Exposition on Joel - 16- Verse 6

     V. 6a, “⁶For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number” introduces the army, noting its strength and size. The bitter irony here is that, in Gen. 12:2, 15:5, and 17:2-6, God had promised Abraham that He would make from His Seed a powerful nation, great in number. But here in v. 6a we see that God nurtured another nation, powerful and numerous so to exact His justice on the nation He called His own. Verses 6b and 7 provide us with a more direct description of this terrible foe. Verse 6 answers the “why” question that we might ask at the end of verse 5. In other words, “Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.”, why is the wine cut off? Verse 6 tells us that the invading nation is strong and innumerable, and its teeth are like lion’s teeth. Now we see the destruction that was first blamed on the swarm of locusts is now being attributed to an army of men from a foreign nation. Joel draws on a second animal description. The people would have feared lions, being aware of the destruction they were capable of inflicting with their teeth. So Joel paints a picture in their minds of Judah’s people being torn apart by the jaws of a lion. Helpless as a lamb, they fall victim to the fierce army whose weapons cut through the nation like a lion’s teeth cut through flesh. Consequently, verses 7-13 could appear to be a set of some sort because Joel described the effects that the enemy had on the people and the Land, and called for them to lament those effects, and he does this in a “back and forth” manner—describing the situation then calling for lamentation, then describing another situation and calling another group to lament.