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Joel Chapter
One
Joel 1
Chapter Contents
A plague of locusts. (1-7) All sorts of people are called
to lament it. (8-13) They are to look to God. (14-20)
Commentary on Joel 1:1-7
The most aged could not remember such calamities as were
about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land to eat the
fruits of it. It is expressed so as to apply also to the destruction of the
country by a foreign enemy, and seems to refer to the devastations of the
Chaldeans. God is Lord of hosts, has every creature at his command, and, when
he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud, rebellious people, by the weakest
and most contemptible creatures. It is just with God to take away the comforts
which are abused to luxury and excess; and the more men place their happiness
in the gratifications of sense, the more severe temporal afflictions are upon
them. The more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we
expose ourselves to trouble.
Commentary on Joel 1:8-13
All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will,
sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place their happiness
in the delights of sense, when deprived of them, or disturbed in the enjoyment,
lose their joy; whereas spiritual joy then flourishes more than ever. See what
perishing, uncertain things our creature-comforts are. See how we need to live
in continual dependence upon God and his providence. See what ruinous work sin
makes. As far as poverty occasions the decay of piety, and starves the cause of
religion among a people, it is a very sore judgment. But how blessed are the
awakening judgments of God, in rousing his people and calling home the heart to
Christ, and his salvation!
Commentary on Joel 1:14-20
The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and
humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be
confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in
which people must be kept from their common employments, that they may more
closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and
drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national
calamity, therefore every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness
are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes
cold, then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous
the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression.
And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and
wine, and complain of the want of the delights of sense? Yet their crying to
God in those cases, shames the stupidity of those who cry not to God in any
case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in
ungodliness, believers will find the comfort of acceptance with God, when the
wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Joel》
Joel 1
Verse 1
[1] The
word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Came to Joel —
Probably in the latter end of Jeroboam the second's reign over Israel and in
the days of Uzziah, over Judah.
Verse 2
[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?
Old men —
The oldest among you, who can remember things done many years ago.
Verse 4
[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.
Palmer-worm —
Four sorts of insects, are here mentioned, which succeeded each other, and devoured
all that might be a support to the Jews, whence ensued a grievous famine.
Verse 5
[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.
Is cut off —
Suddenly cut off even when you are ready to drink it, and totally cut off by
these devouring vermin.
Verse 6
[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.
A nation — An
innumerable multitude of locusts and caterpillars, called a nation here, as
Solomon calls the conies and the ant, Proverbs 30:25,26, and perhaps a prognostick of
a very numerous and mighty nation, that ere long will invade Judah.
Strong —
Mighty in power, and undaunted in courage, if you refer it to the Assyrian or
Babylonians; if to those vermin, they are, though each weak by itself, yet in
those multitudes, strong and irresistible.
A great lion —
Such waste as lions make, these the locusts do, and the Assyrians will make.
Verse 8
[8]
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
The husband of her youth — Espoused to her, but snatched away by an untimely death.
Verse 9
[9] The
meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the
priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.
The drink-offering — By
the destruction of the vines, all wine (out of which they ought to offer the
drink-offering) failed.
Verse 10
[10] The
field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is
dried up, the oil languisheth.
The corn —
The wheat and barley, is eaten up in its greenness.
Dried up —
The drought was so great, that the vines were withered, and all their hopes of
new wine cut off.
The oil —
The olive-trees.
Languisheth —
This is a plain account of the reason why the priests were called to mourn, and
why the meal-offering and drink-offering were cut off.
Verse 11
[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.
Be ye ashamed —
This is a just cause why you should lament and enquire why God is so displeased
with you.
Verse 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,
Sanctify ye — Ye
priests, set apart a day wherein to afflict yourselves, confess your sins, and
sue out your pardon.
Into the house —
The courts of the temple, where the people were wont to pray.
Verse 15
[15] Alas
for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the
Almighty shall it come.
The day of the Lord — A
day of greater trouble than yet they felt, troubles which God will heap upon
them.
Shall it come —
Unless fasting, prayers and amendment prevent.
Verse 16
[16] Is
not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of
our God?
Cut off —
Devoured by locusts, or withered with drought.
Verse 17
[17] The
seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are
broken down; for the corn is withered.
Laid desolate —
Run to ruin because the owners discouraged with the barrenness of the seasons,
would not repair them.
Verse 19
[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.
The fire —
The immoderate heats.
The wilderness —
The world, only means places not ploughed, and less inhabited than others.
Verse 20
[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.
Cry —
They utter their complaints, their sad tones, they have a voice to cry, as well
as an eye to look to God.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Joel》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-4
The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Joel
Great as is the variety in the works of nature, it is no less so
in the treasury of God’s Word. The “prophets” are quite unlike the rest of the
books; and between the prophets themselves there is a marked distinction of
character. This is seen in the case of the four great prophets, it is even yet
more striking in the twelve lesser, or minor, prophets. Notice particularly the
three, Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk. Strongly defined are the individual
characters of each as different members of the same body, while all alike are
animated by one life and spirit; or as varied instruments of music made use of
by one and the same poet or musician, and chosen as best suited for his
purpose, according to the character of his message or the mind he would convey.
The prophet Habakkuk is remarkable for very striking figurative expressions,
which have become familiar in the mouths of all. Micah is the one of all the
prophets chosen to foretell the place of our Lord’s birth--Bethlehem Ephrata.
Micah associates the mercies of the Incarnate Son of God with pastoral scenes,
well meet for the herald of Bethlehem. Different to this is the prophet Joel.
One object fills his mind from first to last, one subject in which he is
altogether wrapt. There are no little sentences of wisdom like Habakkuk, who
might be called the prophet of faith; no rural images like Micah, who might be
termed the prophet of mercy; but one absorbing spirit throughout; and the
question is not about expressions, but about the meaning and intent of them. He
is beyond all others, and it might be said, solely and entirely the prophet of
judgment. He is full of the trumpet; it is in all he says. What are we to
consider the exact subject of this prophet? It is, but more especially at the
beginning, the description of a plague of locusts. The description is most
exact and striking in all its parts. It is figurative and allegorical of an
armed host. In detailing one it foretells the other. This introducing into the
same description many judgments is usual in the Bible; more than one thing is
contained in the same prophecy;--one near and soon to happen, the other more distant;
one of things temporal, the other of things eternal. One great lesson God would
impress upon us by His prophet Joel, of constantly hearing the trumpet call, and
realising the Great Day. Another remarkable point m Joel is, the voice of joy
and exultation that is combined throughout with the terrible theme, and
pervades each subject of his prophecy. The more we are impressed with a serious
expectation of the Great Day, the more shall we be able to look forward to it
with joy and comfort. (Isaac Williams, B. D.)
Joel
He is the prophet of the great repentance, of the Pentecostal
gift, and of the final conflict of great principles. Of the man himself and his
age we know practically nothing. The man is little more than a name to us.
1. He was a successful prophet. He accomplished s remarkable moral
revolution. He bowed the hearts of his contemporaries as the heart of one man;
he drew them to the altar of God! and united them in a great national fast and
supplication. The prophet is raised up to do his work. He is to live, to speak,
to die if necessary; to rouse the conscience, and, as far as he can, to
persuade the world of the truth of his message. He is to do his errand,--he is not to be
talked of. And what are we compared with the work which we have to do? The joy
of the true prophet is like that of the Baptist. He (the Lord and Master) must
increase. What matter if I decrease, or be forgotten? Where the spirit of self-suppression
is, there is power. No dim or uncertain thought mars the concentration of
purpose. Feebler or more selfish natures dread to lose self. The date in which
Joel lived is not necessary to be known in order to understand the direction
and drift of his ministry. The spiritual value of many things is independent of
chronology.
2. What was his message? He teaches spiritual principles, not for an
age but for all time.
(1) He is a prophet of rebuke and repentance. He so influences the
people that they gather to a great day of humiliation. A grievous calamity
spoke with the prophet’s words. The calamity was awful, and unparalleled in its
severity. It was the utter desolation of the land by locusts. Joy ceases among
the people as they gaze at their desolated land, and contemplate the famine
that must follow. The prophet gave guidance to people’s thoughts and pointed
the significance of the calamity. Mere trouble does not melt the heart or
subdue the will, but startling troubles which come to disturb the monotony of
indolently expected prosperity are nevertheless messengers of the Lord. The day
of calamity, rightly understood, is a day of the Lord. This calamity breaks up
two of the accustomed orders of life. The gifts of nature’s order--the harvest
of corn and wine--are snatched away. The usages of religious order are
suspended. There being no gifts, the daily sacrifice ceases. To the people no
two things could be more dread-inspiring. The twofold bond which bound the
people to their God, and God to the people, seemed to them to be broken. The
order of nature and the order of worship were both upset. All order is witness
of another order, the order of righteousness. If there be a bond between the
Lord and the people, that bond must be of the highest and most enduring order.
It must be a bond in the order of the moral life. The suspension of the
accustomed order of things may be the witness to the existence of the highest
order--the righteous order in which the righteous God rules. So this calamity
is indeed the day of the Lord. It calls man to repair the bond which is more
precious than the bond of benefits or material gifts and sacrifices. It bids
the people to look at the broken links of that golden chain which is
righteousness, purity, faith. The prophet exercises his function of rebuke. And
this power it is hard for ministers to retain. Rebuke of men’s sins so easily
enlists the assistance of our personal feelings. When once this unholy alliance
is permitted we assail men rather than men’s vices. Will the prophet give us
hints as to the principles which would enable us to maintain this power in
purity and efficiency, and enable us to discharge this duty with impartial
fairness? Notice the large sympathy of the prophet. He has the completest power
of identifying himself with the sorrows and troubles of the land and people. He
is one with them; their sorrow is his sorrow. Here is one condition of the
capacity of rebuke. It has often been said that we can only help men by putting
ourselves in their place. Want of tenderness almost certainly involves want of
tact; and want of tact renders us ineffective in reproof and in persuasion.
