Joel 1:8-13

A call to repentance -- Joel 1:8-13: The nation of Judah would suffer severe anguish. The farmers planted and tended his crops but it was all in vain. The crops were destroyed by the locust and by the army before the harvest. The people would mourn like a virgin for the husband of her youth. The picture is that of a young woman that was put away by her husband. She was then forced to live as a virgin. She would be girded with sackcloth and would be in a state of mourning. The fulfillment of this would be when Judah was sent away from God and made to live in a strange land.

The destruction would be so great in the land that the priest in the Temple would not have enough grain or drink offering to give to God. The land faced total devastation. They needed God help but they could not even offer the sacrifices He required. The harvest was a complete loss. The wheat, barley, figs, vines, apples, pomegranates, and palms were all gone. If the people should wonder what they could do to change their situation the only answer was that they must "Repent." The repentance that God desired is pictured in these words, "Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God." (Joel 1:13) The only thing that they can do was to put on sackcloth and cry out to God in repentance.