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When Nehemiah found Jerusalem's walls in rubble and its people in disgrace, he did not despair. He wept, and then he prayed, and then he assessed the damage by night, quietly, before anyone else knew his plan. Then he told the people what needed to be done: "Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach" (Nehemiah 2:17). The rebuilding of something destroyed is explicitly a biblical narrative. God is not unfamiliar with people who are starting over from ruins.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.”
Psalm 107 opens with this specific description of the homeless and displaced, and then describes God leading them to a city of habitation (v.7). The pattern of taking the homeless to a place of settled dwelling is presented as characteristic of God.
“Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.”
Nehemiah assessed the ruins honestly before announcing a plan. Rebuilding starts with honest assessment, not denial of the damage. The ruins of Jerusalem were rebuilt by people who had also lost everything. Rebuilding after ruin is a biblical narrative.
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.”
God acknowledges the damage with specificity — names the destroyers — and then promises restoration of what they took. The years lost to homelessness, the capacity that eroded, the time that passed — this is the kind of damage this verse addresses.
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:”
Jesus places himself inside the person who needs housing. 'Stranger' — xenos — carries the sense of the displaced person without a fixed place. Jesus identifies with the person in homeless recovery directly. He is not above this story; he is in it.
“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”
God describes the kind of community he calls his people to be — one that receives and rebuilds. Recovery from homelessness requires a community willing to be this verse. The 'cast out poor' being brought into a house is described as an act of righteousness, not charity.
Psalm 107 opens with a picture of people who were "wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in" — homeless and directionless — and then describes God leading them to "a city of habitation" (v.4–7). The psalm presents this as a characteristic act of God: taking the homeless and giving them a place to dwell. The Hebrew moshab — habitation — is a place of settled dwelling, not temporary shelter.
Matthew 25:35 records Jesus' identification with those who needed housing: "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." The word xenos — stranger — in Greek carries the sense of the displaced, the person without a fixed place. Jesus identifies himself with the person in homeless recovery. God does not regard the homeless from a distance; by Jesus' own statement, he is one of them.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Joel 2:25 contains one of Scripture's most specific promises about restoration: "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten." God does not rewrite the history of what was lost. He acknowledges it — names the damage with specificity — and then promises restoration of what was taken. The years of homelessness, the capacity lost, the time that could not be recovered — this is the kind of damage the promise addresses.
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