I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts--the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust--My great army that I sent against you. Sermons
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, etc. These words refer to a twofold restoration. I. THE RESTORATION OF LOST MATERIAL MERCIES. "I will restore you the years that the locust hath eaten," etc. That the prophet has here in view the plague of locusts described in ch. 1., cannot well be doubted. The names, though placed in a different order, are identical with those there specified. "My great army. They are called God's great army, a name still given to them by the Arabs. Though a scourge lasted only one year, yet, as they not only destroyed the whole produce of that year, but also what was laid up in store for future years, the calamity was great. The loss of these God promises to recompense or make good by not only furnishing them with an abundance of temporal enjoyments, but affording them a delightful experience of his presence and favour as their covenant God. This promise is amplified in vers. 26, 27. Restoration in God's peculiar work. Who can restore the earth but him? An insect may destroy a giant; but God alone can restore the life of a dying flower. Restoration is God's constant work. From death he brings life to all nature. Spring is the grand annual illustration of it. God restores lost temporal blessings to his people in two ways. 1. By giving back the same in kind, as in the case of Job. 2. By bestowing that which answers the same purpose. II. THE RESTORATION OF LOST RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. What are these? 1. Worship. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, that hath dwelt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed." True worship is one of man's greatest and most original privileges of his being. True worship is supreme love for the supremely good. The loss of this has been man's crime and ruin; the restoration of this is his salvation. When men come to praise the Lord as they ought to, they reach the heaven of their being. 2. Communion. "And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else." Loving fellowship with the infinite Father is also another privilege which we have lost. The restoration of this is the consummation of blessedness. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." This last restoration is the most urgent and the most glorious one. The restoration of lost material mercies to a man, community, or country, is a Divine work for which gratitude should be cherished and practically exemplified; but the restoration of lost religious privileges, the true worship of God and true fellowship with him, is the transcendent restoration. When this is realized, the world's redemption is completed. - D.T. I will restore to you the years which the locust hath eaten. 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. () Lost years can never be restored literally. Time once past is gone for ever. The locusts did not eat the years — the locusts ate the fruit of the years' labour, the harvests of the field: so that the meaning of the restoration of the years must be 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 have mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours. By giving to His repentant people larger harvests than the land could naturally yield, God could give back to them, as it were, all they would have had if the locusts had never come; and God, by giving you larger grace in the present and in the future, can make the life which has hitherto been blighted, and eaten up with the locust, the caterpillar and the palmer-worm of sin, and self, and Satan, yet to be a complete, a blessed, and useful life to His praise and glory. Linger over this mystery of love. Picture the spirits of evil, year after year bearing away from the fields of human life all their harvests. Whither have they borne the precious products? The fruits of wasted years are gone — gone past hope. Yet the Lord wilt bring forth life out of the tomb; those long-lost spells shall be restored. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Does not the very difficulty, yea impossibility, of the enterprise make it the more worthy of the Almighty? To him that believeth all things are possible. () 1. We have the general sweeping promise of God. "I will restore the eaten years. We might fall confidently back on that alone. Restoration, according to the Divine ideal, is a possibility and a fact in the Divine economy. And some features of the process we know. For example, God turns the man entirely away from the thought and the work of literal restoration. He does not ask him to make good, in the sense of a literal equivalent, the waste of the past. His concern is with the present and the future, not with the past. Whatever God may do with the faultful past, a penitent soul can only leave it in God's hands. His work now is not to make good the past, but to give himself to the development of his new life as a new creature in Christ Jesus. The self-scrutiny of a repentant and forgiven man ought to be directed not at what he has been, but at what he is. Still, it is not restoration, that a man should simply leave the past behind him. God gives certain things which were forfeited in the wasted years of sin. God does not let the darkness of a man's past come up like a cloud between the man and the outraying of His Divine tenderness. The faultful past may, and often does, poison human affection. Human nature forgives hesitatingly, and there is a background of suspicion behind reinstated confidence. But God believes in the possibility of a genuine repentance, and frankly accepts it. Repentance is a factor of immense meaning in God's economy of restoration. When God heals a man's backslidings, He loves him freely. Restoration is included in restored sonship. There are certain incidents on the line of actual restoration which are