As we closed yesterday's study we found the people rejoicing at the Lord's word, even before they saw these wonderful blessings coming to pass. We pick up in the middle of that passage today with the people saying to each other: "Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the autumn rains because He is faithful." (Joel 2:23a) The people have not always been faithful but the Lord always is. Even their hardships display the faithfulness of God because He didn't send the locusts in order to destroy the people but to turn the hearts of the people back to Him. As King David said to the Lord after he had been through a time of hardship, "I know, Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." (Psalm 119:75)
The Lord, who is a good and responsible Father, must take corrective action when His children go astray. If He does not, He is not demonstrating love toward His children at all! For example, a loving parent doesn't allow his young child to toddle off into traffic; he grabs the child out of harm's way. A loving parent doesn't allow his teenager to take off with the wrong crowd or ignore curfews or bring drugs and alcohol into the house; he imposes discipline upon the teenager in the form of grounding or the removal of certain privileges. The Lord doesn't let us get away with sin because He knows that sin is destructive. Sin hurts us and it hurts those around us. He cannot, if He loves us, fail to take corrective action when He sees us engaging in sin.
The Lord has removed the plague of locusts from the land and now He intends to send refreshing rains at their proper times to cause the food sources to produce again. "He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with rain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil." (Joel 2:23b-24) He's going beyond just sending them enough. He's going to cause their cups to run over, as David said in Psalm 23. This year's crops are going to produce enough for this year and for next year and perhaps for several years to come.
Now we arrive at a verse that is near and dear to my heart. "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." (Joel 2:25) The Lord sent the plague of locusts because the people weren't living in faithfulness to Him. This plague must have affected the food supply for more than one year since He refers to "the years" the locusts have eaten. I allowed some locusts (metaphorically speaking) to eat some years of my life in the past by living in sin. Some locusts also ate some years of my life as the result of someone else's sin that affected me in major ways.
In regard to a desperate situation that someone's sin else brought into my life, during that time I happened to turn the TV on one morning and a pastor of a megachurch was on. I'd heard of him but had never listened to him. Since that time his reputation has been less than stellar and many mainstream Protestant churches do not recommend listening to him. But he preached on Joel 2:25 that morning and, whether or not he was preaching the word of God in the right spirit, I can attest to the fact that the word of God ministered to me. That verse was exactly the verse I needed to hear and it was exactly the verse the Lord intended for me to hear. The Lord says of His word: "It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11b) I don't remember anything else that TV preacher said except for the verse we are studying today but the Lord absolutely accomplished His purpose with it. I clung to that verse for quite some time before my circumstances turned around and I can testify to you today that the Lord did turn them around---He accomplished something in my situation that no human efforts had been able to accomplish---and He truly has repaid me for the years the locusts had eaten. He restored my life in many abundant ways and made it better than it had been before I ever went through that time of trouble.
He goes on to say to the people of Judah, "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." (Joel 2:26-27) Speaking again of the troubled time I went through some years back, there were people who thought my hope was in vain. I was repeatedly told, and by one person in particular, that I was "beating a dead horse" by thinking the situation would turn around. But my hope was in the Lord who had made promises to me and I am not ashamed of that hope because His promises came true! The only person who had any reason to feel ashamed was anyone who said or thought that His promises to me weren't going to come true. To quote David again, after he had been delivered from one of his many seasons of hardship in life he said, "Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." (Psalm 34:5) The only ones who should feel ashamed are those who have spoken against the Lord. The only ones who should be ashamed are those who have wrongly proclaimed that He is unable or unwilling to do great things for those who put their trust in Him.
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