29:1-36 - God is calling
us to be holy - ‘Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the House of the
Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy
place’ (5). Before there can be true rejoicing in the Lord - ‘they sang
praises with gladness’ - , there must be real dedication to the Lord -
‘We have cleansed all the House of the Lord’ (30,18). Before there can
be rejoicing, there must be restoration (35-36). We may pray, ‘Restore, O
Lord, the honour of Your Name!’. We must also pray, ‘Cleanse me from my
sin, Lord’. The prayer for revival begins with the dedication of our
own lives to the Lord - ‘O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee; send a
revival - start the work in me’ (Mission Praise, 579, 82, 587). Revival
can happen ‘suddenly’ (36). It will not happen without a true return to
the Lord.
30:1-31:10 - We are called to ‘return to the
Lord’. With this call comes God’s promise: ‘the Lord your God is
gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you, if you
return to Him’ (30:9). Where does the desire to return to the Lord come
from? - It comes from the Lord Himself: ‘the hand of the Lord was on the
people to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes
commanded by the Word of the Lord’ (12). Returning to the Lord, we hear
His Word of forgiveness: ‘The good Lord pardon every one who sets his
heart to seek God’. We rejoice in the Gospel - ‘The vilest offender who
truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives’. ‘ The Lord
has blessed His people’. We rejoice in Him - ‘Praise the Lord!... Let
the people rejoice’ and ‘let the earth hear His voice’ (18-19; 30:10;
Mission Praise, 708).
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