Sermon at Grace Episcopal on by Lynette

Ash Wednesday- February 17, 2010

Message given at Grace Church, Molokai Ash Wednesday 2010

Joel 2 Locusts Invade like an Army

1 Sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Raise the battle cry on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the LORD is upon us. 2 It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears. Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again. 3 Fire burns in front of them, and flames follow after them. Ahead of them the land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes. 4 They look like horses; they charge forward like warhorses.5 Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops. Listen to the noise they make-like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble, or like a mighty army moving into battle… 11 The LORD is at the head of the column. He leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can possibly survive? 12 That is why the LORD says, "Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 13 Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead." Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. 14 Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before… 25 The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. 26 Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the LORD your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced. 27 Then you will know that I am among my people Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. Never again will my people be disgraced. 28 "Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants-men and women alike. 30 And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth- blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. 32 But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved, for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called."

Joel was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah about the same time Elisha was prophesying to the Northern Kingdom, Israel. He spoke to people who had become very complacent and self-centered. They took God for granted and worshiped idols. They had become insensitive to the condition of their spiritual lives. Their physical and moral senses were dulled to the point that they seemed totally oblivious. Joel warned them that sooner or later their sinful lifestyle would bring down the judgment of God. Up to this time they had been experiencing a great abundance agriculturally. They had plenty of grain, corn, wine and oil. They didn't want for a thing. So who needed God? Occasionally they would go to the temple to offer the sacrifices that were required and go through the outward religious motions, but it didn't really mean much to them.

As they continued on this downward spiral, there was a crisis that stopped them right in their tracks. A terrible plague of locusts swarmed into the land and nothing was left in the fields. Once overflowing, they were now empty of crops. It affected the animals as well as the agriculture of the area.

Locusts are the most important insects in the Bible. God sent them as the eighth plague of Egypt. John the Baptist's ate them - I'm told they're high in protein! A swarm may have a population of billions. Wherever they go they devour and destroy all vegetation.
The wind this week has made me think of them because locusts are usually brought in by the wind. A swarm can appear suddenly and disappear just as quickly. They can travel over long distances and they have been found as far as 1,200 miles out to sea. One swarm of desert locusts crossed the Red Sea in 1899 covered an area of over 1,930 square miles.

Egypt, Israel and Judah weren't the only nations to experience the painful results of locusts. America has experience too: locusts destroyed crops in New England in 1797 and in Minnesota's Red River Valley in 1818. In 1848 locusts plagued the Mormon pilgrims in Utah. The greatest plague to attack the United States devastated the Great Plain States all the way to the Texas Panhandle and Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about it in her book "On the Banks of Plum Creek" "They left the prairies utterly barren, with only holes in the ground where wheat or range grasses had been… One swarm, about 100 miles wide and 300 miles long, was so high and dense that it obscured the sun and darkened the land" The magnitude of the destruction was so devastating that it would take a long time to recover from it.
Many times our lives seem to be devastated from years of destruction the locusts have consumed. What has the wind blown into your life? What have locusts consumed, eaten, or destroyed? What hurts and pains have you continued to carry over year after year? We all experience disappointments; we all have regrets; we all have made mistakes and experienced neglected opportunities; each of us has made wrong decisions that cannot be reversed.

Well, Joel brings a message of hope to people experiencing just such circumstances. This message of hope is for us today as well. Verses 25 & 26 are probably the most well known verses in this book. "The Lord says, '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." Another translation tells us that the Lord said, "I will make it up to you..."

For Judah in those days the promise was that agricultural abundance would come back. That signified God's blessing. The bad years of drought would be restored and crops would grow again. The agony of dark years would be restored.

There are seasons in our life that involve famine and devastation and then there are times of restoration. Have you noticed that sometimes God can't get our attention when everything is going along just fine? The seasons of famine can have a divine purpose in our lives. They accomplish things that only these hard places can accomplish. The prophet Joel promises that whatever the locusts have destroyed, God is able to restore. The past cannot be reversed, but in Christ we all can have a new beginning.

There are prerequisites for restoration. Restoration doesn't just happen automatically. There are some things that the people needed to do before things changed for them.
A man with a nagging secret was unable to keep it any longer and he went to a priest to confess his sin. He admitted that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked. "How much lumber did you take?" the priest asked. "I took enough to build my home and enough for my son's house. Then I took enough to build houses for my two daughters. Oh, and our cottage at the lake." "This is a very serious offense," the priest said. "I'll have to think of a far-reaching penance. Have you ever considered doing a retreat?" "No, Father, I never have," the man replied. "But if you can get the plans, I can get the lumber."

The people of the prophet Joel's day were accustomed to repenting just like this man did. They put on sackcloth and ashes as an OUTWARD sign. But Joel tells them, "Do not rend or tear your garments as an outward ritual only. You've got to rend or tear your heart." That implies you mean it genuinely with all your heart so that you won't be doing the same old sins over and over again. God doesn't want an outward display of repentance without the inward change of heart. It needs to be an inside out job.

Look again at verses 12-14 "Yet even now" (right in the middle of your trouble) declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?" It has to be a GENUINE repentance from the heart.

When we REALLY turn to God and admit, "I can't, but You can!" He will give us a new spiritual perception to recognize what He is doing. God wants each of us to know that there is a time when He will restore in order to demonstrate His hand in our lives.

If God has taken you through some lean times, know that He is the restorer of what the locusts have eaten and acknowledge Him and praise Him for doing it for you too. Joel 2:32 says, "Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved." Our turning back to God is a DELIBERATE effort of the WILL. The promise is there: IF YOU turn, IF YOU repent, IF YOU make the move to meet the prerequisites, then the Lord says, "I will do. I will restore..."

Sometimes when people make promises, the SAYING and the DOING are two different things. But with God the saying and the doing are the same. God's promises are real answers to the prayer of faith. He is able to DELIVER on His promises.

Restoration can come to us even when it looks impossible, especially when things look impossible. Amen? Amen.

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