The Restoration Song - The Return of Fertility

Restore our fortunes, Lord , like streams in the Negev. Psalms 126:4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.126.4.NIVUK The phrase at the start of this verse again echoes the idea of the return of captives, and how this is absolutely key to the reversal of their fortunes. However, this due to an event which is somewhat more sudden. A number of years ago, we were privileged to visit Petra in Jordan. It really is quite a sight. I could see exactly why it was chosen as one of the locations for the Indiana Jones movies. It's pretty unique and special. However, it's desert. It's bone dry. There are tufts of hardy desert vegetation here and there, but it's sandy and dusty, and the Bedoins who live there are tough. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was a flash flood in Petra in November 2018. I didn't recall there being any major sources of water there, or even nearby. It hardly ever rains there. So how could there possibly be any kind of flood, least of all a flash flood? What happened in Petra is quite similar to what happened in the north of Israel, in the Negev desert. These are very dry, arid locations. It's difficult to live there for most of the year. However, in the early spring, when the snow on the mountains begins to melt and it rains heavily on the peaks, water gushes down into dry gullies and river beds, splitting off into a myriad of small channels and making streams in the desert. These streams bring life wherever they go. Vegetation sprouts where it was once dried up and dead. Animals feed and drink. People are able to gain respite from the fierce heat. Life becomes easier. It is this that the psalmist is referring to - the sudden bursting into life in an otherwise dry and barren place. You see, the return of captives to Israel may have been predicted seventy years before, but the situation that caused it to happen was sudden and dramatic. Not to mention so famous that it even had an impact on the English language, when King Belshezzar of Babylon saw the terrifying vision of the hand writing on the wall (Daniel 5:25‭-‬31) and was promptly replaced by Darius the Mede. The Bible records that in the first year of his reign, while many of the ancient kings would decide to consolidate their rule by annihilating all potential opposition, Darius made a quite different decision: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘ “The Lord , the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.” ’ 2 Chronicles 36:22‭-‬23 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2ch.36.22-23.NIVUK It was sudden. It was dramatic. Although predicted, I am sure that many of the Jews would have completely lost hope that it would happen. But it did. If we look under the lid of this decision, we see how God was preparing the way for it for decades before it took place. We see the Kingdom of Israel exiled by the Assyrians to the very same area from which Darius' family came (2 Kings 18:11). We see the prayer of the prophet Daniel, confessing the sins of his people in the first rule of Darius' reign (Daniel 9:1‭-‬3). Darius was far from perfect. It was under his rule that Daniel was thrown into the lions' den. Darius was also not a Jew and neither did he worship God alone. But God used a powerful pagan king to do His will by taking a critical decision. We should not be surprised at this. World leaders have often come from a non-believing background and still been used by God to take important decisions that benefit His people. For instance, Mikhail Gorbachev took the decision to weaken communism's iron grip on Eastern Europe in 1989. Decisions that unbelieving leaders have taken to protect religious liberty. The decisions to end slavery in the British Empire and in the Americas. All of these are pivotal decisions which have changed the fortunes of God's people, often dramatically. God can do the same to us with our personal affairs. We can be unemployed for months, or even years, and suddenly find a job. Or we can struggle to move house and then suddenly it happens. Or we can be waiting for an immigration decision for a long time, wondering if it will ever come, and then suddenly it does. Don't lose hope when things take time and all seems lost. With our God, situations can change in an instant, just like the return to fertility in the Negev desert in spring. Dry ground can become fertile. But if these verses ask God to return the captives, why do we see rejoicing over exactly this in verse 1? The answer is quite simple: the captives did not return in one group. The book of Ezra alone mentions two. This psalm was written as thanks for one great miraculous blessing, and in anticipation that God would continue to bless. He had humbled them. Now the restoration would not take place overnight. It would take time. And in some cases, the blessings come in cycles, like the annual streams in the Negev desert. God uses these cycles to enable us to trust Him more, to strengthen our faith and truly help us to realise that He is our provider. Between each cycle, like the psalmist, we learn to wait on Him as our faith grows even stronger in the gap between what we have and what we believe we need. So we've seen the return of freedom and the return of fertility. The last few verses of this psalm talk about THE RETURN TO FRUITFUL LABOUR, which we will meditate on in my next blog.