Restoring the Years the Locusts Have Eaten

Tucked away in your Old Testament is a little book called Joel. Joel is all about a locust invasion. Now before I studied that passage I didn’t think much of a locusts invasion. I think I remember as a small child in the mid 80s I think…there were two different types of locusts that on occasion would both come in the same year. All I remember about that was that it was loud and my uncles were a bit frustrated and concerned b/c they impacted their crops. But it wasn’t a time of total devastation. So when I first read Joel, I thought…oh that’s not so bad.

But then I studied a bit. And I think I’ve shared some of this with you before in a previous sermon, but bear with me. It says in Joel 2 that “The land is like the garden of Eden before them (so beautiful, rich, plentiful, glorious) but a desolate wilderness behind them (meaning that this devastation is so massive that all is laid bare).”

How are they so deadly? Well, the desert locust (that’s just one of the types that impacted the people) is able to eat 2g each day. That’s not much but you then factor in their swarms. And you see that many swarms are about the size of Newton county. And within each square mile there are some 100 million locusts. I’m not very good at math but we’re talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 billion locusts at 2 grams per day. 176 million pounds per day. . If they were people-eaters they would eat at average weight 1, 174, 950 people in a day. But they do not eat people, they eat plants. And, just one last little note about their devastation, their poop is toxic and destroys whatever they do not eat. Locust are devastating.

Locust swarms are devastating. And their impact doesn’t just destroy the crop for that year…it’s laid bare for years to come. In Joel we see that the plague impacts everyone. Nobody gets away from this. The farmer, the priests, the drunkard, everybody is impacted.

So I want you to think about that for a moment. I think now we might be able to do this even better than we could have in the past. We’ve had a fair amount of things wrecked by COVID-19. You can think of high school seniors who didn’t get the same type of graduation that they had been looking forward to. Weddings have been impacted. Movies. Sports. You have seniors who aren’t able to finish out their season....they will never get to play another game. And here is one of the most painful things I’ve seen in this whole thing. Families who have loved ones in the hospital that they can’t visit or in the nursing home that they aren’t able to see. You don’t get that time back.

If you’re a farmer in Israel during the time of the locust invasion there isn’t an economic stimulus package. You don’t get that food back. You don’t get that income back. Just the barren wasteland. You have to try to build from that. In the same way as we wrestle with COVID—or other heartbreak—we’re left asking the same question. Can you give those years back, God. What does redemption and restoration look like?

You’ve got Christians in the first century who because of their following Jesus—their inability to engage in emperor worship, they lose jobs, relationships are strained, they are being persecuted. Do I get those years back? The years of pain? The broken relationships? The stuff that the locusts have eaten? These are the type of questions and pain likely going through their heart and mind as they hear these words from Peter:

Read 1 Peter 5:6-11

We looked at some of these verses last week. We looked at the necessity of humility in the midst of suffering. If we aren’t humble then we won’t cast our cares upon the Lord. And if we aren’t humble we won’t pursue things like repentance. We won’t be in a place to resist the devil. Because if my heart is given to pride, there isn’t much that I need to resist—he’s already reigning. But the devil hates humility. He hates the way of the cross. And so he prowls around. That’s what we see in verse 8.

There are actually two ways that a lion will attack. One way is to hide in the thick grass, watching your every move, waiting for a moment of weakness and then pouncing. The other way of attack is to back you into a corner and by sheer force overpower you. He certainly employs both strategies but it seems to actually be the second one—the ROARING lion that is happening here. It is through suffering and persecution where the devil is meeting them.

Your adversary. Always busy. Always at work. Always opposed. He’s never going to be on your side. Even if you side with him he is still an advocate for your destruction. He is still the father of lies. That doesn’t change.

