He disciplines and He restores

We've been studying this week the concept of God's chosen people; His children, so to speak. We've seen that He has plans for His people, just as we humans make some plans for our children. We want the best for them, so we encourage them to work hard, to do their best, to be the best and the most loving and giving, godly children that they can be.

God wants the best for His people, as well. At this point in history, it was the Jewish people, and the Babylonian captivity was His faithful discipline of His erring children. He had warned (many, many times!) them that He would scatter them if they persisted in disobedience. Did they change? Well, not long term. God used the Babylonians to discipline the Jewish people and also to show them the emptiness, the uselessness of idolatry.

“Look at the nations and watch —    and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days    that you would not believe,    even if you were told.  I am raising up the Babylonians,
    that ruthless and impetuous people,who sweep across the whole earth    to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people;    they are a law to themselves (Habakkuk 1:5-7a)

Israel had not paid attention to the pleading of the prophets. God expelled them from their land to teach them the importance of obedience to His Word.
Some people may point to this and say that they don't like this "side" of God. They like the loving and compassionate God, the Friend, the Comforter, the Guide. They lack the understanding that God is also a holy God, and will not tolerate idolatry. As a loving Father, He will discipline His children.

If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.  (Hebrews 12:8)

Wow.
So, if we claim to be Christians, and we live in deliberate, willful disobedience to God, and there are no negative consequences.....perhaps we're in bigger trouble than we realize. Are we then true Christians? We must search our hearts and ask God, because one mark of a true child of God is that when we sin, God is faithful to discipline us.

We can be joyous, though, that God does not discipline us to make us pay for our sins.
But wait, you may be thinking, that's what you just told us would happen.
Nope.
Christ paid for our sins on the cross.
When God disciplines us, it's so we may share His holiness.

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.  (Hebrews 12:9-10)

He disciplines us so that we can share in that perfect relationship of fellowship with Him. In other words, discipline has one major goal -- to restore us to fellowship!

So, restoration is His goal, and it will happen in His timing: when the seventy years were up, God restored His people to the promised land. These first two chapters of Ezra are a detailed record of God's faithfulness to His children. He knows just how long we need to be under discipline, and He is able to restore us when the time is right.

Notice that God did not wipe away all of the consequences of the nation's sins when He restored the people. What do we mean by that? Well, they didn't come back to lovely cities with beautiful homes or to cultivated fields, vineyards, and olive groves just waiting to be harvested. What they came back to was piles of rubble. They came back to fields overgrown with weeds. It was going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work to rebuild the cities and towns, and to get those agricultural areas back into shape, and producing.
When God forgives our sins and restores us spiritually, He may not remove the consequences of what we did to deserve discipline. If we destroyed our family through the sins of infidelity or anger, we might not get our family back when He restores our relationship to Himself. If we destroyed our finances through careless spending or through gambling, our repentance doesn't mean the debts will all evaporate away.
And here's another thing: those returning to the land were the children and the grandchildren of those who brought on this captivity. It was the older folks' sins that caused the discipline, and the younger folks were the ones that needed to do the hard work of restoration. Those returning could have complained bitterly, "It's not fair! We have to rebuild what was destroyed because of our sinful parents and grandparents!" But that kind of heart reveals rebellion to our Lord. It may be against what we feel at first, but our attitude should really be submission to the Lord in all of His dealings toward us. After all, we should be grateful that He doesn't give us what we truly deserve!

 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point,he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,    Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3)

In fact, He gives us mercy, instead of what we deserve:

Let the wicked forsake his way,And the unrighteous man his thoughts;Let him return to the Lord,And He will have mercy on him;And to our God,For He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1)

If we were to write a caption for the first two chapters of Ezra, it would have to include God's faithfulness to plan for, to discipline, and to restore His children . . . next we will study the people's response to His faithfulness!