By David Dunlap
In life, it’s possible to restore certain things we lost, misused, or damaged: Money can be restored. Property can be restored. Relationships can be restored. The one thing we cannot restore is time. Time flies by, and it does not return. Years pass, and we never get them back. Yet God promises the impossible: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” (Joel 2:25)
The immediate meaning of this promise is clear. In the days of the prophet Joel, God’s people had suffered the destruction of their entire harvest by swarms of locusts that marched like an insect army through the fields, destroying the crops and multiplying their number as they went. The harvest was wiped out, which brought God’s people to their knees.
The people of Israel had done a lot of hard work in the years the locusts had suddenly eaten. After the insects had destroyed everything, the Israelites must have thought, All this work and what do we have to show for it? Yet God said that in the coming years, their fields would yield an abundance that would make up for what they had lost: “Behold, I will send to you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them.” (Joel 2:19)
God also placed this promise in the Bible as an application for us today. What do “lost years” look like for us?
Lost years are fruitless years
Lost years are neglected investments of time and opportunities for Christ that we can never get back. It might be the loss of pouring ourselves entirely into a specific goal or venture at the expense of spiritual service to the Lord. In the end, we find little spiritual fruit to show for it.
Some believers know the regret of these years lost for the Lord’s work. They think, What has come of all my time and all my effort? “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams,” the actor John Barrymore once said. These believers may once have dreamed of great spiritual service for Christ but now regret that little has come of it.
Sadly, others had great plans for Christ but the things of this world sidetracked them entirely. They assumed that, one day, they would find the time that never came. Now, they live with an aching disappointment. Lost years are painful memories.
Restoration comes through deeper communion
Take heart! There is hope because God promises to restore your lost locust years. God can restore them by deepening your communion with Christ. The prophet Joel reminded Israel, “You shall know that I [God] am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God, and there is no other.” (Joel 2:27) The Jewish nation had endured so much, yet afterward, they would enjoy a communion with the Lord far greater than anything they had ever known in their spiritual lives.
Christ offers bumper crops
The harvests of the people of Zion were wiped out for four years, but God restored those years—the years that the locusts had eaten—by giving bumper crops. Likewise, if you are a believer experiencing the regret of lost years, there is still time to dedicate yourself to the Lord and His work. Why not ask Him for help?
Tell Him, “Lord, I have spent too many years without You, too many years apart from You. Fill my heart with love and gratitude for You. Let the loss of these years make my love for You greater than it would ever have been. You have called me, as your disciple, to bear fruit that will last. Too many fruitless years have passed. Now, Lord, I ask of You, give me some years in which more lasting fruit will be born than in all my years of small harvests. Restore to me the years the locusts have eaten.” God offers Himself to you, and He says what no one else can ever say: “I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.”
David Dunlap is a commended worker based in Florida.
Originally published in Missions magazine, April 2023. For more content, sign up for a free subscription (US) to Missions at CMML.us/magazine/subscribe.
