“Some years ago, an energetic young man began as a clerk in a hardware store. Like many old-time hardware stores, the inventory included thousands of dollars worth of items that were obsolete or seldom called for by customers. The young man was smart enough to know that no thriving business could carry such an inventory and still show a healthy profit. He proposed a sale to get rid of the stuff. The owner was reluctant but finally agreed to let him set up a table in the middle of the store and try to sell off a few of the oldest items. Every product was priced at ten cents. The sale was a success, and the young fellow got permission to run a second sale. It, too, went over just as well as the first. This gave the young clerk an idea. Why not open a store that would sell only nickel and dime items? He could run the store, and his boss could supply the capital.

“The young man’s boss was not enthusiastic. ‘The plan will never work,’ he said, ‘because you can’t find enough items to sell at a nickel and a dime.’ The young man was disappointed but eventually went ahead on his own and made a fortune out of the idea. His name was F.W. Woolworth.

“Years later, his old boss lamented, ‘As near as I can figure it, every word I used in turning Woolworth down has cost me about a million dollars!’ ”

Missed Opportunities

Most can relate to the regret felt from a missed opportunity. I can still vividly recall a situation when I was younger that I missed the opportunity to go on a float trip with my cousin and his family. I was not quite yet a teenager, and this was going to be my first adventure of this kind, and I was extremely excited to go. I counted the days, but unfortunately for me, I caught poison ivy just a few days before the trip. I caught it so bad that it was in my eye, which swelled shut entirely. No matter how much I regretted the situation I was in and pleaded with everyone, there was no chance of changing the situation—I was going to miss this opportunity!

For some, it may be an opportunity to invest in a company and make a lot of money, as in the original example. Or perhaps it was a missed opportunity to make an eternal difference in a person’s life because we were too preoccupied with something we now realize was of little importance. H. Jackson Brown Jr. said it well when he said, “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.”

The Scriptures give us numerous examples of those who paid an enormous price for missing the opportunity God provided them to be saved from the looming consequences of their actions.

In Luke 16, Christ describes the chilling events of the rich man and Lazarus: The rich man was in hell [hades] and hoped to have Abraham send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers about the torment to come for those who ignored the warnings of God, but the rich man was told no: “Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (v. 29).

Abraham’s point was that God had provided the means for the rich man’s brothers to know the way of salvation, and the choice would be theirs to listen or not. Consequently, by being in hell, we know that the rich man himself did not heed the warnings of Moses and the prophets and thus missed his opportunity to be saved and was now paying the price for all eternity.

While Jesus hung on the cross, two men hanging beside Him took vastly different paths. One would seize his opportunity to get right with God through His Son, and the other refused and forever missed his opportunity to be saved from the judgment to come (cf. Lk. 23:39-43; Rev. 20:12-13).

As much as God wants all to be saved (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4), and as longsuffering and merciful as He is, there is still an end to man’s opportunities to be saved from God’s wrath and judgment. Eventually, the longsuffering of God will be replaced with the judgment of God. Thus, we read the Holy Spirit’s plea through the Apostle Paul to the unsaved:

“For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

Here, Paul is applying the words of Isaiah to the present situation. At some point, the promised Rapture of the Church will occur, leaving those who have to that point rejected God’s offer of peace and salvation to their fate—the Tribulation. The end of this day of grace is imminent; we are not promised tomorrow—none have the promise of another day of life on this earth or that God will extend His mercy another day.

Failing to heed Paul’s plea to “be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20) leaves one on a cliff, at every moment on the brink of leaving the time of God’s grace and entering the time of His wrath and judgment—“the great and the terrible day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31). And that will be the worst missed opportunity they will have ever made.

No Excuses – God Said it was Coming

When it comes to the Tribulation, there is much misunderstanding, partly because it is a topic that interests people a great deal. Yet, with all the interest, the Tribulation will still catch many people off-guard, but God warned mankind. God warned that the Tribulation was coming, why it would happen, and most importantly, how to avoid it.

“I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

“Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isa. 45:19-23).

Isaiah 45 begins with God addressing Cyrus, a man who would not be born for another one-hundred and fifty years. God would raise him to power, and he would overthrow Babylon and allow those in exile to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He says to Cyrus, “I have surnamed thee…That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else” (vv. 4-5).

