311. Better than at the Beginning
Ezekiel 36:11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
Along with multiplying and increasing and bearing fruit and settling, the Lord promises to do better unto us than at our beginnings. This hope and promise of better things is at the core of the Word of God, and this promise greatly impacts our present life. No matter what it is like now, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how far from home, no matter the troubles of the present time, everything, and God means everything, will be better; the Lord will do better unto us than at the beginnings of Creation. Both the universe and man will be better off then even they were in Paradise before Satan, Sin and Death entered.
In the beginning everything God created was good and then, when six days were finished, it was all very good. God was very good, and He still is; the environment was good, relationships were good, and humans were good. Then Satan entered the Garden and tempted Man to sin, and Sin brought death. Since Genesis 3 Death reigned until defeated in Jesus’ Resurrection, Sin ruins humankind and separates us from a sweet relationship with a good God until Jesus took Sin away on the cross, and Satan is the prince of the power of the air until Jesus’ Kingdom strikes back and dethrones him completely.
Jesus’ life shows the Victory of the Kingdom over Satan, his demons, Death, its diseases. Jesus’ death seals the Victory over Sin. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees the violent Victory over all three enemies. The Rescue, Recovery and Restoration have begun, and the absolute end of all Enemies will take place as predicted in Revelation 19 and 20. Then Revelation 21 and 22 describes the condition of eternal life that will be better than at the beginning in Genesis 1 and 2. We have an empty ache for the Restoration of all things in which life will be even much better than at the beginning, when all things were very good. Better than very good: that is God’s promise; that is our hope; that is our daily reality.