Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you
One year I was on a roll. In our travels pulling my travel trailer I nearly ran out of fuel three times in three different states. First it was in the fall in Indiana. I saw the fuel gauge was low, but my tendency is to not want to waste time stopping to get fuel when I could just keep going and run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. I realized too late that I should have stopped for fuel, so I was sweating bullets for a half hour because we were on a dry stretch where there were no fuel stops. I coasted into the fuel station and was able to fill up.
In the winter in west Texas, I literally ran out of fuel one mile from the exit. We were in a desolate patch. It was the first fuel station in miles and there wasn’t another for many miles after that. So, I ran out of fuel one mile before the exit.
Later in the spring, I was in South Dakota and a third time I almost ran out of gas. I pulled into a fuel station, looked at the price of fuel, and thought, “This is ridiculous. It is too expensive.” I started to pull out and it hit me, “Rice, what are you doing? You nearly ran out of fuel in Indiana. You did run out of fuel in Texas. Here you are in South Dakota. There is nothing for miles and you are going to turn your nose up at this fuel pump because of the price? No, you’d better get fuel when the getting is good.” I turned around and went back to where the fuel was. It was held in store. Ahead was nothing, but behind was the store that was available.
In Joel 2 God is speaking to a people for whom he had a store. He had a store of provision, but they had rebelled and turned from Him. God’s message was that if they would return, He would restore. In verses 12-14 God says, “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return.”
Verse 25 says, “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” Here is a wonderful promise, that if these people would return to God, He would restore to them. Not long ago I was driving through the Everglades in Florida and there comes a point when you pass the last travel stop. You are fine as long as you have fuel, but if you keep going ahead when the store is behind you, then you are in trouble. So, God says, “I will restore when you return.”
How are we to return? First, we return with all our hearts. God says to His people, “Return to me with all your heart.” It is not a return to provisions or joy, but return to God. Those things are found in God. Sometimes we are pursuing things that God gives when what we need to pursue is God Himself. Maybe you are in a dry place right now. What you need is not provision, but the God who provides. You don’t need the provision; you need the Provider. How are we to return? These people would have had a tendency to weep, fast, put on sackcloth and ashes, and rend their garments, but what God really wanted was not what they did, but what they were.
If what I am is pleasing to God, then what I do will please God, but I have to begin with who I am. He says, “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments.” It is not wrong to mourn that we have done wrong, but what God wants is not our tears, but our hearts. Sometimes we think that revival, turning to God, is a time of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. No, revival is a place of joy. It may well be that to get to that point of revival we have to confront sin, which brings weeping, but it is sin and not God that brings tears. So, return with your heart.
Why? Because God is gracious. He says in verse 13, “Turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious.” Verse 14 says, “Who knoweth if he will return and…leave a blessing.” Sometimes these people didn’t even have that with which to sacrifice to God because it had been lost by their sin. So, God is gracious and God returns.
God is also singular. That means that God is one of a kind. The Bible says, “I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.” There are no other gods and no God that can do what God can do. This is a present God. In verse 27 he says the same, “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel.” It wasn’t that God had left them; they had left God. Sometimes we feel like we are distant from God, but God never moves. God is transcendent, yet God is stationary in the sense that God doesn’t change. God is who God is.
God is a possessive God. Verse 27 says, “I am the LORD your God.” How wonderful that this mighty God of the universe is a God who can be my God. For that reason, earlier God said He was jealous of His people and has pity on His people. God loves His people and loves you. So, what is in store may be behind you not ahead of you. We think about that which is in store in the future. But sometimes what God has provided is behind you, so you have to return, not to a thing but to a person, to God.
Sometimes we want to add years to our life, but what God wishes to do is add life to our years. God says, “I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten.” Did God mean He would literally give back years that had gone from the calendar? No, He is talking about the things that were present in the years. It is never too late to turn to God. You cannot take back time, but you can take back God and He can restore to you the things that sin has taken. There is always hope to those who turn to God. God will restore when we have returned. May God help us to look to Him today.