A GOD WHO RESTORES
Restoration. What a powerful word. What do you think of when you hear that word (pause). Perhaps you imagine your health or marriage restored. Perhaps you imagine your youth or your family restored. Perhaps you imagine you career that is failing or your self-esteem restored. Whatever your picture is, we know that our God is a god of new beginnings, and a God of second chances. God is in the restoration business! Job experienced this. He lost everything, and the book records his struggles with himself and with God during that time of devastation. Then at the end of the book, he has everything restored: his health, more land than he had before, more money, another wife, more kids. But we realize that even that is not a complete restoration because the new wife and those other kids can’t replace the people who were lost - they are gone. However, the restoration spoken of in this 2nd ch. of Joel is about much more than all that. Joel is speaking about the restoration of Israel.
Joel lived about 400 years before Jesus. During his lifetime Israel was going through a period of darkness because 600 yrs before that, in 1000 BC Israel had been a great economic and military power in the Middle East, especially during the reigns of Kings David and Solomon. Their wealth grew and great programs of building temples and palaces were undertaken as their borders expanded. But all that changed quickly. After Solomon’s death the nation was torn in two by a power struggle. The now divided kingdoms were never again as strong a s when David was kind. Both kingdoms went through a steady moral, economic and political decline until first the north, and then the south were conquered. Pagan armies and powers came in and demolished their grand cities and their great temples and palaces. Almost a generation later those who had been taken captive were allowed to return to Israel. About a hundred years later, Joel was born. In spite of being home, and having rebuilt the temple, Israel was still just a province of a foreign power. The temple was no bigger and the people had no more freedom. The night of Israel’s long oppression was still dark. Pagan government officials who knew nothing of God’s holy laws told them how to live. They were allowed kings, but only as a puppet of a pagan king. So Israel was badly in need of restoration. And Joel brings them news of this restoration, this new day.
Many people enjoy watching the sunrise. Sunrises are especially significant because they come after long, dark nights. Sunrise is that moment when the light touches the darkness and the light wins out. They are significant because they are signs of hope. In the midst of hopelessness a light shines. A sign of life in the midst of death. First a glimmer and then a blaze of light in the midst of darkness. Sometimes during those dark parts of our lives when all seems to be going wrong, when all hope seems gone, there is s sunrise. Suddenly in the darkness of our situation, there is a color and light in the distant sky. Then in an instant a bright light floods over the horizon dispelling the darkness. That is what Israel needed. And that is what we often need as well.
In the midst of that darkness Joel saw a light from heaven, much like a sunrise after a dark night. It was a hope for the people of Israel, and he preached that hope. Like Job, they were to have their material blessings restored. No longer would God allow these pagan insects to infest their land. No longer would they go hungry, but they would have plenty. However, this restoration promised in Joel even goes beyond that. God’s message through Joel is even much more than that. It is about spiritual blessings, as God’s spirit is poured out on human hearts. It is about the restoration of the whole of creation. We pray for this kind of ultimate restoration every Sunday when we say, “Our Father which art in heaven…thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” -and we wait for that time to come. And according to the picture in Joel, the kingdom of God affects the whole of creation. It is a restoration to the way things were in the beginning, back in that first garden. Remember how at first there was food enough for all, just there for the taking, because of God’s goodness. Then because of his sin, Adam was told he would have to work and struggle in order to get enough to eat, when food had been freely given in the garden. Now, once again, because of God’s graciousness, not because of any human effort, Joel sees that everyone will eat plenty. Verse 26 points out that in the kingdom of God, which Joel sees as Israel restored, God says, “My people shall never again be put to shame.” Remember in the garden of eden Adam and Eve were naked and they were not ashamed. They had no reason to hide from God or one another until they had sinned. Now God wipes the slate clean, people are freed from the stain of shame and can begin again. Another thing that Joel sees happening in this total restoration is the closeness and intimacy between god and humanity restored, as he says in vs. 27: “you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel.” God walked with Adam and Eve in that early garden. God moved in close intimate relation with humanity. Sin broke that communion. But now, in salvation, God walks again in the midst of God’s people. That intimate relationship is restored. So this promise of restoration went beyond what they could have anticipated, beyond what they imagined, or probably even Joel imagined.
So in our lives, we need to be open to the new beginnings God si bringing to us, open to god’s leading, open to whatever the restoration God has in mind of our lives is, even if it is not quite what we imagine or expect. I remember when my life was in chaos and I was just barely beginning to come out of a darkness that I had thought would never lift, one of my friends came to me and said that she felt that God had a scripture for me, a promise. And she pulled this, what seemed to be obscure, scripture from Joel, “I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.” I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical of this. As I looked around, I could see I was still in the same situation that brought he darkness, and it didn’t look like anything was going to change anytime soon…let alone be restored. I struggled with this and she could see that. Then after a while she said, “you know, perhaps it is a different kind of restoration than what you are thinking of.” So I had to kind of think outside the box and be open to whatever it was God was trying to show me. Then she said the key words that helped me direct my thinking. She said, “Perhaps God may even mean spiritually instead of materially.” And the light dawned as I realized that that was it. And it became an exciting prospect to see what God was doing and where God was going. As I thought about all that I realized, not only was God’s promise true, but he was already fulfilling it, just not in the way one would expect. I realized that I was already in a much better place spiritually - stronger- than I had been before the “mightmare” began. God was fulfilling his promise, but until then I just had not noticed because it was not what I was looking for. That was truly an eye-opening and soul-opening experience for me. So remember: God promise is that no matter how it comes, or when or what form it takes, or if it is how or what we expect or not, restoration will come, just as surely as the sunrise follows the darkness because God is a God who restores, and a God of new beginnings.
Today we live in a dark world. A world where people kill one another, and wars and terrorism abound. A world where people are enslaved by drugs, abuse, materialism, self-centeredness. But God’s word tells us that a light will break through the darkness because God is a God who restores.
Does your soul need restoring today? What kind of darkness do you face? Is it a boring life, a dead end job, or looming illness? Do you face the darkness of domestic violence, a failing marriage, a family falling apart? Are you facing the darkness of financial problems, of bills piling up? Do you face the darkness of a self-centered life, or the turmoil of no inner peace? No matter what it is, you can rejoice for the light is coming. Morning is on the way. God has sent his son to bring light into our life. God has sent his Holy Spirit to invade and possess our soul and give peace and joy. God has promised a day when all oppression and evil will cease. And God has promised to be a God who restores… physical or spiritual, in this life or the next. If your soul is in need of restoring today, I want to invite you to come to the altar and pray and give the situation to God as we sing our last hymn.
