Ascension Lutheran Church

Our Old Testament text is from the prophet Joel. Joel prophesied during a time when the majority of the children of Israel had turned their hearts away from God. The Lord had sent locusts and drought, which devastated their country. It was a judgment on their unbelief and rebelliousness which was meant to humble them and turn them back to God.
The Lord addressed the priests, “Lament, you priests...; lie all night in sackcloth. 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.” Many of the priests had also turned their hearts away from God, and had been just ‘going through the motions’ of their priestly duties. God told them to put on shirts made of sackcloth – a rough material, like burlap – as an outward demonstration of inner repentance. They and all the people should fast and think about their sinful, unbelieving ways, and repent and ask God to forgive them.