Joel 2:25
I will restore to you the years
which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.
We don't worry too much about locust plagues today. But in antiquity (and in certain places today) they were a live menace. Where they went, famine followed. Not without reason, they were seen as a sort of destroying army and, under inspiration, Joel recognized that at least one plague of locusts had supernatural significance: it signified the judgement of God. But if the judgement, then the mercy too. For God's judgment is always prelude to his mercy. Joel reminds Israel of this in today's verse. It's still true today. God can restore years that television, or the pursuit of mammon, or self-indulgence have eaten. Ask him to. Then do the next practical thing.