In other words, in giving Cyrus’ name in advance, He was demonstrating that He, the Lord God of Israel, is God, and there is no God besides Him. By saying that He has not spoken in secret or in a dark place, He reminds mankind that He has openly stated, “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker” (v. 9), and that He has not hidden the fact that man has one option for salvation: Him.

When He says that He has sworn to Himself that “every knee shall bow, every tongue swear” (v. 23), He is openly declaring that one day or another, in this life or the next, all of mankind will acknowledge the fact that He alone is God, and they will at some point bend the knee to Him. The Tribulation is one of the means by which God will accomplish that.

“The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low” (Isa. 2:11-12).

Oh, how those who think they are mighty shall, through the Tribulation (Day of the Lord) and the Great White Throne judgment to follow, learn their lesson and finally fall to their knees and acknowledge the truth that “the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it,” He is “the Lord; and there is none else” (Isa. 45:18).

It is by God’s mercy that He warned, “For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near” (Ezek. 30:3), “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come” (Joel 1:15), “…let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (Joel 2:1).

And at Pentecost, it was indeed “nigh at hand,” for Peter “standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them… be this known unto you, and hearken to my words…this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God…I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come” (Acts 2:14-20 cf. Joel 2:31-32).

By associating the time with the prophecies of Joel, Peter was at Pentecost, making it known that it was then “the last days” and that the Day of the Lord was about to begin. Though Peter and the other eleven apostles would offer the Kingdom to Israel if they would accept Christ as their Messiah, the nation rejected Christ once again.

The remedy for the situation and the next thing on the agenda, according to prophecy, was the coming Tribulation in which God would protect Israel from the Antichrist and certain destruction, thus wooing the nation to Himself. But first, God had a secret.

Grace Abounds

As the Twelve Apostles preached to Israel to repent, little did any of those unbelieving Jews realize that they were about to enter the worst time this earth would ever see. Indeed, those in Rome, Greece, and all across the world had no idea what was about to take place. As Stephen, in a judicial manner, convicts the nation for their repeated rejection of God, even Christ, their Messiah, and is physically attacked, the Lord stands up from His seated place next to God the Father and is now ready to judge His nation and bring His wrath upon the world (Acts 7:56 cf. 2:33; Heb. 10:12).

What Amos describes as a day of “darkness” (5:18,20), Joel “a destruction from the Almighty” (1:15), Isaiah the “day of the Lord’s vengeance” (34:8; 61:2) is ready to come. Isaiah goes on to describe the Tribulation, saying, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it… And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity” (13:9,11).

Most had no idea what was about to happen, and God was fully justified to make it happen. But God! Instead, God turned to His greatest earthly enemy and made him His example and tool of grace (cf. 1 Tim. 1:16)—“where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). He took Paul, who persecuted the name of Christ like none other and made him His greatest witness and an apostle of an entirely new program. Instead of the Tribulation, God would bring about a day of grace—A “Dispensation of Grace” given to the new apostle, Paul (Eph. 3:1-11; Col. 1:25-27). Instead of making war with man, God would offer man one more chance of peace before bringing His wrath.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2).

As some might foolishly look around and believe mankind deserved another chance, even peace with God, let us not forget this peace was offered to the very ones who lied, falsely convicted, and killed the Son of God. The ones who nailed Him to the cross. Yes, another chance was given to Caiaphas, the high priest, and all those who took part and were still alive.

Those in the Tribulation will still have an opportunity for salvation; however, they must “endure until the end” (Matt. 24:13; Mk. 13:13). They must “overcometh” (Rev. 3:5) the worst time imaginable. It will not be as simple as believing that Christ died for their sins, was buried, and rose again. That offer will be off the table; that gospel will be replaced by the gospel of the kingdom and the need to endure the torments of the Antichrist and the world who will hunt down and try to kill anyone who fails to worship the false christ.

But now, man has an opportunity to avoid all of that. God has told us precisely how to avoid this great and terrible day: “For God hath not appointed us [the Body of Christ] to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him” (1 Thes. 5:9-10).

