The Day of the Lord Approaches

Joel1:13-20 13 Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Set apart a fast as holy, Call for a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of Yahweh your God, And cry out to Yahweh. 15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 16 Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? 17 The seeds shrivel under their clods; The storehouses are desolate; The barns are pulled down, For the grain is dried up. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep suffer. 19 To You, O Yahweh, I cry; For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. 20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You; For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

Legacy Standard Bible

Prayer: Father God, as we look to your future judgment, allow us the clarity and wisdom to turn to you while there is still time. Even when we claim the name of the Lord, we still need to seek Your face and cling to the Hope of Christ which you have so freely given to us, while at the same time proclaim Your name to the world. Amen

Introduction

Recap - Joel,

Southern Kingdom,

Queen Athalia - 6 year reign

Tie-in

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice, but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death!

Thomas Carlyle

Warren Weirsbe Outlines this entire book within the parameters of the Day of the Lord in three parts:

The Immediate Day of the Lord, The Imminent Day of the Lord, and the Ultimate Day of the Lord

“The "imminent" day of the Lord refers to the future invasion of Judah by the Assyrians, when the land would be devastated and Jerusalem surrounded by armies. (See Isa. 36-37 ; 2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chron. 32.) This occurred during the reign of King Hezekiah (715-686 BC). Jerusalem was miraculously delivered from Assyria by the Angel of the Lord who killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. However, not every Old Testament student sees a distinction between I and II. Some see II as an amplification of I. Regardless of how you outline the book, the message remains the same: each national calamity reminds us that the "day of the Lord" is coming and we must be prepared.”

Lament

Joel 1:13 “Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.”

Who are we talking about here? Priests, ministers

Why them? If the religious leaders are not leading, then the people will not follow…OR… if religious leaders are setting the wrong example, then the people will be taken down with them

What are they to do? Gird themselves in sackcloth, lament, wail

Gird - to draw up ready for battle or movement

Sackcloth - JMAC; “Fabric generally made of goat’s hair, usually black or dark in color (cf. Rev 6:12 “Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;” ), and usually placed on the bare body around the hips (Ge 37:34; 1Ki 21:27), leaving the chest free for “beating” (Is 32:11, 12), was used in the ancient world to depict sorrow and penitence (Ne 9:1; Is 37:1; Mt 11:21). Because the prophets’ message usually dealt with a call to repentance, it became the principal garment worn by prophets (Mt 3:4; Rev 11:3).

Isa 32:11 “Tremble, you women who are at ease; Quake, you complacent daughters; Strip, undress, and put sackcloth on your waist,” Jer 4:8 ““For this, I gird myself with sackcloth, Lament and wail; For the burning anger of Yahweh Has not turned back from us.””

lament - to mourn

as it is your duty to set the example to others; also as the guilt was greater, and a greater scandal was occasioned, by your sin to the cause of God. - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

wail - to howl to make howling noises; usd around 30 times in the OT

cf. Joel 1:8 “Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.”

Cf. Jer 9:10 ““For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a funeral lamentation, Because they are turned into ruin so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.”

Isa 13:6 “Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

This is not just an external action that is absent of emotion and spiritual direction. This is a genuine response to the situation and what God has laid before them.

Why are they doing this? The grain offering and drink are “withheld” from God

Grain offering and drink offering - cf. Joel 1:9 “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn, The ministers of Yahweh.”

cf. Ex 29:38- 42 ““Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously. “The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb you shall offer at twilight; and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with the one lamb. “The second lamb you shall offer at twilight, and you shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh. “It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.”

What if God took away our means of worshipping Him? What would that look like for the modern day church?

Who is withholding it? Ultimatly God is... Not being able to worship is a form of judgment that God is enacting on His people. They left His true intent for coperate worship and turned it into something selfserving and wrong. Now, instead of worship with sacrafice and song; they will repent with lamenting and wailing.

And if God is the one that gives us that heart of worship, what happens when He takes it away?

While God wants us to worship Him we cannot worship Him just any way we will. The One who made us to worship Him has decreed how we shall worship Him. He accepts only the worship which He Himself has decreed.16

A. W. Tozer

The single most important thing to understand about worship is that the only worship that is acceptable to God is worship that proceeds from a heart that is trusting in God, and in God alone.

R. C. Sproul

True woriship is a change of heart and looking at the face of God on His terms, not our own.

And the responsibility does not end with the religious leaders. They are then are called to lead the people along with the elders.

Fast

Joel 1:14 “Set apart a fast as holy, Call for a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of Yahweh your God, And cry out to Yahweh.”

Who? The priest and ministers again, but we are going to add in the elders and people; this is an event that requires all of the people to turn

“Solemn assembly” - lit. a day of restraint

Cf. 2 Chron 7:9 “And on the eighth day they celebrated a solemn assembly; for the dedication of the altar they celebrated seven days and the feast seven days.”

2 Chron 20:3-4 “And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek Yahweh, and called for a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from Yahweh; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.”

Neh 8:18 “And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the legal judgment.”

Num 29:35 “‘On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work.”

There is nothing in the life of the people that is more important that this assembly. Not work, not home life, not eating or drinking…it is a fast and turning back to God as a nation.

What are they to do? Set apart a day for fasting, convene all the elders and people, fast and cry out to the Lord.

This is a lesson on fasting, but we will discuss it since it is at hand. Fasting shows a seriousness and a dedication to the Lord and what He has said. It is shown throughout the OT and NT as well.

Psalm 35:13 “But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.”

Dan 9:3 “So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”

Luke 2:36-38 “And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Acts 13:1-3 “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”

Fasting cannot be merely a ritual devoid of truth.

Do not limit the benefit of fasting merely to abstinence from food, for a true fast means refraining from evil. Do not let your fasting lead to wrangling and strife. You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother; you abstain from wine, but not from insults. So all the labor of your fast is useless.

Ambrose of Milan

Jer 14:11-12 “So Yahweh said to me, “Do not pray for the good of this people. “When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.””

Isa 58:1-7““Call out from your throat, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins. “Yet they seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the judgment of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; They find pleasure in the nearness of God. ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And oppress all your workers. “Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to Yahweh? Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To release the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the afflicted homeless into the house; When you see the naked, you cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”

Zec 7:4-7 “Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ‘And when you eat and when you drink, are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves? ‘Are not these the words which Yahweh called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?’””

Matt 6:16-18 ““Now whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Matt 9:14-15 “Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Fasting is an outward show of a heart attitude. It is crying out to God and showing physical food cannot quench the desire in our sould to seek the Lord. Only the spiritual food of God can satisfy our spiritual hunger pangs.

Fasting is not approved by God, except for its end; it must be connected with something else, otherwise it is a vain thing. Men by private fastings, prepare themselves for the exercise of prayer, or they mortify their own flesh, or seek a remedy for some hidden vices.

John Calvin

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

Jerome

The Day of the Lord is Near!

Joel 1:15 “Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

“Alas for the day!” - this exclaimation is our first introduction to what we said was the major theme of the book of Joel.

“is near” - this points to the fact that they were not in the actual Day of the Lord, but a precursor, an immediate fulfillment of what that day would resemble.

It will be a foretaste of the coming day of the Lord as Judge of all men, whence it receives the same name. Here the transition begins from the plague of locusts to the worse calamities from invading armies about to come on Judea, of which the locusts were the prelude. - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

“The Day of the Lord” - JAMC points out that there are 19 explicit mentions of this day in the OT and 4 explicit mentions in the NT;

Obad 15 ““For the day of Yahweh draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head.”

5 in Joel

Am 5:18 “Woe, you who are longing for the day of Yahweh, For what purpose will the day of Yahweh be to you? It will be darkness and not light;”

Am 5:20 “Will not the day of Yahweh be darkness instead of light, Even thick darkness with no brightness in it?”

Is 2:12 “For Yahweh of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and high And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be made low.”

Is 13:6 “Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

Is 13:9 “Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.”

Zep 1:7 “Be silent before Lord Yahweh! For the day of Yahweh is near, For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice; He has set apart His guests.”

Zep 1:14 “Near is the great day of Yahweh, Near and coming very quickly; O the sound, the day of Yahweh! In it the mighty man cries out bitterly.”

Eze 13:5 ““You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of Yahweh.”

Eze 30:3 ““For the day is near, Even the day of Yahweh is near; It will be a day of clouds, A time of doom for the nations.”

Zec 14:1 “Behold, a day is coming for Yahweh when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.”

Mal 4:5 ““Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh.”

Ac 2:20 “‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND AWESOME DAY OF THE LORD COMES.”

1Th 5:2 “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

2Th 2:2 “that you not be quickly shaken in your mind or be alarmed whether by a spirit or a word or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

2Pe 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out.”

And since we see this is the plan of God, His soverign will, we can better place the context of the next line in this verse...

“destruction FROM the Almighty” - this is not simply allowed by God, it is God using the things within His creation to enact judegment. During the immediate and imminent judgement we can see that judgment is executed on both the righteuoss and unrighteiouss, but is the ultimate Day of the Lord we will see God puring out His wrath on the ungodly. The first two give time for repentance and turning, the last one is not for that purpose. Verses 16 - 17 are not the ultimate Day of the Lord, but show the immediate judgment as a precursor and pointer to it. What is happening now to the Southern Kingdom is truly aweful and terrifying, but it pales in comparison to the actual day.

JMAC observes that; “The Heb. term “destruction” forms a powerful play on words with the “Almighty.” The notion of invincible strength is foremost; destruction at the hand of omnipotent God is coming.”

But the point still stands of the progression in this destruction, God is using as something as simple and inocuous as an insect to bring judgment and chatisment on His people, all the while pointing to His grace and mercy and warning His people of the much worse that is to come.

Joel 1:16-17 “Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? The seeds shrivel under their clods; The storehouses are desolate; The barns are pulled down, For the grain is dried up.”

Again, the very joy of worship is gone from the people.

cf. De 12:6-7 ““And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. “There also you and your households shall eat before Yahweh your God, and be glad in all that you send forth your hand to do, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.”

cf. De 12:12 ““And you shall be glad before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.”

Joel 1:18-20 “How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep suffer. To You, O Yahweh, I cry; For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for You; For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.”

Nothing was safe, even the animals suffered and were a part of the judgment just they are a part of the fall of man.

cf. Rom 8:18-22 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing 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 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

We see the worst of what is happening in the land to the plants, animals, and people. But the correlation betweene the two is also shown; “even the flocks of sheep suffer” these are animals that can move around and eat very little and are content with less…but still they suffer.

So What?

Where does this bring us in our study? We see the judgment of God on His people. The instructions to the leaders and preists and elders. What the response should be in lamenting, wailing, fasting and worship. But I want to close with a look at one word in verse 20.

Let’s look at this word “cry” which is mentioned of both man and beast. The priests are to howl and cry, the people people are to cry out, and the animals cry out as well…why?

The word for “Cry” in verse 19 is a different word that means to siply call out. It is the same as v14 for the “call a sacred assembly.”

But, a different word is used in verse 20 where it is is rendered “pant” and is much more known to us from a more populer section of scripture.

Psalm 42:1-4 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the sound of a shout of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.”

This word in the Hebrew means “to long for”

Do we “long for God?”

Sinner, do you long for God to save you from your sin?

Saint, do you long for God to be obidient to His word, to love His people, and to follow Him alone?