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 and along the way, He alone can bring restoration and reversal to all that was lost.
The crops that the locusts had eaten were lost crops and a proverbial picture of all the loses all God’s people face. When the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt, they should have been but a few days walk away from the Promised Land. But in their rebellion, they lost 40 years wandering in the desert and many ultimately lost their lives. The prodigal son who rebelled against his father and ran off to the far country, lost his time, his talent, and his treasure choosing to live a life of rebellion. Yet, the Father reversed the seemingly irreversible when the son returned home.
To be sure, there are many armies the Almighty commands and He uses them to correct us when we wander away from Him. The Almighty’s Army is never sent to crush us, but 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 reverse the seemingly irreversible and give to us great gain in spite of our 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
- 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 is to lift our spirits above all that has been lost 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 