Lament Before Judgment (Joel 1:13-20) - Sermon
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WELCOME
It is great to be with you today! This is our second week in the Book of Joel. Joel is a prophet living in the post-exilic period, from 500 to 400 BC. The writing takes place 6,000 miles away in the land of Israel. Here is a picture.
The “Land” Joel describes doesn’t seem to have a king, but they have farmers, brides, grooms, ministers, priests, and elders. They have a house of the Lord: a temple. The book of Ezra documents the rebuilding of this temple in Jerusalem. Joel speaks on behalf of his God. Joel means, “Yahweh is God.” He is the son of Pethuel. Which means “Vision of God.” Unlike us who preach the Bible, Joel wrote, spoke, and proclaimed words that became the Bible. Joel is a document of Yahweh speaking to a people 2500 years ago and to us.
SCRIPTURE
Let’s take a look at what we wrote. Turn to Joel 1, verses 13 to the end of the chapter. R. and M. Hunt, please come up here to read the text. We are reading Joel 1, verses 13 through 20. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word if you are able.
TEXT
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods;
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer.
To you, O LORD, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness. (Joel 1:13–20, ESV)
PRAYER
Thanks. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, help us understand what it means to lament and repent before judgment. We need you. Guide and direct us. In Jesus’s name, we pray, amen. You may be seated.
STRUCTURE & MAIN IDEA
The passage has four parts.
13–14 7 Steps to Lament
15 1 Reason: Impending Judgment
16–18 7 Problems of the Present
19–20 A Lament in Practice
The main idea of the book of Joel is to Return! For the day of the Lord will bring judgment and restoration. In our passage, these eight verses accent a return. Another word for this return is repenting. Repentance involves lament. The Bible says that godly sorrow leads to repentance. Worldly sorrow does not. People can shed tears for being caught in the act of sin. But that doesn’t mean they feel bad for their actions and the hurt they caused. Godly repentance involves a change of heart. It means a turning from sin toward the Savior. Our passage calls people to:
Lament before Judgment
Let me say that again: Lament before Judgment.
VERSE 13
How? How do we lament? It depends on the circumstance. A funeral lament differs from a lament for being sentenced to a crime, unlike a lament for a community loss. Joel shares how his audience should lament in 7 Steps in the event of God’s coming judgment. Jump to verse 13 if you have a Bible—seven steps of lament.
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD. (Joel 1:13–14, ESV)
We see here lament deals with:
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
And Praying
CLOTHING
God wanted his people to put on sackcloth. Can I have a volunteer come up front here? Thanks. What is this? This is burlap, or we can call it sackcloth. Touch it. Is it smooth or silky? No. It itches. Imagine wearing this on your skin. What if this was the material for pajamas? That would be uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Thank you. You can have a seat.
In law enforcement, there is a uniform,
In the medical field, there are scrubs,
In parochial school, there is an outfit,
In business, your employer may expect you to wear business casual.
When we go to funerals, we typically pick black or darker colors.
In the land 2,500 years ago, the expectation was to wear sackcloth at times of grief.
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
Praying
WEEPING
God also wanted his people to weep. I picture the ugly cry. Last week, Joel compared the lament to a bride going to her wedding only to discover that her fiancé passed away. The picture of a wedding celebration turned into a funeral dirge. That emotional response was the type of sorrow God expected in light of the coming Day of the LORD. I believe this weeping could be pretty natural for those closest to the problem. But what if you were a “lucky” one? What if you had a good day and didn’t feel sad? Was God asking people to fake it until they made it? No. Why then make a command that would come naturally?
Perhaps the people needed permission to go to those dark places and express their emotions.
Possibly, they needed this encouragement because they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves.
Maybe they were tempted to appear stronger than they were.
We don’t know exactly, but we do know that he did. It is okay to cry. Ecclesiastes says there is a time to cry and a time to laugh. This was a time to sob until one’s tears ran out.