Along with sympathy there must be a spirit which is profoundly convinced of the
reality of the Divine rule. No man is or can be a prophet to whom the kingdom
of God is not the most real thing in the universe. Repentance must be deep and
natural. It must be the hatred of the moral evil that hinders them. It must be
the awakening of the spirit to the gulf which small and unobserved sins may
make between them and God. The vainglorious spirit which so often follows in
the wake of earnest and victory seeking desires, robs away the protections
which humility affords. What is needed is repentance for the whole spiritual
tone--repentance which implies a recognition of the claim of God upon our whole
spirit; repentance for the deviations from true and inward
righteousness--repentance for the dulness and downwardness of our spirits. Joel
does not mention specific sins. What then do we all need? We need the strong
and vivid conviction of the reality of the kingdom of righteousness to make
true our efforts for good. We need spirits which are united in sympathy with
the Spirit of Him who sent us, for are we not fellow-workers with Him? Quick in
tenderness, firm in righteousness, and with spirits possessed of the
consciousness of God, we may attempt our work. (Bishop Boyd-Carpenter.)
The individuality of men’s messages
Not the word that came to Hosea or to Amos, but the word that came
to Joel,--intimating that there is a word that comes to every man. Each man has
his own view of God, his own kingdom of heaven, his own way of telling what God
has done for him. And the mischief is that we expect every man to speak in the same tone,
to deliver the same words, and to subject himself to the same literary yoke or
spiritual discipline. The Bible sets itself against all this monotony. Every
man must speak the word that God has given to him through the instrumentality
of his own characteristics. A man cannot say what word has to come to him. A
man cannot be both the message carrier and the message originator. We are
errand-runners; we have to receive our message and to repeat it; we have not
first to create it, then to modify it, then to deliver it. The prophets assumed
the position of being instruments, mediums for communications which the Lord
wished to make with His children near and far, and with the world at large, and
through all time. A man cannot say he will sing his Gospel; the Lord has only
sent a certain number of singers, and we cannot increase the multitude. No man
can say. I will go forth, and thunder the Word of the Lord in the ear of the
age; the Lord hath not given His thunder to that tongue; it was meant to speak
peacefully, soothingly, kindly, and when it tries to thunder creation would
smile at the feebleness of the effort, and the palpableness of the irony. So we
have in the Bible all kinds of ministry. There are thunders and judgments in
the Book, and there are voices like lutes; there are whispers which you can
only hear when you incline your ear with all the intensity of attention. There
are words that roll down the mountains like splintered rocks, granites that
have been ripped in two by the lightning; and there are words that fall from
another mountain as flowers, beatitudes, tender speeches. The Lord hath need of
all kinds of men; He wants the fire and the whirlwind and the tempest, and the
dew, and the still small voice--all are God’s ministry, God’s husbandry. (Joseph
Parker, D. D.)
The Word of the Lord to a sinful nation
The prophet here informs us that the Word of the Lord came to him,
and that it had reference to the most alarming calamities which could possibly
happen to a nation. The messages of God sometimes come in a loud voice, and
have in them more of judgment than of mercy.
I. That the word
of God to a sinful nation is communicated through the instrumentality of one
man. “The Word of the Lord that came to Joel.” Here we learn that it is the
ordinary way of God to communicate with the race through human instrumentality.
The Divine Being did not present Himself to the wicked people of Judah and
threaten woe; they could not have endured the brightness of His presence; they
would have fled from before the majesty of His voice. He did not send an angel
to convey His message; an angel would not have gained the confidence required.
And so it is the way of God to speak by man to men, that He may dim His
infinite glory by wrapping it in human vesture, and thus adapt it to human
vision; but the word thus spoken is none the less Divine, and none the less
worthy of regard. Christ was incarnate that He might utter the unfathomable
Word of God, and that Word is still prolonged by human lips.
1. This one man was Divinely selected. The prophet Joel was selected
by God to convey the message of woe and the need of repentance to the people of
Judah. But who was Joel? Was he a man of social reputation, of advanced
scholarship, of eminent talent? We know not. Nothing of his history is written;
simply the name of his father is given. He was anxious to be known only as the
servant of God. And we find that God often chooses modest agencies, unknown to
fame, to speak His Word to mankind; He uses the foolish things of the world to
confound the mighty. Thus the word uttered derives emphasis from the absence of
human greatness in the speaker. Fame is not a condition of ministerial success.
A man must be chosen by God before he has any right to preach the Word to the
nations.
2. This one man was greatly honoured. The Word of the Lord which came
to Joel imparted to him the highest dignity. It honoured him by coming to his
soul, even as the presence of a king confers renown upon those who are favoured
therewith. He was the chosen of God out of a vast nation, and was entrusted
with prophetic communications. New abilities were awakened within him, and his
life, which had hitherto been solitary and of little influence, was to become
the centre of a nation’s life. Manhood can have no greater honour conferred
upon it than to be sent with the Word of God to men.
3. This one man was supremely trusted. Joel was entrusted with a
great position. He was selected as one man out of a vast people to receive and
make known the Word of the Lord. This might have led him to assume false claims
and empty titles; he might have been tempted to use the moral authority thus
given to him for secular ends. A minister holds his unique position in society
as a sacred trust, and betrays it if he uses it for any other purpose than the
moral welfare of those around him. Joel was also entrusted with a valuable
deposit, even with the Word of the Lord. This he was not to conceal, but to
declare. This he was not to adulterate, but to defend. This he was bravely to
announce to a sinful people, unawed by numbers or results.
4. This one man was arduously worked. To Joel was committed the task
of effecting a moral reformation in the national life of Judah. He stood almost
alone with a great work to accomplish, lie had to proclaim great calamities to
which few would listen. And the true minister has arduous work before him; he
has oft, single-handed, to contend with a degenerate crowd; he has to preach
great doctrines rejected and despised; he cannot guarantee success.
II. That the divine
word to a sinful nation requires the earnest attention of all classes of
individuals (verses 2, 3).
1. It should awaken the attention of the aged. The old men in the
land of Judah were to listen to the prediction of Joel, and say whether
anything so calamitous had ever occurred before. They could remember the past,
and hence were competent to speak concerning it. Attention to the truth is the
first condition of a renewed and sober life; even old men, who ought to be
wiser, are sometimes heedless concerning it, and need to be reminded of its
importance.
2. It should awaken the attention of the general multitude. All the
inhabitants of the land of Judah were called upon to hear the message of Joel.
It not only concerned the wise, but also the ignorant; not only the rulers, but
those under them. It would not be the fault of the prophet if any did not feel
the importance of his communication. The common multitude arc not generally
observant of the judgments of God occurring around them, they need some one to
unveil their inner and solemn meaning.
3. It should awaken the attention of remote posterity. The calamity
predicted by Joel was to be handed down to a remote posterity. Not only are the
memories of Divine mercy to be preserved, but also of Divine judgment, that
they may in future deter from evil. Children must be instructed in the
historical revelation which God has made concerning Himself, that they may see
the wisdom of piety demonstrated in the facts of life. We should ever remember
that the ages are mysteriously linked together, and that we are transmitting
moral influences and instruction which the future must inherit. Let us heed the
teaching of the past.
III. That the Divine
word to a sinful nation sometimes has reference to the most awful calamities
(verse 4).
1. It was a calamity occasioned by a wondrous increase of useful
creatures. God can turn the existing arrangements of the universe into an army
of eternal justice. He has no need to create new agencies to rebuke sin; there
are myriads awaiting His command. Locusts will execute His judgments. The
Divine resource of retribution is beyond human imagination.
2. It was a calamity which employed the weakest agencies to execute
its purpose. God’s weak things are strong enough to work mischief to the
wicked. Man is soon smitten down by little creatures.
3. It was a calamity which for continuous destruction was unequalled
in the national history. One agency of ruin was succeeded by another, until the
effect of the whole was utter desolation of resource and joy. Lessons--
1. That men must give themselves to the work which God appoints them.
2. That men should heed the Word of the Lord before the hour of
retribution comes.
3. That sin is sure to be followed by the most awful calamities. (J.
S. Exell, M. A.)
National calamity
We learn from this passage--
I. That this
calamity was Divinely revealed at first to the mind of one man. “The Word of
the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.” No one knew at first what a sad
calamity was coming on the country but Jehovah Himself. No sage, seer, or
priest knew anything of it. Such a fact as this suggests--
1. The distinguishing faculty of man. Of all the creatures on earth,
man alone can receive communications from heaven. We know not how the Word came
unto him. The great Father of Spirits has many ways of striking His thoughts
into the souls of His children. Souls are ever accessible to Him.
2. The manifest sovereignty of God. Why did He select Joel more than
any other man?
II. That this
calamity was unprecedented in history. “Hear ye this, ye old men,” etc.
Observe--
1. That no Divine judgments have been so great as to preclude the
possibility of greater. The penal resources of the righteous Judge are
unbounded. Great as your afflictions have been, they can be greater.
2. That the greater the sins of a people, the greater the judgments
to be expected. It is probable that Judah’s sins were greater at this time than
they had ever been before, and that, consequently, severer penalties were to
come. Take care, sinner, in every sin you commit you are treasuring up wrath
against the day of wrath.
III. That this
calamity was so tremendous as to command the attention of all generations,
“Tell ye your children,” etc.
