Promised Restoration
I finished my last IV antibiotic treatment today and have been feeling pretty good today. I mowed the lawn since we have had so much rain. It was good to be outside today. I am cautious on monitoring my energy level which is a new task for me. I enjoy outside work and it is easy for me to keep at it with an endless list of things that need to be addressed.
Christian and Bridget and the kids came up to Fort Collins again. Christian and Bridget are going to run in the Bolder Boulder 10K tomorrow. This is always a great event with 45,000 of your closest running “friends.” The grand-kids are becoming acquainted with with our new dog, “Andy.”
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:17-20
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34
The divided heart and idolatry of God’s people resulted over time in God’s discipline. When they entered the Promised Land the people of the land were wicked and served a number of idols along a host of detestable practices. Instead of God’s people becoming a purifying presence they added to the pollution of idolatry in the land and in God’s evaluation became even worse than the nations that had occupied the land.
The Lord would use wicked Babylon as a purifying fire to rid idolatry from God’s people. It would take 70 years. I am reminded of the words from a detective program where a detective told a suspect, “You are going to be in prison so long your parole officer hasn’t been born yet!” That was going to be the case with many who would return to the land after captivity as well as those leading the way.
This judgment was prophesied by Jeremiah and others. However, the discipline of the Lord was not easily accepted. Instead of submitting to the discipline of the Lord, Kings of Judah and rules tried to “save themselves.” This made matters only worse and resulted in greater suffering and loss of life.
I found it of interest that God spoke through both Jeremiah and Ezekiel similar words of promise. Out of captivity God would call in many ways a new nation. Even before Jerusalem was overthrown God was speaking through His prophets the future in store for them. God promised a new relationship, forgiveness of sin and forgetting their wicked ways, and a people with an undivided heart and a new spirit.
I would observe that:
(1) Negative influences over time can wear you down (Frog in the kettle effect)
(2) God disciplines to restore not to destroy
(3) Yielding is better than resisting the discipline of the Lord
(4) A new heart and a new spirit produce a new lifestyle
(5) God is still working out His divine purpose for people and nations.
In the New Testament, the book of Revelation, while filled with judgments is a call for mankind to recognize God and turn to God. In the end of time we see words similar to those spoken thousands of years ago by God’s prophets.
“ I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” Revelation 21:3