Verse of the Day for April 11

Joel's prophecy is set after a locust plague that had stripped the country bare — the vine dried up, the fig tree languished, the seed rotten under the clods.

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.

Years, not fields. The loss being addressed is time, which is the one thing that cannot be given back in the ordinary sense.

And God does not say he will explain the years or redeem the lesson from them. He says restore, which is a word about replacing what was taken.

Note also who is speaking about the locusts: my great army which I sent among you. He does not distance himself from the disaster in order to promise the recovery.

The promise that follows is unglamorous and physical — ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God.

Restoration in Joel looks like an ordinary full table after years of not having one.

Everyone past a certain age has years they would describe as eaten. Illness, addiction, a marriage that took a decade to end.

He does not offer to explain them. He offers to restore them.