Joel 1:11-12 Be you ashamed, O you farmers; howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley… A brittle thing is our earthly happiness — brittle as some thin vase of Venetian glass; and yet neither anxiety, nor sorrow, nor the dart of death, which is mightier than the oak-cleaving thunderbolt, can shatter a thing even so brittle as the earthly happiness of our poor little homes if we place that happiness under the care of God. But though neither anguish nor death can break it with all their violence, sin can break it at a touch; and selfishness can shatter it, just as there are acids which will shiver the Venetian glass. Sin and selfishness — God's balm does not heal in this world the ravages which they cause! (Dean Farrar.) Parallel Verses KJV: Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. |
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