Cut off

“Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?”

If church has become a bit tedious, it is probably a sign that things in your soul life are not quite right…

These people of God in this time have lost all their daily requirements for life. The food and drinks have been suddenly taken away with the onslaught of the hoards of locusts. The cupboards are stripped bare and there is nothing to eat.

Just like the temporal food, they have also lost the joy and gladness in the house of God. When we lose our daily, bread, we can often lose interest in the bread of life also. When times are hard, we can find ourselves losing interest in the things of God and becoming lazy about our spiritual duties, and the things we once loved fade away. For these people, they have allowed the blessings of life to distract them from the Lord and so they are fallen away.

The people truly have lost everything for they have lost their joy in the Lord, which is their strength and their motivation to dwell in the house of the Lord has gone. Their Christian assurance has dried up and they are fallen away. It is almost like they are not the people of God any longer, but have reverted to worldliness and therefore the ensuing woe and unhappiness.

They are miserable because God is against them and has allowed this intense suffering, so now they are turning away from Him and have lost their peace in His presence.

Beloved, let use learn to stick closely with the Lord. Only in him do we have life and peace, joy and gladness, forgiveness and mercy in all our troubles. Let us not be dragged down by the trials we face and lose our joy through carelessness and unbelief.

Destruction

“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

Here we have the first reference to the day of the Lord. This is a huge day of reckoning for the people of God in this time of the Prophet, and is sent that they will face their sins and repent and change their ways. The day of the Lord is in this time, is the visitation of the swarms of locusts that are infiltrating the land and destroying the life of the people and the whole nation. They have brought destruction and death to the land and the people are in mourning along with their priests and leaders.

The day of the Lord is to be feared. This day of the Lord is a precursor and an emblem of days that are to come, namely the complete destruction of Jerusalem in the future when even the temple will be destroyed.

It is also a preview of the Last great day of the Lord, when the whole earth will pass away in fervent heat and all human history will be over. We will all give account for the deeds done in the body and every idle word we have spoken. It will be the last great battle, the battle of Armageddon, when the enemies of the Lord will gather to vent out their fury on the Lord, but to no avail. He will destroy them with a word from His mouth and not a blow will be struck.

In the succeeding verses and chapters, this day will be referred to again and again and is a motif of the future in the book of Joel.

“I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land..”

Joel 3:2

The day of the Lord is surely coming and we must be ready.

The cry goes out in our day… “the day of the Lord is at hand…” we must work while it is still day and bring many into the kingdom.

Sanctify

“Sanctify 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 to the Lord.”

In this verse the prophet gives us the remedy for the trouble in the land. He tells the elders to set apart time and space to hold a fast. It is to be a solemn assembly and there will be tears and regret. To be sorry for our sin we have to feel it, repent and experience the delivering power of God. When we cry to the Lord he hears us.

All the leaders, the elders and the people were in this together. It is important that we become part of a group of God’s people so that they can help us and hold us accountable for what we do and say. We can find ourselves running away and not really facing our misdeeds and failures and therefore not really growing in the Christian life. It is crucial to have discipled inner lives because we easily fall into bad habits and start to take short cuts and become lazy. When we are tired our thought processes can become oppressive to us and drag is down. It is crucial that we rehearse the truths of God and not depend on our feelings.

It is really important to meet with the people of God, to worship with them and be taught and encouraged from the Word of God.

We are close to the Lord in His house and it is good to meet there. Solomon was given the task of building the temple and he did it with such care and love that it was an amazing place to be, where the glory of the Lord was celebrated and the beautiful of the decoration reflected the beauty of the Lord.

As we go to the house of God, let us get ourselves ready to worship and learn and rejoice with the sisters and brothers in Christ. Let us reflect openly the goodness of the Lord and His great love for us. We sanctify ourselves to Him and walk worthy of the Lord.

Withheld

“Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.”

The main burden of the mourning seems to fall on the shoulders of the minsters of the people. The prophet tell them to put on sackcloth, the symbol of deep mourning in death, because the souls of the people are dying. These ministers and priests are to mourn and wail all night in their sackcloth clothes, so that the burden of the people never leaves them.

