God's Promise for His People Today, Part Three

Grace Moment by Moment-monthly column
Restoration: God’s Promise for His People Today
Accountability is a key ingredient when it comes to the difference between regret and true repentance. Without Holy Spirit-empowered people who are available and ready to obey God, hope for restoration is extinguished. These Holy Spirit-empowered people, like the prophets of old, must be willing to confront those who veer off the track He has set before them, no matter what it costs personally or professionally. As we’ve seen, sin narrows the vision of God’s plan for redemption, but God’s Grace expands its scope internationally to include redemption for everyone. Walter Kaiser, in his book Toward an Old Testament Theology, had this to say on God’s promise for everyone:

Israel’s sonship expressed a familial relationship: a people who made up the family of God. Israel was not a family in an adopted sense or mere ethnic, political or social unity. Rather, it was a family formed, saved and guarded by God the “Father” of this family (Kaiser, Theology, 102).

We see clearly as we move through the theology of the Bible, that God’s promise plan was not only to address sin and its consequences even to the exile of the nation of Israel. Rather, it was to provide hope for Israel’s restoration and the eventual restoration of the human race through the repentance of sin. That redemption can only be provided by Jesus Christ, to all who believe. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13, NASB). God and Satan’s battle will not be fully resolved until Christ comes back (Revelation 20: 7-10). Then the promised hope for eventual restoration of Israel and humanity will be complete (Revelation 21: 1-22: 21).
Conclusion
When the deceptively false sense of security Satan pushes, drives them to the comfort of the familiar through the illusion of the past, Israel and humanity need to know that God is ever faithful, and willing to answer the heart cry of His people, even in exile. Hope exists. Because God’s Grace flowed through Christ’s blood at Calvary, Israel and humanity today are reminded that God has provided a way for restoration (Matthew 27: 33-54; Mark 15:22-39; Luke 23:33-46; John 19: 17-30). The Prophet Joel’s prophecy as to the coming Day of the Lord is a promise to those still lost in sin (Joel 2:28-32). People can, individually and nationally, receive restoration if they repent (1 John 1:9). The temporal consequences may still have to be paid, but the eternal consequences may be absolved through forgiveness.
However, it is important, we, as the people of God, realize the seriousness of sin and its consequences. Living in these turbulent times, any action taken without doing so is an invitation to disaster.
It is the choices people make, for good or ill, whether or not to trust God, that determines the direction their life will take. On the one hand, will we, individually and nationally, choose to follow God’s leading? On the other hand, if we determine to do things ourselves, we may instead, give lip service only to what God wants.

Works Cited
The Holy Bible: New Century Version. Dallas: Word, 1993.
The Holy Bible: New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984.
The Holy Bible: New American Standard Version. The Lockman Foundation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Hawkins, Dr. Ralph K. “The Historical Books: Sin and Exile.” Biblical Theology 2008. Bethel College, Mishawaka. 14 February 2008.
Kaiser, Jr. Walter C. Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology: The Messiah in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
---. Toward an Old Testament Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991.
Mc Arthur, John. The Mc Arthur Bible Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005. 299-386.
---. “First and Second Samuel: Qualifications for a King and the Establishment of David’s Line.” The Mc Arthur Bible Handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003. 85-98.
---. “Esther: A Queen Who Served God.” The Mc Arthur Bible Handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003. 137-42.