THE ATTACKS OF LOCUSTS AS A PREPARATION FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD The prophet describes the four attacks of locusts that happened in his days, not only as natural calamities, but as being a part of God’s plan for our salvation, through allowing for chastisement for the sake of our return to him with repentance. 1- The attacks of locusts 1 – 4 2- The results of the attacks 5 – 12 3- A call for repentance 13 – 14 4- A need for an Intercessor 15 – 20 1. THE ATTACKS OF LOCUSTS: The prophet starts his book by saying: “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel” (1). If the word “Pethuel” in Hebrew means (God opens); he gave birth to “Joel”, a word which means (Jehovah is God). It is as though, by opening our inner insight, God proclaims Himself to us, that He is “Jehovah”; namely, (The Being); beside whom all would become as though (not being) or (naught). In His first encounter with Moses, the first leader of the people, God said to him: “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’. This is My name forever, and this is My title for all generations” (Exodus 3: 15). In a commentary by ‘Phelon of Alexandria’, the Jewish scholar on this divine name, he says: [First tell them that “I am the Being”, to draw their attention to the difference between Him who is “Being”, and him who is not1]. Let us then have inside us, ‘Pethuel’; Namely, let us have God open our insight, to conceive His secrets; Let us go to Him, and be with Him, the “Everlasting Being”; Let us not give Him our back, lest we return to nothingness, according to the words of St. Augustine: [Whoever takes the direction, opponent to God, would be heading to nothingness2]. After this very concise introduction, he talks to them about the attacks of the locust, saying: “Hear this you elders; and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten” (Joel 1: 2-4) If the prophet seeks from the elders to hear the word of the Lord; He, as well, seeks from all the inhabitants of the land to give ear; God wishes to talk to all mankind with no exception!! He seeks to encounter with every man, to proclaim the dealings of His love for him. 1 Phila: vita mos. 1: 14: 75/ 2 On Ps. 39. 12 The prophet seeks from them, as well, to tell their children about it; namely, about the voice and the dealings of the Lord; in order to give their life experience to the next generation; and every generation to give it to the next one. This is how ‘tradition’ is delivered, which, in its essence, concerns ‘the dealings of God with mankind’. That is why the apostle Paul says: “The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me, these do” (Philippians 4: 9). And St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa says: [This ‘tradition’ or ‘delivery’, which we successively received as a heritage from our ancestors, through the saints, since the time of the apostles, is enough to prove the worthiness of our worship1] … Every generation is committed to deliver the gospel of the Lord to the following generation, as a secret of a practical life through the sound dogma, the living worship, and the spiritual behavior. As far as the attacks of the locusts mentioned here are concerned; While the majority of scholars believe that they were actual phenomena, witnessed by the prophet. Other scholars assume that they are only visionary prophecies of what to happen later on, especially in later times. The ‘chewing locust’ is the stage of life history, that emerges from the egg, unable to move. The ‘swarming locust’ is the stage, when they start to move around. The ‘crawling locust’, is the stage, when two little wings develop on them. And the ‘consuming locust’, is the stage, as they set forth to fly. Several of the Jewish scholars, even in the days of St. Jerome, believe that those four attacks by the locusts, might symbolically refer to four military attacks, that would be carried out by Sennacherib, king of Assyria against Judah (Isaiah 36); Or might refer to four nations that would prevail against Israel and Judah: Namely, either refer to Assyria, Babylon, Mady, and Persia; … Or to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Greece … Anyway, the early church accepted this symbolic reference, without denying their actual occurrences. In those four attacks by the chewing, the swarming, the crawling, and the consuming stages of locusts, the following should be noticed: (1) As we know, the figure 4, may refer to the world, with its four directions (the East, the West, the North, and the South); As well as to the body, taken from the earth; namely from the world. It is as though, those attacks represent the war of the love of this world against the believer; and the attacks of the body lusts against his Spirit. … When man falls under sin, God allows for him to be chastised through his own sin;…. God allows for the believer who deviates toward the love of the world, and the lusts of the body, to be forsaken for sometime, to attacks by both of them; to let him realize that sin bears its corruption and bitterness in itself; and allows for him to be chastised by the same fault he has committed. This is what God continuously confirm to us: that the chastisements that dwell on us are a natural fruit of something we have committed; saying: “Have you not brought this on yourself?” (Jeremiah 2: 17); and, “Your ways and your doings have procured these things for you, This is your wickedness, Because it is bitter, Because it reaches to your heart” (Jeremiah 4: 18). 