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
Praying
INVESTING
Lamenting also involves investing. The priests were to get into the house of God and invest their time. It was not a quick sniffle. Presumably, they were to spend the night in an itchy sackcloth. I hate itchy clothes. If I have a tag that bothers me, I rip it off. Why would a person spend time in discomfort? Well, what we put our time and energy toward reflects our hearts. Where we invest our resources reflects our priorities and values. God wants all of our being. The people needed this reminder of sackcloth so that they didn’t just check it off the list or ignore him. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He values us going to him and investing time with him privately. What kind of time do you give God? With 2025 here, consider your time with God.
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
Praying
FASTING
The next part of the lament was not to eat: to fast from eating food. Now, with a drought and locusts, I wonder what they would eat. But if they had imported food or stores of food like Joseph instructed Pharoah to have, the Israelites may have something they could do to fulfill this command. Even if they were starving, there is a difference between skipping a meal and fasting. Fasting for the Lord is a spiritual exercise where we turn our attention and hunger pangs to our spiritual nourishment and hunger for God. We can feast on his Word. I found this call for a societal fast interesting in light of our reading in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus encouraged his followers to fast in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet, here, everyone does it together. Do these contradict? No, in Jesus’s day, people fasted in a way that got recognition and attention from others. In Joel’s day, the fast was to pay attention and give attention to God. There is a place for the community to grieve together.
CIVIL WAR
On April 12, 1861, our country entered into the Civil War. The fighting lasted four years. Brothers, friends, classmates, co-workers, and neighbors killed each other. Six hundred and twenty thousand people died. That equated to 2% of the population. Now, 2% doesn’t seem like that much. But 2% of our population today would be like losing 6.6 million, or the population of Indiana. The war wreaked havoc on land and people.
And on March 30th, 1863, amid the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln wrote:
I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
So, the 16th president of the United States proclaimed a nationwide fast. This proclamation allowed space for hunger to remind people of their need for God’s help. It promoted a cry for more of God and his mercy. God wanted his people to seek him.
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
Praying
INVITATION
I went to the Post office on Thursday, and it was closed. Why? It was a national observance for the death of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter. The flags across the country have been at half-staff. We offer our prayers to God for comfort, grace, and help for the grieving family. In the same way, 2500 years ago, as the country of Israel suffered, God called them to gather together, and they did. They were to seek the LORD together in a solemn assembly. The leaders were inviting and gathering people. And the people needed to obey.
CHURCH
There have been times at our church when we called people to gather and pray, and people did. For example, a few of us gathered before the election to pray this year and in 2019. A decade ago, our church was hemorrhaging with division and contention. We called people together to pray. And people did. It is good to seek the LORD together. For Joel’s people, it meant those who were the religious leaders, the farmers, the consumers, the young, the old, servants and masters, women and men. This corporate lament in Joel involved clothing, weeping, investing, fasting, inviting, and gathering.
OUR GATHERING
When we gather, we get a sense of the value of being in person. Being together is not always easy. God brings diverse, broken people together. However, there is beauty when his differing children take the invitation to gather seriously. We can better reflect God in his love.
Clothing
Weeping
Investing
Fasting
Inviting
Gathering
Praying
PRAYER
Finally, in these verses, lamenting involves praying. This wasn’t a business meeting or a problem-solving session. They gathered to call out to God. It was a time of prayer.
LILIAN TRASHER
I have been reading missionary biographies to my kids. A few weeks ago, we finished the story of Lillian Trasher (1887–1961). (It's a hard last name, I know. Her mom loved her dad.)
