The Eaten Years

Joel 2:16-17, 25-26, 28-29

Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

Verse sixteen creates an attitude of expectation in the middle of a famine, during a national disaster, and amidst the personal famines in our own lives. "The years the locusts have eaten," in verse twenty-five, are personal. This national scene of disaster is seen in the first part of the chapter in which the day of the Lord is at hand. The forces of his destruction are breaking, entering, pillaging the streets, and conquering the nations. His destruction is so complete that even the people are devastated by his judgment and correction. The God who commands Heaven's armies is concerned with the state of the people's hearts.

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. 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.

Even though the day of the Lord was sudden and without warning, the personal swarm of locust in the people's lives had been going on for years. Judgement must first start with the house of God and moves outwards as in 1 Peter 4:17. The warning signs were all there, but in the people's brokenness and in their abundance, they did not notice the Lord's ways. The Lord was moving on a national and a global scale. After all this, the promise of the Lord's blessing and the request to leave him an offering seems to be laughable. Such destruction has left a wake in its' path. Who dares to call a wedding at this time? The personal and national touching of the Lord was so great that the bride and the groom were still separate. Now he dares say that it is time to have a wedding.

Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?'"

The priests getting ready to officiate such a thing are found crying between the altar and the furniture in the house of the Lord. In this same area, the children of Israel and the religious leaders once slew the prophets of God according to Matthew 23:35. The pattern of persecution and destruction of the priests and prophets of the Lord as they carried out God's commands is clearly visible. The Lord himself wept over the people of Jerusalem who cast their leader and Savior out according to Matthew 23:37. This lends new meaning to the the prayer of the priests as they alone stand before God in the temple in these verses. Maybe the priests themselves had years eaten by the locusts; however, they could rest because they knew what God had promised them. As they prayed before God, their testimony, as did those slain for Christ who cry out for justice in Revelation 6:10, demanded an answer of the Lord. Such attacks were being made upon the persons of the Lord's ministers; yet they still made intercession for the people who persecuted them and for themselves. As they prayed, they asked that the Lord would honor his promises between him and the people. Were not the priests themselves an inheritance of the Lord according to Deuteronomy 18:1-2. For this, was not their testimony itself enough to make the Lord turn between them and the expectation of the people. As it was with them, so it was with their Lord who was also slain for the sins of world. Even now, he currently makes intercession for us before God whom we are called to follow as his people in Romans 8:34.

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Here is the blessing that God promised as he turns his heart to the people. Witness the promise of himself. He spared much for the sake of a few who called by his name. Not only that, but he also brought back the blessing that his armies had taken. He did not restore just enough, but more than enough in the manner of Job. His life was touched for God's glory and his ultimate blessing as in Job 42:10.