RESTLESS RESTORATION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work, until He makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.

The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by His own strength: “I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine. You raised the grain, and you will eat it, praising the Lord. Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.”

Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see.

Isaiah 62:6-10

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Seventy years. It’s a long time for anything. For some, it’s an entire lifetime and indeed some people don’t even live long enough to see the age of seventy.

That was the case for many of the Israelite people who had been judged and punished by God for their sinfulness and blatant disrespect unto Him in worshipping false gods and idols. They had been taken away into captivity from their homeland of Judah and Jerusalem which were then destroyed by the Babylonians, starting a seventy year exile of oppression and separation from the God they had violated.

The only good news was that the exile wouldn’t last forever. God had promised it.

Indeed, when the time was served by the Israelites for their wickedness against God, He would ensure they were able to return back to Judah and Jerusalem to rebuild their homes and their relationship with Him. He also ensured them that He would keep them safe from their enemies while they pieced their households and lives back together.

You’ll recall that the Babylonians needed removed from power in order for change to begin and God saw to that by sending the Persians, led by King Cyrus, against them. And after the Persians were in power, Cyrus saw to it that the people of Israel would be allowed to return home, releasing them, sending letters to surrounding nations to ensure they had safe passage on the way home, and providing them with materials to help the rebuilding process. Take some time to read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah for a detailed account of the rebuilding process as it played out.

Our scripture passage for today comes as the people of Israel are on the brink of being liberated from their captivity. In these words spoken by God Himself, we find words of final instruction regarding the rebuilding process, a process that could be labeled as a restless restoration. Look at these verses from Isaiah 62:

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work, until He makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.

The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by His own strength: “I will never again hand you over to your enemies. Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine. You raised the grain, and you will eat it, praising the Lord. Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.”

Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see.  Isaiah 62:6-10

Note here that the Israelites were not just building new structures but they were rebuilding their faith life as well. Central to that was prayer, the two-way communication means we have to connect to God. When we communicate with others, we build relationships. Prayer is the most primary way we build a relationship with our Heavenly Father so it should be of no surprise that God wanted His people to get back to basics with an emphasis on prayer.

Watchmen would be praying continually, day and night, on the walls of Jerusalem as they kept a vigilant lookout for any enemies who might try and attack. The people were to pray diligently as well and work just as meticulously in the way they carried out their daily work for the Lord. Their motivation was to be consistent and constant with no time to rest until the holy city was once again renovated to the point where it was the pride of the earth, revered and esteemed by all nations.

The people need not allow fear of another vicious attack and complete ransacking like they experienced from the Babylonians because God promised safety for His people. They would be able to enjoy the fruits of their own labors and no one would come to steal them away again.

Through the account of the Israelites, we see a God who delivers and offers opportunities for restoration. He was in Old Testament times and He is today. For at one time, we were once captive to our sins with no hope of escape, trapped in a worldly life that was finite. But then God, through His deep love for us, offered us a chance for liberation and freedom from our sins through His Son Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. And once we accepted that salvation offer, we were set free from sin’s custody and delivered into a new life, now and forever. In this new life, we are expected to consistently and persistently rebuild ourselves to be more and more like Jesus in character and spirit, modeling His life in the way we live ours. We are to not rest in serving God and carrying our His will and way as He restores us to who He wants us to be and leads us in His will and way until that day He calls us into His glory.

Friends, what a blessed assurance we have that God is never through with us. We are all works in progress, clay in the hands of the Master Potter as He transforms and conforms us to His own image. None of us are perfect and that’s good news because there’s always room to grow and be better than we were yesterday.

It’s little wonder why the scriptures then exhort us to this attitude in every day the Lord grants us:

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

It’s a life approach I never get tired of.

How about you?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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