The years the locusts have eaten from Joel 2

Many years ago God impressed upon me Joel 2:25-27 which reads (bold mine):

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.

Then you will know that I am in Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

The date in my Bible is January 11, 1996.  This was two weeks before I unknowingly bought the dress that would end up being our bridesmaid dresses exactly one year to the day before my wedding to a man I had not yet met.  It was about four months before I met David.  A year later, I was married.

It was the Lord’s army that He sent among the Israelites. It wasn’t an accident. It was done on purpose to draw His people back to Him. I believed God had promised me that the desert years would be repaid. And I do believe He has blessed me abundantly in my marriage after years and years of waiting. What I may have missed out on in years, I have been more than blessed in terms of the quality of the harvest.

I recently came across this quote by Spurgeon during our church Bible study. This quote quickened my heart and, once again, I distinctly had the impression that God was speaking to me through Joel 2. Spurgeon writes (emphasis mine):

It will strike you at once that the locusts did not eat the years: the locusts ate the fruits of the years’ labor, the harvests of the fields; so that the meaning of the restoration of the years must be the restoration of those fruits and of those harvests which the locusts consumed. 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.

I am often tempted to grieve the years lost due to my physical struggles.  There are so many losses because of them. Lost time, lost money, lost ministry opportunities, lost time with friends, lost creativity… So much.

And yet God can restore those things.  No, I will never get back the hours and days and weeks and even years that have been lost. But God can restore the potential fruit of those years. He can restore the harvests that were consumed.

And that gives me hope. Hope that He will restore, once again, the years the locusts have eaten.

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