Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm… Locusts are happily unknown in England. We have only the harmless grasshopper here. Where plagues of locusts are known no one could Wonder that the writer of this book should represent them as a veritable army, leaving the desolations of war in their train, a desolation which would naturally take whole years to repair. Herein is a picture of some years in the life of humanity. A German philosopher has summed up our earthly state in the words, "Man has two and a half minutes here below — one to smile, one to sigh, and half a one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies." It is so apart from God. He is the only Restorer. Deny God, and the locusts are victorious for ever; the desolation is final and complete. Some years in some lives, and some lives as a whole, do seem to have fallen a prey to the locusts. We all know when we are wronged. And most of us feel keenly wrongs endured by others. The words of the text are spoken to a repentant nation. "I will restore." God is pledged to do so by His very being. To that He must be true. So great is this necessity that God — may I say it? — does not trouble to be consistent on any lower plane. He is ever true to that name, which means far more than anything we know under the name Love. Years may be apparently eaten by locusts which are not really so. When God's hereafter is recognised, what possibilities of restoration appear! The Incarnate Word .came to do the work of restoration from sin, and the miseries it has caused and causes. (W. A. Cornaby.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. |
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