377. Return and Restoration
Amos 9:14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
This promise of return from Exile for the Jews applies spiritually to us New Testament believers. The promise is that we will return from Exile in the world to our True Homeland in heaven with God. The Lord will bring us again back home to Himself, the place that we lost because of sin. Jesus brings us again back to the Paradise God has planned for us.
We were in captivity to Sin, Death and the Devil. These three masters are tyrants who bend us to their will. And through the temptations to sin we go along with them, do what they demand, and then we suffer the consequences. Sin, Death and the Devil use the World (Babylon) to hold us captive away from God. We know there is a better place with God where we belong, but we don’t know how to get there, and we cannot reach Paradise no matter what we try to do. We are captives. Jesus came to set the captives free, free to come home to the Kingdom of God.
In God’s kingdom within our hearts we (actually, God) shall build the places in the soul that we have allowed the Enemies to lay waste. The Lord will reclaim what we have destroyed so that we can live. In the kingdom we (with God) will plant vineyards. The Spirit of God within plants, waters, feeds and nourishes the branches so that they will bear fruit. This is the purpose of Redemption and Sanctification: to bear fruit. We will drink and eat of the fruit of the vineyards and gardens within the spiritual kingdom.
God will do this; this is His promise. We will bear fruit because the Lord will make it happen. We, by ourselves, have produced nothing but weeds, tares, thorns and thistles. But the Lord produces real and useful fruit in abundance. We will drink and eat the fruit of the vineyards and gardens of the soul. Other people around us will also benefit from the fruit Jesus produces in us. Since we don’t see the building, planting, drinking and eating, the Lord must tell us what He is doing in us. When we by faith see the beautiful work of Redemption and sanctification we are filled with thanks, praise and appreciation. The Lord promises, and He will do it.