“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ I pray with you: May God restore to you everything that different kinds of ‘locusts’ have devoured in your life. May God cause a total restoration unto you in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Throughout redemptive history, one sad theme runs consistently. God sets his favor on the Israelites as his treasured possession, makes a covenant with them to bless them, and they break their part of the covenant. It is a sad illustration of the human condition that God’s own people, rescued from bondage in Egypt by the mighty hand of God, forget again and again his faithfulness and goodness to them, turning instead to false gods and the wickedness that goes with other religions.
God is perfectly holy, and while He routinely shows His children mercy and is patient with them, His holiness eventually leads to the necessity of disciplining His people. Whenever He does, He always returns to restore them and bless them once again because of His Lovingkindness and mercy for them. In Joel 2:25, God promises not only to resume blessing, providing for, and protecting His chosen ones who have failed, God even promises to restore what was lost in the destruction brought upon them by their sin and rebellion.
This is a sweet promise for anyone who has suffered the consequences of their sin and fears that they cannot recover what was lost. God is a kind and merciful Father to us who will not discipline us more than is necessary and longs to restore us in our relationship to Him, and in the blessings we enjoyed by His hand.