1 Contra Eunom. 4. PG 45: 953. 13 When man forsakes God, the Truth, and connects to the vain love of the world, and the temporary lusts of the body, he would expect to become, himself, vain, and would lose every true thing. Because Judah loved the world, and not God; … the lusts of the body, and not the Spirit; He became earth and not heaven, and a body without Spirit. Out of God’s love for us, … As we consent through our own will, to become earth and not heaven; He allows for a variety of violent temporal earthly calamities, like volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, storms, pestilences, drought, locust attacks, and such material losses; In order to shake our earth; … That we may forsake it, and hasten to God, who alone can renew our earth and turn it into a heaven for Himself!! In case our earth, namely, our body, has given itself up to bodily lusts; God allows for the locust attacks, as natural fruit of our sins, to consume what we assume to be joyful fruit; … Then we would escape to God, who alone can sanctify us, and rid us of our evil works; … Not to destroy us, but to destroy the evil that has dwelt in us and occupied the center of our heart; … to drive it away, in order to reign in us instead, … and to grant us by His Holy Spirit, new fruit, that befits the new man. Hence we should not marvel that the book starts by those locust attacks, to proclaim the invasion of our hearts by the Holy Spirit (2: 28-32); Through which we lose the fruit of the old man, and his dead works; to enjoy the fruit of the new man, on an exalted divine level!! Allow, O Lord, for Your chastisements on me, however bitter they might be; As when, through them, I feel the bitterness of my sins, my soul would then long for the work of Your Holy Spirit, the Grantor of life, that dwells in me.!! God clarifies to His wise servant Solomon, His intentions through allowing for the locusts attacks, by saying: “When I command the Locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among the people,… If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,… Then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal the land” (2 Chronicles 7: 13, 14). He allows for the locusts, not to destroy us, but to destroy our wickedness; to let us seek His face, and to respond to His Holy Spirit dwelling in us; in order to have our sins forgiven. Yet, unfortunately, we sometimes act against our own interests; as the children of Israel often did; and rebuked by God, saying to them: “’The locusts have often devoured your gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees; Yet you have not returned to Me’, says the Lord” (Amos 4: 9). (2) God begins His chastisement for man by allowing for the attacks of the tiny chewing locusts. If we do not return to him, He would allow for that of the swarming locusts; If we do not repent, it would be the turn of the crawling, then of the consuming locusts; And in case we still do not respond to all these chastisements, He would allow for the military human attacks against us. … Then the day of the Lord would finally come, with its complete darkness. … He chastens us step by step; that if we submit to Him, He would have compassion on us. (3) These successive stages of locust attacks, probably refer to the war of sin against us, and its invasion of our hearts. It starts with the tiny (chewing) stage, that crawl secretly into our heart, thoughts, and senses, like the “little foxes that spoil the vines” (Songs 2: 15), for which man may not pay much attention, until they reign on the heart and corrupt it. After the tiny (chewing) stage of sins have played their hidden role, the 14 door would be open before the (swarming) stage of sins to come against us; Every stage of sin hands us to the next, for us to become like toys in their hands. Then the enemy would ultimately dare to bring us into the most horrible (crawling) stage, that would bring us forth, down to the bottomless pit, as revealed in the book of Revelation (9: 1-12), … darkening the light of the sun; striking like scorpions, and producing sound like that of chariots with many horses running into battle. In other words, every slothfulness on our part, would lead us to a more dangerous stage, until we are brought over to the destructive locusts of the bottomless pit. St. Mark the hermit says: [Satan presents to us little sins that would seem in our eyes of no importance; As otherwise, he cannot bring us over to greater sins1]. 