Fortunes Restored...

The prophet Zephaniah (3:20) speaks of the promise of fortunes restored by the Lord. It is a common enough theme; you can find it in the Psalms also. It is interesting how this phrase hits people.

For some it is about fortunes measured with $$. For some it is about vindication against false accusers. For some it is about regaining the upper hand against enemies and troubles. For some it is about health restored. For some it is place and prominence. For some it is power and glory. The list goes on.

It struck me when I read this several times in devotions for the week that the fortunes restored must be seen in the light of fortunes lost. You can read this many ways but I wonder if the prophet is not pointing us back to what was lost to us in Eden. There is the fortune of humanity lost to a choice, a rebellion, and a breaking faith with God. What was lost to us there is the fortune restored to us in Christ. And what might that be?

What was lost to us in Eden is not simply life shortened by death, but our very identity as the people of God. What was lost to us in Eden is not simply innocence, but the good we were created for, created to do, and created to be. What was lost to us in Eden is not simply a place in which to live, but the very life that God had intended for us and we were created to know. What was lost to us in Eden is not simply righteousness but the righteousness that reflected the goodness of our Creator so that it could be said of us with all things He created -- we were very good.

The fortune restored to us is the fortune lost to us when we learned sin and with it learned to know guilt, regret, and death. It is the fortune of a relationship lost to us and now restored through the action of Him who was the innocent party in all of this. It is the fortune of a God whom we would have called Father but instead knew through the lens of sin and its death that kept Him at a distant from us (unrighteous sinners that we are). These are what God has restored to us...

How terrible that we define this fortune in material terms or even earthly terms. Is that all we have to look forward to? Regaining some of today's treasure lost to us? It seems that we are constantly battling the great temptation to see what God has given (restored) to us through the lens of the present moment and the world as it values things today vs the garden in which we were lost to God, to each other, and to our selves.

So much of the preaching of today focuses on fortunes of the moment lost to us for one reason or another and restored to us by God's help and a little effort on our part. Such a self-help Christianity whose goal and purpose is so narrowly defined is but a pale imitation of the promise once given to a people defined by their loss -- living in hope of restoration. It is not that salvation defined by the contrast of two gardens (Eden and Gethsemane) is narrow -- it if full and wide and deep with the hope and promise of grace beyond imagination. But we see it only when we let our eyes and the focus of our hearts and minds be distracted from the moment long enough to see and know the fullness of what our Lord has come to give to us.

No, the fortunes lost to us must be seen in the context of Eden... and then it becomes the guide to what is restored to us in Gethsemane when our Lord chooses the saving will of the Father over His instinctive will of preservation (Not my will but Thine be done...). Then is when the passages of the prophets like Zephaniah make sense... and the joy he spoke of becomes our constant possession even when the troubles and trials of this world and this life do not diminish...

Psalm 126:1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like dreamers...
Ezekiel 29:25 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name....