1. Because it shows that God rules the world. It is not controlled by
chance or necessity.
2. Because it shows that God takes cognisance of the world’s sin, and
abhors it.
IV. This calamity
was inflicted by the most insignificant of God’s creatures. There is no
authority for the opinion that the creatures here mentioned were symbols of
hostile armies. Locusts are mentioned in their different stages and species. So
to punish sinners God needs no thunderbolts. He can kill a man with a moth. (Homilist.)
Hear this, ye old men, and
give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land--
Terrible Divine judgments
1. When men become incorrigible, and sin ripens to a height, then the
Lord will reprove and plead against it by judgments, and not by His Word only;
for whereas the method of other prophets is, first, to reprove sin, then to
threaten for it, and then to subjoin exhortations to repentance with
encouragements and promises; this prophet doth at first point out their sin and
guilt, as to be read in visible judgments,
2. Famine is one of the rods whereby the Lord pleads against the
Church for her sin, and strips her of abused mercies, and of temptations to
wantonness and rebellion.
3. God can, when He pleaseth, arm very mean and contemptible
creatures to execute His judgments, and particularly, to deprive men of the
fruits of the ground; for here He sends out “the palmer-worm, the locust, the
canker-worm, and the caterpillar,” and they eat up all.
4. As God hath still one scourge after another with which to plague a
sinful and incorrigible people, who will not repent, but think to escape with
the plagues that have come on them. So it speaks sad things when one calamity
stints not the controversy, but He pursueth still one judgment after another,
and with breach upon breach, for so it is here, what one left another did eat
up.
5. Albeit the Lord in every age be testifying His displeasure against
sin, yet at some times, and when sin is come to a great height, He may make one
age a remarkable spectacle of justice, and bring judgments on them, the like of
which have not been seen in many generations; for such was His dealing with
this generation, their fathers, past memory of man, had not seen the like, nor
should the like be seen for many generations to come. (George Hutcheson.)
That which the palmer-worm
hath left hath the locust oaten.
Palmer-worm, etc.
The Hebrew words arc the gazam, the arbeh, the yeleg, the chasil,
and they seem to mean, in accordance with their etymology, the gnawer, the
swarmer, the licker, and the consumer. But are they four different kinds of
locusts? As there are eighty known species of this “gryllus migratorius,” the
supposition would be possible. But all known ravages of locusts are caused by
successive flights of the same insect, not by different varieties. Are they
then, as Credner argues, successive stages in the growth of the same
insect, meaning the unwinged, the partially winged, the full-winged locust, and
that changing in colour? Such is the view of Ewald, and he says that these four
stages are well marked. There are insuperable difficulties in this theory. For
if four successive stages had been intended in Joel 1:4, why is the order confused and
altered in Joel 2:25, where the arbeh is put first,
and the gazam last? This is inexplicable if, as Credner thought, the gazam in Joel 1:4 meant the mother-swarm, and the
arbeh, yeleg, and chasil, its three metamorphoses. In point of fact, there are
only two broadly marked changes in the development of the locust--from larva to
pupa--and from pupa to the full-grown insect. In hot climates the creature can
use its wings in about three weeks. It seems certain that the prophet is in
no sense writing as a natural historian. The use of the four terms is only due
to poetry and rhetoric, just as the Psalmist, in Psalms 78:46; Psalms 105:34, freely employs the words
chasil and jeleg as interchangeable with the word arbeh, which used in the
Pentateuch to describe “the Egyptian” plague. (Dean Farrar, D. D.)
God’s locusts
What is to be told? God hath many locusts. Only four of them are
named here, but they are the greatest devourers that ever fell upon a
landscape. They came but an hour ago; they are multitudinous beyond the power
of arithmetic to enumerate, and in a few hours not one green thing will be left
upon the land. Nay, their jaws are like stones, they will seize the bark upon
the trees and tear it off, and none can hear the crunching of that gluttony;
and to-morrow what will the fair landscape be like? It will be like a country
smitten by sudden winter; the trees that yesterday were green and fair and
lovely will be naked, and their whiteness shall resemble the whiteness of snow.
All the fourfold locust tribe belong to the Lord. The great providence of God
is responsible for its own acts. Man needs to be severely humbled; it does not
always suffice simply to bend him a little; sometimes he must be doubled and
thrown down as out of a scornful hand--not that he may be destroyed, but that
he may be brought to himself. Soldiers with their sabres and bayonets cannot
turn back the beetle. The Lord hath made some things so small that no bayonet
can strike them; yet how they bite, how they devour, how they consume, how they
plague the air, how they kill kings, and make nations weak, and turn armies
white with panic. Joel knew what he was talking about, and could point to the
landscape. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Successive foes of spiritual life
The text speaks of the ravages of the locust in the different
stages. If to the Jew the locust was a vivid type of the repeated wastings of
his nation by the Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman invasions, it may be
to us a no less vivid picture of sin’s successive swarm and scourge of our own
spiritual heritage. Three thoughts respecting spiritual life.
I. Its foes. Nature
reveals life in its myriad lower forms begirt by foes. In our own physical
life, the foreign fact becomes a near experience. Intellectual life has its
foes. That spiritual life should have its foes is therefore no anomaly.
II. Their
succession. In a garden, you save the plants from their first enemies only to
find that later foes attack them. There are successive foes for every stage of
the spiritual life.
III. Their
connection. The foes of the text were of one kind. They were several species of
locusts, or several forms of the same species. So sin in one form is often
followed by its fellows or its progeny, each working a wider ruin. We see
pleasure-seeking followed by a breed of worthless traits; speculation followed
by falsehood and dishonour; worldly yielding followed by neglect in prayer;
compromise followed by compliance; doubt followed by intellectual pride;
ignorance followed by fanaticism; covetousness by pharisaism; selfish success
by indolence. What is the lesson? Beware of the coming into the field of your
spiritual life of any sin. It will draw others after it. It will itself be
metamorphosed into something worse. (G. H. Morgan, Ph. D.)
Verses 5-9
Awake, ye
drunkards, and weep.
The insensibility and
misery of the drunkard
The prophet now endeavours
to awaken certain characters in the nation to an earnest sense of the woe that
has overtaken them, and to deep repentance, that it may be averted. His first
warning cry is to the drunkard. The evils of intoxication are often intimately
connected with national plagues, and require that earnest ministries should be
directed against them.
I. that the drunkard is insensible to the most important concerns of
life, “Awake.” The prophet knew that it was the tendency of intoxicating drink
to cast men into an unholy slumber, and to render them dangerously insensible
to the most important things around them.
1. Intoxicating drink has a tendency to darken the intelligence of
man.
2. Intoxicating drink has a tendency to deaden the moral
susceptibilities of man. These drunkards of Judah were not merely mentally
blind to the calamities which had come upon their country, but were morally
incapable of estimating their due social effect.
3. Intoxicating drink has a tendency to destroy the conscience of
man. These drunkards of Judah probably did not consider that they were working
their own moral degradation, and that they were inviting the retribution of
heaven. They imagined that they were enjoying the plenty they possessed, and
that they were the happiest of men. The prosperity of fools shall slay them.
II. That the drunkard is exposed to the most abject misery. “And howl,
all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your
mouth.”
1. He is liable to the misery of self-loathing. We can readily
imagine that these drunkards of Judah would now and then awake from their
sottish slumber, and that in the moment of bodily pain they would be seized with
sad thoughts of their own degradation.
2. He is liable to the misery of social contempt. Drunkards are the
object of social scorn, they are incapable of industrious work, they are
injurious to the common good. They prostitute great abilities. They misuse
golden opportunities. They place manhood on a level with the brute.
3. They are liable to the misery of unsatisfied appetite. The
drunkards of Judah would howl because the new wine was cut off from their
mouth. They had abused the gifts of providence, and now they are no longer
allowed to enjoy them. Sin brings the wealthiest of sinners to want. Plenty at
one time is no guarantee against penury at another. In the next life the
appetite which sin has created will be for ever unsatisfied; then the wine will
indeed be cut off from the mouth.
III. that the drunkard is in immediate need of the most earnest
ministry which can be addressed to him. We cannot but see in this verse that
the prophet addressed the drunkards of Judah in earnest and faithful speech. He
called them by their right name. He urged them to thoughtfulness and
repentance. There is need that the pulpit of our age should take up his cry.
Lessons--
1. That the drunkard is incapable of the qualities necessary for true
citizenship.
2. That many national calamities are occasioned by the drunkard.
3. That the most effective ministries of the Church should be
directed against this, terrible evil. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Judgments adapted to sins
Prevailing Sins are often
visited with corresponding judgments. The Lord in His righteous dealings
withholds those gifts of His providence which have been abused. He takes from
an ungodly people the means of gratifying their lusts, and leads them to
repentance by afflictions which are not capriciously ordered, but with exactest
wisdom suited to their character. Thus, to check a thoughtless indifference to
religion, He sends forth pestilences which strike down thousands and spread
universal dismay. To restrain from habits of self-indulgence and extravagance,
He causes a blight to fall upon the earth, bringing on scarceness and want. To
put a rein upon the unsatiated pursuit of wealth, He allows a panic on the
Stock Exchange. So here the prophet denounces no other woe against the
drunkards than the deprivation of the wine they had abused. It is not unlikely
that this part of the prophecy has a literal as well as symbolical aspect, that
it inveighs against intemperance as well as idolatry. It was sensuality that
first led the Israelites into idolatry. Persistence in indulgences so
debilitated their minds and blinded their understandings as to cause them to
apostatise from Jehovah, and fall down before images of wood and stone. On no
class of persons do God’s judgments fall more heavily than on those who embrute
their souls with the intoxicating delights of idolatrous worship. (C.
