A Message for the Priests

Joel 1:13-20

Last week we began our study of the book of Joel. We saw a nation reeling after suffering through waves of disaster.

We saw the plague of locusts. Four waves of locusts invaded the land. They destroyed grapevines and fruit trees. They devoured the crops.

We saw the people of the Lord. Joel begins by preaching to the elders. He asks them if they have ever seen anything as horrible as the present plague. He tells them to tell what has happened to the coming generations so they don’t repeat their sin and experience something worse than what they have experienced themselves.

He then preaches to the drunks. He tells them the Lord has snatched the cup out of their hands. There is no wine for them. God sobered up the people.

Next he preaches to the worshipers. They can’t bring sacrifices to the house of the Lord any longer because there are no sacrifices to bring.

He moves on to the farmers telling them to be ashamed. They can’t supply the people with food because their crops have been devoured by locust and drought.

Then we saw the preaching of the prophet. We observed that Joel used this opportunity of national calamity to call upon the people to repent. Joel identified what was happening as the Day of The Lord. God was shaking up the nation. He was getting the attention of the people. What was happening to the nation was a small representation of what would ultimately happen when the Lord judges the earth.

We learn from the book of Joel that the gospel must be preached in times of catastrophe. In our own day we have had recent waves of events that have captured the attention not of a country, but of our world. We would be foolish to think that the Lord is not involved in what is happening now. Joel asked the old men in 1:2 “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” They had not. If Joel were to ask our generation the same question we would have to say to Joel that we have never witnessed the things we are witnessing now in our world.

I don’t know when the eastern sky will split and Jesus will return, but I know that it will. I know that the Day of the Lord is closer than it has ever been. And I know that what we are seeing in our world now is a warning to us that much worse times are coming.

Joel has already spoken directly to the old men, the drunks, the worshipers and the farmers. Now he is going to speak directly to the priests. He has a message for them. There is much that our pastors can learn from Joel. His words are directed toward the priesthood but they are certainly applicable to the pastors of our day and to every Christian because the Bible tells us in Christ all believers make up a royal priesthood.

1. The pitiful state of the land.

A. The apocalyptic imagery.

The word “apocalypse” means “Unveiling”. In your bible the book of Revelation is known as the apocalypse. In this book we see the events surrounding the end of the age. Perhaps some of you have heard of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (Rev. 6). These horsemen are released one at a time bringing judgment to the earth with them. The third horseman rides a black horse and brings famine and economic disaster. When Jesus warned of the end times, He also used this type of apocalyptic language. He said in Matthew 24:7

“For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.”

The famine, the drought, the lack of food in Joel is meant to awaken the people to the reality that this world will not last forever.

B. The agriculture.

The crops had already been devoured by four waves of locusts. An attempt was then made to replant.

The soil is unprepared for planting. Clods of dirt are mentioned in verse 17. There is no moisture in the soil. It’s impossible to break up the land to prepare for planting.

The seeds are useless. Joel says the rotten seed lies under a clod of dirt. If you can picture that in your mind you can see how useless it was to even attempt to plant crops. Bricks of dirt & rotten seeds mean there will be no harvest.

Even the granaries where the seed was stored was torn down. The barns collapsed (17). The seed they had was ruined and there would be no harvest this year to provide more seed for the coming year. That mean this situation was going to last for a while.

Joel says the fields looked like a fire had devoured them. The pastures, the fields and even the trees in the forest had been sapped of all their moisture (19-20).

The crops were gone.

The seed was dead.

The storehouses were destroyed.

Living in the south some of us have witnessed what drought can do to crops. We’ve seen years when corn has been wiped out. We’ve seen the price of corn go up in those years. But we have never witnessed anything like Judah experienced in Joel’s day.

C. The animals.

The cattle were suffering. Joel says they were perplexed (18). They didn’t know what was happening. They were confused. All they knew was there was nothing to eat. What was left of the pasture had been eaten already.

The sheep were suffering (18). The sin of man has affected them. Sheep don’t eat near as much as cattle but there isn’t even enough pasture for them to survive on. Sheep eat short grass, but they can’t even find a sprig.

The undomesticated animals were suffering (20). The creeks and ponds had dried up. The vegetation in the forest was gone.

