Years Can Eat Years — A Biblical Revelation on Lost Seasons and Divine Restoration
There is a haunting yet deeply prophetic phrase tucked inside the book of Joel. God speaks through the prophet and says: “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten…” (Joel 2:25). Not days. Not moments. Years. This single statement opens a doorway into a strange spiritual reality—years can eat years. Seasons can swallow seasons. Time can devour time. And the loss is not simply emotional or financial; it is deeply spiritual.
When Scripture speaks of “locusts,” it is not merely referring to insects but forces, circumstances, and cycles that consume what should have grown, matured, or multiplied in your life. Locusts represent devourers of destiny: delays, disappointments, wrong decisions, spiritual attacks, wasted seasons, emotional wounds, and even environments that suffocated potential. When these forces are active, a person can look at their life and suddenly realize that five, ten, or even twenty years seem “missing”—not because they did not live through them, but because nothing meaningful was produced within them.
Joel describes four levels of devouring: the gnawing locust, the swarming locust, the crawling locust, and the consuming locust (Joel 1:4). These represent stages of loss: slow erosion, sudden attack, silent sabotage, and total destruction. There are seasons where the enemy does not steal everything at once—he steals little by little until progress, joy, vision, and momentum quietly drain away. Years can vanish in transition. Years can vanish in battles you didn’t expect. Years can vanish in waiting for something that never came. Years can vanish in relationships that broke you. Years can vanish in environments that never empowered you.
David expressed this painful truth in Psalm 31:10: “My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my years are spent with sighing.” Years can be spent in grief. Years can be swallowed in sorrow. Psalm 90:9 declares, “We finish our years like a sigh.” The sigh of regret, the sigh of missed moments, the sigh of dreams unfulfilled. Yes—years can eat years.
Even Jacob felt this spiritual truth. When he finally stood before Pharaoh, he confessed, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life” (Genesis 47:9). Jacob was old, but he was not fulfilled. He had lived many years, but only a portion of them carried peace. This is the mystery: age does not equal fulfillment; length of life does not equal quality of life.
Joel’s prophecy is God’s direct answer to this human pain. God acknowledges the devastation—He does not deny it. He does not minimize it. He does not say the loss wasn’t real. Instead, He says something impossible, something only God can say: “I will restore the years…” Only the Creator of time can restore time. Only the One who lives outside of seasons can redeem seasons that were stolen. Only the God of eternity can bend time backwards and forward to compensate for what was lost.
God restores years by compressing seasons. God restores years by accelerating progress. God restores years by multiplying fruit. God restores years by redeeming past pain. God restores years by making one year produce what ten years should have produced. The restoration of God does not simply return what was lost; it releases what was delayed, withheld, or destroyed into your present and future.
This is why Psalm 126 speaks of sudden, overwhelming restoration: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” Restoration can be so swift and so deep that it feels unreal—as if you are watching your own life from the outside. What was lost in tears returns in joy. What was stolen in darkness reappears in light. What was delayed in warfare emerges in peace.
Scripture shows this pattern repeatedly. The years Joseph lost in slavery and prison were restored in a single moment when Pharaoh lifted him to the palace. In one day, the pain of thirteen years bowed to the fulfillment of purpose (Genesis 41:41–43). Years devoured by betrayal, false accusation, and confinement were redeemed by divine positioning. God restored years by compressing destiny into a sudden elevation.
Job lost years of labor, wealth, and family joy in one devastating season. But Job 42:10 declares, “The Lord restored Job’s losses… and gave him twice as much as he had before.” God restored not only possessions but honor, friendships, reputation, and emotional stability. The restored years were better than the original ones.
In the New Testament, the woman with the issue of blood suffered twelve years of sickness and financial loss (Mark 5:25–34). Yet in one encounter with Jesus, years of suffering bowed to one moment of healing. Time itself knelt before divine intervention.
When Jesus stepped into the life of the man at the pool of Bethesda, thirty-eight lost years were overturned in a single command: “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” (John 5:8). Restoration is God collapsing wasted years into present wholeness.
God restores years by healing the soul. Psalm 23:3 says, “He restores my soul.” Some years are lost because the soul was wounded. When God heals the soul, destiny begins to move again. Isaiah 58:11 says, “You shall be like a watered garden.” Restoration brings life to barren places.
God restores years through recompense. Isaiah 61:7 promises, “For your shame you shall have double.” This is not poetic language—this is divine reality. Wherever shame swallowed years, honor will return them in double measure.
God restores years through renewed youth. Psalm 103:5 declares, “He satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” God does not simply restore opportunities—He restores strength, vitality, capacity, vision, and energy.
God restores years by revisiting destiny. In Joel 2:27 God says, “My people shall never be ashamed.” The restoration of years is also the restoration of identity. Shame erases courage, but restoration gives it back.
Years can eat years. But God can restore years.
There is no loss too great, no delay too long, no detour too deep, and no story too damaged for God to rewrite. What you think is gone forever is still in God’s reach. The locusts may have eaten your joy, but God restores joy. They may have eaten your confidence, but God restores boldness. They may have eaten relationships, but God restores connection. They may have eaten opportunities, but God restores doors. They may have eaten your spiritual passion, but God restores fire.
When God restores years, He does not take you back to who you were. He moves you into who you were meant to become. Restoration is not reversal — it is transformation.
And this is the promise for you:
What the enemy used years to destroy, God will use moments to repair.
What life swallowed slowly, God will return suddenly.
What seemed wasted will become testimony.
What seemed lost will become harvest.
And what felt gone forever will be restored by the God of time.
