Read

God Redeems the Past

Joel 2:25

When Moses detailed the blessings Israel could expect from keeping God's covenant and the curses they would experience for not keeping it (Deuteronomy 28:1-68), the curses were more detailed (54 verses) than the blessings (14 verses). Many of the curses had to do with the land and agriculture, one in particular recalling the eighth plague of Moses on the land of Egypt: "Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land" (Deuteronomy 28:42; see Exodus 10:1-20).

As promised, when Israel violated God's covenant the locusts appeared and devastated the land (Joel 1:2-4). It fell to the prophet Joel to explain to Israel why this was happening—he saw it as a prelude to, or at least a warning about, the "great and terrible day of the Lord" (Joel 2:31), the period in which God judges all the nations and sets right the balance scales of justice. Joel called on the nation to repent—everyone from children to priests (Joel 1:2-13).

But there is also a word of grace and compassion. If the people will return to the Lord they will recover: "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, . . . my great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, . . . and My people shall never be put to shame" (Joel 2:25-26).

For man, time is experienced in a linear fashion—what's done is done. But somehow, God is above time and is able to negate the effects of the past. In spite of sins and foolish choices, God is able to bring fruit out of desolate ground as if it had been flourishing and cultivated all along. And most of all, God is able to remove shame. There is no law of "a year for a year" in God's chronology. God can, in short order, reverse the consequences of years of bad decisions.

Back to Joel