noteworthy. God has a wonderful power of bringing good out of evil, and of getting interest even out of the evil of wasted years. In manufacturing communities, large fortunes are sometimes made out of what is technically called "waste." God discerns facts and possibilities in waste which we cannot see and could not be trusted to see. Illustrate from the story of John B. Gough. God strikes at the evil, but He saves the power out of the wreck, and the man carries the matured power over to the side of God's kingdom, and makes it an instrument of spiritual victory and conquest. We do not, and we cannot know what God does with the irrevocable and the irremediable in men's evil past; but we do know that He makes those barren and blasted heritages bloom again, and bring forth thirty, sixty, and an hundredfold. Both the Bible and Christian history are full of the grand fruitful work of restored men, men with large tracts of blasted years behind them. The best thing in restoration is getting back to God. Renewal, fruitfulness, peace, are not in our new resolutions, not in our turning to new duties; they are in His presence, His touch upon us, His guidance. The promise of restoration shall have a higher fulfilment by and by. "In God all lost things are found, and they who habitually plunge themselves in God and abide in Him, never become too rich. Nay, they find more things than they can lose." Let us not, however, presume upon all this to neglect our heritage. Let us not be tempted by this revelation of God's amazing goodness and restorative power, to think lightly of blight and bareness. God's promise of restoration is no encouragement to presumption. It does not make any less terrible the blight and canker which are due to our neglect or waste. God help us all! These lives of ours have been so faulty, so fitful, so unproductive. What shall we do? Surely not unduly mourn over the past, when He says, "I will restore." () Homilist. These words refer to a twofold restoration.I. The restoration of lost MATERIAL MERCIES. "I will restore you the years that the locust hath eaten." Restoration is God's peculiar work. Who but He can restore the earth? An insect may destroy a giant; but God alone can restore the life of a dying flower. Restoration is God's constant work. From death He brings life to all nature. Spring is the grand annual illustration of it. God restores lost temporal blessings to His people in two ways — 1. By giving back the same in kind, as in the case of Job; and 2. By restoring that which answers the same purpose. II. The restoration of lost RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. What are these? 1. Worship. "And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed." 2. Communion. "And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else." ()
People JoelPlaces Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Tigris-Euphrates Region, ZionTopics Army, Cankerworm, Canker-worm, Caterpillar, Caterpiller, Consume, Creeping, Cutter, Destroyer, Eaten, Field-fly, Force, Gnawing, Grasshopper, Hopper, Locust, Locusts, Palmerworm, Palmer-worm, Plant-worm, Recompensed, Repay, Restore, Stripping, Swarm, Swarming, WormOutline 1. He shows unto Zion the terribleness of God's judgment.
12. He exhorts to repentance;
15. prescribes a fast;
18. promises a blessing thereon.
21. He comforts Zion with present,
28. and future blessings.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Joel 2:25 4660 insects
4669 locust
8438 giving, of time
9165 restoration Joel 2:23-28 9220 day of the LORD Joel 2:24-26 9150 Messianic banquet Joel 2:25-26 8410 decision-making, examples Library December 16. "I Will Restore to You the Years that the Locust Hath Eaten, the Canker Worm and the Caterpillar and the Palmer Worm, My Great Army, which I Sent among You" (Joel ii. 25).
"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent among you" (Joel ii. 25). A friend said to me once: "I have got to reap what I sowed, for God has said: 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Then why don't you apply this in the spiritual world, and compel the sinner to pay the penalty of his sins?" Christ has borne this penalty, and the same Christ has borne the natural penalties, too, and …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth A Free Grace Promise
"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered."--Joel 2:32. VENGEANCE was in full career. The armies of divine justice had been called forth for war: "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war." They had invaded and devastated the land, and turned the land from being like the garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness. All faces gathered blackness: the people were "much pained" The sun itself was dim, the moon was dark, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 35: 1889 The Locust-Swarms
JOEL ii. 12, 13. 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. This is one of the grandest chapters in the whole Old Testament, and one which may teach us a great deal; and, above all, teach us to be thankful to God for the blessings which …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God Distinction Between Exterior and Interior Actions --Those of the Soul in this Condition are Interior, but Habitual, Continued, Direct, Profound, Simple, and Imperceptible --Being a Continual
The actions of men are either exterior or interior. The exterior are those which appear outwardly, and have a sensible object, possessing neither good nor evil qualities, excepting as they receive them from the interior principle in which they originate. It is not of these that I intend to speak, but only of interior actions, which are those actions of the soul by which it applies itself inwardly to some object, or turns away from some other. When, being applied to God, I desire to commit an …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents It is Strange that These Delightful Promises Affect us Coldly...
