Joel 1:9, commentary and pictures

The devastation of the land destroys its grain and wine so that the offerings cannot be supplied and are cut off from the house of the Lord, and the priests as the Lord's ministers mourn because the temple service is stopped. The destroyers are literal crop-eating insects like locusts, cankerworms and palmerworms that waste the vineyard, strip the trees bare, dry up the wine and cause the harvest to perish. Joel 1 describes the time just before Christ's second coming, when armies of devouring insects, drought, famine, withering joy and rampant disease are signs of the nearness of the day of the Lord. The cutting off of the offerings and the mourning of the priests takes place in the time of the seven last plagues of Revelation 16, when God's restraining power is withdrawn and destructive pests, famine and pestilence devastate the earth upon those outside the ark of safety. The prophecy therefore urges God's people to fast and pray to avert calamity, for the Lord provides shelter in which His servants can remain joyful, while the church in its desolation is mocked by watchful unbelievers until humbled and repentant people are delivered.

Words and Historical Setting

The devastation of the land destroys its grain and wine produce so that the grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests are the Lord's ministers who minister and serve there in His house, and they mourn because the temple service is stopped by that general devastation and no offerings can be supplied. The locusts laid the land waste so completely that grain and drink could no longer be furnished for the offerings, and the loss of crops therefore also stops worship offerings.

The locusts came like a strong nation without number, each with teeth like a lion to devour. They wasted the vineyard and stripped the olive and fig trees even to the bark, leaving the branches white and bare, with corn wasted, wine dried up, oil languishing and the harvest perished, so in the general devastation no offerings could be supplied. This is set forth in vivid but not overdrawn figures, joined with drunkards weeping for lost drink and the people lamenting like a bride girded with sackcloth for her dead husband, to show how complete the judgment and its effects were.

The pests are literal insects, like locusts, caterpillars, cankerworms and palmerworms that devastate crops, not figurative armies of men. The priests are the Lord's ministers, a role shared by the ministers mentioned in Joel 2:17. As ministers of the altar they are called to mourn, while the husbandmen and vinedressers are called to howl over the complete desolation carried forward through the rest of chapter 1 affecting crops and causing suffering among people and animals.

Prophecy of the Last Days

Joel 1 describes the time just before Christ's second coming, and its armies of crop-destroying insects and widespread loss of crops are signs of that time. The devastation cuts off grain and drink offerings at the Lord's house and leaves the ministering priests to mourn, and that stopping of worship offerings through loss of crops is set against the nearness of the day of the Lord. The loss of the meat offering and drink offering in the house of the Lord therefore stands among the signs of the coming day of the Lord, because the land's produce is destroyed and the priests mourn over it.

The passage belongs to Joel 1:9-20, which foretells a now-approaching distressing state of drought and famine for man and beast. Its fulfillment is in the commencement of the day of the Lord and before the commencement of the thousand years at the resurrection of the just. That fulfillment comes at the one and same time as the gathering and deliverance of Israel, called God's people and My people, and the pouring out of God's Spirit on all the living saints of every name just prior to the resurrection. It shows a work that takes place before the Lord comes, after the Third Angel's Message, of the same typical order as the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, belonging to probationary time and not to immortal saints.

The cutting off of the meat offering and drink offering and the mourning of the priests takes place in the time of the seven last plagues and the judgment described in Revelation 16. It belongs to a dreadful time when God's restraining power is withdrawn and destructive insects are released, and that devastation accompanies the plagues of Revelation 16 and comes upon those outside the ark of safety. Famine and pestilence are among the calamities by which the earth will be devastated in the final plagues, which supports the warning that God's people should prepare for these coming conditions. Joel's local conditions serve as illustrations of calamities that precede the great day of Jehovah and the closing time of war and trouble, and the prophecy also urges fasting and prayer to avert calamity.

The chapter portrays last-day calamities in which crops are destroyed by disease and pests, joy withers, and disease and death become rampant. The devouring pests that cut off the offerings are literal insects such as locusts, caterpillars, cankerworms, and palmerworms that devastate crops, not figurative armies of men, and their multiplication is a growing threat in the last days. They are becoming increasingly numerous so that it is almost impossible to reap any crop, which is presented as a sign of the times. The general blight now falling on potatoes, apples, and other crops across the earth, making harvests uncertain and baffling scientific search for cause or remedy, are forerunners of the fulfillment of this prophecy at the present time.

Warning and Spiritual Application

Joel's account of cut-off offerings is not left as mere description of coming trouble, but as a call for God's people to fast and pray that calamity may be averted. The same chapter portrays last-day conditions in which crops are destroyed by disease and pests, joy withers, and disease and death become rampant, yet shelter is provided by the Lord for all who will accept it. Even amid such calamities Christ's servants can remain joyful themselves and impart that joy to others.

The withholding of the grain and drink offerings from the house of God belongs to a complete desolation in which the land near the end is pictured as eaten and laid waste. For that desolation the husbandmen and vinedressers are called to howl over ruined crops, while the priests, the ministers of the altar, are called to mourn. The plague that cut off food and offerings made hearts faint and consumed strength by famine, leaving Israel weak. That weakness gave surrounding heathen opportunity to make war against the Jews and bring them into subjection, so that heathen ruling over them became a real danger and furnished the taunting byword over God abandoning His people to such calamity. The same pattern holds in a spiritual sense today when the church is brought into strait places where only the arm of the Lord can deliver and help is delayed, and watchful unbelievers mock its hope and laugh at its apparent calamity, until a humbled and repentant people are delivered to their own joy and to the confusion and dismay of their enemies.