Now that doesn’t mean that every little thing can be laid at the feet of the devil. But I appreciate these words of Spurgeon:

Satan is not in all sin, we sin of ourselves. We must not lay too much upon Satan’s shoulders. Sin grows in our hearts without any sowing, just as thorns and thistles will grow in fallow furrows, but still there are times when Satan himself must have been present, and you have had to know it and feel it. On some of the old bricks of Egypt and of Babylon there has been found the mark of a dog’s foot. When the brick was made, while it was left to dry, the creature passed over it and left the imprint of his foot upon it and now, thousands of years afterwards, when we pull down the wall we find the dog mark. Thus, has it been often with us. While our duties were in such a state that they were yet impressible, before they were yet sun-burned and dried, and ready to be built up for real practical purpose, that dog of hell has passed over them and left the footprint on the best things that we ever did. As we look back years afterwards, we perceive what we might not have seen at the time—that he really marred and stained the best performance of our most willing hands.

Your adversary the devil. Accuser. That’s what he is. You can see a picture of this in Zechariah 3. There you have Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord. And Joshua is filthy dirty. He’s not fit to be a high priest. He’s a representative of the people—the best they’ve got—and he’s stained from head to toe. Defiled. And who do you see right there with him? The accuser. Zechariah 3:1…and Satan was there to accuse him.

One of the most impactful songs I've ever heard was Embracing Accusations by Shane & Shane. It was transformative for me. These lines:

Oh, the devil's singing over me an age old song That I am cursed and gone astray Singing the first verse so conveniently over me He's forgotten the refrain, Jesus saves

Here is why this is so impactful and important for us to remember. It's important for us to remember this when the enemy brings words of accusation upon us. He's often right. It's shaded, it's jaded, it's a bit twisted, and ignoring shreds of nobility even in our darker moments....but he's right. Our hearts are sinful (though being transformed).

But he always forgets the refrain. He doesn’t leave you with hope. He doesn’t point you to Jesus. He doesn’t tell you of the sufficiency of Christ. He just tells you of all your guilt, all your shame, all the yuck, and he leaves you there.

This principle is also important for us to remember this when the enemy gives us laser like focus on the sin and finitude of others. He's probably right. They too are sinful. Cursed and gone astray. Just like us. If you want to be a slanderer…there is not a single person in this room who does not have fodder to give you for your cannon. Every last one of us are sinners.

Yes, the Lord calls us to holiness. Yes, the Lord calls us to expose sin. Yes, the Lord calls us to go to our brothers and sisters when they sin against us. Yes, the Scriptures call upon us to bear the burdens of each other—to at times openly rebuke sin, to call back people from death, all of that. But if that’s the major note that I’m playing....if I forget the refrain…I’m not speaking with the tongue of grace.

We must not forget the refrain. JESUS SAVES.

This is the gospel. This is the hope. Yes, we're a messed up lot. Yes, we're at times given over to hypocrisy. Yes, we're often side-tracked by a million things that aren't significant. Yes, we can bow to false gods of this world that offer us security (like politics). And yes, this is all deserving of rebuke. So yes, repentance is often needed.

BUT we are first and foremost heralds of the kingdom! We are peddlers of hope. If our focus is centered upon how messed up we are, how messed up others are, how messed up the church is, how messed up our nation is, etc. THEN we are seeing the world through the eyes of an accuser. I say this because my heart can be so prone to this--I have to fight each day to see with eyes of hope. I don't always win. (Thankfully Jesus does).

Friends, this is what it means to be “sober-minded” and to be “watchful”. Satan hates the gospel. Words of correction that are void of the gospel—those aren’t coming from the Lord. Words of comfort that are void of the gospel—those aren’t coming from the Lord. He can get us in the valley and he can tempt the Savior on the top of the temple. And so being sober-minded and watchful is a call for us not to look for Satan behind every tree and every bush but to be so attuned with hope and the good news of Jesus Christ that we can spot those serpent words that are void of grace and mercy and justice and love and healing and hope.

Seeking someone to devour. Devour. That doesn’t mean that he is a little kitty cat pawing at a mouse or playing with a ball of yarn. We’re talking ripped to shred, torn from limb, utterly destroyed, no ability to repair. Devoured. Locusts plague. Garden of eden before, barren wasteland after. Nobody can fix this. Again I turn to Spurgeon:

Do not, therefore, indulge the thought, that the main purpose of Satan is to make you miserable. He is pleased with that, but that is not his ultimate end. Sometimes he may even make you happy, for he hath dainty poisons sweet to the taste which he administers to God’s people. If he feels that our destruction can be more readily achieved by sweets than by bitters, he certainly would prefer that which would best effect his end.