Robinson, LL. D.)
Woe to drunkards
Satan has three or four
grades down which he takes men to destruction. One man he takes up, and through
one spree pitches him into eternal darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom,
indeed, can you find a man who will be such a fool as that. Satan will take
another man to a grade, to a descent at an angle about like that of the
Pennsylvania coal-shute or the Mount Washington rail-track, and shove him off.
But that is very rare. When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to
a plane. It is almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly
see it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade and it tips
only a little towards darkness--just a little. And the first mile it is claret,
and the second mile it is sherry, and the third mile it is punch,, and the
fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it is porter, and the sixth mile it
is brandy, and then it gets steeper and steeper and steeper and the man gets
frightened and says, “Oh, let me get off!” “No, says the conductor, “this is an
express train, and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at
Smashupton.” (T. De Witt Talmage.)
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number.
The agencies of Divine
retribution
It is generally the way of
God to meet sin by appropriate retribution; hence He destroys the vines of the
drunkard. Some men are only reached through the lowest propensities of their
nature, and are only conscious of penalty when their carnal wants are
unsupplied.
I. That the agencies of divine retribution are great in their number,
“For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number.”
1. These agencies are numerous; The locusts did not come in a single
flight, but in incredible and successive swarms, Heaven has an infinite
resource of retributive messengers waiting its behest, It can soon darken our
lives by a throng of hostile energies.
2. These agencies are strong. True, these locusts were in themselves
weak and diminutive creatures, They were not like the proud monarch of the
forest, and had not the majestic appearance or strength of the lion or the
bear. They were insects. And so the most trivial agencies of the universe, when
sent by God to punish sin, become mighty and resistless. Then the superior
intelligence of man will avail nothing against them. Then the pride of the
mighty will be brought to the dust.
3. These agencies are united, The locusts came upon the land of Judah
as though they were animated by one national policy. The ants and conies are
designated a people (Proverbs 30:25-26), indicative of the wisdom by which they are Divinely taught to
act. Hence the term nation gives no favour to the view that the locusts are
symbolical era foreign invasion. And so the retributive agencies of heaven
often come upon the wicked in terrible combination. The agencies of Eternal
Justice are unconsciously in sympathy with each other, and advance in one vast
army to execute the penalty of sin.
II. That the agencies of divine retribution are well equipped for
their work. “Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth
of a great lion.”
1. Their equipment is appropriate. The teeth of the locust are said
to be “harder than stone.” They appear to be created for a scourge; since to
strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth admirably
calculated to eat up all the herbs in the land. The providence of God in
executing the penalty of sin generally employs those agencies whose natural
constitution the best fit them for the end contemplated. Heaven knows the most
appropriate instrumentalities by which to punish the sinner.
2. Their equipment is fierce. These locusts were armed as with the
cheek-teeth of a great lion. Thus they would be able to bite off the top,
branches, and boughs of trees. And truly there are times when the judgments of
heaven come fiercely upon the wicked, and destroy all that is precious to them.
III. That the agencies of divine retribution are desolating in their
effect. “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.”
1. They desolate things of the greatest value. These locusts laid
waste the noblest and most valuable fruit-trees of the land, which the Lord had
given to His people for their inheritance. The messengers of Eternal Justice
will not spare the vines and fig-trees of a sinful life. They strike at the
root of all secular prosperity.
2. They desolate things to the utmost extent. These locusts attacked
the herbage, fruit, leaves of trees, the young shoots, and their bark.
Everything in the country was devoured and made clean bare. And so the agencies
of Divine retribution sometimes spread their desolation over a vast area, over
the entire history of a nation, throughout the entire circumstances of a
family, or of an individual. They leave no token of former splendour.
3. They desolate things to the remotest period. The agencies of
Divine retribution often achieve a destruction which is felt to the end of
life.
IV. That the agencies of Divine retribution are productive of sad
contemplation in the mind of the truly patriotic. “For a nation is come up upon
my land.” The prophet here speaks in his character of representative of the
people of God, and sees in the desolation of his country an occasion for
sorrow. Hence the prophet, regarding the land as a Christian patriot, was
pained by its desolation, and sought to remove the cause of the Divine anger.
Piety makes men truly patriotic. Lessons--
1. That the retributive agencies of heaven are countless in number.
2. That the retributive agencies of heaven are effective in equipment.
3. That the retributive agencies of heaven spare not the most sacred
possessions. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
And barked my fig-tree.--
The fig-tree barked
We all have our fig-trees,
and very early we become proprietors. Do these fig-trees continue to live and
to thrive? Experience and observation furnish a prompt and sufficient reply. To
bark a tree is to destroy it. To bark our fig-tree is to remove that in which
we have found chief pleasure and advantage.
I. When may God be said to bark our fig-tree?
1. When God renders that which has been useful to us useless, and
that which has been pleasant, obnoxious; and that which has been helpful,
injurious.
2. When God removes something from us which He has given to us, and
which we have taken to our hearts as all-important, and as supremely precious.
3. By breaking up some work of ours in which we have found much
pleasure; or by rooting up something which we have planted, it may be with
tears, it may be with joy.
II. By what means does god bark our fig-trees? God uses various means.
He may permit some devil, commission some angel, allow or employ a fellow-man
to bark our tree. He may use some inanimate and unconscious agent. Or He may
effect the destructive work by some influence upon our minds and hearts.
III. With what intent is this done? What is the end of the Lord? Does
He do this wantonly, cruelly, ignorantly, or unwisely? Nay, His object is
either correction or prevention.
IV. How should a man of god demean himself when God barks his
fig-tree? Submit quietly. Reverently ask, Why has God done this? Learn to use
all temporal things without abusing thorn. (Samuel Martin.)
Barked fig-trees
I. Look at some of these barked fig-trees. High hopes are often
changed into cruel disappointments. Bright prospects of coming happiness are
turned, like fairy gold, into withered leaves. A young man’s fig-tree is a
healthy body and high spirits, and that tree is barked when affliction seizes
him, and bodily weakness and mental depression make him as pale and helpless as
a downright old man. A workman’s fig-tree is regular work and a living wage;
that tree is barked when work is scarce and wages low. The tradesman’s fig-tree
is a prosperous business; providence smiles upon him, friends multiply, and
everything promises a golden harvest, when suddenly he meets with
disappointment, his schemes are thwarted, the bank fails, and he is doomed to
spend a helpless and penniless old age. A family’s fig-tree is the father and
husband; and it is barked when he is smitten down by death. The old man’s
fig-tree is a gladsome old age, which he hopes to spend with his wife and
children “about him”; and that tree is barked when he suddenly dies before he
has realised a thousandth part of his anticipated enjoyment. The invalid’s
fig-tree is some glimmering hope of returning health; and it is barked when the
doctor tells him that his disease is incurable, and that he must die.
II. Who barks our fig-trees? The prophet, looking up to God, said,
“Thou hast barked my fig-tree.” The affairs of men, and especially of good men,
are under God’s wise, omniscient, benevolent, and almighty control. Were there
no particular, there could be no general providence, for it seems quite
impossible to take care of the whole ii the separate and dependent parts be neglected.
He holds the helm of the universe, and He will bring us into the desired haven.
III. Why does God bark our fig-trees?
1. Does He do it unkindly? No! He is too good to be unkind.
2. Does He do it unwisely? No! He is too wise to err.
3. God barks our fig-trees in mercy, and not in wrath. We are prone
to think too much of those trees; to bestow too much thought and affection upon
them, and to expect too much happiness from them.
4. Barked fig-trees destroy worldliness. Thomas Erskine used to say:
“Education would cease if
we and our circumstances fitted each other.” If our position in this world were
always one of unmixed comfort, I’m afraid we should never stretch our desires
for a better. It is often said that the world satisfies no one; but, as a matter
of fact, most men are so satisfied with it that they feel no concern for a
better country, that is, a heavenly. Now, what is God to do with such people if
their souls are not to be lost, but saved? They must be rendered dissatisfied
with their earthly condition, and be made to welcome the hope of a happier
state beyond the grave. And what is so likely to do this as some dispensation
which snatches from them the objects of their inordinate affection?
5. Barked fig-trees help to mature Christian character. In the midst
of our heaviest trials and deepest woes we can sing of mercy as well as of
judgment.
(1) Job’s fig-tree was barked (James 5:11).
(2) Jacob’s fig-tree was barked. The loss of Joseph was regarded by
his family as a great domestic calamity.
(3) Paul’s fig-tree was barked. He suffered imprisonment at Rome;
some false brethren created division and strife in the Church.
(4) Barked fig-trees help to develop latent qualities. It was when
Paul Gerdhart was banished from his church and manse, for preaching unpalatable
truth, that he wrote that inspiring hymn, “Give to the winds thy fears,” etc.
IV. What are the lessons that this subject suggests?
1. Recognise the providence of God in all the events of life.
2. Moral goodness is the aim of all God’s dispensations.
3. Trust God’s providence. (H. Woodcock.)
Verses 8-10
Lament like a virgin
girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the Lord.
The worship of God sadly
neglected through the allure of temporal resource
I. That
a neglected worship is often consequent upon the failure of the temporal
resource of a people. To the Jews the suspension of the daily sacrifice was the
suspension of the appointed sign indicating that they were in covenant with
God, and therefore the last of evils. And so there is ever an intimate connection
between temporal resource and the worship of God; a desolated commerce will
probably involve a neglected temple. When the harvests fail the offerings of
the soul are not brought into the sanctuary.