There will be no excuses for anyone who enters the Tribulation, and the Dispensation of Grace is the reason for it. It should not escape our attention that it was just before God’s wrath was to begin that He ushered in something He kept secret since “the world began” (Rom. 16:25)—a time which allows all people to avoid it, even those who had just spent four years rejecting Christ.

The timing is indeed perfect and is certainly one more chance for man to escape God’s wrath. Some argue that God is unmerciful in bringing His wrath, regardless of when, but they fail to recognize that God has done all He could to help each and every one of us to avoid it; it is He who gave mankind the means to avoid it: He gave the world His Son so we could avoid His wrath, and He allowed man to kill Him so that we might live. All we must do today is believe the gospel.

Children will be raptured with the Church; thus, every single person who enters the Tribulation will be someone who has rejected the gospel: the good news of God’s grace offered freely to all who would believe that Christ died for their sins, was buried, and rose again.

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:7-9).

God has warned everyone that His wrath is coming. He has told everyone why it is coming. And most importantly, He has told everyone how to avoid it. God is right now offering the world one more chance to avoid the great and terrible Day of the Lord. To miss the opportunity presented to us would be one of the worst missed opportunities ever given to man.

“Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments” –C.S. Lewis.

The history and future of man is the story of restoration. The Bible makes this plain for all who would like to know the past and wish to know the future. From the onset of sin, God announced a plan for restoring His creation—from the seed of Eve would come One to crush Satan (Gen. 3:15). Sin and evil would
not triumph; despair would not rule eternity. There will be restoration amid the ruins!

Far too many have lost sight of this fact and, as a result, have lost hope. But hope is something God recognizes we need and wishes we have. Paul, by inspiration of God, said, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope…” (Rom. 15:13). The student of the Bible should know that hope in Scripture is not merely the desire for something to happen, but something we fully expect and trust will happen.

God doesn’t simply want us to have hope; He made sure to provide us with a reason and way to have it.

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

God is the “God of hope” (v. 13). He is the “God of patience and consolation [comfort]” (v. 5). He is also the God of “peace” (v. 33; 16:20); “love” (2 Cor. 13:11); “all flesh” (Jer. 32:27); “the whole earth” (Isa. 54:5; Rev. 11:4); “truth” (Psa. 31:5); “my life” (42:8); “my strength” (43:2); “my mercy” (59:10,17); “my praise” (109:1); and of course, “my righteousness” (4:1) and “my salvation” (18:46; 27:9; Mic. 7:7; Hab. 3:18).

It is extraordinary to think that the believer always has the means for hope available to them as long as we have the Word of God available to us. What does someone who has no hope need most? The scriptures and prayer! Scripture and prayer are God’s prescription for when the world and what we see in it become too large to bear—“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psa. 147:3). God knew how to put the smallest parts of our being together when He formed man, and He knows what we need to know in order to maintain stability and function as He deems fit.

When Paul speaks of things written “aforetime” in Romans 15, he certainly has the Old Testament in mind, for much of the New Testament, including over half of Paul’s own epistles, had yet to be written. This is not to suggest that all of Scripture is not God’s prescription for hope; simply that Paul’s specific meaning here is a reference to the Old Testament and what God wrote regarding the events that took place since creation.

God specifically chose what events to record so that we “through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Have you ever put together a piece of furniture or a child’s Christmas present and found the directions lacking? Well, the great news is nothing is lacking in Scripture. The indwelt believer armed with Scripture has what they need to be “throughly furnished” (2 Tim. 3:17); we are fully equipped.

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

God knows our struggles; He knows that life has obstacles and tribulations. Though man, with help from Satan, has “made his own bed,” God did not and does not respond by saying that we must now lay in the bed that we made. Instead, He is compassionate and gracious and lovingly provides us with what we need to get through and rise above the tribulations, and this is true comfort. Events written in the Old Testament are examples of God bringing restoration amid the ruins.

God’s Nation in Ruins

“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee….The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand” (Deut. 28:15,49).

As God formed the nation of Israel, His nation, and sent them into the promised land, He did so with His blessings and also plenty of warnings of what would happen if they chose to abandon the covenant they had made with Him (cf. vv. 62-65)—they would be delivered into the hands of their enemies. It was the Lord Who had freed them from bondage in Egypt. It was the Lord Who fed and protected them in the wilderness. To Him alone was due their thanks, their praise; He alone deserved their worship.

