In 1915, a plague of locusts covered Palestine and Syria from the border of Egypt to the Taurus Mountains. The first swarms appeared in March. These were adult locusts that came from the northeast and moved toward the southwest in clouds so thick they obscured the sun. The females immediately began to lay eggs by digging holes in the soil…and depositing about 100 eggs in each…
Within a few weeks the young locusts hatched, resembling large ants. They had no wings, and within a few days they began…hopping along the ground like fleas…devouring any vegetation before them. By the end of May, they had molted. In this stage they had wings, but they still did not fly.
According to a description in National Geographic, the earlier stages of these insects attacked the vineyards. ‘Once entering a vineyard, the sprawling vines would in the shortest time be nothing but bare bark. When the daintier morsels were gone, the bark was eaten off the young topmost branches, which, after exposure to the sun, were bleached snow-white. Then seemingly out of malice, they would gnaw off small limbs.
Whiting described how the locusts of the last stage completed the destruction begun by the earlier form. ‘They attacked the olive trees, whose tough, bitter leaves had been passed over by the creeping locusts. They stripped every leaf, berry, and even the tender bark.’ They ate away ‘layer after layer’ of the cactus plants.
Locusts travel at tremendous speeds and are known for their voracious appetite as evidenced from the 8th Plague unleashed in Egypt. One Old Testament scholar writes, “Locusts have been known to devour every green herb and every blade of grass in an area almost 90 square miles, that the ground gave the appearance of having been scorched by fire.”
The destruction of locusts represents the losses of life. Some of you have been swarmed by sin and have been left reeling. Others of you are dealing with a recent diagnosis, death, disappointment, or depression. Some of you have relapsed and have lost hope of ever being sober again. Current events like school shootings, the war in Ukraine, high gas prices, and now the threat of Monkey Pox, have led to deep despair.
The devouring of the locusts pictures the devastation slowly eating away at our lives, until there’s nothing left. This gradual destruction leads to deep despair.
If any of that describes you, you’re in the right place because our topic is “Restore.” The word “restore” means, “to bring back, to reinstate, to return to a former condition.” I’m not sure what to make of this but a Google search pulled up over 3 billion results! I’m not through all of them yet.
A brief survey of several passages shed light on how the Bible defines “restore.”
Psalm 23:3: “He restores my soul.”
Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”
Jeremiah 30:17: “For I will restore health to you…”
Job 42:10: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends.”
Acts 3:21: “Until the time for restoring of all things...”
1 Peter 5:10: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
2 Corinthians 13:9: “For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.”
Our main verse for today is Joel 2:25: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” When a text of Scripture is a bit difficult to understand, it’s important to consider the context because a text out of context is a pretext for a prooftext. We don’t want to pull this text out of context, so we’ll take some time to give an overview and follow the flow. If we’re going to apply it NOW, we must first understand what was happening THEN.
Joel is considered one of the 12 “minor prophets,” not because his message doesn’t tackle major matters, but because it’s one of a collection of shorter prophets near the end of the Old Testament. It’s one of those books you need the Table of Contents to find, located after Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea.
We’ve been doing something interesting in our Growth Group on Wednesday nights. We recently finished a study on Intentional Discipleship and now we’re simply reading entire books of the Bible out loud together. We’ve completed Philippians and decided to read Joel this week. There’s not a lot of information about Joel the prophet, so I gave a quick overview before we began and then joked, “It’s going to be a short sermon this weekend.” To which Rick Widdel quipped in an English accent, “Not very likely.”
The name, “Joel” means, “Jehovah is God” and from the opening verse, we know his father’s name is Pethuel, but that’s about all we know about him. Scholars are not certain when the book was written, but most land on 800 B.C. Joel writes of historical events but also of events to be fulfilled in the near and distant future, which makes it a bit difficult to understand. One of the recurring themes is the devastation caused by locusts, which were both real and representative. He is also the first prophet to develop the apocalyptic event referred to as the “Day of the Lord.”
Here’s our main idea: God can restore what has been ruined.
Since this book is brief, let’s see if we can understand it and apply it to our lives today.
1. Our problems with restoration. Some of you are paralyzed by regret for the years you have wasted in your life. It’s not uncommon for people to think it’s too late, or they’ve been away too long, or they’ve done too many bad things. While the people’s specific sin is not named by Joel, a careful reading of the book shows they had slipped into a state of complacency and apathy about the things of God. As a result, God worked to get their attention in four ways as He wooed their wandering hearts back to Him.
• Devastation. Listen to Joel 1:4: “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” The “cutting locust” eats the top of plants. The “swarming locust” eats the stalks. The “hopping locust” eats the stubs. The “destroying locust” eats the roots of the plants.
• Destruction. We see this in verse 7: “It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree…”
• Desolation. Notice verses 10, 12: “The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns…gladness dries up from the children of man.” This makes me think of how children are under attack in our own culture from the preborn in the womb, to newborns in need of formula, to school children being killed in their classrooms.