The people are reduced to live in their sins and the meal and drink offerings are never presented to the work of God. The offerings are actually withheld deliberately. People know what they are doing and are purposefully neglecting the things of God. The work of God languishes undone and no one is challenged about their lifestyle choices. The ministers have ceased from their work of tending the flock of God and now they have all gone astray.

The responsibility seem to be laid at the door of the minsters of the Lord. They are singled out for specific and deeply expressive mourning and they are responsible for letting the people know how deeply God is offended by their recalcitrant behaviour. The priests and ministers model the contrition God requires and the deep humility and pensive repentance that He want to see in his people.

The offerings will never return unless there is repentance again. This is true in our era of history too. How will our country be saved if we do not repent to the Lord our Maker and turn away from our sin? We go on and on and get worse and worse. Sin is our undoing and so the whole land suffers.

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.”

Ezekiel 36:25-29

The Lord is willing to forgive the humble and repentant heart that turns from its sinful ways and seeks the path of holiness. The only way to repent is before the cross of Christ. Only as we see the man dying on the cruel cross for our sin and feel the full weight of our guilt, will we be made willing to bow our knee and come to Him. Only as we humble our sinful heart and mind, do we find full and free forgiveness and the joy of eternal life in our soul.

Minsters of the gospel carry a heavy burden for the people they serve, and therefore we should be paying for them and upholding them before the Lord. They have grave responsibility and need the constant care of their Saviour and the filling of the Holy Spirit to do their task for the Lord with a true heart and a clear mind.

Withered

“The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.”

The withering of the trees of the gardens and wood are a sign and an analogy for the withering of the spiritual life of the people.

The vine symbolises fruitfulness which has disappeared from the land, leaving barrenness. There is no fruit to God, no offerings or tithes in the storehouse. The fig tree is a sign of prosperity and security. Both these blessing have gone and there is no provision for the people and they are spiritually destitute. We look into our lives to see the blessing of God and to know we are walking with Him. It is not about our feelings of our thought patterns, but about the faith that clings to Him and the joy that will see us through to the very end. We look into our souls and the outward life of deeds and seek righteousness. The pomegranate tree was a symbol of righteousness and we must exhibit this grace and gift in our life. We know there is no human righteousness, but if we belong to God we have the righteousness of Christ to cover us and make us truly right before the holy God. The pomegranate tree has withered, and righteousness is not found among the people of God.

Victory has gone. The things of this earthly life have overtaken the people of God and they are succumbing to temptation and experiencing failure. The withered palm tree speak of this truth that the prophet is showing the people. The people have lost their personal knowledge of God and the picture of the apple tree speaks of this.

If fact, all the trees are withered and dry. So also the joy of the people of God has withered, and they can only redeem that joy through repentance and a change in life. We also must not depend on feelings and the provision of life, but on the salvation of the Lord. We put our trust in Him and lay all our burdens at His feet. We do not allow ourselves to let the burdens and stresses of life take away our joy in the Lord, but look for His blessing and peace. This is true of those who do not know the Lord. Their fruitfulness is withered and their life is just dry. Until we seek the Lord, we can never find the rest we crave. Only in Christ is there life and peace with God.

Confounded

“Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.”

Maybe we are tired of the mourning and the wailing! But this is stronger language. The prophet tells the farmers and the vineyard keepers, that they are accursed. They wail because the hand of the Lord is against them and they can’t help themselves or sort out their own problems. When they think on their situation all their plans are thwarted.

They long for the food and nourishment of the wheat and the barley but the harvest has gone and the crops in all the fields have perished.

In our day, there are many Christian believers who long for the strong meat of the Word of God, but cannot find it. The teaching is so shallow and perfunctory that it is hardly worth listening to. There is so much falsehood mixed up with the Scripture that the people are led astray and the land is in spiritual famine.

The preaching of the life saving gospel is almost non-existent and there is an emptiness of true conversion experiences where people are turning to the Lord in the repentance of broken-heartedness. There is no change of heart because it is all about being friendly with God and no real understanding of who He is and what He requires from us. Sin is not talked about and we avoid the feeling of guilt, in case people are “put off.” The cycle of liberal belief is then perpetuated and there is a kind of religion born of easy-to-believe Jesus who will help us no matter what we are like. There is no holiness of life preached and so we are not holy.

