Promise And Paradise

Promise and Paradise

I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you.

Jeremiah 29:14

IN WORD The Jews in captivity would be restored back to what they had lost—the Land of Promise. That’s always the way of God for those who seek Him. Job, after all his troubles, was given double what he’d lost because he clung to God and never let go. Joseph was made doubly fruitful in the land of his affliction because he never lost sight of the God who was always with him, even in Egypt. When God’s people lose what they were promised—whether through their own sin or someone else’s—and continue to seek Him where He may be found, the result is always better than at first. God’s abundance never decreases the second time around.

So it is with the world at large. Adam and Eve fell and were exiled from the Garden, and it’s a long, long exile. But God makes a promise to all those in this world who will seek Him with all their heart: They will find Him, and in finding Him they will be restored to what was lost. And from what we know about God’s restoration, the next paradise will be much better than the first. The Garden of Eden was only the beginning. The best is yet to come.

That’s how we are to live in this world: as citizens of what’s yet to come. There is no grief, no sin, no problem, no frustration, no captivity, no abuse that cannot be redeemed, and the redemption will be more than worthwhile. Paul assured us that the glory to be revealed will far outweigh anything in our present circumstances; that no eye has seen or ear heard what God has in store for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9). We’re to live like we know that.

IN DEED If we live like we know what’s coming—with a smile of anticipation we can hardly suppress—people will ask us to explain the hope we have within us. We can then tell them of the restoration God promises and how to get in on the plan. We can introduce them to the God who wants to be found. We can end the captivity of many.

There is only one real inevitability: it is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled.

—CARL F. H. HENRY