Reverend J. Loren Russell
Joel 2:25-26 AMP
And I will compensate you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust—My great army which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.
Because of their rebellious nature, they turned away from the God of their salvation and sought after the pleasures of the world, the Children of God suffered devastation, cruelty, and injustice. Nothing within the power of mankind could compensate them for the loss they endured. Ironically, what they suffered was not God abandoning them, it was God disciplining them, making them ready to receive the blessings He planned for them all along.
Joel prophesied at a time in the land of Judah when the locusts had destroyed everything. In only a few hours a once beautiful, lush land became a place of desolation and destruction. The destruction was greater than anyone had ever seen before. Famine had gripped the land, and both people and animals were dying. Joel understood that the worst was yet to come – the judgement of God.
But despite the devastation and the prophesied destruction, what we see in this book is a call to repentance, and a promise of accelerated restoration – recompense! Joel says that the people shall be compensated for all they had endured. In verse 28, Joel looks far into the future and says God will pour out His spirit “on all flesh”. Our current era is the age Joel saw prophetically, the time when “whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 32). Restoration was not limited to crops; it includes souls.
When we align with God, we position ourselves for divine and accelerated compensation. I am reminded of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his vision of the inevitability of accelerated restoration shared in his speech, “How Long? Not Long”, that he delivered on March 25, 1965 at the conclusion of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He said;
“How long? Not long! Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Dr. King caught the vision and was convinced that there would be an accelerated restoration, particularly for those who suffered horrendous devastation.
Accelerated restoration is connected to repentance and renewed trust. God’s promise follows our turning. Anyone can, and everyone should, share in the accelerated restoration.
Be Blessed!
Matters of Faith 
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