1. That
anything which tends to increase
the temporal resource of a people gives them an increased power of
temple-worship. It is the duty of man to give himself to industry and
profitable labour that he may win the means which shall enable him to come into
the sanctuary with the offering of the Lord.
2. That
our temporal resources are not to be devoted merely to the secular needs of a
people but also to the worship of God. The people of Judah were required not
merely to supply their own need with the fruit of the vine and of the field,
they were required out of it to support the service of the temple and the
worship of God. The fine flour and oil they gave to the priest they first
received from God, and hence it was right that they should recognise the Divine
beneficence. How many rich men amongst us would see the daily offering of the
temple languish before they would aid it even by a small gift! Wealth can be
consecrated to no higher service than that of the temple.
II. That
a suspended worship cannot but be regarded as an indication of the Divine
displeasure. Surely the announcement of the prophet, that the temple offerings
were suspended, would run throughout the land of Judah, and would lead many
souls to ask the reason why. Hence we gather--
1. That
the agencies of Divine retribution are likely to prevent a sinful people from
the enjoyment of secular prosperity. It is not improbable that the vines and
fields Of a wicked people will be destroyed by the retributive hand of God.
Secular prosperity is more dependent upon moral character than many are inclined
to admit. Sin blights many harvests.
2. That
a well-maintained temple-worship is an evidence of the Divine favour. A
well-supported temple-worship is an index of sanctified wealth and of the
Divine approval.
III. that
a neglected worship calls for the deep grief of all reflective minds. The land
of Judah waste lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of
her youth, who had been snatched from her when she was betrothed to him, but
had not yet been taken to his house. The time of betrothal varied from a few
days iii the Patriarchal age (Genesis
24:55) to
a full year in later times. Hence the people of Judah were not to regard the
judgments which had come upon them With indifference, with a mere conventional
grief, but with an anguish akin to that experienced by a youthful wife bereaved
of her husband. We see--
1. That
a neglected worship should awaken deep grief of soul. Lamentation in the hour
of bereavement is commended by men, but in the cause of God is regarded as a
sign of mental weakness. Ought this to be so?
2. That
a neglected worship should lead to outward tokens of the grief of the soul,
Judah was not merely to lament like a bereaved virgin, but was to be girded with
sackcloth.
IV. That
a suspended worship will especially awaken painful solicitude within the heart
of the true minister. “The priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.”
1. That
ministers of the truth are often the first to be affected by great calamities. The
priests of Judah would pre-eminently feel the effect of the terrible
devastation that had come upon the land; they would suffer through the,
neglected worship of the temple, as they would cease to fulfil their office,
and Would be deprived of their livelihood. He stands at the very heart of
society, and the most deeply feels the woe inflicted by the retributive
agencies of God.
2. That
ministers of the truth ought to be the first to set an example of repentance In
the hour of calamity. Lessons--
1. That
all temporal resource should be regarded as the gift of God.
2. That
the withdrawal of temporal prosperity is calculated to affect the worship of
God.
3. That
the suspension of the worship of the sanctuary is a token of the Divine
displeasure. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The land
mourneth.
Nature’s voice
The poets of all nations
give nature a voice, and make her share man’s feeling, as man shares her plenty
or calamity. The Hebrew preacher shews the sanctity of life by mourning the
dearth of Jehovah’s altar. Instead of the abandoned license which in Florence,
London, etc., great calamities produce, or the bloody offerings which the
Phoenicians and earliest Greeks practised, he calls for prayer and solemnity.
In all ages, when human effort is at an end, an irrepressible instinct bids us
cry to God. We may be tempted to doubt whether unblest seasons are the “days of
the Lord” (Joel
1:14), or
are shortcomings of nature, bound by wider necessity than the law of our
convenience; and such doubts are not useless in bidding us exhaust the range of
human effort, while the preacher joins the philosopher in bidding us not
appease God with cruelty or wrong; yet the instinct remains unreproved by
anything we know of the Divine government; and our own prayers (Joel
1:18),
justified by reason, seem joined by the instinctive cries (Joel
1:19) of
brute creatures in distress. (Rowland Williams, D. D.)
Verse 11-12
The harvest of
the field is perished.
The destructive nature of
sin
The prophet
still lingers on the theme of his solemn and faithful discourses and urges all
classes to attend to him that their sin and sorrow may be removed. He did not
seek new or pleasing themes on which to address the nation. He was anxious to
produce a deep and lasting conviction, and hence dwelt long on the subject
which he felt to be of the greatest importance.
I. It is destructive of human labour. “Because the harvest of the
field is perished.” The tillers of Judah had taken a great deal of pains in cultivating
their soil; they had ploughed and sowed it, and certainly expected as the
result a rich and golden harvest. Also the vine dressers had worked hard in the
vineyards in watering and pruning the vines, and anticipated their reward. But
the wheat and barley were destroyed before they were ripe; and the vines were
withered. Thus we see how sin destroys the products of human labour and
industry; how it utterly wastes those things which are designed by God to
supply the wants of man, and to be remunerative of his energy.
1. Sin is destructive by incapacitating man for industrious labour.
There are many men so enfeebled by sin that they are really unable to go into
the fields and attend to advancing harvests, they are unable to look after the
growth of the vines and the pomegranate tree. They are divested of their vital
energy and of their muscular power by a continued habit of transgression
against the laws of purity and temperance.
2. Sin is destructive by rendering men prodigal of the time which
should be occupied by industrious labour. There are men who will only work
three or four days in a week; the rest they spend in idleness. Thus fields are
untilled, the vines are neglected, while indolent pleasures are pursued.
3. Sin is destructive by diminishing the ultimate utility of
industrious labour. The fields and the vines may be productive of crops and
fruits, but if man were a saint instead of a sinner he would enhance their
value by putting them to the best and highest use. Sin makes the labour of men
tess useful than otherwise it would be.
II. It is destructive of the good and beauteous things of the material
universe.
1. Sin destroys the beautiful things of the material universe. We can
well imagine the desolated condition of the land of Judah robbed of all its
harvests and fruits. The corn stricken. The vines withered. The trees peeled of
their bark. Nature, divested of her beautiful vesture of green and gay life, a
complete wreck. The difference between Eden and the world as we now see it is
entirely occasioned by sin. How lovely would this universe appear were all sin
removed from amidst its fields and vines!
2. Sin destroys the valuable things of the material universe. It
destroys the things which are appointed to sustain the very life of man, and failing
which the grave is immediately sure. It does not merely destroy the little
superfluities of the universe, but its most essential and strongest things.
III. It is destructive of that joy which is the destined heritage of
man. “Because joy is withered away from the sons of men.”
1. It is certain that God designed that man should experience
enjoyment in a wise use of the things around him. God does not wish man to be
miserable in the universe which He has made for his welfare. But the use of His
creatures must be wise. They must not he abused by excess or ingratitude, or
they will be withdrawn, and the joy they should give will be turned into
mourning. Let us not rest in the creature, but in the Creator, and seek all our
joy in Him, then it shall never fail.
2. Sin is destructive of those things which should inspire joy in the
soul of man. It destroys the harvests to which he had looked forward as the
reward of earnest toil. It brings him into great need and destitution. It
hushes the joy of a nation. Lessons--
1. That sin is destructive of human toil.
2. That sin divests the world of its beauty.
3. That sin is incompatible with true joy. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The advantages of a bad
harvest
A harvest
may be called bad as compared with expectation or as compared with crops of
former years; or as compared with the harvests of other lands. Under God’s
benign providence a bad harvest is an instrument for good to men. Like all
chastisement, it becomes a blessing to such as are “exercised thereby.”
I. It recalls us to a sense of our dependence upon God. In these days
law is everything. There is a tendency to exclude God from nature. What is law
but His will? Adversity helps to cure this sore evil. Do what men will, they
cannot make sure of results. There are causes beyond their ken. There are
influences at work which they cannot control.
II. It awakens us to a deeper peeling of the evil of sin. Calamity
witnesses for God against sin. Things are out of course. Every pain, every
sorrow, every disaster is a call to repentance. Calamity that affects a whole
people is as the ringing of the great bell of providence, summoning a whole
nation to repent;
III. It serves as a time of discipline for the improvement of character
and the promotion of the general good. Calamity is fitted to humble us. It
teaches patience. It stimulates thrift and economy. It quickens the inventive
faculties. It moves the heart to a truer sympathy with the struggling and the
poor. It develops trade and commerce and civilisation. And commerce becomes a
pioneer of the Gospel.
IV. It impresses the soul with a sense of its higher needs and duties.
This great lesson is always needful, and never more than in this grossly
material age.
V. It invites us to draw nearer to God, and to regard him as the only
true and supreme God. If we believe on Christ we should be brave and hopeful.
Let the worst come to the worst, our highest interests are safe. In the most
desperate straits we may rejoice in God. (William Forsyth, M.A.)
The shame of the
husbandman
The husbandmen
and vine-dressers should be ashamed, and disappointed of their expectations,
through the barrenness of land and trees.
1. Albeit men are bound to labour for their daily bread, yet except
God bless, their labour will be in vain, and their expectations by it end in
sad disappointments.
2. Sin doth procure great desolation, and doth provoke God to destroy
whatsoever is pleasant or profitable to the sinner, and leave him under
confusion and sorrow. So much is imported in the first reason of their shame
and howling.
3. Albeit men ordinarily count little of the mercy of their daily
bread, and of the increase of their labours, yet the want of it would soon be
felt as a sad stroke, and will overturn much of their joy and cheerfulness.
4. The matter of men’s joy is God’s gift, to give or take it away as
He pleaseth; and whatever joy, warranted or unlawful, men have about anything
beneath God, it is but uncertain and fading, and ought to be looked on as such;
for here, when God pleaseth, He maketh joy to “wither away.” (George
Hutcheson.)
All the trees of the field are withered.
The voice in withered
leaves
I. We have a reminder of man’s mortality. “We all do fade as a
leaf.” On festive occasions the ancients had a curious custom to remind them of
their mortality. Just before the feast a skeleton was carried about in the
presence of the assembled guests. The value of human life does not depend upon
its length so much as upon its fulness.
II. We have a reminder of the perishing nature of all earthly things.
The picture of withered nature in our text is of blight in summer--death just
when life is most expected. It is used by Joel as an illustration of the
material decay of Israel, living in sin, and exposed to the inroads of enemies
without the favour and protection of God. Material blessings are provided for
us by the Giver of all good, but we must remember that transitory and uncertain
are the things that appear most stable. Men forget this, and reap bitter
disappointments in life.
III. We have a reminder of the resurrection. The leaves are falling,
but the trees are not dying. In the very decay of autumn we have the promise
and hope of spring. And this is the hope of the Christian in view of decay and
death. At every stage of life we suffer loss and decay, but every stage brings
also fresh gain and new experience. And when we come to the last stage it will
be so in richer measure. Our flesh shall rest in hope. (James Menzies.)
Because Joy is withered away from the sons of men.--
Sin destroys joy
A brittle thing
is our earthly happiness--brittle as some thin vase of Venetian glass; and yet
neither anxiety, nor sorrow, nor the dart of death, which is mightier than the
oak-cleaving thunderbolt, can shatter a thing even so brittle as the earthly
happiness of our poor little homes if we place that happiness under the care of
God. But though neither anguish nor death can break it with all their violence,
sin can break it at a touch; and selfishness can shatter it, just as there are
acids which will shiver the Venetian glass. Sin and selfishness--God’s balm
does not heal in this world the ravages which they cause! (Dean Farrar.)
Verse
13-14
Gird
yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar.
Ministerial
duty in the time of dire national calamity
The
prophet now directs his message to the priests of Judah, and intimates that the
calamity which had befallen their nation had a deep moral significance to which
they should give earnest heed, and which should awaken them to immediate
activity.
I. That in times of national calamity the ministerial office becomes
of the highest importance. It is evident that Joel regarded the office of the
priest as of the highest importance in these times of dread calamity. He had
called the drunkards from their slumber, but they could do nothing to avert the
immediate danger. He had made known to the husbandmen the extent of their loss,
but they could not render much aid in the terrible crisis; but now he turns to
the priests, and urges upon them the duty of initiating and guiding the nation
to a reformed life. He knew that they would be more likely than any other class
of men to help him in this arduous work. And why?
1. Because the ministerial office wields a great social influence,
and is therefore competent to initiate moral reformation.
2. Because the ministerial office is supposed to seek the general
good of men, and will therefore be credited with lofty motive in seeking moral
reformation.
3. Because the ministerial office touches the springs of the inner
life of a nation, and can therefore infuse healing remedy.
II. That in time of national calamity the ministerial office should be
repentant in its inmost soul. “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl,
ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my
God.”
1. Then the ministerial office should be characterised by quick
energy. The priests of Judah were to gird themselves. They were to hasten at
once to the duty required by the circumstances of the nation and by the
retribution of God. This was no time for indifference or sloth; their best
energies were required.
2. Then the ministerial office should be characterised by deep
sorrow. The priests of Judah were to lament and put on tokens of deep grief;
they were to robe themselves in sackcloth. Their outward attire was to be
indicative of their inward feeling of repentance before God.
3. Then the ministerial office should be characterised by untiring
watchfulness. The priests of Judah were to lie all night in sackcloth and give
themselves to prayer; their tears of repentance were not to be wiped away by
the gentle hand of sleep.
4. Then the ministerial office should be characterised by true
humility. We can readily imagine that the priests of Judah would experience a
sense of humiliation as they gazed upon the neglected temple worship, and they
would bow in abasement before the Lord of the temple.
III. That in times of national calamity the ministerial office must
endeavour to awaken the people to the initial acts of reformation. “Sanctify ye
a fast,” etc.
1. They proclaim a fast. The priests of Judah were to proclaim a
fast, and they were also to sanctify it. A mere abstinence from food is of
little service before God unless it be accompanied by those thoughts and
devotions of the soul which alone can hallow it.
2. They call an assembly. The prophet commands that all the nation
should be called and gathered into the temple, that public prayer might be
added to private abstinence. It appears that fasting was always connected with
a solemn convocation; the confession and humiliation of men must be unanimous
and open. Humiliation for sin must not be confined to secrecy and solitude, but
must be made in the great congregation, that the law which has been openly
broken may be openly honoured, and that the ways of God may be justified before
men.
3. They urge to supplication. The putting on of sackcloth by the
priests, the abstaining from food by the people, the coming into the temple,
would avail nothing unless it all were joined with earnest supplication; hence
the assembled worshippers are urged to cry unto the Lord.
Lessons:--
1. That the ministerial office should exert its best energy to
prevent moral apostasy in the nation.
2. That in times of such apostasy it must give an example of true
repentance.
3. That in such times it should initiate the necessary worship in
order to avert the Divine displeasure. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Sanctify ye a fast.--
On fast day
Fasting
has, in all ages and among all nations, been an exercise much in use in times
of mourning and affliction. There is no example of fasting before the time of
Moses. And he enjoins only one fast, on the solemn day of expiation. After the
time of Moses examples of fasting were very common among the Jews. It does not
appear from the practice of our Saviour and His disciples that He instituted
any particular fast, or enjoined any to be kept out of pure devotion. Fasting
has, in itself, this peculiar good, that it provokes attention, by interrupting
ordinary habits; the flow
of business and pleasure is on a sudden stopt; the world is thrown into gloom,
and a certain solemnity of thought obtruded upon those whose outward senses
must be influenced before their inward hearts can be moved. The object, then,
of this day is to confess our sins, and to repent of them. The object of the
ministers of the Gospel is, to state what those sins are, what are their
consequences, and how they may be avoided. Sins may be considered under a
twofold division. Those which individuals always commit, which are the
consequence of our fallen state, and inseparable from our fallen nature. Those
which are the result of any particular depravity, existing in a greater degree
at this time than at any other, or in this country than among any other people.
As to the first class of sins, it is right to remind mankind of those
imperfections, inherent in their nature, lest they should relax from the
exertions of which they are really capable. Coming to that part of our conduct
which is variable, to that small and contracted sphere in which it is allotted
to us to do better or to do worse, begin with the subject of religion. Here may
be noticed that prodigious increase of sectaries, of all ranks and descriptions,
which are daily springing up in this kingdom. These men seem to think that the
spirit of religion consists in a certain fervid irritability of mind. They are
always straining at gnats, always suspecting happiness, degrading the majesty
of the Gospel. The moment fanatical men hear anything plain and practical
introduced into religion, then they say this is secular, this is worldly, this
is moral, this is not of Christ. But the only way to know Christ is not to make
our notions His notions, or to substitute any conjectures of our own as to what
religion ought to be for an humble and faithful inquiry of what it is. There is
a contrary excess in matters of religion not less fatal than fanaticism, and
still more common. That languor and indifference upon serious subjects which
characterises so great a part of mankind; not speculative disbelief, not
profligate scoffing against religion, not incompliance with the ceremonies it
enjoins; but no penetration of Christianity into the real character, little influence
of the Gospel upon the daily conduct; a cold, careless, unfruitful belief. Lot
it be our care to steer between these opposite extremes; to be serious without
being enthusiastic; to be reasonable without being cold. Alike to curb the
excesses of those who have zeal without discretion, and to stimulate the
feelings of others who have conformity without zeal; remembering always that
every thing intended to endure must be regulated by moderation, discretion, and
knowledge. (J. Smith, M. A.)
An extraordinary
fast
It
must have been in the kingdom of Judah what the drought of Ahab’s reign had
been in the kingdom of Israel. It was a day of Divine judgment, a day of
darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. The harsh blast
of the consecrated ram’s horn called an assembly for an extraordinary fast. Not
a soul was to be absent. All were there stretched in front of the altar. The
altar itself presented the dreariest of all sights, a hearth without its sacred
fire, a table spread without its sacred feast. The priestly caste, instead of
gathering as usual upon its steps and platform, were driven, as it were, to the
farther space; they turned their backs to the dead altar, and lay prostrate,
gazing towards the Invisible Presence within the sanctuary. Instead of the
hymns and music, which, since the time of David, had entered into their
prayers, there was nothing heard but the passionate sobs, and the loud
dissonant howls such as only an eastern hierarchy could utter. Instead of the
mass of white mantles, which they usually presented, they were wrapped in black
goat’s hair sackcloth, twisted round them; not with the brilliant sashes of the
priestly attire, but with a rough girdle of the same texture, which they never
unbound night or day. What they wore of their common dress was rent asunder or
cast off. With bare breasts they waved their black drapery towards the temple,
and shrieked aloud, “Spare Thy people, O Lord!” (Dean Stanley.)
The duty,
object, and method of keeping a public fast
Unusual
duties require unusual preparation.
I. The duty of keeping a public fast. It is enjoined on due occasions
by God Himself. In Joel’s time what was the occasion? It was a famine. How
strikingly it is described. The Word of God repeatedly declares that such a calamity
is sent on nations as a punishment for national sins. When God sends a famine
in punishment for our sins He Himself calls for humiliation and fasting. This
duty has been recognised from time to time. As in the days of Joshua, the
Judges, Samuel, Jehoshaphat, Ezra, etc. There is nothing in the New Testament
to set the duty aside. We have no instance of a Christian nation fasting, but
we have no instance of a nation having become Christian.
