Joel 1:5-9 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.… Prevailing Sins are often visited with corresponding judgments. The Lord in His righteous dealings withholds those gifts of His providence which have been abused. He takes from an ungodly people the means of gratifying their lusts, and leads them to repentance by afflictions which are not capriciously ordered, but with exactest wisdom suited to their character. Thus, to check a thoughtless indifference to religion, He sends forth pestilences which strike down thousands and spread universal dismay. To restrain from habits of self-indulgence and extravagance, He causes a blight to fall upon the earth, bringing on scarceness and want. To put a rein upon the unsatiated pursuit of wealth, He allows a panic on the Stock Exchange. So here the prophet denounces no other woe against the drunkards than the deprivation of the wine they had abused. It is not unlikely that this part of the prophecy has a literal as well as symbolical aspect, that it inveighs against intemperance as well as idolatry. It was sensuality that first led the Israelites into idolatry. Persistence in indulgences so debilitated their minds and blinded their understandings as to cause them to apostatise from Jehovah, and fall down before images of wood and stone. On no class of persons do God's judgments fall more heavily than on those who embrute their souls with the intoxicating delights of idolatrous worship. (C. Robinson, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. |
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