Joel 1:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who inhabit the earth have brought about a time of humiliation, reproach, discipline, and judgment; a season when it was customary to relish in abundant blessings, gathering from the fields, filling granaries with grain, singing praises at harvest time, and delighting in the flocks when the richest grass lay before them.

Once more, the discourse appears to identify the agricultural workers as the stewards of Jewish matters of the era, who ought to grieve for the impending ruin of all the earth’s inhabitants, symbolized by the wheat, barley, and fruit trees. It seems particularly applicable to the scribes and Pharisees, who, likening themselves to farmers, wronged Christ and murdered the heir in their quest to seize the harvest, aspiring to be the overseers of the vineyard, while relishing their dominance, likening the multitude of followers to the bounty of their fields, and exploitatively stripping the best among them, much like harvesting pomegranates and apples. Yet, the Roman conflict came upon them, devastating both the lowly and the esteemed, encapsulated in the imagery of fig trees, grapes, palms, and the grains of barley and wheat, each lively manner of existence uniquely represented.

As Christ compared the land of Judah to a field and dubbed its rulers as farmers, the analogy persists throughout, akin to the subordinates being mirrored through various aspects of bread and trees. Should one attempt to distill this into a moral reflection, such a path would indeed be wise. The virtues and spiritual acts should be paralleled to grapes, figs, and other fruitful trees, typically bearing attractive produce. A wise and prudent person, valuing righteousness, will cultivate within their mind and heart a garden filled with beautiful blooms and trees, nurturing a plethora of virtues and commendable traits. In contrast, a negligent and indulgent individual, prone to ignobility, will undoubtedly lament when their positive attributes fade away and when they encounter a desolate mind. Therefore, those who are discerning ought to invest in the treasures of the heart, which will surely blossom if they personally uplift the Giver of heavenly blessings.

The trees are withered, and the harvest of the fields is lost—the vine and fig trees have perished along with the pomegranate, palm, and apple trees, with all the plants suffering the same fate; thus, human joy has turned to shame. Historically, this occurred when a great swarm of locusts or invading armies, likened to locusts, laid waste to everything. The offerings and libations in the Lord’s house ceased—offering flour and wine—because the priests, the servants of the Lord, weep over the halted offerings as per the commandments and the lack of tithes previously collected. The entire land is desolate. The land weeps metaphorically for its inhabitants; wheat, wine, and oil have become scarce, and farmers and vine dressers feel shame as both wheat and barley are lost, indicating a complete failure of the harvest, including all that typically grows from the earth. Even the fruits of the trees have withered: the fig tree, pomegranate tree, palm, apple tree, and every tree—fruitful or barren—has suffered due to the locust devastation. All this was so that the joy of humanity would cease or turn to shame. The same plight befell the Jewish people upon the arrival of the Savior, when they cried in anger: "Crucify Him, crucify Him; we have no king but Caesar." During this time, Jerusalem was besieged, causing the people to experience famine and pestilence to the point of resorting to feeding on the bodies of their own children, and the sacrifices along with the joy of the people vanished, for they rejected the joy that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds: "I bring you good tidings of great joy." The deeper meaning of these circumstances seems to be this: when the bride, instructed in God’s ways, is separated from her bridegroom due to sin and dons the attire of mourning rather than her linen garments, then the sacrifice of a broken spirit—a true offering to God—and the joyful libation of wine in God’s house, which is the Church, are no more. As Paul instructs Timothy, it is in the household of God, the Church of the living God, where these offerings ought to take place. However, the offerings in the house of God will change when iniquity abounds and many hearts grow cold. At that time, the leaders of the Church and the ministers of the altar will become aware that the faithful’s fields and lands yield no fruits of virtue but are instead choked with the thorns of vice. Wheat and barley will be destroyed by pests, and the cup of which it is stated, "Thy cup runs over," will be absent, leaving us to perish without oil, which Ecclesiastes advises should always be with us to enliven our spirits. Farmers will be shamed when realizing their fields fail to yield wheat, the sustenance for people, and barley for the beasts, and when the grapes, which the Lord intended for good, produce nothing but thorns. Additionally, the fig tree under which Nathanael rested prior to his belief, the pomegranate whose fruit is compared to the bride’s palms, and the palm tree, which wilts after losing its sap—all suffer, echoing the words about the righteous flourishing like a palm tree. We find no need to enumerate all the trees, as everything is desolate, and instead of joy and gladness, sorrow and shame have settled upon humankind.