It might seem pleasant for a season, but his end is always death. This is why we must resist him and be firm in our faith. It’s our faith that he aims to destroy. It’s seeing the world with eyes of hope. It’s trusting in the goodness of God. It’s anchoring in the gospel. He wants that to be severed. That’s why he is roaring.

But notice this what Peter is doing here…we resist him because we aren’t alone. The same suffering that others are experiencing throughout the world. Notice what this does. For one, it helps them to know they aren’t alone. It’s so helpful that when you’re really going through it to talk with a brother or sister who says, “bro, I’m hurting too.” Some of the most life-giving relationships I have are with a group of other pastors. “So I’m not crazy....oh…you become a zombie too at about 2pm on Sunday’s”.

But this does something else, I believe. It cuts off one of Satan’s more subtle attacks. It’s what I like to call the dangerous pit of uniqueness.

You ever hear that phrase? “You’re one in a million.” Do the math…you know what that means…it means that if you’re one in a million there are 6000 people just like you.

Remember last week how we talked about a subtle form of pride being a desire to be different…to be unique. Well, I think this especially hits us with suffering. Most Americans want to be unique…even more than we want to be awesome. We don’t care what makes us unique or famous, so long as we are so. Twenge and Campbell in their book, The Narcissim Epidemic, highlight this trend:

We are a nation fixated on the idea of being the exception to the rule, standing out, and being better than others—in other words, on being special and narcissistic—and we’re so surrounded by this ethos that we find it shocking that anyone would question it. Fish don’t realize they’re in water.

We’ve been told for years that we are special. The cartoons I watched as a child never failed in reminding me of my uniqueness. I was reassured that I could be anything I wanted to be. I easily recall lessons learned in school (and even church) about snowflakes and fingerprints to help me celebrate my uniqueness. That’s not all bad—it’s good for a person to know that God has knitted them together in their mother’s womb and that He has done so with precision and intention. That’s a good thing. But when this good thing is hi-jacked by our self-worshiping hearts our uniqueness becomes a great tool for our destruction.

Consider a person that has been dealt a pretty rough hand, one that is filled with suffering. And not just your garden variety of suffering, mind you. I’m talking about the really intense kind of suffering—that looks to be absolutely senseless and unnecessary.

Such a circumstance provides a great opportunity for a heart bent towards narcissism to fulfill its twisted desires. In times of intense suffering it is easy to feel that our affliction is unique and that we have been dealt a blow more weighty than other people. And so, somehow, even through our pain we find a way to worship. Sadly, our worship is not that of Job, who said from the ashes: “Blessed be the name of the Lord”.

No, our worship is self-directed. Our wound the altar. Here we pay homage to our uniqueness. And here, in that moment when the sufferer adopts the label of “special” or “unique”, the downward spiral begins, cutting him/her off from hope and help.

The Spiral

The one that convinces himself that he is special immediately disconnects himself from the rest of society. Nobody has ever walked in your shoes. Therefore, you can easily conclude that no person is fit to speak truth into your life. Until they walk a mile in your shoes they have no way of understanding.

As Twenge and Campbell note, “studies have found that teenagers who have a ‘personal fable’ of uniqueness believe that no one understands them.” Once you become misunderstood then it’s only a short step to shut yourself off from godly counsel. Only those agreeing with you really understand what you are going through. You don’t have to listen to any voice but your own and the ones that agree with you.

Passages of Scripture that were once helpful no longer have bearing on your life. After all, you can reason that those Scriptures don’t apply because the biblical authors aren’t walking in your shoes.

Now every sinful response to your suffering is excused—at least in your mind. It’s not you, it’s the suffering. When the afflictions keep piling on (and usually a great portion of it the consequence of your sinful response to suffering) you conclude that God has forsaken you.

