Thursday, July 30, 2015

Joel speaks to the Drunkards: "Wake up and Weep! (Joel 1:5-7)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2015 9:04 PM

My Worship Time                                             Focus:  To the Drunkards:  “Wake up and weep!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Joel 1:5-7

            Message of the verses:  “5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness. 7 It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.”

            Joel does not mention too many sins that the people are committing, but he does mention drunkenness and also in 2:12-13 he will mention the insincerity of some of the worshipers.  We noticed that Hosea also mentioned drunkenness in 7:5 and we will also see Amos mention it in his book from 4:1, so drunkenness must have been a big problem in Judah during this time period, but then it has been a big problem in our country for many years and I suppose that it is a big problem in many countries and in many time periods so what Joel is exposing still goes on.  It is possible that Joel exposing of drunkenness could have carried over to people who had other sinful pleasures for drunkenness can cause other sinful things to happen.

            Now after what we saw happen in verses 2-4 I suppose that these people had a good reason to weep because there was no wine to be had and there would not be any for a while after what the locusts did to the vineyards.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Keep in mind that bread and wine were staples in the Jewish diet, so that even the people who didn’t get drunk were affected by the loss.”  The water was not always good to drink by itself so the people would mix wine with it, but it would not be a strong drink at all.

            As we look at verse six we see the personal pronoun “my” as Joel speaks of the invading army which is mighty coming into his land.  I believe that even though the my is not capitalized here that Joel is speaking for the Lord for all the land is the Lord but He takes special concern for the land of Israel.  The locusts that are mentioned in verses 2-4 represent the invading army too as they will come in and do damage to Judah.

7/30/2015 9:21 PM

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