#193: Restoration

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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Rev 21:3-4

Some say a home is a place where you live permanently with probably your loved ones or a place where you feel that you belong, some say home isn't a place, but it is a feeling or a person that makes you feel secure and peaceful. What is home to you?

Gen 2 explains what the garden of Eden looked like, it was beautiful, God provided EVERYTHING for us including His presence. God was at the centre of it all, it was so amazing

Now imagine being sent away from such a sweet home. Why? Because we decided to choose disobedience

Gen 3 v 22-24

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us [the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit], to know [how to distinguish between] good and evil and blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever–

Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

So [God] drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep and guard the way to the tree of life.

So sad; everything was lost within a moment. Today, we can only imagine how different things could have been if we were all in the garden of the LORD. But then, I bring good news to you; God is a loving father, and He says you can come back to Him. The bible traces the journey of our exile and ends with hope. Last week, we saw Jesus as he stepped into the exile narrative as the way back to God. Now we have access to the throne of grace. But honestly, this is nothing compared to Eden. Was the ministry of Jesus limited? Is there ever a way of reviving Eden again?

Amos 9 v 14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

So, if you read the bible, we know that when King Cyrus ordered the release of the Israelites, the Jerusalem they came to was a shadow of what they left. They began to rebuild the walls; they began to rebuild the temple. But it was nothing compared to what the Babylonians destroyed. But God kept giving hope through the prophets:

“The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”, says the LORD of hosts. Haggai 2:9

By the time Jesus came, the temple was still a shadow of the former. Had God’s promises failed? To make matters worse, there was another oppressive empire in town – the Romans. And today? There is no temple in Jerusalem! Was God going back on His words?

Jesus began to declare the Kingdom of God. He said He was bringing the Kingdom (Matt 4:17). But He also said, though the Kingdom has begun on earth (Luke 17:21), it will be consummated in its fullness when He returns (Matt 24).

Isaiah had prophesied about a new heaven and a new earth where the hostility caused by sin would be erased (Isaiah 65:17-25). This was sounding like Eden! The lion and the sheep would sleep together; there would be no tears and pain. Is this the Kingdom of God that Jesus was bringing?

We are in 2022 and we know that these prophecies are not yet fulfilled. So, our exile yet remains. Jesus has given us a foretaste of God’s presence. The book of Revelation tells us that the new heaven and the new earth in Isaiah’s prophecies will indeed come, everything will be restored (Rev 21). Surprisingly, in John’s revelation, the imagery of the new Jerusalem that he sees is exactly like Eden – the tree of life is at the centre, there is peace, the lion and sheep play together (just as Isaiah said), there is a river watering the garden (just like Ezekiel’s vision of the temple – Ezekiel 47:1-12) and alas, God’s presence is there (Ezekiel’s vision [Ezekiel 43:1-12; 48:35] and Haggai’s prophecy [Haggai 2:9]). Home sweet home at last. It makes the bible story so beautiful – sin does not have the final say. God enters humanity to save us from sin so that we can be with Him again as it should have been from the beginning. God restores creation to how it was when He created it – when He said, “it is good”. This will all happen when sin is finally dealt with (Rev 20:7-10)

While we wait in hope for our exodus from this cruel world, we have a foretaste of restoration through faith in Jesus here on earth. God is an amazing father; He is ready to restore you. He is ready to take things back to how they were from the beginning. Your salvation experience is a restoration. It is like God giving life to dry bones; that is why it is famously referred to as being “born again”.

Over time, exile has become the nature of man (Adamic Nature) but God is saying you can come back home now! God is ready to Restore you, God wants to repair you, God wants to heal you completely and restore you to the place of Sonship, that you may not stray from the steadfast love, faith, and obedience to Christ Jesus. Ps 51 v 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

The world may not be a better place (for the end to come, the world must be worse by the day – wars, sin, famine etc), your physical losses are not guaranteed to be restored, but the hope of scripture is that God’s restoration plan transcends beyond here and now. The glory of the latter must not necessarily be time-bound to our life on earth just as this prophecy originally was beyond.

Written by Abimbola Dada.

How has the biblical story of exile affected your Christian journey? Let us know in the comment section below?

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