1:17
This repeats and expands upon the message of the previous verse. There will be fruitfulness and prosperity in the land. Note the “My cities”, Israel and Jerusalem belongs to God, and by the way, so do we. If we look at God and the gospel is purely philosophical terms then we will completely miss it. There is a key relational aspect to the gospel and to all of theology. Indeed the Bible is a record of the relationship between God and His people.The land will overflow with prosperity. Most of us are rightly repelled by the so-called “prosperity gospel” for it is at best a distortion of the true gospel, and at worst an abomination. However, this must not blind us to the fact that God does actually want to prosper his people. He did not create us, and did not save us, in order for us to be poor! Now there is suffering and there is poverty and we need to understand that this happens for various reasons. One is that I am sinful, so some suffering will be a result of our own sin. Secondly, people will sin against me, so some suffering will be a result of what others to do to us. Thirdly, we live in a fallen world, so some suffering is not directly attributable to anyone in particular, it is just part of the general condition. But then there is a fourth reason, and we really need to understand this. We share in Christ’s sufferings as part of the process of bringing God’s love to the world. So in this world God will bless us from time to time, but there will also be times when He leads us to share in Christ’s sufferings.
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