April 2007
“When God Restores What the Locusts Eat”
Joel 2:18-27
INTRODUCTION: Joel was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah between 835-796 B.C. about the same time Elisha was prophesying to the Northern Kingdom, Israel in 848 BC. Joel speaks to people who had become very complacent and self centered. They took God for granted and worshiped idols. They had become insensitive to the condition of their spiritual lives. Joel warned them that sooner or later their sinful lifestyle would bring down the judgment of God, yet their physical and moral senses were dulled to the point that they seemed oblivious to their need. Why did they need God? Up to this time they had been experiencing a great abundance agriculturally--they had plenty of grain, corn and wine and oil. They didn’t want for a thing. Occasionally they would go to the temple to offer the sacrifices that were required and go through the outward religious motions. But it didn’t really mean much to them.
As they continued on this downward spiral, a crisis occurred that stopped them right in their tracks. A terrible plague of locust swarmed into the land and nothing was left in the fields--once overflowing, they are now empty of crops. It affected the animals as well as the agriculture of the area. The magnitude of the destruction was so devastating that it would take a long time to recover from it.
Joel comes on the scene at this time to speak not only a message of Judgment to these wayward people, but also a message of hope.
Today’s scripture speaks to us as well in several ways.
1. A Word of Hope in the Midst of Devastation: I wonder how these people felt as they looked around at the devastation in their lives? Maybe they felt hopeless that they could do nothing to change the way things were. Maybe they felt depressed. Maybe they felt like giving up completely. Or some may have felt like working very hard to do something to change things.
How do you feel when things hit your life like a destructive swarm of locust? Scripture points out here that what the swarming locusts didn’t ruin the other types did. In the King James Version the four types mentioned are: the locust, the cankerworm, the palmerworm, and the caterpillar. These represent destruction of different types--stripping, cutting, swarming, and hopping. It is like when things hit us we might say, “well when one problem gets taken care of I was hit from a different direction. What each of the locust groups had left behind, the others has eaten. Problems came in from all directions and just devoured everything.
There are seasons in our life that involve famine and devastation and then there are times of restoration. The seasons of famine have a divine purpose in our lives and they accomplish things that only these hard places can accomplish. Sometimes God can’t get our attention when everything is going along fine.
Sometimes we wonder where the bad things come from. What is their source? Is it God’s judgment? Is it just natural circumstances? Does it come from our own bad choices? Or does it happen just because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time?
We can probably answer, “All of the above.” Sometimes from our personal experiences we can say that suffering is a direct result of our own self destructive choices.
ILLUSTRATION: A woman told a counselor how her relationship with her husband had gone sour and she couldn’t understand what had happened. As the counselor listened to her story, it became obvious that this relationship all centered around her selfishness and eventually that is what destroyed it. She couldn’t see it.
The people of Judah couldn’t see how they were contributing to the problem. And often we can’t see it either.
Sometimes things just happen through what is called “fortuitous circumstances.” The locusts roar through our lives and we are puzzled by it all. Natural disasters, floods and earthquakes, invade our communities many times and we could have done nothing to prevent it. Sickness and disease invade a person’s life and health is ruined. Many times there was no way it could have been prevented. Sometimes job losses come to the best workers. Sometimes accidents just happen.
At times we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
ILLUSTRATION: An Ohio State student was standing in the wrong place the other day and was shot and killed. A good student, there was no explanation for this tragedy.
Joel brings a message of hope to people experiencing just such circumstances. This message of hope is for us today as well. However, we find it difficult to believe that hope when it comes to us when we are facing pain, sorrow, or loss.
Verse 25 is probably one of the most well known verses in today’s scripture. Joel says to these people, The Lord says, “I will repay you for the years the locust have eaten--the great locust and the young locust, and the other locusts and the locust swarm--my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you...” (vs 25, 26).
Another translation says, “I will make it up to you...”
How do you suppose the people reacted to words of hope in a setting of complete destruction? Their reactions might have ranged from one extreme to the other. Some might have said, “Yeh, right--it’s a hopeless situation. Don’t expect me to believe that.”
Another might have said cautiously, “If only I COULD believe that.”
Still others may have said, “Bring on the grain and the wine!! We’re adventuresome!!”
For Judah the promise was that agricultural abundance would come back. That signified God’s blessing in the Old Testament days. The bad years of drought would be restored and crops would grow again. The agony of dark years would be restored.