2- THE RESULTS OF THE ATTACKS: “Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine. For it has been cut off from your mouth” (Joel 1: 5) At the beginning, he asked them to “hear, and to give ear”; But now, being attacked by the locusts, he asks them to awake from their drinking of the wine of the world, which has corrupted their minds, and destroyed their true wisdom; It would be fitting for them to awake from their drinking, to weep and wail on the deprivation they have reached!! {There is that kind of drinking which is difficult for the soul to avoid; when we are caught in the interests of this world, even if we are in solitude; about which the prophet says: ”Awake, you drunkards (but not with wine)”. And another prophet says: “They are drunk, but not with wine” (Isaiah 29: 9); but with what the prophet calls “the poison of the serpent” Do you want to know more about the fruits of those vines? About them it is said: “Their grapes are grapes of poison, and they have Bunches of bitterness”. … As, If we fail to purify ourselves of all those faults, and to detest all those lusts, Our hearts would become heavy with some kind of more dangerous wine, … without being drunk with regular wine, nor being filled in rich banquets2]. Being drunkards by the wine of the love of this world, they deny themselves the new wine; namely, “the Holy Spirit”, by which the soul staggers with the love of God. Calling them drunkards, he asks them, at the same time, to weep and wail because the new wine has been cut off from their mouths; Having denied themselves of (the wine of the Holy Spirit), that the disciples have enjoyed on the day of the Pentecost; when the apostle Peter stood and said: “For these are nut drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh …” (Acts 2: 15-17). Let the old Israel wail, because, having rejected the dwelling of the Spirit in them; the new heavenly wine will be cut off their mouth; …. And let the new Israel, men of the New Testament, rejoice; having rejected the wine of the world; namely, the works of the old man, to enjoy the life-giving wine. . 1 مقالان عن الناموس الروحي 94 2 Cassian: Conf. 9: 6. 15 Asking those drunk with the wine of the world to awake and be reasonable, because the locust attacks have already come upon them, the prophet reveals the activity of those attacks on many aspects; in their exposure of the works of sin in us. (1) He says: “For a nation has come up against My land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lioness” (6). Even though the individual locust, in any of its growth stages, is not more than a tiny insect that man can crush under his foot, or even with his finger, Yet when the locusts gather in swarms, they may turn into very strong and dangerous armies, that are difficult to overcome. In admonition He says: “… has come up against my land”; As what comes upon us because of our sins, even though through divine allowance for our chastisement; He considers anything that touches us, as though it touches His own land; for we are God’s land, that He sets for the righteousness to dwell (2 Peter 3: 13). Thus, the sin which we commit would do wrong to God in His own land. The secret of the strength of that (nation), without number, lies in its mouth, about which he says: “Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a fierce lioness” (6). The foreign serpent has once opened its mouth to talk to Eve; and when the later got slothful, she, her man, and her descendants as well, have all come to perdition. Therefore, let us beware of the talks of the deceitful devil; Let us flee from them as though from the teeth of the lion, and the fangs of the lioness. The wise Solomon says that the wisdom of God: “will keep you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words” (Proverbs 7: 5). It would be fitting for us not to be deceived by the smooth words of the devil, lest they would tear us apart; And it would also be fitting for us to be aware, lest we ourselves would become his teeth, that are like those of a lion; to use us to tear apart the life and faith of others. Because, if “our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5: 8), Let us not be his tool to tear our brothers apart. Whoever delivers his mouth to the devil, would become like teeth in the mouth of a fierce lion; As according to St. John Chrysostom: [Peter uttered a word, and then wept bitterly, because he forgot the saying: “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue” (Psalm 39:1); and, “A slip from the pavement is better than a slip from the tongue” (Sirach 20: 18) 1. Whereas he who delivers his mouth to the Lord, would become like teeth in the mouth of the Lion who comes from the tribe of Judah, Would bear the spirit of conquest, of victory, and of life, through testifying to Him; … He would not tear the life of his brothers apart, but would rather tear the work of the devil, the adversary to the Truth. We, therefore, are teeth: either in the mouth of the lion, adversary to the Truth; Or in the mouth of the Lion, the Truth;… According to the wise words: “A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth, And from the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18: 20, 21). (2) “He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree” (7). If our slothfulness with the sin has corrupted our life – the land of God – to become a field for the invading adversary; a nation without number; fierce with teeth like those of a lion, and fangs of a lioness; That has “laid waste the Lord’s vine and His fig tree”. 