Daily Devotional Details

Date

“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” Joel 2:25

Money can be restored. Property can be restored—cars, paintings, old houses. Relationships can be restored. But one thing that can never be restored is time. Time flies and it does not return. Years pass and we never get them back.

Yet here we find God promising the impossible: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” The immediate meaning of this promise is clear. God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest. And God’s people were brought to their knees. But “the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people” (2:18), and so he said, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied” (2:19).

Look at all the good God promised to do for his people: The enemy who had taken advantage of God’s people would be removed (2:20). The animals that were groaning would have green pastures again (2:22). The children could be glad again and anticipate the rain (2:23). And the fields would yield an abundance that would make up for what had been lost (2:24, 26).

This was a wonderful promise for God’s people. It meant that years of abundant harvests would follow the years of desolation brought about by the locusts.

Is there something you’ve lost that you don’t think you could ever get back? Have you lost hope? Why do you think God put this story in the Bible?