Swarming Locusts Do Not Win

“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

“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 again be put to shame.

-Joel 2:24-26, ESV

Picture a cloud of grasshoppers descending upon your field of grain. A black cloud of hungry bugs. They eat ever last leaf, stock, and grain. And you are looking at a famine in your near future.

This passage is speaking to a people God judged via locust. They knew the devastation these little creatures could do. And interesting enough, locust are often consider symbols of demons. They only come to destroy.

I wonder if you have ever felt like the Jewish farmer looking at his barren field after the locust swarms departed wondering if he and his family would survive the coming, hungry winter. The devastation of adultery and/or divorce are like that. Such destruction leaves in its wake true despair.

Well, I am writing here to encourage you, if you find yourself in that place. Lost job, lost health, lost status, lost children…I am sure you could make your own devastation list. The locust may have descended upon your life, but someone is bigger than that cloud of locusts!

He is the one who made them. Demons and all are under His authority.

And His Word declares restoration:

“I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten” -Joel 2:25a, ESV

Overflowing vats and returned years.

That is the promise I see here.

And I testify to the truth of this promise.

It is not a false hope.

Today, my vats are overflowing after experiencing devastation. My career is going strong in a job perfectly tailored for me. And my cup cannot contain the joy in my heart for my new family. I can go on, but I think you get the point.

I am here to bear witness to God’s faithfulness and encourage you that no one’s field is too barren that God cannot turn it around to produce overflowing crops of joy!

The swarming locusts of your life do not get the last word.

God does.