It is strange that these delightful promises affect us coldly, or scarcely at all, so that the generality of men prefer to wander up and down, forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to themselves broken cisterns, rather than embrace the divine liberality voluntarily offered to them (Jer. 2:13). "The name of the Lord," says Solomon, "is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." (Pr. 18:10) Joel, after predicting the fearful disaster which was at hand, subjoins the …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith The Holy Spirit of Promise
The Holy Spirit was promised through the prophets. "Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."--Isa. …
J. W. Byers—Sanctification Period I: the Imperial State Church of the Undivided Empire, or Until the Death of Theodosius the Great, 395
The history of the Church in the first period of the second division of the history of ancient Christianity has to deal primarily with three lines of development, viz.: first, the relation of the Church to the imperial authority and the religious forces of the times, whereby the Church became established as the sole authorized religion of the Empire, and heathenism and heresy were prohibited by law; secondly, the development of the doctrinal system of the Church until the end of the Arian controversy, …
Joseph Cullen Ayer Jr., Ph.D.—A Source Book for Ancient Church History Ash Wednesday. Gather the People . . And Let the Priests, the Ministers of the Lord, Weep Between the Porch and the Alter, and Let them Say, Spare Thy People, O Lord.
Gather the people . . and let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the alter, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord. Straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn [69]Albinus. 1652. trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855 Not in anger smite us, Lord, Spare Thy people, spare! If Thou mete us due reward We must all despair. Let the flood Of Jesus' blood Quench the flaming of Thy wrath, That our sin enkindled hath. Father! Thou hast patience long With the sick and weak; Heal us, make …
Catherine Winkworth—Lyra Germanica: The Christian Year Whether Fasting is an Act of virtue?
Objection 1: It would seem that fasting is not an act of virtue. For every act of virtue is acceptable to God. But fasting is not always acceptable to God, according to Is. 58:3, "Why have we fasted and Thou hast not regarded?" Therefore fasting is not an act of virtue. Objection 2: Further, no act of virtue forsakes the mean of virtue. Now fasting forsakes the mean of virtue, which in the virtue of abstinence takes account of the necessity of supplying the needs of nature, whereas by fasting something …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether this Sacrament was Suitably Instituted in the New Law?
Objection 1: It would seem that this sacrament was unsuitably instituted in the New Law. Because those things which belong to the natural law need not to be instituted. Now it belongs to the natural law that one should repent of the evil one has done: for it is impossible to love good without grieving for its contrary. Therefore Penance was unsuitably instituted in the New Law. Objection 2: Further, that which existed in the Old Law had not to be instituted in the New. Now there was Penance in the …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether all Sins are Taken Away by Penance?
Objection 1: It would seem that not all sins are taken away by Penance. For the Apostle says (Heb. 12:17) that Esau "found no place of repentance, although with tears he had sought it," which a gloss explains as meaning that "he found no place of pardon and blessing through Penance": and it is related (2 Macc. 9:13) of Antiochus, that "this wicked man prayed to the Lord, of Whom he was not to obtain mercy." Therefore it does not seem that all sins are taken away by Penance. Objection 2: Further, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether all are Bound to Keep the Fasts of the Church?
Objection 1: It would seem that all are bound to keep the fasts of the Church. For the commandments of the Church are binding even as the commandments of God, according to Lk. 10:16, "He that heareth you heareth Me." Now all are bound to keep the commandments of God. Therefore in like manner all are bound to keep the fasts appointed by the Church. Objection 2: Further, children especially are seemingly not exempt from fasting, on account of their age: for it is written (Joel 2:15): "Sanctify a fast," …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether Christ had any Acquired Knowledge?
Objection 1: It would seem that in Christ there was no empiric and acquired knowledge. For whatever befitted Christ, He had most perfectly. Now Christ did not possess acquired knowledge most perfectly, since He did not devote Himself to the study of letters, by which knowledge is acquired in its perfection; for it is said (Jn. 7:15): "The Jews wondered, saying: How doth this Man know letters, having never learned?" Therefore it seems that in Christ there was no acquired knowledge. Objection 2: Further, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether this Name "Holy Ghost" is the Proper Name of one Divine Person?
Objection 1: It would seem that this name, "Holy Ghost," is not the proper name of one divine person. For no name which is common to the three persons is the proper name of any one person. But this name of 'Holy Ghost' [*It should be borne in mind that the word "ghost" is the old English equivalent for the Latin "spiritus," whether in the sense of "breath" or "blast," or in the sense of "spirit," as an immaterial substance. Thus, we read in the former sense (Hampole, Psalter x, 7), "The Gost of Storms" …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether There Can be Anything Pernicious in the Worship of the True God?
