Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
In view of the great and terrible day of the Lord, the promised response is set within a solemn and impressive call for His people to arouse from spiritual lethargy and seek His face with repentance and humiliation. The call is to blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm because the day is nigh at hand, to tremble, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn assembly, and to gather the people, the congregation, the elders, the children, and the bridegroom out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. The priests, the ministers of the Lord, are to weep between the porch and the altar, and all are to turn to Him with all the heart with fasting and weeping and mourning, rending the heart and not the garments, because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.
When the people so turn to God and plead for His mercy, and when His ministers weep between the porch and the altar pleading for Him to spare His people and not give them to reproach and to heathen rule, then He is jealous for His land and pities His people. To be jealous for His land is to defend it, to take up its cause, and to show zealous care for it, and to pity His people is to show them compassion and mercy. He answers them by providing for them to satisfaction and ending their reproach among the nations and restoring their well-being. The provision is grain, or corn, and wine and oil to satisfy them, with the promise never again to make them a reproach among the nations.
The threat of reproach and heathen dominance is present now, and this divine compassion and provision follows that intercession. His work for His people in this verse is joined to their willingness to work with Him in His way.
In view of the great and terrible day of the Lord, the promised response is set within a solemn and impressive call for His people to arouse from spiritual lethargy and seek His face with repentance and humiliation. The call is to blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm because the day is nigh at hand, to tremble, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn assembly, and to gather the people, the congregation, the elders, the children, and the bridegroom out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. The priests, the ministers of the Lord, are to weep between the porch and the altar, and all are to turn to Him with all the heart with fasting and weeping and mourning, rending the heart and not the garments, because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.
When the people so turn to God and plead for His mercy, and when His ministers weep between the porch and the altar pleading for Him to spare His people and not give them to reproach and to heathen rule, then He is jealous for His land and pities His people. To be jealous for His land is to defend it, to take up its cause, and to show zealous care for it, and to pity His people is to show them compassion and mercy. He answers them by providing for them to satisfaction and ending their reproach among the nations and restoring their well-being. The provision is grain, or corn, and wine and oil to satisfy them, with the promise never again to make them a reproach among the nations.
The threat of reproach and heathen dominance is present now, and this divine compassion and provision follows that intercession. His work for His people in this verse is joined to their willingness to work with Him in His way.