1 Ladder 11: 7. 16 The Lord calls His people “His vine and fig tree”; As the vine presents the grapes that, together with the Lord, pass through the wine-press, bear the features of His passion, and enter with Him to the power of His resurrection. And the fig, with its sweet outer cover that embraces a great number of tiny seeds, refers to the work, the love and unity of the sweet Holy Spirit, who embraces the members together, with no isolation or individuality1. The sin makes the vine and the fig tree lose their distinctive feature; namely, destroys the work of the crucified Christ, and that of the Holy Spirit in us. The sin so destroys the vine of the Lord, and ruins His fig tree; that the believers would not receive the wine-press with joy, to present new wine in the Kingdom of God the Father; or would not walk with the spirit of love and unity, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. God feels joy as He sees His people, “like grapes in the wilderness; as the firstfruits on the fig tree, that fulfill His heart (Hosea 9: 10); Yet the sin “lays waste this vine and ruins this fig tree”; And as it came in the book of Habakkuk: “The fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines” (3: 17). (3) “He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white”. The work of the locusts acts on the outer cuticle of the stem and the branches, to make them bare and look white. It is strange that whiteness usually refers to purity:; In the transfiguration, the Lord Christ appeared with His clothes white as the light (Matthew 17: 2); having inside them the Sun of Righteousness shining with His splendor. And at the holy tomb, St. Mary Magdalene saw two angels in white attire (John 20: 12); This same white color is used by the enemy in his deceit as a sign of uncleanness in case of leprosy (See Leviticus 13:10, 11). As long as Christ, the Sun of righteousness, is our refuge -- in whom we hide, and in us He dwells – we shall bear His whiteness as light; But if we are taken away from Him through our rejection, we shall be like branches bared of their protective cuticle … with the unclean whiteness of leprosy. The whiteness of Christ lifts us up to heaven, where the heavenly secret of our whiteness is set; Whereas the whiteness of leprosy would drive us out of the camp to live isolated, wear torn clothes, uncover our heads, cover our upper lips, and cry out: ‘Unclean, unclean’! (Leviticus 13: 45). (4) Entering into an early state of widowhood; saying: “Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth” (8).Committing sin, man thinks that he is fulfilling his deprived soul, and quenching the thirst of his body by carnal pleasures; when he is actually bringing his soul over into a state of widowhood, to put on sackcloth against her will; because she has lost her first Groom -- “God”, with whom she was bound since her youth; And in place of wearing the wedding attire, joyful to her and to the heavenly creatures, she puts on the sad sackcloth of widowhood. Yet, her first Groom of her youth, will keep on flattering her, “will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her” (Hosea 2: 14); will take her widowhood attire away, saying to her: “I will betroth you to me forever” (Hosea 2: 19). Yet, He would not betroth her while still in the bosom of another man; but would confirm: “I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy” (Hosea 2: 19, 20). (5) “The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests mourn, who minister to the Lord” (9). The attacks of the divine 1 St. Chrysostom: Op Imperfectum Hom 16. 17 chastisement reveal how the soul became because of the sin; how she lost her heavenly Groom and became a widow, and how the priests are no longer able to offer a grain offering or a drinking offering to the Lord, who does not accept the offerings of the wicked who give Him their back. Receiving the offerings in the house of the Lord is a sign of the union between God and His holy people, and of God’s pleasure in them. But, as the people fall into abominations, no offering would be received from them without repentance and returning to the Lord; According to the words of the Psalmist: “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51: 16, 17). In our study of the second epistle of the apostle Paul to Timothy, we saw how the drinking offering refers to the continuous life of Joy, poured abundantly by the Holy Spirit amid the sufferings of the church, being the sacrifice of God, united with the slain Christ1. Cutting off the drinking offering, is taking away the perpetual spiritual joy from the people, to be replaced by depression, which is the natural fruit of sin. We are in need of God receiving “the grain offering and the drinking offering” … to bear the feature of the crucified Christ – the grain offering, and that of the spiritual joy -- the drinking offering, if we return by repentance to Him. (6) The waste of the fruits: “The field