OUR LORD WHO REQUIRES US TO WATCH AND PRAY

Joel chapter 1  is a prophecy given about an imminent catastrophe about to befall the nation of Israel. Verses 11 - 12 reads this way;

Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

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 people’s joy is withered away.

In this passage, the specific plague that strikes the nation is an economic  disaster. The staple crops fail and the grape harvest is destroyed. Fruit trees and palms trees dry up and wither way and the people's joy follows suit.

Whereas they could always count on plentiful and reliable harvests, suddenly, every sector of the agricultural economy was in shambles, leaving people grieving and despondent.

The judgement comes upon  the land because a destructive enemy had been allowed to invade the land while the people, in their drunken stupor, slept.

Joel chapter 1 verse 5 -7 records it this way;

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees.

It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

Leaving the nation undefended while the powers of darkness invaded to bring wanton destruction on the kingdom of God, brought the  judgement of the Lord on the people.  The mighty army of darkness brought ruin to the Lord's vines (I am the Vine and you are the branches) and did damage to the fig tree which represents the nation of Israel.

As the scriptures adjure us in Mathew 26 verse 41 where Jesus wakes up his sleeping disciples while the enemy encircled them;

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Amen.