Joel – Part 2 of 3

The Land Restored

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Joel 2:21-22

God’s punishment for sin was a very real experience for the children of Israel. Their constant disobedience of God’s laws and their disregard for Him as their LORD, caused a great chasm between them. A day of reckoning has come upon them, ‘a day of clouds and thick darkness’ (v2). An army of locusts approaches ‘like blackness spread upon the mountains…the land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them’ (v3).

What a powerful visual image of the devastation that sin can leave behind; the damage that it can cause and the loss that it brings as it ravages across our land and our world. And yet, in the midst of chaos and destruction, there is hope. There is mercy.

Yet even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (vs12-13)

God’s anger always gives way to mercy, and He makes a way for us to return to Him through genuine repentance. God doesn’t need, or want, a big show of weeping and wailing and tearing of clothes. He wants that are are sincere; hearts that are turned back to Him. By His grace He sends the rains of healing, and with them come a promise:

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. (v25)

We know that we cannot get back time an that has past, and wasted years definitely cannot be reclaimed. So, what might the Lord be saying here? Charles Spurgeon explains it like this: ‘Time once past is gone forever. You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours.’

God wants to pour out His blessing upon us – some come to Him in youth and receive from Him for many years, others come later in life. Regardless of when we come, of this we can be sure – God does not work in half measures. No blessing will be lacking and restoration will be full.