Commentary - Joel 1:13-20

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Joel, the prophet turns from describing the utter devastation of the locust plague to prescribing the only appropriate response. This is not a time for stoic resignation or for blaming bad luck. This is a divine visitation, a summons from God Himself, and so the response must be directed toward Him. Joel calls the spiritual leaders of the nation, the priests, to lead the way in a national, corporate repentance. The calamity is comprehensive, affecting every aspect of life from the crops in the field to the worship at the Temple. Therefore, the repentance must be just as comprehensive. The core message is that when God gets our attention through material judgment, the only sane and faithful thing to do is to give Him our full attention through fasting, prayer, and solemn assembly. The coming "day of Yahweh" is announced, a day of destruction from the Almighty, and this locust plague is just the overture. The entire land, man and beast, is groaning under the weight of this judgment, and the prophet models the correct response by crying out to Yahweh personally.

The logic is straightforward: God has shut off the raw materials for worship, the grain and drink offerings, to show Israel that their hearts were already far from Him. He has struck the pantry to get to the soul. The solution, therefore, is not to find a new source of grain, but to find a new heart. This passage is a timeless lesson on how a covenant people are to respond when God's heavy hand falls upon them. It is a call to set things right spiritually so that God might be pleased to restore them physically.

Outline

Context In Joel

This passage is the pivot point in the first chapter. Verses 1 through 12 were a detailed, poetic, and devastating description of a locust plague unlike any seen before. The prophet has labored to make the people feel the full weight of the catastrophe. Now, having established the severity of the problem, he moves to the solution. The call to the priests in verse 13 is the first command in the book. Everything up to this point has been observation and lament. Now, it is a call to action. This section directly connects the agricultural disaster to a spiritual crisis. The lack of grain and wine is not just an economic problem; it is a liturgical crisis because the offerings at the house of God have ceased (v. 13). This sets the stage for the central theme of the book: national sin brings national judgment, and the only remedy is national repentance. This passage introduces the "Day of Yahweh," a major theme not only for Joel but for all the prophets, framing the current disaster as a foretaste of a greater, final judgment.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 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.

The first imperative is directed at the spiritual leadership. Before the general population is called to repent, the priests must lead the way. Repentance is a hierarchical affair; it starts at the top. They are to "gird" themselves, which is an action word. This is not a passive sadness, but an active, deliberate embrace of mourning. Sackcloth was the uniform of humiliation and grief, a coarse garment that was as uncomfortable as the situation. They are to lament and wail, making audible their distress. This is not a quiet, dignified, stiff-upper-lip sort of thing. This is loud, public grief. The ministers of the altar, those who should be busiest with sacrifices, are now to be busiest with wailing. Spending the night in sackcloth indicates a prolonged, around-the-clock seriousness. This is not a 9-to-5 repentance. The reason for this is stark: the fundamental elements of covenant worship, the grain and drink offerings, have been cut off. The locusts have eaten the liturgy. When the stuff of worship is removed, it is a sign that God is refusing the worship itself. He has shut the front door of His house.

v. 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.

From the priests, the call broadens. They are to sanctify a fast, setting it apart as holy. This is not a diet plan; it is a spiritual discipline. Abstaining from food is a way of saying that fellowship with God is more important than our daily bread. They are to call a solemn assembly, a national gathering for a sacred purpose. Notice the progression: first the elders, the civic and spiritual leaders, and then all the inhabitants. Leadership must lead. The destination for this gathering is crucial: "the house of Yahweh your God." They are not to gather in the town square to protest the locusts. They are to go to the place of covenant, the place where God has put His name. And what are they to do there? "Cry out to Yahweh." This is not a polite inquiry. It is a desperate, loud, heartfelt plea. The whole nation, as one man, is to lift its voice to the God who sent the calamity.

v. 15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Here is the theological substance behind the call to repent. This locust plague is not just a random natural disaster. It is a harbinger. "Alas for the day!" is a cry of dread. The reason for the dread is that "the day of Yahweh is near." This Day is a time when God steps into history in a dramatic way to execute judgment and to save. In the Old Testament, it could refer to a historical event like the fall of a city, but it always points forward to the final Day of judgment and salvation. Here, it is a day of "destruction from the Almighty." The Hebrew has a play on words here, destruction (shod) from the Almighty (Shaddai). It is a divinely-sourced ruin. The locusts are just the advance team. A greater judgment is on the horizon, and this current crisis is a merciful warning shot. It's God's grace to be terrified now, so that you might flee to Him for mercy.

v. 16 Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God?

