Joel Chapter One

Is Not the Meat Cut Off?

Thus far in our study of the first chapter of Joel we have seen the following verses that speak of the meat offering being cut off:

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 1:13 - 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.

Now we read in verse sixteen: “Is not the meat cut off before our eyes?” God is reiterating over and over in this chapter the terrible fact that there is coming a time, just prior to Christ’s return, when the truth of God’s Word will be stomped to the ground and silenced for the most part.

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:

“Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?” (Joel 1:16)

As we have stated previously in this study, the one true joy and the only genuine gladness that God offers is the joy and gladness of knowing one is eternally saved and safe in the hands of the one and only God and Creator, the eternal Father; God, Son, and Holy Spirit. What could be more terrible than the vanishing of this blessed hope for the world?

The following passages are but a sampling of God’s ultimate usage of the words gladness and joy:

Isaiah 35:10 - And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 51:3 - For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Isaiah 51:11 - Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Psalms 105:43 - And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:

Psalms 30:11 - Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

Psalms 45:7 - Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Psalms 51:8 - Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Psalms 97:11 - Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Psalms 105:43 - And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:

Proverbs 10:28 - The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

Scripture has many historic occurrences in which God uses as foreshadows for the time of the end when His Gospel is cast to the ground, Daniel 8:12. These are more than secular history lessons of the Jewish nation. Let us not forget that Old Testament Israel and Judah were God’s chosen nation AT THAT TIME ONLY. Until Christ appeared to fulfill the Old Testament law (Matthew 5:17), God’s entire salvation plan was foreshadowed in allegories, metaphors, parables, symbolisms, etc. … ALL of which prefigured Christ and God’s New Testament salvation. Old Testament history occurred precisely as God describes and as literally as God describes. Embedded within the pages of Old Testament history is a wealth of spiritual treasures locked in and hidden by the Holy Spirit; all pointing to Christ and His eternal ELECT: those who are saved by the shed blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ; the spiritual and eternal Israel of God. For further study on this doctrine please see “Armageddon – Can it be a Literal War?”

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“The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.” (Joel 1:17)

The prophet Joel speaks of the Day of the LORD. This is not merely a temporal era in Israel’s history in which they experienced severe drought and plagues of locusts. Yes, those incidents did occur, however Joel is ultimately penning God’s Word in light of highly spiritual metaphors. The seed is rotten, their garners

are wasted and the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered.

The seed is rotten under their clods

In the Hebrew, this word seed in Joel 1:17 is translated as kernel. The kernel represents the whole seed grain and is the central or most important part. The ultimate seed throughout scripture is symbolic for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:16 - Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Romans 9:8 - That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Romans 4:13 - For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Luke 8:11 - Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

John 1:14 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Indeed the seed of scripture is the LORD Jesus Christ and all of His true elect, past, present, and future. That being said, this spiritual seed is the completed Word of God; the supernatural seed that springs into everlasting life.

In Joel 1:17 we read that near the time of the end – near the Day of the LORD – this seed is rotten under their clods. This language is no different than what we have studied throughout the first chapter of Joel:

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.

Joel 1:7 - He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

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 1:10 - The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

Joel 1:11 - 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.

Joel 1:12 - The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

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.

The seed is rotten under their clods! Much of God’s salvation plan is written in beautiful metaphoric language. God portrays His good news of salvation in many symbolical ways, one of which is a dry field (the world) in need of much water (God’s salvation). God sends His only begotten son (God incarnate) to this field to begin the process of spiritually cultivating this world, which is the field.

Matthew 13:38 - The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

God cultivates the world by means of rain or dew, which is symbolic for His Word. This rain greens the spiritual pastures of the field and ensures that the good seed will germinate into everlasting life. Some examples of spiritual rain are as follows:

Psalms 72:6 - He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. <He is the Holy Spirit that would come and fill the world with God’s Word … as showers that water the earth.>

Isaiah 30:23 - Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

Psalms 133:3 - As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Hosea 14:5 - I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

Micah 5:7 - ¶And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

God speaks of the seed being rotten under their clods. This particular word rotten in the Hebrew

(Strong’s # 5685) is a primitive root, meaning to dry up.

