Exposition on Joel - 14 - Outline of Verses 5-18

     In Stuart’s outline of this section he labels verses 2-3 a “call to reflection/reaction”. Verse 4 is a “description of tragedy”, verses 5-18 he labels a “call to mourning”, which breaks down into these four sections: verses 5-7—the mourning of drunkards, verses 8-10—a general call to mourning, verses 11-12—a call for the farmers to mourn, verses 13-18—a call for priests to mourn

What’s interesting about verses 5-18 is that Joel calls the drunkard, the farmer, and the priests to mourn, but to mourn the loss of their earthly goods, or the temporal items that brought them satisfaction. The drunkard got great satisfaction from the numbing provided by his wine, the farmers reveled in the production of their crops, and the priests based their identity on offering material sacrifices to the God who is a Spirit. But God removed all of those blessings to punish the nation for its disobedience and even the righteous among them would suffer that loss. Ultimately though, we must say that Joel and all the other prophets for that matter call the people to lament their sin and the sin of the nation. Joel initiates that mourning by calling the various groups to lament the loss of the things they held dear. There is nothing that will cause a person to either cry out to God or cry out against Him like the removal of the idols that have captured his attention. God doesn’t visit His wrath upon them in Person or without mediation; He sends the instrument of a foreign army to crush the people’s disobedience. Likewise, through His lawyer Joel, God calls the people to mourn: first to mourn the loss of their things taken from them by the invading army, but later, He calls them to mourn their sin, for that is why the army was sent in the first place, to curse their covenantal disobedience through the removal their creaturely comforts. The powerful invading army is the means serving God’s end.