• Discipline. Because of how His people were living, God disciplined them by sending locusts and promising judgment to come as we see in verse 15: “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes…let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the Day of the Lord is coming; it is near.”
In his introduction to the Book of Joel, Chuck Swindoll writes: “A strong dose of apocalyptic imagery in Joel might just open our eyes to the necessity of following faithfully after God every moment of our lives.”
The return of Christ is one day closer today than it was yesterday, and we better be ready! I’m thrilled Edgewood will be hosting a prophecy conference called, “Living Today in the Light of Forever” September 16-18. Dr. Ray Pritchard will be preaching that weekend and Dr. Michael Rydelnik will be speaking Friday night and live hosting Moody Radio’s Open Line Saturday morning from our Worship Center.
Our society is in a bad spot, isn’t it? We’ve quoted Isaiah 5:20 before but it bears repeating because it’s a sad commentary on our country right now: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” It makes me wonder if we are beginning to experience God’s judgment on America according to Romans 1:18-32. My mind often goes to something Billy Graham was fond of saying: “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
This week I listened to a Breakpoint podcast and heard John Stonestreet challenge Christians with how to impact our culture. Listen for the word “restore” in his fourth point.
• Promote what’s good.
• Fight what’s evil.
• Contribute what’s missing.
• Restore what’s broken.
God can restore what has been ruined.
2. The plea for restoration. In order to be restored, it’s essential we respond to God’s plea in Joel 2:12-13: “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.”
I won’t take time to develop this because we’ll be focusing on how to “return” in an upcoming message. Suffice to say if you want to experience full restoration, you must first exhibit full repentance by returning fully to Him.
3. The promise of restoration. In the middle of devastation, destruction, desolation, and discipline, God longs to graciously deliver His people. It’s not too late! It’s not over! There is hope even though you might feel hopeless. He will take pity, protect, and provide for His people yet again. Some of you desperately need to hear this promise from Joel 2:24-25: “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” Let’s make some observations.
• The threshing floors had been barren for several years but would become “full of grain” again. The word “full” means, “to complete what was empty, to finish to capacity.”
• Their vats shall “overflow with wine and oil.” The idea is these containers would burst with abundance. God’s people went from scarcity, to satisfaction, to supersized, to overflowing. Incidentally, God links this kind of over-the-top blessing to our generous giving in Proverbs 3:9-10: “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”
• Verse 25 begins with “I,” meaning it is God Himself who is speaking. It’s not me, or you, but God. It’s not me + God, or you + God, it’s God alone. We’ve said it like this: Jesus + Nothing = Everything. It’s not my way, or your way, it’s YAHWEH!
• The next word is “will,” which shows this is something we can count on God to do. God did not say, “maybe” or “perhaps,” but “I will.” Numbers 23:19: “Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” Ezekiel 24:14: “I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it.”
• The word “restore” is the Hebrew “Shalam,” which is very similar to “Shalom,” the word for peace. It has the idea of “rewarding, repaying, and restitution.” It was used to signify something was completed or finished. This was a reward of pure grace from the God of grace. God not only promised to stop the locusts from coming, He also promised to give them all they would have had during the multiple years the locusts had destroyed their crops.
• The phrase “the years” refers to more than one year and was used to represent a long period of time. Some of you can testify to times of trials and seasons of suffering which never seems to end.
• Specifically, God promised to restore the years that were taken by the “swarming locust, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter.” God is ready to reverse the devastation described in Joel 1:4.
• In the last part of verse 25, God refers to the locusts as “my great army, which I sent among you.” The locusts were not a surprise to God because they were His servants, sent by Him as part of His judgment on His people. This is stated clearly in Psalm 105:34: “He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number.”
If you haven’t settled this yet, do so right now: He is God, and you are not. As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, God’s ways are not our ways: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Some of us are way too quick to judge God, forgetting He is the One who sits in judgment of us.
I turn once again to Charles Spurgeon: “God alone can do for you what seems impossible. And here is the promise of His grace: ‘I will repay you for the years the swarming locust ate.’ By giving to His repentant people larger harvests than the land could naturally yield, God could give back to them, as it were, all they would have had if the locusts had never come…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.”
God can restore what has been ruined.
Pastor Colin Smith describes how “lost years” come in many varieties. Perhaps you can relate with one or many of these.
• Fruitless years. You’ve worked hard only to have something fail, leading to massive disappointment.
• Painful years. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one or you are living with illness in body or mind.
• Selfish years. As you reflect on your life, you regret all the time you spent just living for yourself.
• Loveless years. A relational rupture or a wayward child have caused great pain. Or, maybe you feel you’ve not yet met the person you’d like to meet. All this makes you feel time is slipping away and the locusts have consumed much of your life.
• Rebellious years. Maybe you grew up with many blessings, but you rebelled, which has brought you great guilt and perpetual pain. Your regrets are palpable.
• Misdirected years. You wonder where you took a wrong turn as you’re plagued with statements like this: “If only…I wish I would have.” But that moment has passed. It’s gone. You can’t go back to it. You’re left with locust years.