is wasted, the land mourns; For the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree – All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men” (10-12). If the sin has wasted the vine of the Lord, and ruined His fig tree; It takes away, as well, every spiritual fruit from the life of the believer, who is the ‘land’ of the Lord: a- The field is wasted, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. If the ‘grain’ refers to the necessary daily bread, The ‘new wine’ refers to the joyful spiritual drink; And the ‘oil’ to the healing medication. Thus the locusts of sin deprives man of his spiritual food, as well as of his drink and of his medication; to live in a condition, where no one fulfills his hunger, quench his thirst, or to dress his wounds. God lets man in need of nothing; But in his ignorance, man uses what is God’s, to the account of His enemy. God admonishes His bride, “For she did not know that (He) gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold – whichthey prepared for Baal” (Hosea 2: 8). I wish, through the chastisements of God, we would realize the extent of what our inner condition has reached, would hunger and thirst for the righteousness (Matthew 5: 6), to find the Lord Christ as our living Bread (John 6: 51), a spiritual drink, and oil for our souls. b- “The farmers will be ashamed, and the vinedressers will wail”, When the Lord of the harvest comes to find His field without grain or barley; to find His Shepherds and priests, not presenting the food of the rich (the grain), nor even that of the poor (the barley). 1 ا رجع. 18 If the grain is used as food for men, and the barley as food for beasts; sin wastes everything, leaving man (the human soul), and beast (the body), unfulfilled; Man would live in a state of spiritual, psychological, and carnal void and hunger. c- In the soul – the divine field – there would be no fruit: neither pomegranate, nor palm trees, nor apple trees. The pomegranate refers to the meek nature of Christ, that reflects on the face of the church, His bride; to whom the Lord says: “Your temples behind your veil, are like a piece of pomegranate” (Songs 4: 3). The palm tree refers to the life of uprightness, with no deviation, according to the words by which the divine Groom addresses His bride, saying: “The stature of yours is like a palm tree” (Songs 7: 7). And the apple tree refer to the incarnation, bearing the joyful fruit for God and men; when the bride says to her incarnate Groom: “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight. and his fruit was sweet to my taste” (Songs 2: 3). Likewise, by the Holy Spirit; Uniting with the apple tree, unique among the fruitless trees in the wilderness; We ourselves would be apples that bring pleasure to the hearts of God and men; and would have the fragrance of our Christ … “The fragrance of your breath like apples” (Songs 7: 8). In other words, being deprived of the pomegranate, palm trees, and apple trees, would only mean taking away the feature of uprightness, and the fragrance of Christ from the human soul. d- If sin makes man loose his spiritual food (the grain), his drink (the new wine), and his medication (the oil); Makes his soul and body fruitless (the grain and the barley); and deprives him of the features, uprightness, and sweet fragrance of the Lord; … All that would deprive man of his spiritual and his inner joy; saying: “Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men:” (12). There are many, who think of the spoiled life as being all joy and pleasure; and of the life with God as being sadness and depression …; But actually, the spoiled life, amid its apparent happiness, bears an inner bitterness and depression; Whereas the life with God, on the other hand, amid the sufferings and afflictions, presents deep spiritual joy. Sin would make man lose his spiritual joy; while repentance, despite the rough way and the narrow door, would grant him joy and inner peace amid the tears. That Is why St. John El-Dargy wrote a long article on “The wail bearing the joy1”; in which he says: [Hold fast to, and never quit having the (joyful pangs), that go hand in hand with the pain in the heart; to be lifted up above the earthlies; and to be presented pure to Christ]; And, [Whoever is clothed by the (joyful wail), granted to him as a wedding garment; would experience the spiritual laugh of the soul]; and, [Tears that come from the mention of death, would bring about fear; … And in case fear, brings about the peace of heart, Joy would shine; … And once joy calms and settles down, the flower of holy love would flourish up2]. 3. A CALL TO REPENTENCE: Through His chastisements, God reveals the bitter fruits of sin in the life of His people: 1 Step 7. 2 Step 7: 9, 40, 56. 