibility for the Content of the Book (1:3-4)

³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

This is the second of the two introductory commands.

⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

How should we respond to the plagues that God's judgments bring upon us for our sins?

  

II.  The Commanded Responses to the Plague  (1:5-13)

⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. ⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. ⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. ¹⁰ The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. ¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. ¹² The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. ¹³ Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

In each of these three sections those addressed are commanded in howl (or, wail).  In the first and the last of these three sections there are four commands including one to lament.  In each of the three there is a distinctive command peculiar to those addressed.

1.  The Commanded Responses to the Drunkards (1:5-10)

2.  The Commanded Responses to the Farmers (1:11-12)

3.  The Commanded Responses to the Priests (1:13)

1.  The Commanded Responses to the Drunkards (1:5-10)

⁵ Awake, ye drunkards,

and weep;

and howl, all ye drinkers of wine,

Wake up, weep and wail!

            The command peculiar to the drunks is "Awake!"

The poetic structure of the prophecy is here interrupted, the parallelism in the first four commands is broken as this point, to interject the reason for the three previous commands.

What are they upset about?

because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. ⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

We don't often hear emotional outbursts at funerals in our day.  Lamentations seem remote, and something foreign, more appropriate in the ancient near East than in modern America.  For the most part American culture has been heavily influenced by the staid, dispassionate British.  There is a time to lament.  One of those times is when God commands you to lament!  Is there not a cause?

⁹ The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. ¹⁰ The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

You would think that the inability to get drunk was the least of their problems, and perhaps that is exactly the prophet's point!  All that they once cared about is now the least of their problems!!!

2.  The Commanded Responses to the Farmers (1:11-12)

¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen;

howl, O ye vinedressers,

                        The distinctive command to the farmers is "Be ashamed!"

for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. ¹² The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

3.  The Commanded Responses to the Priests (1:13)

¹³ Gird yourselves,

and lament, ye priests:

howl, ye ministers of the altar:

come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God:

            Note the chiastic structure of these four commands.

for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

How could God let this happen?  Better, how could God make this happen?

III.  The Humble Repentance of the People (1:14-20)

¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, ¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. ¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. ¹⁹ O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰ The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

1.  The Repentance of the People Commanded (1:14)

2.  The Day of the Lord Revealed (1:15-18)

3.  The Prayer of Desperation Uttered (1:19-20)

1.  The Repentance of the People Commanded (1:14)

¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast,

call a solemn assembly,

gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,

See my file on "Repentance" at ..\..\Repentance.docx

2.  The Day of the Lord Revealed (1:15-18)

¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. ¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14 -  1st 3 vs. Israel, last 2 vs. nations

Is. 2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezek. 13:5; 30:3; Am. 5:18, 20; Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:7, 14; Mal. 4:5; 2 Th. 2:2; and 2 Pet 3:10.

3.  The Prayer of Desperation Uttered (1:19-20)

¹⁹ O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰ The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Conclusion:

What about us today?

What ever happened to sin?

Karl A. Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin? 2nd ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1978; orig. Hawthorn Books, 1973).

Who is in control of the worst thing that ever happened to you?

Who then will you cry out to out of your desperation at such a time?

Why will you cry out to Him?  Because there is nothing to eat?  Or, because of your sin that brought this upon you?

There is an answer.  There is One we can turn to.  We must turn to Him in the best of times, and not just in the worst of times.  Cry to the Lord!

[Sermon preached by Pastor John T. "Jack" Jeffery at Wayside Gospel Chapel, Greentown, PA on Sunday, May 5, 2013.]