Objection 1: It would seem that there cannot be anything pernicious in the worship of the true God. It is written (Joel 2:32): "Everyone that shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now whoever worships God calls upon His name. Therefore all worship of God is conducive to salvation, and consequently none is pernicious. Objection 2: Further, it is the same God that is worshiped by the just in any age of the world. Now before the giving of the Law the just worshiped God in whatever manner …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether Deeds Deadened by Sin, are Revived by Penance?
Objection 1: It would seem that deeds deadened by sin are not revived by Penance. Because just as past sins are remitted by subsequent Penance, so are deeds previously done in charity, deadened by subsequent sin. But sins remitted by Penance do not return, as stated above ([4804]Q[88], AA[1],2). Therefore it seems that neither are dead deeds revived by charity. Objection 2: Further, deeds are said to be deadened by comparison with animals who die, as stated above [4805](A[4]). But a dead animal cannot …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica The Benefits of Christ Made Available to us by the Secret Operation of the Spirit.
1. The Holy Spirit the bond which unites us with Christ. This the result of faith produced by the secret operation of the Holy Spirit. This obvious from Scripture. 2. In Christ the Mediator the gifts of the Holy Spirit are to be seen in all their fulness. To what end. Why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Father and the Son. 3. Titles of the Spirit,--1. The Spirit of adoption. 2. An earnest and seal. 3. Water. 4. Life. 5. Oil and unction. 6. Fire. 7. A fountain. 8. The word of God. Use …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Books of the Old Testament as a Whole. 1 the Province of Particular Introduction is to Consider the Books of the Bible Separately...
CHAPTER XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE. 1. The province of Particular Introduction is to consider the books of the Bible separately, in respect to their authorship, date, contents, and the place which each of them holds in the system of divine truth. Here it is above all things important that we begin with the idea of the unity of divine revelation--that all the parts of the Bible constitute a gloriously perfect whole, of which God and not man is the author. No amount of study devoted …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Severinus in Germany.
As the Lord ever sends his angels when there is most need of help, so in the midst of the desolation and destruction which ensued on that irruption of the barbarians by which the Roman empire was broken in pieces after the death of Attila, the great desolator and exterminator, (A. D. 453,) He sent to the aid of the oppressed people of Germany, on the banks of the Danube, in their sore need, a man endowed with an extraordinary energy of love. His whole appearance has in it something enigmatical. As …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places The Situation of the Jews During this Period.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, the declarations of Holy Writ make it very clear that Israel will yet be restored to God's favor and be rehabilitated in Palestine. But before that glad time arrives, the Jews have to pass through a season of sore trouble and affliction, during which God severely chastises them for their sins and punishes them for the rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah. Fearful indeed have been the past experiences of "the nation of the weary feet" but a darker path than …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return Third Withdrawal from Herod's Territory.
Subdivision A. Pharisaic Leaven. A Blind Man Healed. (Magadan and Bethsaida. Probably Summer, a.d. 29.) ^A Matt. XV. 39-XVI. 12; ^B Mark VIII. 10-26. ^b 10 And straightway he entered into the boat with his disciples, ^a and came into the borders of Magadan. ^b into the parts of Dalmanutha. [It appears from the context that he crossed the lake to the west shore. Commentators, therefore, pretty generally think that Magadan is another form of the name Magdala, and that Dalmanutha was either another …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Whether those who had Been Baptized with John's Baptism had to be Baptized with the Baptism of Christ?
Objection 1: It would seem that those who had been baptized with John's baptism had not to be baptized with the baptism of Christ. For John was not less than the apostles, since of him is it written (Mat. 11:11): "There hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist." But those who were baptized by the apostles were not baptized again, but only received the imposition of hands; for it is written (Acts 8:16,17) that some were "only baptized" by Philip "in the name …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Three Things Briefly to be Regarded in Christ --viz. His Offices of Prophet, King, and Priest.
1. Among heretics and false Christians, Christ is found in name only; but by those who are truly and effectually called of God, he is acknowledged as a Prophet, King, and Priest. In regard to the Prophetical Office, the Redeemer of the Church is the same from whom believers under the Law hoped for the full light of understanding. 2. The unction of Christ, though it has respect chiefly to the Kingly Office, refers also to the Prophetical and Priestly Offices. The dignity, necessity, and use of this …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion Because of Its Bearing Upon the Gentiles.
This aspect of our subject has not received the attention which it deserves. It has been assumed by some that the present dispensation is the time when God is blessing the Gentiles and that in the Millennium the Jews will be the special objects of God's favor. It is true that in the Millennium Israel shall enter into the enjoyment of their inheritance and that at that time they shall occupy the chief position, governmentally, among the nations, but it is a mistake to suppose that the Gentiles will …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return Links Joel 2:25 NIV
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