19 “For a nation has come against My land, strong and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion” (6). “He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree” (7). “He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white” (7). His virgin entered into a state of early widowhood (8). “The grain offering and the drink offering”, which are a sign of God’s pleasure and joy for His house, “have been cut off” (9) “The grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, and the oil (the medication) has failed” (10). The features of the Lord, His uprightness, and sweet fragrance, have been lost (12) “The spiritual joy has withered away from the sons of men” (12). But now, the Lord hastens to turn the tears and sadness into repentance; that should be practiced by the priests together with the people; Saying: “Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering, and the drink offering are withered from the house of your God” (13). He addresses His talk to the priests, who minister to the altar, to perform their leading task; not by giving advises and instructions, but foremost, through practicing repentance; in order for them to join their people, and not to be isolated from them. In the following points, he demonstrated the signs of repentance: (1) “Being girded’ (13); namely putting on sackcloth. It is not the time for wearing the precious and splendid attires of priesthood; but for putting on sackcloth, that God would show compassion on his fallen children. Putting on sackcloth should go hand in hand with inner humiliation, and contrition of the spirit before God; according to the words of St. John El-Dargy: [Let yourgarment, at least, show a sign of wailing; as all those who wail on their dead, put on black1]. (2) “Lament and wail”. It is fitting for the priest, not to seek the tears from his spiritual brethren and children, while he, himself, bears dry feelings; But he should practice what he seeks from them; He should say together with the prophet: “For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me; … Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people” (Jeremiah 8: 21; 9: 1). St. John El-Dargi talking to us about the activity of wailing and tears, says: [Like fire consuming reeds, the pure tear would abolish every carnal and spiritual uncleanness]; and, [Brethren, God does not need or wish for man to weep and lament, but would rather wish him to rejoice, and have joy in his love. … Man! Take away that sin; so that the painful tear in the sensual eye, would not be needed; As there would be no need for cleansing, when there is no wound. Before his disobedience, Adam had no tears. And there would be no tears after resurrection; when sin, and with it, pain, grief, and sighs, are no more2] 1 Ibid 7: 22. 2 Ibid 7: 31. 45. 20 (3) Holding a fast for this purpose; As repentance would touch the life of every man, of the priest in particular -- the sighs of his heart; the screams of his mouth, of his clothes, and those of his stomach. Man should talk to God, and proclaim his repentance in every possible way; His actions should support each other, to proclaim his longing for returning to God. Fasting is the language of the flesh, interacting with the spirit, the thought, and the senses, in order to proclaim the desire for an encounter with God, through a life sanctified in Him. St. John El-Dargy says: [The mind of the one who fasts would pray with pure thoughts; Whereas that of the greedy, would be Filled with unclean images]; and [Filling the stomach with food, dries up the tears of the eyes; Whereas when the stomach dries up through fasting, Fountains of tears would flow over from the eyes]; and [Controlling our stomach, would humiliate ourheart; Whereas when spoiling it, our mind gets haughty1]. And father (Mar) Isaac the Syrian says: [A saint said: The weaker the body gets through fasting, the stronger spiritually the soul would become by prayers2]. (4) Calling a sacred assembly. He says to the priests: “Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord” (14). Here the prophet proclaims the commitment to call for a sacred assembly; namely, for a collective celebration of repentance. As long as the whole congregation have partaken of evil, they should likewise partake of repentance. In the introduction to the book of Hosea, we talked about the collective repentance that goes hand in hand with the individual spiritual life; and about the hidden relationship between the soul -- being a member in the holy congregation – and God. If the priest represents the leadership in man, It is fitting for the leadership to call for a sacred assembly, and for a gathering of the elders, and of all the inhabitants of the land; Namely, man should assemble all his senses, energies, and possibilities; as though they are the elders of the land, or the workers of the body. So that man may present a repentance originating from all his actions and his spiritual, mental, and body capabilities. The priests should gather together with the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord; Namely, the spirit should work with all her energies, together with the body with its energies, under the leadership of the Lord; And man should cry out with his whole being to his God. The sacred assembly should be held in the house of the Lord our God; Namely, we should flee from the wrath of God, by resorting to Him, taking refuge in His compassionate love, and His longsuffering. And as it came in the book of Isaiah: “Let Him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with Me; And he shall make peace with Me” (Isaiah 27: 5). 