Replanting, Rebuilding, Repaying, Repairing

Isaiah 51:3 NIV

The Lord will surely comfort Zion
    and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
    her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Psalm 69:65 NIV

for God will save Zion
    and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will settle there and possess it

Joel 2:15 NIV

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm
my great army that I sent among you. 

Amos 9:25:11

¹¹ “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins—
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,

Many times in the poetic and prophetic literature we see what I would call the language of restoration.  Other writers have picked up this theme and noted the promises to “build highways in the desert”¹ and the concept of Christ’s return constituting “the restoration of all things.”²

In the verses provided for today, we see the replanting and refreshing of a waste place (KJV); the rebuilding of walls (in other passages and here implied) and cities; the regaining of lost years, whether stolen or squandered; and the repair of something broken (of the four, the one perhaps with an analogy most waiting to happen).

There have been times in my life when a project seems to be in ruins, a dream appears to have been shattered, time and energy seems to have been expended for nothing, and everything I have been building toward is simply broken.

Your life is no different; brokenness happens to everyone at some point.

But God is in the business of restoration. Replanting, rebuilding, repaying, repairing is his modus operandi. He’s in the grace business.

God’s desire is to put things right. When circumstances of career, relationships, finance, health, vision, purpose or security come crashing down, somewhere in time and space these things in your life will be restored and God is positive disposed and favorably inclined to you seeing that restoration in his complete fullness of time.

Deuteronomy 30 (The Message)

3 God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. 4 No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there 5 and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed.

I Peter 5:10 (NLT)

In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.

Go Deeper: 21 Verses on Restoration from the blog Jolly Verses (seriously!)

Have a comment to add? I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface on this topic. Regular readers and subscribers are encouraged to use the comment section on the blog.

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¹An Introduction to the Bible By Robert Kugler, Patrick Hartin p.234
²How to Study the Bible By Greg Herrick p.19