At the very end of our prophetic reading one finds the verse,
“For the Lord comforted Zion, He comforted all of her ruins, and He made her wilderness as an Eden, and her wasteland as the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”
Even though most translations place the verbs in the future tense they actually appear in the past with the exception “will be found” which is indeed in the future. The reason for this is that although the context is obviously in the future, the promises of God are so sure that the reality of the outcome of His word is as though all has already happened.
Once again the key thought here is that the Lord is going to provide comfort to His people. Zion is mentioned here which has to do with the redemption of Jerusalem. Another important aspect is that there is going to be a transformation to the Land of Israel from ruins to the very likeness of the Garden of Eden. The reference to the Garden of Eden is a way of pointing to the Kingdom of God. Once again one sees the connection between Israel and the Kingdom.
Many of us have been privileged to see the transformation which has occurred in the Land of Israel in our lifetime. Recently I brought a friend to the city in which I dwell and he had been in this area some thirty years earlier. Thirty years ago, most of my city was sand dunes, but now a gorgeous, modern city stands. This comparison is pale in light of what the Kingdom of God will be like, but it provides a foretaste of the fact that the Living God has not forsaken the Land of Israel.
Personally I find great comfort in the changes that are happening in Israel and see each one of them as testimony concerning what the Lord is going to do in the future.
The prophetic reading ends with the idea of joy and gladness. That is that one should rejoice and be thankful for the faithfulness of God as He brings about the changes in this world in accordance to His word. The fact that many people stand against this transformation, as it is being testified today with Jewish people returning to the Land and building up the ruins, only strengthens my belief in the word of God. We know that only a remnant will stand with Israel in the last days while all the nations will assemble to make war with Israel. Make sure that the Jesus that you believe in is indeed that One that Scripture reveals and not the misrepresentation of so much of Christianity today.
