Sunday, April 17, 2011

Worship with joy our God who restores

Jeremiah 33:1-11 TNIV

While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword in the fight with the Babylonians : ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.

“ ‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’

“This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,

“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,

for the Lord is good;

his love endures forever.”

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.


My thoughts -

In yesterday's post we saw how, despite the hopeless situation Israel and Judah were in, the Lord was their hope, even to the point of telling Jeremiah to buy a field. Here we see the same hopelessness. We see the gore, death, and despair the Babylonians are bringing with them. Desolation, destruction, and death are about to become very unwelcome guests. For all intents and purposes their world is ending. Life as they know it will be no more. This is essentially their nuclear winter.

And yet God assures them they will be restored. Even in this bleakness the Lord says they will sing and shout for joy and praise God in the streets. Things look as bad as they've ever been and yet this too will pass. God will restore them. And when restored they will worship and sing praises and shout for joy to the Lord.

This is the way God works with us, as well. No matter how bad things get we can always be restored to God. No matter how far we fall (remember this is a people who had fallen so far they were offering their own children as burnt offerings to Baal) we can always come back, we can always be restored. And when restored we can sing praises, shout for joy, and tell of the wonderful deeds of the Lord our God who is our Redeemer, our Deliverer, and our Savior.

We may fall but we can always come back. Our God is mighty to save, and if we come back our God will restore us. Let us sing for joy songs of praise to our God who restores this morning.
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