Restoration of the Prodigal - Part 4 of 6 God of Restoration We have seen that Jehovah God is a God of covenant. We now turn our focus on the fact that he is also God of restoration. He restored Abram and Sarai giving them new names after they had doubted his ability to give them a son. God also restored Isaac to fellowship after he deceived Abimelech regarding his wife Rebekah. Jacob was restored after wresting with God himself. And of course, Moses and the Children of Israel were restored after 40 years in the desert. Indeed, the restorative work of our mighty God is seen all through the lives of the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles. Consider Samson, David and Elijah. Or reflect on the lives of Thomas, Peter and of course Paul. God has been reaching out to restore his relationship with his children since the Fall in Eden. He has promised to restore Israel and we know that what he says he will do. How has he reached out to you with the loving hand of restoration? Would you deny that healing touch to his Chosen People, Israel? Restoration This exile of God’s Chosen People, the Jews, is not permanent. It is instead like the other exiles Israel experienced in the days of the kings and prophets when they walked in disobedience to God. Deuteronomy 28 assured them that exile would be the result of disobedience. However, God has always kept a remnant of faithful within Israel; those who fear and reverence God and walk before him in faith. Just as a good parent reassures the disobedient and reprimanded child of their love, so God assures Israel repeatedly in Scripture that she too is loved by him for eternity and will be restored to full fellowship with him. God declares to Israel in Zechariah 1.3, “Return to Me . . . that I may return to you.” And further on in verse 16 he declares “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it.” Later in chapter 2 the Lord has this to say of Israel’s restoration: Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst. . . and many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people (Zechariah 2.10-11). In Romans chapter 11, Paul uses the illustration of cultivated and wild olive trees to demonstrate how Israel’s exile has allowed the Gentiles to come into fellowship with God. The cultivated olive tree is symbolic of Israel. The wild olive tree represents the Gentiles. Anyone who has by faith received the covenant and promises of God is grafted into the cultivated olive tree, into Israel (Romans 11:17-18). Those who do not walk in faith, whether native to the tree or grafted in, are cut off (Romans 11:22). It is important to emphasize that Paul clearly states that the Jews who forsake their unbelief “will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again” (Romans 11:23). Indeed, prodigal Israel will be restored; their hardening is only for a time. Paul explains: For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 18:01:14 +0000
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