Maybe your church has sung a song about joy in the house of the Lord. There’s no joy in the house of the Lord in Joel 1. The sacrifice has been cut off because there is no grain or wine to offer. The crops had failed.

God never did want their sacrifices. He wanted their obedience, their trust demonstrated in obedience.

Everything is being taken away from them. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

It’s both.

Yes, it’s a terrible thing. It’s a terrible thing when our world seems to fall apart around us. But if we are God’s children, if we’ve put our lives into His hands, then we can know there is a purposeful good to all the painful problems.

Sin steals, kills, and destroys. Sin is the culprit behind all evil, behind all that is not good in the world.

But God is big enough, wise enough, and powerful enough to orchestrate good out of any pain.

Here the people cry out to the Lord. They call on their God. That’s what they needed to do. They need to look to God for their salvation.

If joy and gladness have been cut off from you, then you have separated yourself from God. In His presence is fullness of joy. If you don’t have that joy, you are missing His presence. Confess, repent, look to Him. Get your eyes off of self and self’s problems and get your eyes on Jesus, onto what is good and lovely and perfect, only God Himself.

There should be rejoicing in the house of the Lord. You should be glad, even in the problems and persecution. We’re told to be exceedingly glad when they persecute us. We shouldn’t be mumbling about men. They aren’t the enemy. And if we can rejoice and feast in the face of our true enemy, he will know he’s been defeated.