1002. The Times of Restitution
The Times of Restitution
"Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the month of His holy Prophets" (Act_3:21)
What a wealth of research is suggested in these words for us. A matter which is spoken of not once, nor twice, but something which is frequently set forth by all the holy Prophets. The testimony of these Prophets is before us. Are we too lazy or too indifferent to seek out their revelation of the times of restitution?
1. What a blessed name for the days which shall follow Christ's return. The times of restitution of all things–that is, everything lost will be restored.
Let us begin in the Garden of Eden. Let us study, for awhile, the glory of those days. As we consider Adam environed in a nature gone wild with joy, and nature untouched by sin; as we study marriage as God gave it, as Adam and Eve knew it, we ask, "Will Edenic conditions be restored?
Let us go to the testimony of the Prophets. What do they say? Enough to make you shout and sing for joy! They tell us that this travailing earth, brought under bondage by the sin of man, shall laugh and sing under the liberty of the children of God.
2. Is it right to linger long upon the accounts of our losses to emphasize the blight of sin?
The Word of God and the pages of history both alike tell the story of the wreckage that is all about us.
The Word tells us something else, it tells how man has tried to regain the paradise he lost, to re-estate himself in his former glory. Side by side with man's sin and loss, the Word records man's effort to restore his loss. Early accounts of this titanic task are written in Gen_4:16-24. How was the fall with the loss of Eden offset? By the building of a city; by the making of harps and organs, by artificers in brass and iron.
Yet, man has failed. He has sought out many inventions and tried in every way to bring Eden back again, but all is of no avail. Man's pathway is strewn with wreckage. The weird wail of broken hearts, the maddened cry of spoiled hopes fill the air.
Haste Thou then the times of Thy return, O Lord; for then will be the times of the restitution of all things.
3. What restitution will mean. When Christ returns the poor and the needy will come into their own; the blind eyes will be opened; the ears of the deaf will be unstopped; the lame will leap as an hart.
The year of jubilee is the type of that day of restitution.
The fiftieth year, jubilee, was marked by restitution. What did God say: "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
"A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the vine undressed.
"For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field" (Lev_25:10-12).
Thus we may anticipate another day–the day of the Lord's reign when God will restore all things.
1. He will restore the preserved of Israel (see Isa_49:6).
2. He will restore health to Israel (see Jer_30:17).
3. He will restore all things (see Mat_17:11).
May God hasten the day of this blessed Times of Restitution.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR