As I mentioned several weeks ago, when my daily Bible reading brought me to the Minor Prophets, I decided to slow down and give more thought to my reading since I have not paid much attention to this section in the past.
In the book of Joel, the theme seems to be “The Day of the Lord” since that phrase is repeated 5 times in this one little book. There are only 19 occurrences of the phrase in the whole Bible.
Chapter one talks about a swarm of locusts that has decimated the land having stripped virtually all green things from the landscape. Everyone is mourning the destruction and famine that has resulted from this calamity.
As a result of this, Joel’s call is to “Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”
I appreciate the fact that there is concern for the worship of God in the midst of the starvation that is coming to the people generally. Because of the famine, there are no grain or drink offerings for the Lord. “Joy and gladness are cut off from the house of our God.” This makes me ask myself what level of passion I have for the worship of the Lord. Would I be as concerned about the fact that proper offerings weren’t available as I was about whether I had the food and drink I needed for my own life?
One other observation occurred to me in this chapter from verse 18. “How the animals groan! Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.” It reminds me of the passage in Romans 8:19 which says, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”
The judgment of God is upon sin even now, and the plant and animal kingdom is not immune from the curse even though it was caused by our transgressing the commandment of God.
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