It is here that you will make your bed in ashes. You’ve spiraled into depression and self-pity. Here you will become jaded and your conscience seared. You, and you alone, have been abandoned and forsaken by the God who said that He wouldn’t forsake anyone. You’re stuck in this pit with no rope. You even lack the fingernails to claw your way out. You are hopeless.

There is only one way out…

If you are wallowing in the mud of despair and you feel all alone as if nobody understands you, the only way out of this pit is to turn away from such narcissistic malarkey. And the only way to be convinced that you aren’t unique and that you aren’t special, is to look to the Lord Jesus. He alone is truly unique! He knows suffering more than any of us will. He alone could drink the cup of God’s wrath. He alone could pay the penalty of all our sin. He alone could, as Peter said in chapter 2, “bear our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds (and his wounds alone) you have been healed.”

And that’s what Peter is doing here. He is showing other believers all around the world and he is uniting them all and saying you aren’t unique in your suffering…this is the suffering of Christ. There is one who has gone before you. You are suffering in Christ. Just as all your brothers and sisters. It might be a different experience of the lion, his roar may sound different for you, his paw may hit you a different way but it’s not about you. It’s about Jesus.

Only in His uniqueness can you find rescue from the pit of yours.

Now notice the beauty of v10.

After you’ve suffered a little while. Does that mean a little season here on earth? Or does this mean as Paul said, “These light and momentary afflictions”. Maybe a little of both but certainly the emphasis is upon God’s restoration later…our blessed hope.

Look at this text. Restore. Confirm. Strengthen. Establish you. There isn’t a ton of difference in these words. They are all very similar. But I’ll tell you the crux of them. God is going to make you whole.

Can you give me those years back. Can you restore what the lion has ripped into shreds? Nobody can fix those claw marks…can they? Remember how I started with the locusts plague. The pain of that. Sitting in ashes. How can this be rebuilt?

Listen to Joel 2:25. 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[a]— my great army that I sent among you.

God is able to restore the years the locusts have eaten. Now can I be honest with you. I’ve always been bothered by the ending of the book of Job. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job…I’m good with that…but it’s never quite set right with me that it talks about his new kids. Okay, restore the camels, restore the sheep, the donkeys, the property, mend the relationships, give an abundance of crops. But you can’t replace another human being. You can’t really fix or replace this side of glory. And you also CANNOT get back time.

But somehow God is able to restore those years. Abundance of fruitfulness later, maybe. Depth of joy in later years that he restores, perhaps. But I think Job isn’t supposed to be settling because that’s NOT the end of the story. The years the locusts have eaten aren’t going to be fully restored here. It’s not supposed to be like…oh wow, God fixed it completely this side of glory. That’s not what Peter is aiming at. God might substantially heal this side of glory.

This isn’t a call to focus on our woundedness. It’s not a call to focus on the roaring lion. It’s a call to focus on Jesus and trust him and to trust his goodness. Keep our hope fixed upon him, cast our cares upon him. Again consider these words that Peter spoke in chapters 2, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

Early I mentioned the accuser in Zechariah 3. Yes, Joshua the high priest is guilty. BUT that’s not the whole story. Listen to

Zechariah 3:1–10 ESV

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

This from Spurgeon:

“Satan says, ‘the man’s garments are filthy’,’Well,’ says Jesus, “how do you expect them to be otherwise? When you pull a brand out of the fire, do you expect to find it milk-white or polished?” No, it had begun to crack and burn, and though you have plucked it out of the fire, it is in itself still black and charred. So it is with the child of God. What is he at the best? Till he is taken up to heaven, he is nothing but a brand plucked out of the fire. It is his daily moan that he is a sinner; but Christ accepts him as he is: and he shuts the devil’s mouth by telling him, “Thou sayest this man is black — of course he is: what did I think he was but that? He is a brand plucked out of the fire. I plucked him out of it. He was burning when he was in it: he is black now he is out of it. He was what I knew he would be; he is not what I mean to make him, but he is what I knew he would be. I have chosen him as a brand plucked out of the fire. What hast thou to say to that?”

What happens here is that the Lord himself has covered Joshua the high priest. And because of this any words of the enemy do not prevail. They don’t have the final word. Jesus does. And Jesus gives to us all of his righteousness.