Joel says these animals were groaning & crying. That means they were making noises as a result of their hunger pains. One of the most heartbreaking sounds is the sound of suffering animals. Imagine if you can these animals crying out for relief from the hunger pains they are experiencing. Animals in the fields and in the forests were dying from starvation. They were bellowing, groaning, & crying but there was no way to give them relief.

The land is in a pitiful state. The agriculture has been devoured, the animals are dying and the imagery is clearly apocalyptic.

2. The personal prayer of the prophet (19).

A. We know very little personal information about Joel.

We know two bits of personal information about this man:

We know his father’s name- Pethuel

We know where he preached- to the Southern kingdom of Judah.

Great men of God don’t use their sermons to talk about themselves. They don’t try and impress you with their pedigree or their level of education. Great men of God are like John the Baptist who said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The little we know about him is the greatest thing we could know about him. He was a faithful preacher of the word of God. He stood boldly on the Word of God. He called people to repentance and faith in the One True God.

B. Joel’s prayer shows that he was a humble man.

He said, “O Lord, to Thee will I cry”. He included himself in repentance. He didn’t just preach to others. Joel didn’t divorce himself from the people. He was among them. Certainly, he was a preacher, but he was a prayer too. He didn’t just speak to the people. He spoke to God.

What a sight it would be to see these great prophets of God pray.

To see Isaiah, who cried out “Woe unto me for I am a man of unclean lips”, pray!

To see Jeremiah, who wept over his people, pray!

To see Ezekiel, who saw himself as the great watchman over the people of God, pray!

To see John the Baptist, who lived in a wilderness prayer closet and only came out to preach, pray!

To see the Apostle Paul, who said he’d be willing to go to hell if meant others could go to heaven, pray!

These great prophets of old didn’t just stand in the pulpit, they stood in the gap and interceded for their hearers.

Joel knew he was a sinner, so he prayed to the God who forgives!

Joel knew he was weak, so he prayed to the God who empowers!

C. Joel’s prayer was directed to the One True God.

Joel uses the covenant name for God in his prayer. Joel knows who God is. He doesn’t use some vague generic term for God. He knew that prayer to any other god was useless. Joel makes a passionate plea to the God of Israel.

The elders may not pray but Joel would pray!

The drunks may not pray, but Joel would pray!

The worshipers may not pray, but Joel would pray!

The farmers may not pray, but Joel would pray!

The priests may not pray, but Joel would pray!

Joel knew it wasn’t enough to talk to the people about God. He also had to talk to God about the people. Only God could turn these people back to Himself.

3. The proper response of the priests (13-15).

A. The were to clothe themselves in humility (13).

Joel tells the priests there is no offering for anyone to bring to the house of God. That means a couple of things:

First, it means that worship is going to be hindered. The sacrificial system cannot be observed if there is nothing to offer as a sacrifice.

Second, it means it will affect them personally. The priests benefited from the sacrificial system in that they were allowed to keep a portion of the food to eat themselves (Lev. 6:26). As well, their God given role in the community was to represent the people before God through the sacrificial system. If there were no sacrifices, they couldn’t do that.

The fact that their livelihood and the great privilege of the priesthood was slipping away from them should cause them to humble themselves before God.

He tells them to clothe themselves in sackcloth. Sackcloth was a type of cloth used to make sacks. It was normally made of goat hair. Sackcloth was usually dark in color because most goats in that region were dark in color. The hair was coarse and uncomfortable to the touch. Let me share a couple of things concerning sackcloth.

First, it was ugly. It wasn’t mean for clothing. It was meant to be used as a sack. When worn as a garment it fit like a sack over the body and was girded, or tied, at the waist with a rope. Normally priests were to dress nicely. There is an entire chapter of the Bible dedicated to the making of the priests clothing (Exodus 28). Exodus 28:2 says “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty”

There was a dignity associated with the way the priests were to dress. If you showed up at the tabernacle to offer your sacrifice and saw the priest dressed in sackcloth you probably wouldn’t recognize him. Once you realized it was a priest dressed in ugly sackcloth you would realize something was wrong.

