Chapter I.
"Verse 9: The spiritual barrenness of the church is revealed, and the situation implies that the final stroke is near: "The meat offering
and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn."
---Since the "meat offering " and "drink offering " are called "a blessing " (Joel 2: 14), their absence at this time shows that God's people are greatly devoid of spiritual power.
Verse 11: The serious condition of the ministry is portrayed: "Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [appropriate term for evangelists whose duty it is to weed out sin and sinful habits by their preaching]; howl, O ye vinedressers [appropriate term for teachers who extract the wine from the word the true doctrine], for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished."
Verse 13: The priests are not only to be ashamed, as called for in verse eleven, but in view of the unprecedented, impending calamity, the "ministers of the altar " are called to pass days and nights in prayer and supplication before God. "Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God."
The "evil servant " (Matt. 24: 48) would not lay aside his delicious programs to do this, and so is appointed a portion with the hypocrites.
Verse 14: As all the land was to be stricken, a fast and a solemn assembly was also enjoined upon "all the inhabitants of the land." "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord."B.G.Wilkinson/1928
"Verse 9: The spiritual barrenness of the church is revealed, and the situation implies that the final stroke is near: "The meat offering
---Since the "meat offering " and "drink offering " are called "a blessing " (Joel 2: 14), their absence at this time shows that God's people are greatly devoid of spiritual power.
Verse 11: The serious condition of the ministry is portrayed: "Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [appropriate term for evangelists whose duty it is to weed out sin and sinful habits by their preaching]; howl, O ye vinedressers [appropriate term for teachers who extract the wine from the word the true doctrine], for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished."
Verse 13: The priests are not only to be ashamed, as called for in verse eleven, but in view of the unprecedented, impending calamity, the "ministers of the altar " are called to pass days and nights in prayer and supplication before God. "Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God."
The "evil servant " (Matt. 24: 48) would not lay aside his delicious programs to do this, and so is appointed a portion with the hypocrites.
Verse 14: As all the land was to be stricken, a fast and a solemn assembly was also enjoined upon "all the inhabitants of the land." "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord."B.G.Wilkinson/1928