Exposition on Joel - 18 - Verse 8

     In the three verse section, 8-10, Joel begins the response demanded by the prophet in the content of the preceding 2 verses. if we take verses 8-10 as a small section and interpret them in light of one another: in v. 8 Joel described what the lamentation should look like; he gave the example of the young widow who was likely childless, and in v. 9 we have been given one of the effects of the army, the instrument of God’s judgment, and we are told that the priests who are directly affected by the loss and thus become the direct object of the prophet’s call to mourning, and at last, in v. 10 we see the destruction of the fields and their very mourning.

In verse 8 in particular Joel tells them to mourn. How? He actually prescribes a quality to the lamentation he’s calling them to. Like a virgin who has lost her husband or likely her betrothed. This was a call to extraordinary mourning, mourning even in a hair-shirt. Certainly, any wife would mourn her husband’s death but the young woman scheduled to be married or recently married, the one who has not been made to bear children, that woman would lament the death of her husband to an obviously greater degree than the woman married for years who has offspring to give her societal worth. This is an obvious generalization. I’m certain Joel knew that some time in history an old woman mourning the death of her husband of 50 years may have out mourned a young maiden, but the point is that Joel is calling the people to grieve the loss of their material possessions with great intensity. Even so, they are ultimately called to lament the sin and lack of repentance which will result in this wrathful event; to don sackcloth like this virgin who has lost her husband of her youth. God uses means such as the removal of temporal comforts, pleasures and conveniences to cause people to repent, and He used His prophets as a means to point those judgments out and call the people to repent because of them. So it often sounds as though Joel and other prophets are calling the people to repent just because of the temporal judgments, but in fact, they are ultimately calling the people to repent because of their sin. Their sin has invited God’s wrath and that wrath comes in two ways: primarily as the destruction and removal of covenantal blessings because of the nation’s disobedience, and secondarily as destruction and removal of the resources the people used to sin. You could call this the ironic curse. It is as though God has equipped Joel with an environment of or the threat of loss and suffering so he can then effectively preach God’s mercy for those who turn to Him because God’s chastening. I can think of two examples that might illustrate this: the good news of Christ’s righteous life, His death, and His resurrection haven’t nearly the impact on the mind and heart of an individual as when they are first brought to recognize the sorry state of their affairs through the application of the Law and the despair that is wrought on the soul by trying to keep it. The environment of suffering which was produced by God’s temporal judge, His army, would make the prospect of His mercy all the more sweet, and thus drive some to repentance. It is also much like those of us who spank our children. We do not call them to repent just so they can avoid the pain of being spanked, which would just be manipulation. Certainly, we can point to that pain like Joel points out the loss of temporal goods, but ultimately, we actually call them to repent of the sin that has lead to the judgment represented in the pain of the spanking. So too, Joel ultimately calls the people to repent of their sin that lead to the judgment represented in the pain of invasion, destruction and exile.