Joel Chapter One

(Verses Eight and Nine)

8 - “¶Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.”

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

(Joel 1:8-9)

God is simply reiterating the need for repentance in verse eight. This reference, unsurprisingly, has deep spiritual connotations. Let us first review the passages covered thus far in our study:

Joel 1:1-8:

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

2 - Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

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

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

5 - Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 - For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

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

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

“¶Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth,” (Joel 1:8). Lament? What are we to lament over? Collectively, in this context we are to lament over the lack of the truth of God being preached. In understanding verse eight, as in all passages of Scripture, we must scrutinize the key words and compare their usage throughout the scriptures. What does it mean to lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth? God many times uses the word “virgin” or “virgins” to symbolize those with the true Gospel of Christ … God’s true elect. The character of a true believer is to be in repentance; to be remorseful for one’s sins, thus: a virgin girded with sackcloth. We know from the Word of God that to gird oneself in sackcloth is a symbol of one’s repentance and lamenting. As in everyday life, and in today’s world as we see the day of Christ approaching, we are to repent and lament as a virgin (elect of God) girded with sackcloth (repentance) for the husband of her youth. Ultimately the “husband of her youth” appears without question to be the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things:

“For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called,” (Isaiah 54:5).

“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” (2 Corinthians 11:2).  <Thus a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.>

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

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 would 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 in Joel 1:9 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.

<Contrary to many teachings today, it would appear that the cutting off of Christ in the midst of Daniel’s seventieth week transpires at the Abomination of Desolation, a time wherein much of Scripture alludes to.>

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.

<The silencing of the Gospel: the cutting off of Messiah, Daniel 9:26; the cutting off of the new wine, Joel 1:5; the cutting off of the meat and drink offerings, Joel 1:9>

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.

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

1 Corinthians 3:5 - ¶Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

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,

Scripture has much to say about the mourning for 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 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.

END OF STUDY