How does this apply to us today? There may be some things in your life right now that you would like to see restored. In what way have you lost your resources, or lost friendships and relationships thinking that they were gone forever? How might you get them back?
Many people will say, “Yes, I would like to see things change for me but it will never happen. Things have been this way too long. Or we say, “I would be glad if things changed for me, but I don’t want to change my lifestyle. This is just the way I am.”
You can read this verse of hope and it not do a thing for you. Why? You have to be ready for restoration. We hold on to too much old baggage in our lives. Resentment, unforgiveness, old hurts, the unwillingness to do whatever it takes to see our lives improve.
STORY: A stray dog had been hit by a car, a beautiful husky with blue eyes. A passerby rescued it and rushed it to the vet. The hind leg was badly damaged but the man agreed to pay the $500.00 to see if they could save the leg. The vet did all he could but the dog’s leg had to be amputated anyway. The man who rescued the dog said he couldn’t keep it, but he didn’t want to have it put to sleep. The third alternative was to give it to a rescue shelter and try to adopt it out to a good home. An older woman who walked with a cane came and adopted him and she said that since she walked with a cane she was three legged too. So they made a good match. Before long with her loving care, this dog was thriving and could run as well as if he had not had the leg amputated. Restoration--the years that the locust ate did not have the last word even in this dog’s situation. He was restored to health and a good home.
Sometimes the restoration doesn’t come back in exactly the same way to us.
2. Prerequisites for Restoration: Restoration doesn’t just happen automatically. What is overlooked in this chapter are some things that the people needed to do before things changed for them.
“Even Now” (right in the middle of your trouble) “return to me with ALL your heart, with FASTING, and WEEPING, and MOURNING. Rend your hearts and not your garments. RETURN to the Lord for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing...”(vs. 12-14). It has to be a GENUINE repentance from the heart.
STORY: A man with a nagging secret was unable to keep it any longer and he went to the priest to confess his sin. He admitted that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked.
“How much lumber did you take?” the priest asked.
“I took enough to build my home and enough for my son’s house. Then I took enough to build houses for my two daughters. Oh, and our cottage at the lake.”
“This is a very serious offense,” the priest said. “I’ll have to think of a far-reaching penance. Have you ever considered doing a retreat?”
“No, Father, I never have,” the man replied. “But if you can get the plans, I can get the lumber.”
The people were accustomed to repenting in sackcloth and ashes as an OUTWARD sign. But Joel tells them, “Do not rend or tear your garments--as an outward ritual only--you’ve got to mean it with your heart--rend or tear your heart meant to mean it genuinely with all your heart so that you won’t be doing the same old sins over and over again. God doesn’t want an outward display of repentance without the inward repentance. You will be changed from the inside out.
That’s what happens when we come to the Lord. “If any person be in Christ he is a new creation--the old has gone and new has come” (II Cor. 5:17.)
Joel 2:32 says, “Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.” Our turning back to God is a DELIBERATE effort of the WILL--not just an EMOTIONAL response. The promise is there--if YOU TURN--IF YOU repent, IF YOU make the move to meet the prerequisites, then the Lord says, “I will do--I will restore...”
Sometimes when people make promises the SAYING and the DOING are two different things. But with God the saying and the doing are the same. God’s promises are real answers to the prayer of faith. He is able to DELIVER on his promises. We wonder, “Can it happen--We say, “Can God?” Turn it around and say, “God CAN.”
CONCLUSION: Restoration can come to us even when it looks impossible--even after devastation of long standing. God says, “I will restore to you the years...
Sometimes when devastation comes it seems to eat away years of blessing. There are times when it is the result of personal sin or of fortuitous circumstances.
Restoration has some prerequisites that can’t be overlooked. There has to be a GENUINE turning to God and repentance. Not just an outward ritual.
The last part of verse 27 says, “you will have plenty to eat until you are full and YOU WILL PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD WHO HAS WORKED WONDERS FOR YOU.” He will give you a new spiritual perception to recognize what God is really doing for you. God wants each of us to know that there is a time when He will restore in order to demonstrate His hand in our lives. If God has taken you through some lean times, know that He is the restorer of what the locusts have eaten and acknowledge Him and praise Him for doing it for you too. LET US PRAY:
