Joel 2:25

"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, that hath dwelt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be put to shame.

It is of interest that the four names of locusts appearing here are the reverse order of their use in Joel 1:4. God promised the complete recovery of all the losses incurred from the terrible visitation.

"My great army which I sent among you ..." This is a reference to the locusts, since that is the subject being discussed; but this isolated use of the expression here is not sufficient to deny its symbolical and figurative use earlier. It is rather a reminder of the greater disaster symbolized by the locusts. In fact, even this description of the temporal benefits of God's blessings upon Israel is freighted with intimations of the spiritual benefits accruing to God's people in all ages to come. Paul so interpreted this very verse in Romans 10:11,12, where he spoke of the blessings of believing in Christ, saying, "For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame; for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek."

One great fact regarding such precious promises was that in the ultimate and final sense, they were contingent upon Israel's continued penitence and obedience. One may be very sure that the first generation to receive these words failed to get that condition. "My people shall never be put to shame" was a promise which secular Israel mistakenly assumed to be their unique heritage, overlooking the truth that in every age, God's people are those who do his will. These promises then, both here and in the succeeding verse, did not promise unlimited security and blessing for secular Israel, but to God's true people, the spiritual seed of Abraham.