I will repay the years the locusts have eaten
Joel 2:23-27
Last Sunday, Revd Lola, my dog, reminded us to ‘Return to me, declares the Lord. Even now. Rend your heart, not your clothes. For I am gracious & compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love.’ That returning is for all of us. Not just once, but daily. Even now.
Today, God says, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” (Joel 2:25)
Locusts can devastate vast areas. They eat away in seconds what farmers have spent a year cultivating. Imagine you’re that farmer. Would you feel: anger/ bitterness? Sadness/ sorrow? Self-blame / lament? Disappointment/ hopelessness?
Joel knew all about the devastating effect locusts can have on people. He was speaking into the ‘moment’ about actual locusts. They were bringing disaster. Environmental disaster. Economic disaster. Health disaster. Humanitarian disaster.
But he was also using locusts as a metaphor. There was a spiritual disaster. What God had made, what God had declared “good”, was under threat. Joel was trying to warn people that their happy-go-lucky actions today were going to have disastrous future consequences. But no one was listening.
We’ve all had moments in our lives that, now, looking back, we feel robbed us of life or an opportunity. It’s as if our physical health, mental health, wealth.. have been eaten away. It left us feeling ‘mugged’ – like something was taken, stolen from us. Because of that one moment, one decision, our life took a very different direction. It’s a moment we can’t get back or change. We missed that exam or fluffed that interview. A relationship that never happened, or a relationship that DID. There’s a generation defined and, for some, scarred, by the 11+ Exam.
Sometimes, it’s prolonged seasons of loss, not just a moment,. Years – I will repay the YEARS the locusts have eaten. Not just one missed grade or failed exam, but a lost whole education. A lost childhood: as a young carer, or living in a toxic household, or in/out of hospital. Years lost to addiction or excessive work (compensating for or avoiding what?) Or that unexpected pregnancy or sentence. Joel’s locusts are our locusts too. We’ve all got our ‘locusts’.
It’s lost time or opportunities that we can’t get back. Like the farmers with devastated crops, we too can be left with feelings of: anger and bitterness; sadness & sorrow; self-blame/ lament; disappointment with God, hopelessness. Why do I…? Why did you…? Why did God…? Sometimes the hardest thing to do is take personal responsibility. That happened because I put myself in that position. To come to our senses. To turn (that is, repent), rend your heart (be remorseful) and return to God.
One locust we could handle. But Joel says, “I will repay the years the LOCUSTS have eaten.” Sometimes we feel attacked by SWARMS of locusts. So many it’s as if that the sky turns dark.
Locusts are ‘critters’, they are not human beings. When some politicians speak of ‘swarms crossing the English Channel’ they’re using de-humanising language. They don’t want us to think that these are PEOPLE, just like us. At risk of going all “Gary Linekar”, no one wakes up one day and, out of the blue, commits mass atrocities. Gradually over time, they’ve used de-humanising language. These aren’t people like us, fearing for their lives. They are ‘critters’, ‘locusts’.. they are a ‘swarm’. One deranged leader can’t commit mass genocide, it takes a whole population to do that. And history tells us, it starts with de-humanising language.
The enemy is a thief. Like locusts, he comes to steal, kill, destroy. Jesus came to bring life.
Joel repeats his description from 1:4 of there being waves of locusts: “After the cutter-locusts finish eating your crops, the swarmer-locusts will take what’s left! After them will come the hopper-locusts! And then the stripper-locusts too!”
1.	Swarming locusts: overwhelm us, they eat away at the fruit of our labours, what we’ve worked so hard for, our fruitfulness.
2.	Cutting locusts: eat/ strip the leaves, leaving branches and us feeling exposed/ vulnerable/ shamed (everyone can see we’ve been attacked by ‘locusts’)
3.	Hopping locusts – attack the stem from ground level - eating its and our strength, resilience, hope.
4.	Destroying locusts: dig down underground to attack its and our roots, it’s our identity, soul, the very essence of who we are.
God is in the business of restoration, redemption. “I will repay the years the locusts have eaten.” Revelation 21:5 says, “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
What have you lost that God is wanting, even now, to restore? We are sometimes duped into harbouring misguided Victorian-era feelings of shame. We don’t want people to see that we have a need. Of course, everyone has needs. Everyone. And you and I are no different. Joel invites us to open ourselves up to the possibility of healing, restoration. God says to YOU, “I will repay the years the locusts have eaten.” Let God do in your life what only God can do.
07840 046020   DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk