July 19
Shall Return
Isaiah 35:10
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
If you know that there would be a light at the end of your dark tunnel of distress and despair then it would give you hope to bear through your difficulty. It wouldn’t really matter whether your trouble was brought about because of the actions of others, your own actions or because of divine discipline the darkness would seem more bearable because of the light at the end. Hope comes in knowing what has begun will be ending.
The children of Israel had instigated their own trouble. Their continuous and willful disobedience to their God had brought His wrath upon them. He had patiently and persistently warned them over and over again through His prophets to repent and return to Him. But they put off and persecuted the prophets (Acts 7:52). They would not hear Him or heed Him.
Now the Lord’s just judgment was in the process of being executed. His prophets were through expounding and His patience had been exhausted. Every opportunity had been given them, but now there time had run out. God’s judgment literally loomed on the horizon. In the first verse of the very next chapter we are told, “Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them” (Is 36:1). “Sorrow and sighing” had stepped on to the scene. Distress and despair had come upon them. All hope seemed to disappear.
Here was judgement administered, but not without hope applied. Our text attested that the “ransomed of the Lord shall return”. All was not lost. All was not abandoned. Although God’s people had forsaken Him, He had not forsaken them. There was a promise in the midst of their peril. There was hope in the midst of their horror. Hope was on the horizon.
Their days of darkness would give rise to the light of a brighter dawn. Singing would return to Zion. "Joy and gladness" would penetrate their souls and be proclaimed with their lips. God never brings about destruction without the hope of deliverance. Their plight would turn to His praise. Here was the perpetual light at the end of their tunnel. The sorrow and sighing that they had brought upon themselves “shall flee away”.
This is the same hope that we can have when we stray away. It is the hope that “the ransomed of the LORD shall return “. It is the hope of all who wander off the path and fall under the wrath of the Almighty. It is also the promise that we must cling to when crisis clings to us. It is the hope of return.
So God’s judgment is always mixed with joy. The bad news of our sin was seasoned with the good news of our Savior. In our hurt God gives hope. Oh what a glorious and gracious God that we serve who would not allow us to be taken away without providing a way to bring us back. We shout greatly rejoice that “the ransomed of the Lord shall return”, especially when we are the ones who need to return.
Today thank God for the promise of return. Praise Him that His decree of destruction is never without His declaration of deliverance. Ask Him to help you share His hope of return with those who need to return. Thank Him that no matter how far we have wandered that He promises that the"ransomed of the Lord shall return."
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