Joel 2:25 - The Locusts; Then Restoration.
Joel 2:25 - The Locusts; Then Restoration.
Joel 2:25 (NKJV) So I will restore to you the years that the
swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And
the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
CONTEXT
The prophet Joel ministered in Judah at a time when drought
and a plague of locusts had devastated the economy. He used the
phrase the "day of the LORD" (1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3,14) to describe both
their present calamity (1:1-2:27) and the future judgment that would
come upon the whole world (2:28-3:21). God's "army" of locusts (2:11,
20, 25) was but a picture of a future army that would invade the
land in the last days. Joel called the nation to repent (2:12-17) and
promised that the Lord would forgive and bless them (2:18-27). He also
promised blessings in the last days when Israel's tribulation would be
ended (2:28-32; 3:18-21). God's message of judgment is not left
without a promise of hope.
Campbell Morgan wrote, "It is always the day of the Lord." No
matter what calamities may come to men and nations, He is always in
control, and these calamities remind us of the greater judgment yet to
come. [Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary by Warren Wiersbe re Book
of Joel]
The trumpet of warning (1-11). The calamities that come to our
lives should awaken us and remind us that the Lord is in control. The
locusts were God's army (vv. 11, 20, 25), and the day was "the day of
the LORD." This is a sobering truth, but it is also a comforting
truth (2 Sam. 24:14). The Lord who wounds will also heal (Hos. 6:1).
The trumpet of weeping (12-17). The prophet summoned the
people to return to God with fasting and confession. Never be afraid to
come to the Lord in honesty and humility because He is "gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (v. 13). As you pray,
think about magnifying the glory of God (v. 17) as well as escaping
the suffering that sin causes.
The promise of blessing (18-32). God promised to remove their
reproach and restore His blessings to the land. "Monstrous things" (v.
20) will be replaced by "marvelous things" from the Lord (v. 21),
and joy will take the place of fear. Verses 28-32 refer especially
to the future day of the Lord, but Peter's use of them at Pentecost
(Acts 2:18-21) suggests that they have a spiritual application today.
[Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary by Warren Wiersben re Joel 2]
COMMENTARY APPLICATION
The promise of restoring the years that the "locust has eaten"
means that the years and energy consumed in vain (when backslidden or
in sin) God will more than make up (in His grace) by the joys and
security of His full restoration of His people to their land. Then God's
people soon will forget the years of heartache in the abundance of His
favors. [Believer's SB]
The same God who brings judgment is pleased to restore blessing
to those who repent. This does not mean that sin leaves no scar,
but that God can restore people to usefulness in spite of past
disobedience. [Nelson SB]
For twenty years I lived a Ms. Jekyll/Monster Hyde life. By
day I was a semisuccessful businesswoman; by night I morphed into a
monster controlled by insatiable bulimia. If it happened to be an
evening I was invited out, I morphed into a wasted party girl.
I felt anger, shame, and extreme guilt for wasting valuable
years on these locusts called addiction--years I could have been
participating in life-nurturing experiences. I obsessed about how my life
could have been so different--if only. Like so many other women, I
wanted the American Dream: to be married at twenty-something to a
successful doctor or lawyer and living in the suburbs with our perfect
children, just like on Leave It to Beaver and The Cosby Show. I loathed
what the locusts had done to me.
The Lord wants us to give him all our guilt, shame, and anger,
and finally, I did. Tears gushed when I read Joel 2:25. That promise
was for me! Faithfully, God has repaid me for the lost years the
locusts had eaten. Today I'm a healthy, vibrant fifty-year-old woman who
has dedicated her life to her Healer and is helping other women
regain the years they have lost.
Kimberly J. Davidson--minister, inspirational speaker, teacher,
and writer--is the founder and director of Olive Branch Outreach, a
ministry whose goal is to glorify Jesus Christ by reaching out to people
with eating disorders. [The One Year Bible Live Verse Devotional]
For months she cried every night. Lying alone, her tears soaking
the pillow, she sobbed out her "why?" They'd been married for eight
years, and she was three months pregnant with their daughter, when her
husband just left. He couldn't stand being tied down anymore, he told
her. And so he left her, with a two-and-a-half-year-old son and
pregnant. It was so hard, trying to deal with her loneliness, her doubts,
her questions of, "What did I do?" and most terrible of all, "What
will happen to me now?" She had to live with these questions not for
days, or weeks, or even months, but for years. Joel's warning to Judah
of the coming Day of the Lord challenged God's people to repent and
turn to God for healing. The chapter presupposes a people who have
turned away from God, and who need to "return to Me with all your
heart" (v. 12). There had been years of devastation. But Joel promised
even God's rebellious people that the Lord has good in mind for them.
Despite years of devastation, it is within the power of a loving God to
"repay you for the years the locusts have eaten." Today the young woman
who cried herself to sleep so many nights is married again, to a
husband who loves her. She loves her job teaching, and delights in the
times she shares with her daughter, who is now nine. Life is good, and
she's proven that God's promise to "repay you for the years the
locusts have eaten" can be claimed even by those who never departed from
Him, and whose suffering was something other than punishment for sin.
[The 365-Day Devotional Commentary]
The Lord said, "So I will restore to you the years that the ...
locust has eaten" (Joel 2:25). God promised them bumper crops that
would make up for all they had lost because of the drought and the
locust plague. "Lost years can never be restored literally" said
Charles Spurgeon. "Time once past is gone forever ... You cannot have back
your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can
give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years
over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours."
[Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary by Warren Wiersbe]
SPECIAL LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT:
Absolutely Beautiful Song on the Blessed Hope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Lk8xXp-fU.
Excellent Spiritual Resource Site:
http://www.christianlifemediacenter.com.
Excellent Sermon Resource Site: http://www.pmchurch.tv.
Another Excellent Sermon Resource Site:
http://www.lluc.org/podcastlist.php.
Excellent Bible Study Site: http://www.liftingupjesus.net.
More Spiritual Resources: http://www.aBible.com.