4. THE NEED FOR AN INTERCESSOR: The priests with the elders, assembling together in the house of the Lord, all lament and wail, realizing what the sin has done in them; In anticipation of the One who, alone, can intercede on their behalf by His atoning blood, to save them from the divine wrath on that horrible day. The prophet demonstrates these two integral issues: The 1 Ibid 14: 19, 20, 22. 2 Mystical Treatises, St. Isaac the Syrian, vol 1, P 179. 21 realization of the extent of the bitterness and horror that we feel toward the day of the Lord; And the need for an Intercessor, capable of reconciling us with God. Concerning the extent of how far we have reached, he says: : “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. Is not the food cut off before our eyes; Joy and gladness from the house of God? The seed grain shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer your punishment” (Joel 1: 15-18). In short, we have become in a state of hunger; Food is cut off before our eyes; We shall be fulfilled by no one but God Himself, in whose Image, and according to whose likeness we are created. The Lord Christ, the incarnate Word of God, has probably been born in a manger; So that when man becomes like a hungry beast, he would head toward the manger to acquire a new food, fit to eternally fulfill him; … When he listens to Him saying: “I am the bread of life… which comes down from heaven, that one may eat it and not die …The bread that I shall give is My flesh which I shall give for the life of the world … Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh Of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6: 48-53). Because food is cut off; joy and gladness are taken away, … Because the soul has isolated herself by herself from God, the Source of her joy, It became in a state of depression, and even in a state of death; that she cannot say: “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3: 18)… The soul became in a state of desolation, with no spiritual fruition. The grain shriveled under the clods, the storehouses in shambles; and became with no hope; Even the beasts (the body) groan, and the herds of sheep are no more. Man would lose even the carnal things for the sake of which he has committed the sin. In other words we can say that through sin, curse has dwelt upon everything, even upon earth; according to the words of the Lord to Adam: “Cursed is the earth because of you” (Genesis 3: 17)… There is no more place for blessing. Now, having realized the extent of what we have reached, of the curse that has dwelt upon us and upon the earth, upon its plants and its beasts, Joel Interfered as an intercessor; Or, more accurately, as a symbol of the true Intercessor, Jesus Christ, who alone cries out to His Father, and He responds to Him. He says: “To You, O Lord, I cry out” ; not for His own sake, but for that of the people, … “for the open pastures devoured by fire, and for the water brooks that have dried up” (19, 20). This is the Intercessor who dwells in the heart, “the inner Jerusalem”, to reconcile the soul and the body with all their energies with the Father; He in whom the Father finds joy, and whom He seeks, saying: “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; And seek in her open places if you can find a man, If there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, And I will pardon her” (Jeremiah 5: 1). He is our Lord Jesus Christ, hidden in the inner Jerusalem, by whom we get the forgiveness of our sins. 22 AN INSPIRATION FROM THE BOOK OF JOEL 1 INSTEAD OF THE LOCUST ATTACKS, GRANT ME YOUR FIERY SPIRIT Count me, O Lord, like Joel, a son of Pethoel (God opens)! Open, O Lord, my heart, to behold You in it; to recognize You; and to conceive Your wisdom. The sins of Judah brought down on their land four locust attacks. Attacks by the chewing, the swarming, the crawling, and the consuming locusts. My sins brought down on me Your chastisements; that would gradually become more cruel, in hope that I would repent. My sins turned my heart into a barren land. Instead of the locust attacks, Let Your Holy Spirit blow on the land of my heart. To turn my wilderness into a fruitful paradise. To turn my land into a heaven, where no single locust can approach. Chasten, O Lord, Stretch Your hand! But, Do not allow for my perdition; But for the perdition of the corruption that came on me. You may allow bitterness for me, But You seek the eternal joy of my salvation. Sin has caused in me famine and drought; Has corrupted my peace, and taken away my internal joy. Has turned my wedding into mourning. Has taken Your sweet fragrance away from me. Has deprived me of the grain offering and the drink offering of joy. Has taken the blessing away from me; and brought its curse on me. Who can save me of it but You, O Savior of the world; O My heavenly Intercessor! You are my fulfillment. my peace, my joy, and the source of every blessing.
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