• Christ-less years. All years spent without Christ are locust years.
Take heart, friend. There is hope. Ask God to restore to you the years the locusts have eaten. Surrender to Him and ask Him to multiply your fruitfulness in your remaining years.
4. The prizes of restoration. Not only does God love to restore, but He also gives us prizes in the process.
• Provision. Joel 2:26: “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied…” In verse 25, the word “eat” was used to describe what the locusts did and in verse 26, it’s used to describe how God will bring plenty and full satisfaction to His people. This is a fulfillment of Leviticus 26:5: “…you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.”
• Praise. We can’t help but praise Him according to the last part of verse 26: “…and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.” The word “wondrously” means, “extraordinary.”
• Presence. Listen to verse 27: “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is no one else. And my people will never be put to shame.” As clear evidence of God’s reversal and restoration, the locusts which were “sent among you” in verse 25 have been replaced with God “in the midst of Israel.”
My mind goes to the beautiful picture in Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” This also has future reference to His coming kingdom as seen in Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”
• Peace. Notice how verse 26 and verse 27 end the same way: “And my people shall never again be put to shame.” Instead of living with regret, you can be restored! Instead of focusing on all your problems, God has given you His peace. Instead of being gutted by guilt, His grace sets you free. Instead of being paralyzed by shame, you are propelled into future blessings as God erases all the shameful stains caused by sin. Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• Power. In addition, we are given the power of the Holy Spirit to live restored lives. As I read verses 28-29, your mind may go to Peter’s sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2:17-21 because he quoted this passage: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”
One commentor helps us see the certainty of these prizes: “It’s significant these are written in the prophetic perfect, attesting to the sure conviction that God will hear their cries and answer, so much so that this future expectation is presented in terms of actions that already have been completed.”
God can restore what has been ruined.
Restoration Testimonies
On Facebook this week, I asked people to share how God has “restored the years the locust has eaten.” Be encouraged by these four brief testimonies. Take heart. If you’re not dead, God is not done with you!
1. Since August 1st, 1994, I began the restoration process in marriage counseling. On July 1, 2002, we started attending Edgewood…then along came the sermon on [the] Reformation…the Five Solas you taught us I have in my heart and they restore me daily in who I am and how He has restored my life to have such a trust and faith in Him...no matter what!
2. Following the breakup of my marriage and a divorce I desperately tried to avoid, I felt like the locust nibbled away on my life for several years. God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness has blessed me with love through friendships that are like family, a loving, caring church, much joy, and many other blessings when I just open my eyes to see them.
3. God has taken me from lifelong broken relationships, abandonment, childhood trauma, abuse, and divorce to a 25-year marriage, salvation, hope and peace. He has healed many wounds through godly counseling, and He continues that process…He has allowed me to serve in many roles and capacities…I was 47 and my husband 50 when we were saved in a Baptist church…still He uses me. He called me, He saved me, and He has returned to me the years that the locusts have eaten.
4. Two or three weeks after I started attending Edgewood, I lost a job I was at for eleven years. Already struggling with depression and anxiety, I felt myself spiraling downhill quickly. I made a Facebook post stating I didn't know how much more I can take. I didn't know anyone from Edgewood very well at the time so I was surprised when Pastor Dan messaged me and asked if we could talk. He talked me out of a very dark place that day.
For me, our time as missionaries in Mexico felt like three wasted years because I struggled to learn Spanish. I felt defeated and discouraged. But God has restored to me the years the locusts ate. Now I can celebrate at least four benefits of that time.
• Our family grew closer.
• We love the Mexican people, their culture, and their food.
• My pain sensitized me to the hurts in others and has given me opportunities to comfort those who are struggling (2 Corinthians 1:4).
• God has graciously allowed me to experience multiplied fruit for His glory in pastoral ministry for the past 23 years.
This brief book of Joel gives us God’s plan for restoration. To say it clearly, if you want to be restored, you must first repent and call on the Lord for salvation. This is stated in 2:32: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This verse is quoted by Peter in Acts 2:21 and by Paul in Romans 10:13.
Last weekend, at the end of the message about the necessity of the new birth, I invited people to pray and ask Jesus to save them. Then, I challenged people to raise their hand if they had repented and received Christ. In the 10:45 service, after the prayer, a woman named Sandi in the 10:45 service, who was here for her grandson’s baptism, immediately raised her hand. Later, she explained, “That’s not my personality because I don’t want to be noticed. My hand just went up on its own…I can’t wait to go back!”
I want to give you the opportunity to be born again right now.
“I don’t understand how You long to restore me even though I’ve wasted so much time just living for myself. I confess I am a sinner and I turn from the way I’ve been living. I need You to be my Savior. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I desire to live under Your lordship for the rest of my life. Thank You for not only being born but for dying in my place and rising again so I can be born again. I lean into You now by faith so I can live with You forever. Make me into the person You want me to be and restore to me the years the locusts have eaten. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Closing Song: “Lord I Need You.”
