Wednesday: No longer will they call you Deserted, or name
your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for
the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married (Isaiah 62: 4;
NIV).
In the
ancient mind, singleness and barrenness went together. If you weren’t married,
you wouldn’t have children, the thinking went. And if you didn’t have children,
your family tree would dry up and die. Marriage and children meant a future for
you and for your family.
Israel
faced a bleak future. Surrounded by more powerful enemies and threatened by
their own God because of their unfaithfulness, they felt deserted and desolate,
for sure. How wonderful, then, to hear their God speak of their future
restoration, their restored fruitfulness.
How about
you? Do you ever feel all used up? Like your life is just one unending desert?
Like your future is precluded? Ever feel like you can’t imagine how things
could get better? These words are from Isaiah are for you. Your God has
promised you a future. He did it when Jesus defeated death; He did it when you
were baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection. We Christians don’t have any
better idea than Israel about how or when our God will keep these promises, but
we look for and long for the day of that final restoration.
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