The Hope of Restoration.

In some recent reading that I have done the hope of restoration was highlighted. Along with reading this book I have also begun reading Hosea with a group of guys who I have engaged in discipleship with. I am astounded with the amount of grace that God has shown in the midst of Israel’s abandonment of Him.
We often associate the old testament with God being a wrathful and intolerant god, but that is far from the case. What we see in the scriptures is a God who desires His people to be drawn to Him and life in the light of steadfast love, righteousness, justice and faithfulness. They should live in this way because it is how God interacts with us.
In beginning of Hosea we see that God asks Hosea to take a prostitute for a wife. God often had those prophets doing some crazy things, cooking bread on dung, being fed by birds and the like. Taking a prostitute as a wife was for the purpose to show how he relates to Israel. While she was very unfaithful and strayed far from Him, He would still be there. Hosea bore three children with his wife, and each of them represents a stage of destruction and restoration… destruction and restoration, a very balanced idea? I think so.
God dosent act needlessly. There is purpose in everything that He does, most importantly in regards to His interaction with His people there is always through out all of scripture a greater reason for why hardship comes. In most cases this destruction, the removal of everything but HIM is for the restoration of a heavenly community.
So as we read the whole of the scriptures we have to see the balance that God interacts in. We have to know that this restoration we are being pointed to is the restoration that comes from Christ, who is restoring us to the Father. It is in Christ alone that we find this restoration, and it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live in a manner that pursues restoration, renewal and redemption every day.