Joel 2:25-26, “And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten-the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And My people shall never be put to shame.” That’s a promise. I will restore to you! This is a prophetic chapter that even Peter used on the day of Pentecost, and we can use it in our day. It’s important! It’s talking about actual consuming bugs that God sent and they destroyed all the plants and vegetables. The entire 2nd chapter of Joel speaks of a great army and the one who was directing it. Joel is saying in verse eleven that God wants to restore something, but he had to send this plague to devour everything that was theirs so that they’d realize they had to surrender and give it back to Him, because if they didn’t, they would be destroyed. The army is composed of spirits in this illustration. They were devouring insects.
Before you got saved there were devouring insects that were devouring everything in your life. They devoured your joy. They came to eat your peace, talents and gifts, and your ability to become prosperous and succeed. The enemy came and ate at everything. Everyone of us, prior to Calvary, had exposure to this element of creatures coming to eat us inside out. Before you got saved you had no hope, joy, peace or love. No sense of worth or value, because the enemy was devouring you. The great dark army is employed by the Lord as the rod to execute his words. Joel 2:1 says to sound the alarm in Zion and warn them. God is a good God, and he warns us before He does…
God will give us warnings. We have warning lights that come on in our cars to tell us something is wrong: a light is out or a tire needs air. There are signs on the road to warn us from going the wrong way. And God is so good that He sends prophetic warnings to us. Read Joel 1:6-12. It talks about the field laid waste and how everything was destroyed. Satan takes everything from you. He devours everything in your life and leaves you empty. He doesn’t want to kill you. He’d rather have you empty, so you’re of no value to anyone. Remember, God said that he would restore to you the years of waste. God is restoring things back to you since you got saved! Self worth, integrity, a sense of direction. Maybe hope, faith, love, peace or joy. Everyday He is restoring things back. The enemy is a master at making people keep things that are not theirs. But, when you get saved and redeemed, God bought back everything for you, and He is going to restore everything back to you. And, the one thing He wants to restore is a sense of hope.
