I WILL GIVE YOU BACK THE YEARS THE LOCUSTS TOOK

29 Days of Promise

I WILL GIVE YOU BACK THE YEARS THE LOCUSTS TOOK

Joel 2:25

Great Commission Church

Intro: Did you know that sin, at its very heart, is irrational? When we consider our sinful actions after the fact, they never make sense. Hindsight shows us the ways of escape the Lord provided that we disregarded. There is no coherent reason to rebel against God. Even after all the details and context surrounding the sin are known, it remains obvious the action was unwise and hurtful.

King Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4, illustrates the irrationality of sin perfectly.

He was the same king who sent Daniel’s three friends to the fiery furnace and saw the miracle of them surviving the ordeal without being singed or smelling like smoke. Considering that evidence, he wrote an open letter to all the earth under his rule:

Dan 4:2 I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me.

Dan 4:3 How great are His signs, and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.

But then the LORD sent him a dream in the night. It was vivid. It troubled him. None of his enchanters could interpret the dream. But Daniel, the Israelite captive could – he had the spirit of God in him.

When Daniel heard the dream, he too, was troubled. He discerned quickly that the dream God had sent Nebuchadnezzar was a sentence of judgment. At first, he was reluctant to give the interpretation.

The king urged Daniel to explain the dream. Daniel replied, “If only this dream was for your enemies and not you!”

What was the interpretation? A very powerful king would soon lose his authority and his ability to reason. The king was Nebuchadnezzar. His sentence? He would be insane for 7 years, living outside with the animals undomesticated and uncivilized.

He would remain in this condition until he knows “that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.” (The judgment would not come for another year).

Dan 4:29 At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon.

Dan 4:30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

Dan 4:31 While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you!

Dan 4:33 That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

“Pride leads to destruction and arrogance to downfall.” Prov 16:18 CEV

GOD RESTORES SANITY

Dan 4:34 And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.

Dan 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.

Another even more familiar story of restoration in the Scriptures is Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.

The essence of the story goes like this: a rebellious young man longs to be free from all authority structures he grew up with, including his father, his older brother, and his village. He demands his inheritance from his father, who reluctantly acquiesces. The son hurries into the world, and quickly squanders his fortune in immoral living. Then everything goes wrong both naturally and spiritually. He hits rock bottom as a wandering Jewish man humiliating himself feeding pigs on a Gentile farm. Hungry and ashamed, he resolves to go home and grovel for a job as a hired day laborer for his father. There’s no guarantee, though.

Luke 15:21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

Luke 15:22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

Luke 15:23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;

Luke 15:24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

GOD RESTORES STATUS

The Introduction:

Joel 1:3 Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

Joel 1:4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

The Promise:

Joel 2:25 “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.”

The effects of the locusts would be completely reversed.

Joel 2:25 I will give you back what you lost in the years when swarms of locusts ate your crops. It was I who sent this army against you. (GNB)

Speaking in legal terms, like an attorney explaining a summary judgment, the LORD promised to “repay” (restore, give back, make up for) the nation for the crops that had been destroyed by the locust swarm. It is a word used for compensation for damages.

Exodus 22:1 If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

“the years” – the plural seems to imply that the locust invasions were spread over more than one year. It was a devastating judgment.

You may feel like you have been staggered for a long period of time by the consequences of your own sinful choices. The locusts haven’t destroyed one of your harvests, they have decimated several.

Application:

WHY SHOULD I LOVE THIS PROMISE?

What it teaches about God’s character: “His last word is never judgment, it is always salvation.”

What it teaches about my past: “I do not have to be imprisoned by my foolish choices and sinful actions.”