https://www.inspirationalchristians.org/evangelists/lillian-trasher-biography/
She ran an orphanage in Egypt for fifty years, caring for thousands of children. She never asked for money. Yet, God supplied her needs. (Not necessarily her wants.) She prayed, wrote, and told people about the orphanage, and God provided again and again with food, clothing, staffing, safety, and health. But God’s provision was not always what she expected. One day, she was in dire straits, with hundreds of orphan mouths to feed and no money. She lost hope and decided she was going to send everyone away. She assembled the children to announce the bad news. As she was letting them know of the closing of the orphanage, the children began to weep. Then, one little boy fell on his knees and cried to God. He confessed his sin and asked God to help. Then another and another and another. They all were crying out to God on their knees. Rebuked by the faith and devotion of the children, Lillian fell to her knees and joined. Then, a peace that passed understanding swept over her. She believed God would provide as he had before. She got up and asked one of those helping in the kitchen what food was left. There were a couple of loaves of bread and ten pounds of rice. She had them break the bread into little crumbs and cook the rice with more water than usual to thin the food out. She would feed every mouth. They ate the meager supper and went to bed. She awoke, and her faith faltered. She sent a boy to get the mail. The kids waited for his return at the gate. There was no breakfast, food, resources, or money. Was she just vainly hoping? What would she do if no money came in? Who would care for these orphans? Why didn’t God do something? Why do they live on the edge? Why? Eventually, the boy returned with the mail. And in the letters was one from America. And inside the letter was enough money for several days worth of food. God knew. God cared about the orphaned children. He worked. She noticed that the address was wrong. Somebody addressed it to her but to an entirely different country: India, not Africa. She reflected that God knew her needs, and he could overcome people’s problems, routing the mail to the correct continent thousands of miles away at the exact moment necessary. This was one example of many where she cried out for help, and God expressed his love for her and the children in a tangible way. This desperate praying is the crying out I imagine God wanted his people to do in their lament. That brings us to verse 15. Things will not get better.
One Reason to Lament: Judgment
God wanted them to reflect on the coming judgment. Whatever they were experiencing, what was coming would be worse. Look at verse 15.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. (Joel 1:15, ESV)
Joel described the Day of the Lord as a demo day. Jump to Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.
Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations. (Joel 2:1–2, ESV)
A Foretaste of A Future Judgment in the Present
How bad could this day be? Joel looks at the seven problems of the present to give some perspective. Look at verse 16.
Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods;
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer. (Joel 1:16–18, ESV)
Israel faced seven problems of the present. The decimation of:
Food,
Joy and Gladness,
Seed and Grain,
Granaries and Storehouses,
Their Water Supply,
Pasture Land,
And Livestock
If these were difficult days, God was saying that the Day of the LORD would be worse. Can you see it in your mind’s eye? The Day of the Lord sounds like the Great Depression or the California wildfires that have been in the news this week.
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RAPTURE
Now, last week, a brother asked me about the Rapture. Some Christians interpret a period predicted in the Bible called the Tribulation and things like this suffering as something believers won’t experience. Some believe they will get raptured and not face these trials. Is that what this passage is teaching? Not here. Regardless of the eschatological perspective, we will all face trials. And we should be careful not to be too heartless or mistake God’s speaking to us because we believe he is talking to others. Amos 5 is a judgment on the Northern Tribes because they thought the Day of the Lord would be a judgment on their enemies, not themselves. God says to his chosen people:
AMOS
Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
Why would you have the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and not light,
as if a man fled from a lion,
and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18–20, ESV)
Joel was righteous, and God wanted him to lead his people in lament. It is good, wise, and right for us to pause at times to lament. The Day of the Lord is not all peachy keen. Why do I say that? Because God’s Word says it. God revealed much about himself, ourselves, the world, and the life to come supernaturally. Just surveying Joel about the Day of the Lord, we read these fourteen things about it. (You might see others. You don’t need to write all these down. I like lists. And a copy of the sermon will be in our weekly emails.)
It is a day in the future when God comes near.
It will be worse than their current plight.
It will be a time of darkness.
It will be a time of gloom.
A nation will destroy God’s nation.
No one will be able to endure it.
At the same time, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
God will restore the fortunes of his people.
They will know him.
It will be when the mountains drip wine, honey, and milk, and the house of the Lord will flow water.
A time when God will punish his children’s enemies for their violence against them.
A time when the city of God will be Holy.
Then Israel, God’s children, will live in the land forever.
And it will be when the Lord will be there in the land, too.
This day seems more like a season or series of events in twenty-four hours. Some portions sound delightful, and others terrifying. Why should we take seriously this Day of the Lord? Let me give you four reasons.
First, God tells us this matters. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. When he says we are to do something, we should do it. He wanted Joel’s audience to lament before judgment. Why? Because the Day of the Lord matters.
