Surely the Joy of Mankind is Withered Away

Joel 1:12 "¹² The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the joy of mankind
is withered away."


The land is barren, there is nothing living left in the land after the locusts have gone through. There is no grapes for wine, no figs, no pomegranates (an exotic red fruit with edible seeds), no apples, nothing. Joel then says, "Surely the joy of mankind is withered away." Another way to say it would be, "Everyone's joy must be gone because of all of this"

Back then I'm sure that apples and pomegranates were expensive items, and if the people couldn't get them they felt like they were experiencing hardship. Now we feel we are experiencing "hardship" if we don't have a computer or a tv or a car.

As I was reading that verse I realized that, Joel's assertion doesn't apply to us because of Jesus. Our joy isn't tied to earthly luxuries. Whatever happens here doesn't affect the heavenly things, so because our joy is in heavenly things we aren't totally devastated when things fall apart down here. Our confidence in Jesus means that we are trusting him to do whats best for us, even if it isn't "fun"