The prophet brings it back to their immediate, undeniable experience. This isn't abstract theology. Look around you. The food is gone, right "before our eyes." You can't miss it. And with the food, something else has been cut off: gladness and joy. Specifically, gladness and joy "from the house of our God." The feasts and festivals in Israel were joyous occasions. They were celebrations of God's bounty. When the bounty is gone, the joy of worship evaporates. This is a key principle: true worship is tied to the realities of life. When God blesses a people, their worship should be full of gladness. When He chastens them, their worship should be full of heartfelt repentance. God is teaching them that you cannot have joy in the sanctuary when there is judgment in the fields.

v. 17 The seeds shrivel under their clods; The storehouses are desolate; The barns are pulled down, For the grain is dried up.

Joel drills down into the details of the agricultural collapse. It's a picture of total systemic failure. The problem starts in the ground itself; the seeds rot or shrivel before they can even sprout. There is no future harvest. Then he moves to the present; the storehouses, where the previous harvest should be, are empty, desolate. Then he looks at the infrastructure; the barns are in such disuse they are falling apart. Why maintain a barn when there is nothing to put in it? The root cause is simple: "the grain is dried up." The entire agricultural economy, from seed to storage, is in ruins. This is what destruction from the Almighty looks like on the ground.

v. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

The judgment is not limited to humanity. The whole creation is caught up in it. The beasts groan. This is not just poetic language; it is a theological statement. Paul picks up on this in Romans 8, where the whole creation groans in bondage to decay. The cattle are "perplexed" (the sense of "wander aimlessly"). They don't know where to go because there is no pasture. The sheep, which are hardier and can often find sustenance where cattle cannot, are also suffering. When man sins, the creation he is supposed to steward suffers with him. The ground was cursed for Adam's sake, and here we see the principle at work again. The groaning of the animals should be a sermon to the people about the severity of their sin.

v. 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.

The prophet, having called the nation to cry out to God, now models it himself. "To You, O Yahweh, I cry." He practices what he preaches. His prayer is an acknowledgment of the reality of the situation. A "fire" has consumed the pastures. This is likely a reference to a severe drought that accompanied the locust plague, turning the land to tinder. The "flame" has burned the trees. The picture is one of utter desolation, a scorched-earth policy enacted by God Himself. The prophet's cry is one of dependence. He knows that only the One who sent the fire can send the rain.

v. 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.

The chapter concludes by returning to the animal kingdom. The beasts of the field "pant for You." They are thirsting, and their instinctive cry for relief is, objectively, a cry to their Creator. They don't know they are praying, but they are. Their need is a prayer. Why are they panting? The water brooks are dry. The drought is severe. The final line repeats the refrain from the previous verse: "fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness." The repetition drives the point home. The land is barren, burned, and broken. The chapter ends on this note of complete desolation, leaving the reader with the urgent call to repentance from verse 14 hanging in the air. The stage is set. The crisis is total. The only move left is to cry out to Yahweh.

Application

When God brings a calamity, whether it is a plague of locusts, a downturn in the economy, a pandemic, or a personal tragedy, our first instinct must not be to look for a political or scientific solution. Our first move must be vertical. Joel teaches us that such things are a summons from God to a solemn assembly. They are His megaphone to a deaf world.

We must also see that repentance is a corporate affair. We are in this together. The sins of a nation are the responsibility of that nation, and the church is called to be the priest for that nation, leading the way in confession and crying out to God. We should not point fingers at the pagans without first putting on the sackcloth ourselves. The ministers of God must lead the way.

Finally, we must understand the nature of the Day of the Lord. Every historical judgment is a small picture of the great and final judgment. God is gracious to give us these previews, these trailers, so that we might take the final showing with the utmost seriousness. These locusts are terrible, but they are nothing compared to the final wrath of God. Therefore, let us heed the warning. Let us cry out to Yahweh, who in Christ has made a way for us to be delivered from the wrath to come. The only refuge from God is to God.