Second, it was uncomfortable. Goat hair wasn’t soft. Normally it was worn without anything underneath it, so the fabric rubbed against the body.

Sackcloth became the garb of the prophets. Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and the two prophets in Revelation all wore sackcloth. The clothing preached a message itself:

Poverty is coming!

Judgment is coming!

Our preachers today are more worried about putting out statements than they are putting on sackcloth. I’m not sure how many would keep preaching if they weren’t being paid. I don’t know how many of us want to put on sack cloth.

We want to be admired!

We want to fit in with the world!

We want to make people feel comfortable!

Sackcloth preachers say:

I’m a poor sinner!

The times are desperate!

Judgment is coming!

I cannot rest until you are saved!

B. They were to call upon the people to repent (14).

Notice all the commands in verse 14:

Sanctify a fast. Set apart a time of fasting.

Call a solemn assembly. This was a time when the people of God were to come together for the purpose of celebrating or repenting. The word “solemn” in Hebrew means restraint. It was a day in which no one went to work. Everyone came together. Obviously, the purpose of this assembly was for repentance.

Gather the elders. The leading men in the community should be challenged by the priests to stop what they are doing and gather for prayer and repentance.

Gather all the people of the land. Everyone should be called upon to stop what they are doing and seek the face of God.

The calling of these people implies a preaching to these people. The priest was also a preacher. In verse 12 the priests are called upon to howl. This is no time for them to be silent. God and the people should hear the voices of the priests.

This is no time for whispering preachers. This is the time for alarm clock preachers. Alarm clock preachers are preachers who will either get you up or make you want to throw them against the wall. What good is a preacher you cannot hear?

I want you to notice that priests were to call the people to fasting and prayer. Fasting is when we abstain for food because we hunger for the presence of God more than we hunger for food. Fasting is the result of a deep passion to see the hand of God move.

We Baptists know very little of fasting. In fact, instead of prayer and fasting we have prayer breakfast, prayer rallies where we eat either before or after. We have prayer meeting at church, but we also want to have Wednesday night supper along with it. I’m not saying any of those things are wrong in and of themselves. But if we are being truthful, we normally spend more time eating than we do praying at these events. We love to eat, I’m not so sure we love to pray.

Listen, praying is more important than eating. If we can only draw people to our prayer time by promising them some food, I don’t think we’re really praying at all.

The hunger pains of fasting have a reason. Every time our stomach growls we are reminded to cry out to God. Folks, our nation needs to turn back to God. The problem in our nation is not starvation, it’s salvation.

We need preachers who will call people away from the table and to the altar. In Joel’s day the problem appeared to be locusts, famine, & drought. But the problem was sin. When we look around at our nation today, we could say the problem is a host of things. But the truth is, the problem is sin. That is why the preacher should be calling people to repent of their sins. If you are not careful you will get caught up in all types of political and social movements and forget the real problem is the problem of sin. The cure is Jesus Christ. The way God has chosen to call people to repentance is preaching not picketing, not protesting, not rioting. We are called to preach. We are called to tell sinners to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ.

C. They were called to caution the people that the day of destruction is coming (15).

Look at verse 15. The day of the Lord is at hand. It will be destruction from the Almighty. These folks had only seen what locusts, drought, and famine could do. Those things were nothing compared to the Almighty power of God. If the devastation they saw before them now caused them to fear what would they do when they stood before God Almighty?

Joel says, this is just a warning. This is nothing compared to what will happen someday. The Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

What they were seeing was only discipline. Destruction was coming. What we are seeing in our nation now is no different than what they saw. God will fire warning shots before He fires His fatal shot.

Dear friends the days we live in demand proper preaching. It is time for the church to prepare itself. It is time for the unsaved to repent and come to Christ. We are hearing warning shot after warning shot. God is shouting at our world. He is getting our attention. Our only hope is Christ.

Christ is our great High Priest.

He girded Himself in the sackcloth of our humanity.

He fasted forty days and nights in the desert while being tempted by the devil, refusing to sin so that He could be a spotless sacrificial lamb.

He cried out in intercession for us “Forgive them for they know not what they do!”

He suffered for our sins, dying in our place.

He rose again.

This great High Priest has performed His vows. He has purchased our salvation. Come to Him and be saved.