Joel Chapter One

Sorrows

The two verses above tell us that we have reached a point in history wherein God no longer warns the world to repent; it appears to be too late. Rather God calls for the church to gird themselves in sackcloth; lament, and howl.

The prophet Joel addresses three subjects in verse thirteen: priests, ministers of the altar, and ministers of my God. We know from the New Testament, which is the fulfillment of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17), that God claims all believers as priests:

Revelation 1:6 - And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 5:10 - And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Revelation 20:6 - Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

These verses in Joel are surely not confined solely to the Old Testament era. As far as Joel addressing ministers of the altar or ministers of God, the New Testament also discloses the fact that every true believer in Christ is a minister of God:

Luke 1:2 - Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;

1 Corinthians 4:1 - ¶Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God

2 Corinthians 3:6 - ¶Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

2 Corinthians 6:4 - But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,

2 Corinthians 11:21-23

21 - I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.

22 - ¶Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.

23 - Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Here in Joel 1:13 God is calling for His people to gird themselves in sackcloth; lament, and howl. The following is a complete list of verses that speak of girding one in sackcloth:

2 Samuel 3:31 - And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier.

Isaiah 15:3 - In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.

Isaiah 32:11 - Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

Jeremiah 4:8 - For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

Jeremiah 6:26 - O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

Jeremiah 49:3 - Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

Ezekiel 7:18 - They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

Ezekiel 27:31 - And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.

Joel 1:13 - Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

To lament and howl does not carry the meaning of repentance, rather these words are defined as to mourn deeply, cry or wail. Apparently and horrifically we see that God is calling for the sorrows of the church (the house of your God) because the meat offering and the drink offering is withdrawn (withholden) from the house of your God!

The End of the Church Age

God is speaking through the prophet Joel and in no real uncertain terms do we find that He is alluding to the end of the Church Age and the removal of the Gospel of Christ from the global and corporate church.

Joel 1:13 - Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

Let us recall what we read back in our study of Joel 1:9 and Joel 1:5:

Joel 1:9 - The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

Joel 1:5 - 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.

Old Testament Jewish ritual practices foreshadowed, anticipated, prefigured, and prophesied the coming of Christ - the Messiah - all in symbolic fashion. Joel speaks of a time wherein the meat offering and drink offering will be cut off from the House of the Lord. How are we to understand this passage in light of today’s modern world?

The first mention of “meat offering” is found in Scripture back in Exodus chapter twenty-nine:

“And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an

offering made by fire unto the LORD,” (Exodus 29:41).

The first mention of “drink offering” is found in Genesis 35:14:

Genesis 35:9-15 -

9 - And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

10 - And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11 - And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 - And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 - And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

14 - And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

15 - And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

Bethel means House of God. Ultimately the pillar of stone (verse 14) that Jacob placed in the area where God spoke to him may be an eternal symbol of Christ, our STONE:

Daniel 2:35 - Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Ephesians 2:20 - And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

1 Peter 2:3-4 -

3 - If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

4 - ¶To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

1 Peter 2:6 - Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

1 Peter 2:7 - Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,

Acts 4: 10-11 -

10 - Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11 - This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

As Jacob (Israel) set up a pillar of stone in the area where God spoke to him, he thus poured a drink offering of oil upon the stone and called that particular place Bethel, meaning House of God or House of the Lord. This Bethel; this House of the Lord appears to be symbolic of Christ’s Elect throughout time being indwelt with God’s oil; that is to say being indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. The drink offering that Jacob poured upon the stone at Bethel would, in all likelihood, be representative of the atonement of Christ (the Cross) for His beloved elect.

Matthew 26:26-28-

26 - ¶And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

27 - And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

28 - For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament meat and drink offerings. This is what the prophet Joel is speaking of when he states that the meat offering and the drink offering is CUT OFF from the House of the Lord (Bethel). “Cut off” in the Hebrew means to destroy or to consume in this particular context. Let us look at some examples:

Psalm 101:8 - I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

Psalm 37:9 - For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

Proverbs 10:31 - ¶The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.

Joel 1:5 - 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.

Daniel 9:26 - And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Joel 1:9 - The meat offering <Christ> and the drink offering <Christ> is cut off <silenced> from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

Yes, precisely as the apostle Paul tells us in II Thessalonians Chapter Two:

1 - ¶Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 - That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3 - ¶Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 - Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God <Satan takes his seat in the corporate global church?>, shewing himself that he is God <masquerading as Christ?>

5 - Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6 - And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7- For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he <Holy Spirit> who now letteth will let, until he <Holy Spirit> be taken out of the way.

8 -And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The remainder of Joel 1:9 speaks of the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourning. All believers in Christ are essentially ministers of the Lord.

“Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure,”

Psalms 103:21.

Scripture has much to say about the mourning due to the silencing or the cutting off of God’s Word in these last days.

NOTE: As always, we want to ensure that you understand the clear teachings of Scripture in so far as the cutting off of the Gospel of Christ is concerned. Christ tells us in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Christ’s building His eternal Church. Rest assured that the Word of God will prevail with Christ and His elect. The cutting off or withholding of the true Word of God is merely a temporal event in God’s timetable of end-time events. These things must surely come to pass. In our next study, Joel 1:15, God delivers to us the cause of this cutting off or withholding of His Word: “Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

END OF STUDY