Deuteronomy 30:3 “Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity.…”
Observation: All through Deuteronomy 29 I see a familiar pattern. God reminds people of His marvelous deliverance in bringing them out of Egypt with amazing signs and wonders. But deliverance led to disobedience, resulting in decades of desert wandering. Now, as the remnant were preparing to enter Canaan, God renews His covenant. He promises curses for the disobedient among them, but also restoration for those who turn again to Him, saying “Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.”
Application: So it is God who scatters and God who gathers. In my lifetime I am seeing this promise of gathering being fulfilled in the natural. The Jewish homeland established in 1948 has seen wave after wave of diaspora seek refuge in the Promise Land. Sometimes Jews have come because of a longing heart; other times to run from oppression.
The very concept of God restoring from captivity is a stunning reality, first that He is able to restore and secondly that He will. Just as the Jews can find refuge in Israel, so I can find refuge in Him. I have found myself captive in so many ways over my lifetime…to unrighteous habits and thought-life, to judgments and hurts that have locked my heart. The idea that Jesus can restore me to Himself is profoundly stunning.
It is easy when I am despondent and discouraged to hope that I might be restored to outward things. I pray for my business downturn to be righted, or the sundered relationship to be restored, or political defeats overcome, or ill health made well. But His promised restoration is to none of these things; it is to Him. Indeed, the very things I would love to see restored can often be found to have been the source of my captivity to begin with.
He wants to make me His more than He wants to make me prosperous or healthy. That thought goes against the grain of a lot of ear-tickling Bible teaching today, yet the reality is that “prosperous” and “healthy” are destined for the grave. His highest purpose is that I could fellowship with Him in a garden now, and at His banqueting table then. I am His beloved for all eternity, no matter what happens in earthly realms that can cause flesh’s discouragement.
What a staggering thought! His kindness to me is overwhelming. His restoration becomes complete as defeat-inducing fears are subsumed in His love. My heart soars with the joy of knowing that His love is sufficient.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am amazed and saddened to be reminded again how easy it is for me to get off track with you. The things of this world can seem so important when I allow my heart to wander, to cling to things that will one day pass away. Forgive me, Lord. Restore my soul today, and tomorrow, and the day after. In Jesus’ name, Amen.