Second, judgment is coming to everyone. That is a fact. And that fact means that some people are not right with God. God wants people to repent, turning from selfishness and pride to humility and God. God takes Jesus’s sacrificial death on our behalf if we have repented and believed. He sees us through the lens of Jesus. The same love God has for Jesus, he loves us. But if we have not, we stand condemned. Look at John chapters 3 and 15 if you don’t believe me. Where are you with God? God knows you better than yourself. And the embarrassment and shame are worse than you think, but the power of God’s love and grace is more potent than you think. He can overcome all our sins. No sin is so big that God can’t forgive. Second Corinthians 5:10 states: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (ESV). I had a Christian sister who feared such a day when she read this verse. She trusted Christ as her Lord and Savior but thought she would escape such a judgment. In her mind, that meant judgment was a suffering or an embarrassment. I don’t know what it will be like to be before God. But the Bible says Isaiah fell to the ground in a vision because of God’s presence. God is holy. We are not. In Isaiah’s vision, God picked him up. The Bible says we can stand because of what Jesus has accomplished. He is the highest expression of God’s affection for us. The LORD’s love is so vast that we can’t comprehend it. If you think you know God’s love, you have only started. We also know that there will be no sadness, sin, or condemnation for God’s children in Heaven. So, if that is you, brother and sisters, fearing the Day of the Lord, embrace the promises of the future in the Scripture.
Thirdly, Why does this matter? Why should we look to the coming of the Day of the Lord? Judgment means our actions matter. The judgment of God is a reminder that holiness, godliness, and right living are essential. The LORD wants our hearts. But if God has forgiven our sins, why does this matter? Do we want to heap on Jesus more of the pain of bearing our sins? Do we think lightly of our sins that we move into 2025 like our attitude, words, thoughts, and actions are no big deal? Jesus died for us. Will we not live for him?
Finally, look to the Day of the Lord as eternal spiritual danger. It would be nice if this were not the case. But the Scripture teaches that there is a spiritual realm and eternity is at stake. Some enter a heavenly existence, and others a hellish one. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t discount part of the Bible without throwing away the rest of it. Don’t allow the sentimental cultural winds and niceties to shape Scripture. Let Scripture speak plainly for itself. The Day of the Lord means there is Hell to pay for those who don’t and won’t repent. Where are you with God? Looking back at 2024, what was your relationship with God like? 2025 is here. Let’s turn over new leaves. Let us seek the Lord. Turn from sin and be saved. Turn from sin and follow the Savior. If you are doing well spiritually, that is excellent. Then there are people around you who aren’t. People in your circle of relationships need to know Jesus came, lived, and died for the salvation of all who will believe. They need to know Jesus. What would it look like to help those in your circle move toward Jesus this year? The MyCircle workshop encouraged us to pray daily about this. I think God will create opportunities for us to be salt and light. He will open our eyes to the opportunities around us. Maybe you have someone over for dinner, host a neighborhood Super Bowl Party, see how you can pray for a friend, or invite a family that doesn’t have a church to our kid’s bounce house event in February. Let us intercede for those we love who are lost. We should pray for those who are living in rebellion. We should weep. Do we weep over our loved ones?
We are getting ahead of ourselves. In the immediate context of Joel 1, God wants his readers to lament. They are to grieve the tragedy they were experiencing because it was partly a result of the community’s sin. They had left God. So, God wants them to lament. Joel did.
19–20 The Lament
To you, O LORD, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness. (Joel 1:13–20, ESV)
Joel called to the LORD. He prayed. He cried out to God. God wants people to lament before judgment. What does it look like for you to call out to God in 2025? Joel models lamenting. Joel acknowledged his circumstances. His prayer didn’t inform God. Joel was being honest with and engaging God. In other passages, lament comes with confession. Joel sought the Lord. And he called out to God. Praying is not just asking for things. God wants a relationship. He already knows our circumstances. But there is a sense where he wants to know, that we know, what is going on. He wants us to talk to him at all times. This begs the question. What does it look like for us to talk to call out to the LORD in 2025? What does prayer look like for you during the week? Let me encourage you to call out to God. Talk to God. Set a goal in 2025 to call out to him.
PRAYER
Let’s pray.
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