SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/31/2015
8:58 PM
My Worship Time Focus: To
Farmers: “Despair and Wail!”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Joel 1:8-12
Message of the
verses: “8 Wail like a virgin girded
with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth. 9 The grain offering and the
drink offering are cut off From the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, The
ministers of the LORD. 10 The field is ruined, The land mourns; For the grain
is ruined, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil fails. 11 Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, For the
wheat and the barley; Because
the harvest of the field is destroyed. 12 The vine dries up And the fig tree fails; The
pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry
up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up From the sons of men.”
I have been studying the different prophets in the Old
Testament beginning with Isaiah since July 2, 2013 and there are certain things
in them that go along in similar ways, and I think that one of the reasons is
that many of the parts of the prophets are written in Hebrew pottery which is
what we have in today’s verses. When I
began to study the book of Psalms I remember that Dr. Wiersbe wrote about some
of the different forms of Hebrew pottery.
I will look for that quote and hopefully be able to find it and put it
here in this SD.
Now we will look at what Dr. Wiersbe writes about Hebrew
poetry and I will try to give an example of each from the Psalms.
“Hebrew poetry is based on ‘thought lines’ and not
rhymes. If the second line repeats the
first line in different words, as in Psalm 24:1-3 (“The earth is the LORD’S,
and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For He has founded
it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.3 Who may ascend into the
hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?”) If the second line contrasts with the first,
as in Psalm 1:6 (“For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of
the wicked will perish.”) and also Psalm 37:9, it is antithetic parallelism.
Psalm 19:7-9 (“7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The
testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple 8 The
precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the
LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are
true; they are righteous altogether.”) But when the second line completes the
first, it is climatic parallelism
(Psalm 29:1 “Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the LORD
glory and strength.”). With iterative parallelism, the second line repeats the thought
of the first as seen in Psalm 93, and in alternate parallelism, the
lines carry the same thought as in (Psalm 103:8-13 “8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow
to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to
our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who
fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our
transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So
the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”). You don’t bring these technical terms into
the pulpit, but knowing what they mean can give you great help when you
study. To interpret Psalm 103:3 “3 Who
pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;” as God’s promise to
heal every sickness is to ignore the synonymous parallelism of the verse: the forgiveness of sins is like the healing
of disease (see Psalm 41:4). “4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to
me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.’”
I hope that this will help us better understand the
prophets and the way that they write their books. Now all of the prophetic writings are in
Hebrew Pottery for even when looking at some of the different prophets some may
be in Hebrew pottery and then they may stop and write in the regular way. However there are other things that I have
found to be similar and that is that many times, like in the case of Joel there
will be a lot of “bad news” so to speak and then later on there will be a
blessing that will take place. We are in
what I like to call the “bad news” part of this prophet’s writings.
Joel names different crops that were affected by the locusts
and were ruined which would cause the farmers and vinedressers to weep and
wail. He even mentions the apple tree
and the pomegranate, then the wheat and barley are also mentioned. Some of these are used in the worship of the
Lord at the temple and I suppose that when you consider that the people were to
bring their first fruits to the Lord then all of them can be considered a part
of the worship of the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “From season to season, the locusts
ate whatever was produced, and the drought kept the soil from producing anything
more. In verses 18-20, Joel includes the
flocks and herds and their pastures. All
that the farmers could do was express their grief and lament like an engaged
girl whose fiancé had died. It seemed a
hopeless situation.”
7/31/2015 9:20 PM
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