II. The object of a fast day. Not to provide opportunity for seeking
our own pleasure. Not substituting food equally or more pleasant, even by way
of change. Some call it fasting to deny themselves food in one form, to take it
in another, with equal or greater zest. Fasting is not an end in itself, but a
means conducive to an end. The object is, humiliation for sin in order to
pardon and justification. Therefore ministers must aim to arouse the national
conscience. There must be humiliation in order to reflection; the deepest
contrition of heart for sin, in order to turning wholly to God, with faith in
the revelation of Himself in the Gospel and in all His grace, mercy,
long-suffering, loving-kindness, and readiness to forgive and save, through
Jesus Christ. And we must determine on reformation. A fast is worthless without
that desirable end.
III. The method of keeping a public fast. No formal rules can be laid
down. The rights of conscience and private judgment must be respected.
1. Sanctify the day. Set it apart from all common uses. And seek
grace to sanctify it aright.
2. Attend in a right spirit on public worship, joining in public
humiliation and united confession.
3. There should be special and appropriate prayer, both at home, and
at church.
4. Make special gifts to the poor.
5. Specially honour Christ as Mediator. He can feel for the hungry,
the famishing, the dying. He can pity poor perishing sinners. Let Him come
between, and intercede with His own effectual intercession, and the famine
shall cease. (John Hambleton, M. A.)
Public fasting
The
priests are commanded to appoint a solemn and public fast, that so all ranks of
persons, both rulers and people, being called to the Temple, may solemnly pour
out their prayers before God.
1. Private mourning and humiliation is not enough under public
calamities, but there ought also to be general humiliation, by the solemn
convening of all ranks, to mourn in a public way.
2. Fasts and humiliations, especially such as are public, should not
be rashly gone about, but with due preparation and upstirring for so solemn a
service.
3. For the right discharge of such a duty it is requisite that men be
sensible of their former abuse of mercies.
4. Exercises of humiliation will not be acceptable to God unless they
be seasoned and managed with faith and affection to God. (George Hutcheson.)
The great fast
We
have observed abundance of tears shed for the destruction of the fruits of the
earth by the locusts, now here we have those tears turned into the right
channel, that of repentance and humiliation before God. The judgment was very
heavy, and here they are directed to own the hand of God in it, His mighty
hand, and to humble themselves under it.
I. A proclamation issued out for a general fast. The priests are
ordered to appoint one; they must not only mourn themselves, but they must call
upon others to mourn too. Under public judgments there ought to be public
humiliations. With all the marks of sorrow and shame sin must be confessed and
bewailed, the righteousness of God must be acknowledged and His favour
implored. Observe what is to be done by a nation at such a time.
1. A day is to be appointed for this purpose, a day of restraint
(marg.), a day in which people must be restrained from their other ordinary
business, and from all bodily refreshments.
2. It must be a fast, a religious abstaining from meat and drink,
further than is of absolute necessity. Hereby we own ourselves unworthy of our
necessary food, and that we have forfeited it, and deserve to be wholly
deprived of it; we punish ourselves and mortify the body, which has been the
occasion of sin; we keep it in a frame fit to serve the soul in serving God,
and, by the appetite’s craving food, the desires of the soul towards that which
is better than life, and all the supports of it, are excited.
3. There must be a solemn assembly. All had contributed to the
national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, and therefore they must
all join in the professions of repentance.
4. They must come together in the temple, because that was the house
of prayer, and there they might hope to meet with God.
5. They must sanctify” this fast, must observe it, in a religious
manner, with sincere devotion.
6. They must “cry unto the Lord.” To Him they must make their
complaint and offer up their supplication.
II. Some considerations suggested to induce them to proclaim this
fast, and to observe it strictly.
1. God was beginning a controversy with them. It is time to “cry unto
the Lord,. for the day of the Lord is at hand.” Either they mean the
continuance and consequences of this present judgment which they now saw but
breaking in upon them, or some greater judgments which this was but a preface
to. Therefore “cry to God,” for--
(1) The day of His judgment is very near.
(2). It will be very terrible.
2. They saw themselves already under the tokens of His dis: pleasure.
(1) Let them look into their own houses, and there was no plenty
there, as there used to be.
(2) Let them look into God’s house, and see the effects of the
judgment there.
3. The prophet returns to describe the grievousness of the calamity,
in some particulars of it.
(1) The caterpillars have devoured the corn.
(2) The cattle, too, perish for want of grass.
III. The prophet stirs them up to cry to God, with the consideration of
the examples given them for it.
1. His own example. “O Lord! to Thee will I cry.”
2. The example of the inferior creatures. When they groan by reason
of their calamity, He is pleased to interpret it as if they cried to Him; much
more will He put a favourable construction upon the groanings of His own
children, though sometimes so feeble that they cannot be uttered. (Matthew
Henry.)
Verse 15
Alas for the day! for the
day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it
come.
The day of the Lord
The prophet intimates that
the destruction caused by the flight of the locusts over the land of Judah was
but the commencement of calamity, and that it was a type of judgments more
awful in the future. And all the judgments which come upon men in the present
are indicative of the final judgment which is to come, and are warnings of that
awful event, so that we may not be unprepared to meet it.
I. That
it will be Divinely distinguished from all the days which have preceded it.
“The day! for the day of the Lord.” This time of judgment is called the day of
the Lord.
1. Because
on this day the Lord will give a splendid manifestation of Himself.
2. Because
this day will be in sublime contrast, in relation to the unfolding of the
Divine purposes, to all others that have preceded it. In the days of Christ’s
incarnation He was rejected and despised of men; men saw no beauty in Him that
they should desire Him. In our own age there are multitudes who neglect and
treat Him with contempt, while many who profess to serve Him are cold in their
service. These are the days of men, in which they are free to pursue an evil
method of life, and in which they are left to accomplish their work, waiting
for the return of the Great Master; but these days are soon to give place to
the Day of the Lord, in the which He will give to every man according to the
quality of his work. Then the Lord will exert His sovereign power.
II. That
it is near in its approach and will come suddenly upon mankind. “The day of the
Lord is at hand.”
1. This
day is certain in its advent. There may be many who contemptuously ask, “Where
is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter
3:4.)
2. This
day will be sudden in its advent. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night, and will cause a sudden fear to come upon many.
3. This
day is near in its advent (2 Peter
3:8).
III. That
it will be accompanied by the most awful destruction ever witnessed by mankind.
“And as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” Lessons--
1. This
revelation concerning the day of the Lord should make us careful in the
ordering of our individual life.
2. This
revelation concerning the day of the Lord should lead us to put forth our best
activities to save men from its impending doom.
3. In
this revelation concerning the day of the Lord see the mercy of heaven in
giving us full warning of the coming peril. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Verse
16
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes.
Sin a great deprivation
I. That sin deprives man of
his cherished hope. “Is not the meat cut off before our eyes?”
1. This deprivation was unexpected. The ripe crops were seen by the
people of Judah, who were rejoicing in the prospect of a safe harvest, when to
their astonishment all was destroyed. And sin deprives sinners of their
expected pleasures just when they are within sure reach, and turns in an
unexpected moment the fairest prospects into barren wastes, it is the way of
God to disappoint the evil-doer of his cherished anticipations.
2. This deprivation was calamitous. The people of Judah were
dependent upon the ripe crops for the supply of their temporal wants, and would
not be able to provide anything as a substitute for them. And sin does not
merely deprive man of those things which are for his luxury, but even those
things which are essential to his bare comfort.
3. This deprivation was righteous. The people of Judah might imagine
that it was very unjust thus to deprive them of the harvest for which they had
laboured, and that too at the very moment they were expecting to gather it in
for use. They would be unable to understand the equity and meaning of such a
visitation. But it is a righteous thing that sin should be punished, and in the
manner most likely to restrain it, and this is often done by the destruction of
a cherished hope.
II. That sin deprives the
sanctuary of its appropriate joy. “Is not the meat cut off before our eyes,
yea, joy and gladness from the house of our Lord?”
1. That joy should ever be associated with the service of the
sanctuary. Joy and gladness always belonged to the ancient temple; thither the
Jews went to give thanks, and to acknowledge themselves the blessed of the
Lord. But now they could not rejoice in the presence of God, because of the
calamities which were upon them.
2. That sin deprives the sanctuary of the joy which should ever be
associated with it. The sins of the people of Judah rendered it impossible for
them to participate in their usual harvest festivals, and divested the Divine
presence of its accustomed joy. And sin will extinguish the bright lights of
the sanctuary; it will hush its sweet music, and stay the spring of joy which
God has destined should flow from the temple into human souls.
III. That sin deprives the seed
of its necessary vitality. “The seed is rotten under the clods, the garners are
laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.” Thus we
see that sin perverts the natural order of God’s universe, it renders the seed
which is full of life destitute of all vitality. The seed is precious; man’s
sin makes it useless. God can plague man’s mercies in the germ or in the barn,
it is impossible to escape His retribution.
IV. That sin deprives the
brute of its refreshing pasture. “How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle
are perplexed, because they have no pasture, yea, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.” All the life and interests of the universe arc one, and one part of
it cannot suffer without involving the rest; hence the sin of man affects the
whole. Lessons--
1. That men who imagine that they gain anything by sin are deceived.
2. That sin divests the most sacred places of their destined
gladness.
3. That sin brings famine where God intended there should be plenty.
(J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The seed is rotten
under their clods.
National calamities
The Supreme Ruler of the world is righteous and beneficent. What,
then, is the cause of national calamities? It is sin.
