Return, return, ye captives!
Return unto your home!
The silver trumpet soundeth.
The jubilee has come!
Leviticus 25
IN OUR day many Jews have returned to their homeland, and Israel has become a nation. But they have returned in unbelief; they have yet to pass through the fires of the great tribulation, after the Church has been taken home to heaven. They will never really have the land for a perpetual possession until Christ, whom they once rejected, their mighty Kinsman and Redeemer, returns to reign and restores it to them again.
There is a measure of prosperity in Israel now, but that is nothing to be compared to what it will be in that day when “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” Isa. 35:1.
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.” Amos 9:13.
“In those days, shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.” Jer. 33: 16. “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isa. 35:10.
The jubilee of the millenium will indeed be for Israel, when the times of refreshing have come from the presence of the Lord, but all creation shall rejoice. “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.... Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:19, 21, 22.
Then will end that deep groan which rises from all creation suffering under the weight of the curse, the consequences of sin and death come into the world. There will be rest for the earth, restored to its state before the fall. For all the animal kingdom, restored to their first estate, there will be freedom and relief from pain.
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind... For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy... And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” Isaiah 65:17-19.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling tether; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:6-9.
“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” Zech. 14:16. And the saved of the nations shall walk in the light of the holy city (Rev. 21:24.) Then shall be sung songs of gladness and praise which shall have a glorious reality.
“The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.” Psalm 97:1. Again, “let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” Psa. 150:6.
“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Rom. 11:36.
God’s house is filling fast!
Yet there is room!
Some guest will be the last
Yet there is room!
Yes, soon salvation’s day
From you will pass away,
And grace no more will say,
“Yet there is room!”
ML-12/10/1972