Joel 1:17 - The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

For those who are truly saved by the blood of the Lamb, the Word of God will never leave their hearts and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. However, in a world filled with unbelievers the time will come, and perhaps we are at that point now, wherein the true Word of God will be heard no more nor preached with the power of the anointing Holy Spirit. What a horrendous idea this is, but it is altogether

what God’s Word declares throughout the scriptures. The phrase “the seed is rotten under their clods” is a simple term denoting the dry conditions of a harvest field. God utilizes this idea familiar to all in which to paint a spiritual portrait of the removing of the Holy Spirit from the earth. When God initially brought the completed Word of God to this earth, He spoke of it in numerous passages as being the rain or dew of heaven. It fell upon His elect throughout the centuries and germinated in spiritual life. God’s eternal Word (Jesus Christ) was then watered and nurtured within every true believer (seed); this seed then sprung up into everlasting life. This seed will result in a plentiful harvest (1 Corinthians 15:51-55) and yet at the time of the end this same seed will be withdrawn (2 Thessalonians 2:7) from the earth (rotten; dried up) in total obedience to God’s Word. The seed will be as applied to the practical seed of an earthly farmers’ field – dried up under their clods. Remember that the seed is God’s Word (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and the seed is also every true born-again believer. “That is to say …”They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed,” Romans 9:8.

Joel 1:17 - The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

When God speaks of garners it is defined as a depository. In our English language depository is defined as a place where something is deposited or

stored, as for safekeeping. God’s Word is His own dictionary and therefore His terms or phrases cannot be assumed the same meanings as in any earthly language. God’s meaning of garners is much more than a physical storehouse or depository for the safekeeping of earthly corn or wheat at harvest. We are reiterating the fact that God’s salvation plan takes on many metaphorical faces; one of these being God’s eternal Word symbolized as seed in a farmer’s field.

Note that the word garners coming from Strong’s Hebrew # 214 is used only once in scripture and that is here in Joel 1:17. This same word, however, is translated many times as treasures, treasure, treasuries, treasury (three times), cellars (twice), storehouses (twice), armoury or armory (once), store (once), storehouse (once), and garner (once).

God’s Garners – What Are They?

As we have stated, the Hebrew word for garners is defined in scripture in many other words, garners being only one. The more prominent usage of this word is treasures. As we look at a few passages containing the word treasures, keep in mind that these treasures (garners) are laid desolate at the time of the end.

Proverbs 8:20-21

20 - I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

21 - That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. <Strong’s # 214; same as garners>.

God is speaking here of spiritual treasures, the storehouse of one’s regenerated heart through the sacrificial blood of Christ.

Matthew 13:44 - ¶Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Colossians 2:2-3

2 - That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement

of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

3 - In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Matthew 6:20 - But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Ezekiel 28:4 - With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: <Strong’s # 214; same as garners>.

Proverbs 21:20 - ¶There is treasure <Strong’s # 214; same as garners> to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.

Isaiah 33:6 - And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure <Strong’s # 214; same as garners>.

Matthew 3:12 - Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew 13:30 - Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn <Same Greek word as garner>.

The true treasure of life is God’s Word of eternal life. This treasure is found only within the hearts of God’s elect. The outward or earthly manifestation of God’s garners (the believers’ spiritual treasures) is of course the physical churches and congregations of the world. God will not withdraw His Word from the hearts of any believer, however the Bible tells us throughout scripture that God’s Word will be withdrawn from the world at the time of the end. This then is the meaning of what we read in Joel 1:17 – “The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.” This

is the same theme we have read over and over again throughout the first chapter of Joel.

The Garners Are Laid Desolate

The Hebrew word desolate (Strong’s # 8074) is also translated as astonished, astonied, waste, desolations, desolation, bring, destroy, wondered, amazed, astonishment, destroyed, and make. The following are a few examples:

Lamentations 4:5 - They that did feed delicately are desolate (Strong’s # 8074) in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

Ezekiel 33:28 - For I will lay the land most desolate (Strong’s # 8074), and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

Daniel 9:27 - And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the

midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate (Strong’s # 8074), even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

<Even until the consummation! That word is also translated as consumption and riddance.

“Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth,” Isaiah 28:22. This plainly appears to be the time wherein the Abomination of Desolation will transpire. God’s garners will be made desolate, Joel 1:17.>

Daniel 11:31 - And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate (Strong’s # 8074).

Daniel 12:11 - And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate (Strong’s # 8074) set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

Jeremiah 50:13 - Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished (Strong’s # 8074 – same as desolate), and hiss at all her plagues.

Revelation 18:19 - And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate <Greek rendering of Old Testament desolate.>.

Isaiah 33:7-8

7 - Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

8 - The highways lie waste (Strong’s # 8074 – same as desolate), the wayfaring

man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

<The highways lie waste or desolate? What highways are in view here? Modern day highways in Israel today? Certainly not.

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God, Isaiah 40:3.

What are these highways that are now or soon to be highways that lie waste and desolate? The above verse tells precisely what they are – the highways are the way of the LORD. It is these spiritual highways that will lie waste or desolate near the time of the end. This is yet another way of declaring that the truth of God’s Word will be silenced throughout the congregations of the world as we near the return of Christ.

Daniel 8:13 - Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation (Strong’s # 8074 – same as desolate), to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

Once more, let us repeat ourselves: the garners are laid desolate! This is what Christ warned of in the Gospels:

“But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains,” Mark 13:14.

The Abomination of Desolation appears to be the overall theme of Joel chapter one.

The Barns are Broken Down;

For the Corn is withered

Finally we read at the end of verse 17 that the barns are broken down and the corn is withered. This Hebrew word for barn is used only once in the Old Testament and is derived from a word meaning granary or barn. These barns are broken down, meaning they are destroyed, overthrown, and plucked down. Proverbs 3:9-10 uses a similar word for barn which carries the same theme in which we are speaking of:

9 - Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

10 - So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

<Israel of old was rewarded in physical substances for their obedience to God. As these are allegories, parables, foreshadows, metaphors, etc. we are to understand God’s Old Testament teachings as being not only historic occurrences but they are our schoolmaster as well. They teach us the higher understanding of scripture and the way in which scripture is to be understood today in light of these Old Testament teachings. In the above verse of Proverbs 3:10 we read that thy barns are filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Yes, these are physical substances mentioned here BUT there is more to that and we must look to see what God is teaching. New wine was merely new wine in Old Testament days, however it was and is a term and foreshadow for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Luke 5:37-38

37 - And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.

38 - But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

<Yes, the new wine is a symbol for the Gospel of Christ. One cannot put this new wine into Old Testament theology (old bottles). The new wine must be put into new bottles, or New

Testament theology, hence Christ came not to destroy the Old Testament law and the prophets, but He came to fulfill the Old Testament.

John 5:39 - Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.>

The Corn is Withered

We conclude this study with a brief look at the word corn as it is found in Joel 1:17. It is defined as grain or wheat and it is certainly no mystery that God identifies His elect as grain or wheat. God’s elect who are alive at the time of the end will witness the withering (silencing) of Christ’s Word throughout the world.

Old Testament Israel symbolized the true elect of God. We are not seeking to take anything away from Old Testament Israel or today’s modern nation of Israel for that matter. However, scripture is clear as to the identity of God’s overall elect – they are the Israel of God, Galatians 6:16.

The following are five verses that show the spiritual significance of highly symbolical terms used in an Old Testament reference. These verses speak of Israel of old and at the same time prophesy of the final Israel, the Israel of God, made up of the shed sacrificial blood of the Lamb for His saints, both of Old and New Testament eras.

Jeremiah 31:10 – 14

10 - ¶Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

11 - For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12 - Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

13 - Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn

their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 - And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

There are three remaining verses in Joel chapter one and you will see, Lord willing, that each of these verses are proclaiming the same theme that we have been examining throughout this chapter.

END OF STUDY