I. Some of the prevailing
sins which have brought us into our present situation. The vices which, on
account of their enormity and uncommon spread, may be considered as, in a
certain degree, peculiar to the present age.
1. Ingratitude. No nation ever experienced more of the kindness of
heaven. Our climate is desirable; our minerals are varied and abundant; our
situation favours our independence; our form of government is just and
efficient. Internal peace is a blessing we have long enjoyed, Has our gratitude
increased in proportion as our blessings have been multiplied? Consider, too,
our religious privileges. What returns have we made to God for these mercies?
2. Pride. This has been called the universal passion. It is by no
means peculiar to our country and times. Yet it may be called one of the
peculiar sins of our age. Would to God that pride were confined to the State!
Alas! its ravages have extended to the Church.
3. Infidelity has of late been greatly increasing. There is public
avowed scepticism, by which revelation in general is censured and rejected.
4. Luxury and licentiousness of manners prevail to a most alarming
degree. Was there ever a period, not excepting the age of the second Charles,
when profanity, intemperance, seduction, and other vices were so common?
Lewdness and intemperance are not confined to the more wealthy. Our prosperity,
it may be said, is the cause of all these disorders. But shall we dare to
palliate our vices by that which aggravates them in an inconceivable degree?
5. The prevailing influence of a worldly spirit.
6. The spirit of irreligion. As seen in the practice of profane
swearing, in the omission of family duties, and in the neglect of Divinely
instituted ordinances.
II. The means of deliverance.
Consider those important duties without which there is neither safety nor hope.
1. We must return to God in the exercise of faith.
2. The review of our sins ought to fill us with grief.
3. Our faith and contrition must be accompanied with a universal
reformation of our hearts and conduct. Exercise faith in God. Present to Him
the sacrifices of a broken spirit. Be concerned to mortify the whole body of
sin. These are duties beyond the strength of fallen humanity. The Spirit alone
can enable us to perform them. To Unwearied diligence let us add fervent
supplication to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would have mercy upon
us, and cause His Spirit to descend as a spirit of faith, of contrition, and of
holiness. (Alex. Black.)
Potting seeds
This is the first new stroke of pathos which the poet adds to his
previous description; but mark how he multiplies stroke on stroke. As though it
were not enough to lose all mirth in the passing day, the heart of the people
is torn with apprehension for the future. The very grain in the earth has
“rotted under the clods,” so that there is no prospect of a crop in the coming
year to compensate for the loss of this year’s harvest. Smitten by the burning
rays of the sun, denied the vivifying touch of dew or rain, the germ has
withered in the seed. The husbandmen, hopeless of any reward for their toils,
fold their hands in indolent despair; they suffer their garners to moulder
away, their “barns” to fall. Why should they repair barn and storehouse when
the “corn is withered,” even the seed-corn? (Samel Cox, D. D.)
God’s voice in things terrible
How does God utter His voice? In things terrible by terror, so
that the feeling He inspires finds utterance in voice of man. In nature, by
objects which He creates. In history, by results which He brings about. In
calls to repentance, by the concurrence of calamity with our sense of sin,
whether an instinct trained or rather a sentiment inbreathed by Divine
communion. When such sentiments run through a people, kindled by prophets or
organised by priests, the national temples echo with them; public religion
embodies them; signs of joy are suspended, and prayers go up to the
unsearchable Dweller of eternity in words which are the words of men, seeking
to move the mind of God, yet breathing a life which God’s breath implanted. (Rowland
Williams, D. D.)
Verse 18
How do the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed.
The cattle plague
We have been called to
make this a time of solemn humiliation and prayer, in the presence of a
grievous plague upon cattle. Let us seek that our prayers this day may be the
prevailing prayers of faith There is a rough way of regarding the afflictive
dispensations of God’s providence, which is founded on a principle more Jewish
than Christian, and regards them as “judgments” in the vulgar sense. We may
say, generally, that all suffering is the consequence of sin, but no man has
any right to say that a particular judgment follows a particular national or
individual sin.
1. We are asked to acknowledge that this grievous plague has been
sent by God in His all-disposing and sovereign providence. And we are surely
all agreed here. Providential is an adjective that admits of no comparison.
Nothing that happens in this world is more or less appointed by God than all
the rest. He ordains all events. Mercy and judgment are alike providential: we
take them both from God. Mercy with thankful joy: judgment with thankful
resignation. We are not driven from our simple faith in God by anything that
can be said of second causes intervening between Him and us, or even of the
intervention of human folly or crime. Man’s mistakes and misdoings have
doubtless contributed to the spread and fatality of the cattle plague. Want of
observance of obvious natural laws: want of knowledge of such; want of simple
precautions, etc. We are called to acknowledge God’s hand in this sore
calamity; to humble ourselves before Him under it, and to turn from our sins by
a true repentance. There is a discipline of God’s appointment always around us
which ought to lead us to repentance. God’s goodness should do that; it
ought not to need a cattle plague. God’s goodness would be quite enough if we
took our discipline rightly. Alas! God’s abounding goodness often is found to
harden. And we know that seasons of great sorrow and bereavement are often
times of spiritual awakening. As times of trouble have been times of individual
repentance and amendment, so doubtless have they been of national. How shall we
repent? We cannot just make up our mind to be sorry, any more than to be
joyful. All feeling must be founded in fact. The only way to be sorry for our
sins is to think of them, to set them before us, so shall we find good reason
to be humble and penitent. To be truly penitent for anything you have thought
or done, you must see it to be wrong yourself. Then let us “take with us words,
and turn unto the Lord.” (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Verse 19
O Lord, to Thee will I cry.
Adding prayers to complaints
Turn thy complaint into prayer, or else it is but a
murmuring against God. It is by prayer we make our sorrowful hearts known to
God. The reasons of this doctrine are--
1. Because God forgetteth not the complaints of the poor; i.e., of
those that pray unto Him. Otherwise He remembereth no more the poor man’s envy
than the rich man’s quarrel. Therefore let this stir us up to make our
complaint in prayer.
2. When men do only complain of this or that want without prayer they
tempt God; therefore if we will obtain anything at the Lord’s hand for our
good, let us ask by prayer.
3. Let us learn to ask of God without murmuring or grudging at our
own estate, or the Lord’s hand; for the Lord will complain as fast on us as we
complained to Him.
4. Another use is this,--that if complainers without praying be
odious in the Lord’s sight, although the cause be indifferent, then much more
are those that never pray but for unlawful and filthy things, that they may
bestow them on their lusts, as the apostle saith. (Edw. Topsell.)
Prayer to God against terrible judgments
The prophet now turns from the people of Judah, with whom he could
prevail but little, and cries to God as he stands in the midst, of the
universal plague. It is often a relief for Christian workers to leave the
society of hardened men for communion with Jehovah. Prayer is sometimes their
only refuge and strength.
I. That this
prayer was wisely directed to the only Giver of the true remedy. “O Lord, to Thee will
I cry.”
1. It was wisely directed. He sought unto God in this time of peril.
He did not pray unto any idols, but unto the true God, the Maker of the heaven
and the earth. Jehovah had sent the calamity, and He only could remove it.
Sorrow should send us to God.
2. It was earnestly presented. The prophet cried unto the Lord with
all the energy of his being. His was no languid petition. Sorrow should make
men earnest in devotion.
3. It was widely representative. The prophet did not merely pray on
his own behalf; he remembered the universal woe around him, and caught up the
pain-cry of nature and of the brute, and expressed it in his own prayer. He
prayed as the groaning herds could not. A good man is the priest of the
universe, especially in the hour of calamity.
II. That this
prayer was prompted by a sad appre hension of the calamity it sought to remove.
“For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath
burned all the trees of the field.” The prophet recognised the severity of the
calamity which had come upon the nation. And it is essential to prayer that we
should have a clear apprehension of the sorrow to be relieved, of the sin to be
removed, and of the want to be supplied; prayer should always include a good
knowledge of the conditions and circumstances under which it is presented and
which it hopes to ameliorate.
III. That in this
prayer was united the inarticulate pleadings of suffering brutes. “The beasts
of the field cry also unto Thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up,” etc.
We are not to suppose that the cry of the brutes was one with the cry of the
prophet; one was the outcome of pious intelligence, the other was the outcome
of blind instinct (Psalms 147:9; Job 30:41). Lessons--
1. That a sorrowful soul should pray to God for aid.
2. That the soul must feel its need before it can expect relief.
3. That man should consider the pain of the inferior creatures, and
never render himself liable to their rebuke. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The influence of national calamities on the minds of the good
It is a question whether the fire and flame are to be taken
literally as burning the grass, or whether they are used figuratively. Probably
the reference is to the burning heat in drought which consumes the meadows,
scorches the trees, and dries up the water-brooks. The effect of national
calamity on Joel was to excite him to prayer, to compel him to lay the case
before the Lord. Having called the attention of all classes of the community to
the terrible judgments, he turns his soul in a devout supplication to Almighty
God.
I. This was right.
Prayer is right.
1. God requires it.
2. Christ engaged in it. He is our example.
II. This was wise.
Who else could remove the calamity and restore the ruin? None. When all earthly
resources fail, where else can we go but to Him who originates all that is
good, and controls all that is evil? True prayer is always wise, because--
1. It seeks the highest good.
2. By the best means.
III. This was
natural. “The beasts of the field also cry unto Thee.” “What better,” says an
old author, “are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine,
and complain of nothing but the wants of sense?” Conclusion. It is well when
our trials lead us in prayer to God. The greatest calamities are termed the
greatest blessings when they act thus. Hail the tempests, if they drive our
bark into the quiet haven of prayer! (Homilist.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》