RETURNING

"I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth…"  Isaiah 43:5-6

Today’s One Year Chronological Bible Reading is from Isaiah 40:1– 44:5. Much of this passage is encouragement, but some is also admonishment, charging the reader to put away wickedness, and to consider all the powerful reasons why one should follow the Lord.

There is also much that is said about bringing the Israelites back to their homeland. And Isaiah spoke and wrote this message even before the Babylonians had taken Judah into captivity!
Some of the people of Israel did return from Babylon to their homeland following the captivity, but many didn’t, and they scattered throughout the world. Even without a homeland, many of these Jewish people have retained their ethnic identity throughout the centuries, and it appears that some of the predicted return of Jewish people to the land of Israel is still future.

For those listening, Isaiah had a message of encouragement that God would call back his sons and daughters from the ends of the earth. We who are parents can also be encouraged in God’s sovereignty and can trust Him to work in the lives of our own sons and daughters.