The people wail for the Word of the Lord, but it has gone.

Beloved, we must call out to the Lord of the harvest that He will again come down and visit His people with truth and the vigour of faith that leads to the reinstating of the gospel and the light will again arise and the crop of the church will again grow.

Colossians

This is a commentary on the book of Colossians which is available on Amazon. The posts have been written on the daughters of the kingdom site, bound together in a book that you can make use of. I hope you will find it helpful. Many blessings… Shirley Hamilton

Waste

“The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.”

Even the inanimate ground is mourning for the loss of its covering. The fields are now barren because the crops are destroyed and the vineyards have been stripped bare. There is no grain for the bread, no oil or wine to make the heart glad. The prophet it reiterating what he has said before. The analogy is of the forgotten and diminishing church and work of God. There is no food of the Word to nourish the souls of the people and no oil and wine of gladness and praise for the blessing of God.

The people are sinning and not even noticing but living their lives for themselves. Consequently they do not repent or return to the Lord, and therefore there is no comfort either.

If we keep short accounts with the Lord we will not falter but will come to a place of peace and blessing. When trouble and heartache come into our lives we will have the oil and wine of the comfort of God to save ourselves from much grief. Pains do come to us for all kinds of reasons, but those who are faithful will be kept by the Lord and comforted.

“But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

John 14:26-27

Offering

“The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the Lord’s house. The priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.”

The servants of the Lord also are in mourning, because the people are unable to make the usual offerings to the Lord. The Lord has set requirements for the giving of sacrifices and offerings to Him, and for the work of his house. The blessing of the priests and the people are dependant on these offerings, but the catastrophe has stopped the flow of the blessing into the Lord’s house. This has a knock on effect for the servants of the Lord, as they are dependant on the support of the congregation.

God has also set requirements for us about His church and we are to support our local congregation and the work of the Lord in our area. This is the responsibility of the people of God and all are included in this. We are to give sacrificially to God and not to be stinting or keep too much for ourselves. God speaks to us about this and promises blessing if we obey him and give to Him.

The offerings that are not being given are the food and drink offerings, which suggests that the servants of the Lord are not receiving what they require. This is why they are mourning with the people.

The work of God suffers in our day, because the offerings are small and there are less Christians to support the word of God. We should respond to the needs around us and support our local church with all our efforts. It is important that the work of God will continue and the servants of God are provided for. This teaching speaks to me and the need to sort out finances so that we can give generously and with an open heart.

Mourn

“Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!”

The saddest of situations is when the one you loved is gone, or has left you. The Lord requires the same deep heartfelt mourning for sin and the steadfast desire to turn away from it. God likens it to the sadness we feel when our nearest and dearest are gone and we are left alone. The heart wrenching sadness and sorrow of loss is so great and causes us such deep distress. The sense of rejection and isolation can be almost impossible to cope with, except for the strength of the Lord. In our distresses we seek the Lord and find our peace and comfort in Him. We must embrace the Word of God, hold on to it and find help in the things around us that he has given us to do.

This deep sorrow is the same sorrow we should be feeling about our sins and weaknesses. Only when we feel the sorrow will we turn away, for often our hearts are hard and we ignore the warnings of Scripture. We serve a mighty God who is patient with us and willing to forgive us repeatedly, but we seek holiness and therefore the avoidance of sins will be our number one concern. There are times we feel sorry for our sin, but do we actually mourn over it? Do we feel pain that we disappoint the Lord and other people?

We can easily hide from our own hearts and imagine we are good enough. There are always sins to fight and to be put away from us.

“The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

One of God’s attributes is His long-suffering nature and His willingness to forgive. He does not punish us as we deserve but is willing to wait for us to come to repentance and bow our will to His holy will. He does not punish His people, but will allow them to suffer if it will bring them into a good place and help them to live more godly lives. The Lord wants more of us, not less, and knows that closeness to him is the greatest comfort we possess. Let us cling to Him and find Him to be our all in all.

Daughters of the Kingdom

Women who glorify God