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 great encouragement to be found in the lesson of the locust. God will accomplish His purposes in the lives of His people by any means necessary; along the way, He alone can bring restoration and reversal to all that was lost.
The crops that the locusts had eaten are a picture of all the losses all God’s people face. When the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt, they were just a few days’ walk from the Promised Land. But their rebellion cost them 38 years and an entire generation 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 when he chose to live a life of rebellion.
To be sure, the Almighty commands many armies, and He uses them to correct us when we willfully wander away from Him. However, the Almighty’s Army is never sent to crush us; it is always to correct us. 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 turn our mourning into dancing and bless us with great gain in spite of our crushing loss.
Jesus is in the business of reversing the seemingly irreversible .
- 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, the persecutor of the church.
- 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; we can trust 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 