It’s better than I could have imagined!
Have you ever had an incident where these words were true? Maybe something turned in your favor. Perhaps the illness wasn’t as bad as expected. Maybe it was trying to resolve a situation. I know if you think about it, you will come up with at least one time these words have been true.
It may not happen every day, but there are certainly times things turn out better than we could have imagined and certainly a whole lot better than expected.
We’ve spent some time in Psalm 80. We know this was a lamentation for the punishment the Northern Kingdom was undergoing. They longed for restoration from their sin. The faithful prayed for the Lord to turn to them in favor again. Ultimately, however, their request would be answered in a way more marvelous than they could have imagined. We finish out Psalm 80 with verses seventeen and eighteen:
Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.
With this prayer, they looked forward to what we see as the past: the coming of Jesus our Savior. Written by the prophet Jeremiah, we read in Jeremiah 33:15-16, “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’”
What the people of God in the Old Testament prayed for was restoration to their land. Although it was a significant request, the Lord had bigger plans in store for them: to bring forth the Messiah to save the world from its sin. The Jewish people would be the people group giving the world the Hope of the World: Jesus Christ.
From the lips of our Savior recorded in Luke 19:10: “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
That’s the ultimate restoration and it’s better than we EVER could have imagined!
Life Meets Theology 