Joel 1:13—“Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.”

The prophet Joel speaks to the people of Judah who are facing a crisis. Their land is stripped bare by an unprecedented locust plague. Every green thing is gone, the fields are wasted, and consequently, the “meat offering” (grain) and “drink offering” (wine) have ceased.

For the priests, this was not merely a loss of food; it was the interruption of the daily sacrifice. The offerings in God’s house had ceased. This outward famine was but a sign of a far more dreadful and profound spiritual crisis. Worship had withered because sin had hardened the people. The sacrifices of atonement and communion between Israel and the LORD had been severed by the divine judgment of the land.

Joel’s call for the ministers to “lie all night in sackcloth” is a summons to realise that religious routine cannot survive spiritual rot. The “withholding” of the offerings signifies that God will eventually remove the very means of worship if the hearts of the worshippers are far from Him. He prefers a howling priest in sackcloth over a comfortable priest performing empty rituals.

The priests, as spiritual leaders, were to lead the nation in repentance. Their sleepless night in sackcloth reveals that true ministry begins with brokenness before God. Joel calls the ministers to desperate transparency about the dire spiritual state of God’s people. He does not instruct them to restore the land or revive the offerings; rather, he commands them to “howl” and humble themselves before the LORD in repentance.

So, let us ask ourselves: Are our worship, prayer, service, and Gospel work being stripped away? In seasons of spiritual dryness and perceived spiritual famine, what should be our first instinct? When prayer dries up, when devotion fades, when the “offering” of our hearts is absent, the proper response is not indifference but mourning in repentance and return. 

If your souls feel like a barren field today, do not hide behind a facade of duty. Gird yourself in humility, lament over your sins, and seek God.