Exposition on Joel -22- Verse 13

     In v. 13 we hear the prophet directly address the priests he mentioned as a part of the whole back in v. 9. He is expounding his call to corporate lamentation. He calls them to put on sackcloth, or a hair-shirt as we would refer to it in modern terms. The first time in Scripture it is worn for the purpose of pleading for mercy for some offense is in 1 Kings 20. It is recorded a couple times before that as being used in mourning. Here in v. 13 it is used ascetically to promote and maybe even prolong the wearer’s focus on their lamentation. It was used to cause physical pain that would augment mourning that was already there or as an outward sign to incite the true emotional and heart-felt pain that their sin should have provoked. Joel calls the priests the ministers of his God. And like in v. 9 he provokes them to lamentation because they’ve lost their sense of worth and their purpose—the grain and drink offerings had been withheld from the House of ministry, the temple where the priest had mediated the people’s worship and God’s forgiving grace through the ritual sacrifices prescribed in the Covenant God made with Moses. Their shame would come from not being able to make amends they thought. Surely, when the last offering was made and the store of grain and drink for the sacrifices was finally depleted, they feared for themselves and the people all the more because God’s wrath could no longer be appeased through the sacrifices they had been instructed to offer up.