I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)
There is tremendous encouragement to be found in the lesson of the locusts. God will accomplish His purposes in the lives of His people by any means necessary . . . and along the way, He alone can bring restoration and reversal to all that was lost.
The crops that the swarming locusts had eaten were utterly lost, and they paint a proverbial picture of all the losses that God’s people face. When the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt, they were but a few days’ journey away from the Promised Land. But because of their rebellion, they lost 38 years and an entire generation while wandering in the desert. The prodigal son, who rebelled against his father and ran off to the far country, lost his time, his talent, and his treasure by choosing to live a life of rebellion.
There are many armies that the Almighty commands, and He uses them to correct us when we willfully wander away from Him. But never forget that, whatever form the Almighty’s army may take, it is never sent to crush us, but always to correct us in love. And in the Almighty’s cosmic correction, we find a word of unimaginable comfort: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”
Our great God can reverse the seemingly irreversible and give us great gain in spite of our loss. Jesus is in the business of reversing the seemingly irreversible; as He said, “With man this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
- He reversed the lost years of Abraham and Sarah without children
- He reversed the lost years of Moses on the back side of the desert
- He reversed the lost years of the Samaritan woman at the well
- He reversed the lost years of Zacchaeus the despised tax collector
- He reversed the lost years of Saul of Tarsus
- He reversed the lost years of the paralyzed man at the pool Bethesda
So the question is this: What lost years is our Lord ready to reverse in your life today? The lesson of the locusts should lift our spirits above all that has been lost in our lives, knowing that Jesus is ready, willing, and able to turn every loss into our great gain.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 