Yet, time and time again, Israel would begin to serve other gods. They would forget the Lord and forsake His commandments.

In 722 BC, the ten northern tribes of Israel were conquered and taken captive by Assyria. Assyria tried to conquer the southern kingdom of Judah, but “Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven” (2 Chron. 32:20). In response, the Lord sent an angel and slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (cf. 2 Kings 19:35), “Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 32:22).

Judah, however, did not learn her lesson for very long. With the death of Hezekiah came the rule of his son, Manasseh, an evil king who led Judah to sin in many abominations, including sacrificing their children by fire (cf. 2 Kings 21:6). The result was that God pronounced judgment upon Judah. He would deliver Judah into the hands of their enemies (vv. 10-15), Babylon specifically (Jer. 20:4; 21:4-10; 25:9;).

God called Judah to repent, but she refused. God issued a familiar challenge to look through the city for a just man and said that “If there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh truth” He would pardon Jerusalem (Jer. 5:1). God desired and pleaded with both Israel and Judah to repent: “return unto Me” (Jer. 4:1) is what the Lord said, but neither did. Thus, as Paul quotes from Isaiah 65:1-2, “But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Rom. 10:21).

By 586 BC, Judah would be conquered by Babylon, the temple destroyed, thousands of Jews taken captive to Babylon, and Jerusalem left in ruins. It’s hard to imagine what this must have felt like for Jews who witnessed the destruction. The once great and admired city, ruled by one of the wisest and wealthiest men ever to live, King Solomon (1 Kings 3:12; 4:31), was now completely destroyed. The temple, which was overlaid entirely on the inside with pure gold (2 Chron. 3:4), and more importantly, the place where God’s Shekinah glory once resided, was plundered, dismantled, and left without even its foundations (cf. Ezra 3:6,10). However, the city would not stay that way for long. God would bring restoration to His people amid the ruins of that great city.

A Plan for Restoration

“For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword… Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them…And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

“Thus saith the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast…Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down” (Jer. 33:4-12).

Judah and Israel would be restored, and their desolation turned to habitation. God was bringing “health and cure,” and He would do so through a Gentile named Cyrus. The Book of Ezra recounts Israel and Judah’s return to Jerusalem from captivity.

“Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah” (Ezra 1:1-2).

Cyrus of the Medes and Persians had conquered Babylon, fulfilling the prophetic dream of Nebuchadnezzar of the great image made up of nations and interpreted by Daniel (cf. Dan. 2:31-45). And now Cyrus was fulfilling the next step in God’s plan for the restoration of Israel. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God told the nation that “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good Word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10 cf. 25:11).

God, through Isaiah, foretold of the coming of Cyrus, saying, “He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid” (Isa. 44:28). This prophecy came long before Judah was destroyed and taken captive and nearly two hundred years before Cyrus’s birth—Cyrus is one of eight people in the Bible named prior to their birth. Isaiah 45 continues the prophecy regarding Cyrus:

“Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel Mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me” (Isa. 45:1-4).

It is likely that Daniel shared this prophecy with Cyrus. We know he was alive and in high service to the court when Cyrus came to power (cf. Dan. 6:25-28). We know that Daniel was aware that the end of the seventy years in exile was drawing to a close (Dan. 9:1-4).

When Ezra 1:1-2 says that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus” to “build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah,” we can imagine that Cyrus would have been stirred in the spirit indeed to learn that the God of Israel said many years prior that He would open the gates and make way for him to be king. No doubt, this would inspire him to seek further favor from the God Who can do such things.

Restoration Can be Difficult

It would be a mistake to think that going from ruin to restoration is an easy process. This is true even when the Lord is the one doing the work. Often, man needs to see for himself the devastation his actions have caused before restoration can begin. “The work of restoration cannot begin until a problem is fully faced,” said Dan B. Allender.

One cannot be saved by the gospel without first facing the fact that one needs a Savior. Before believing that Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection save us from our sins, we must first face the fact that we are sinners.

These returning exiles saw the ruins firsthand. They saw the devastation that comes from forgetting God and going about to serve their heart’s desires without letting God first change their hearts. This is true even today and should serve as a lesson. As much as we want to avoid the consequences of our actions, the truth remains that often our situation is not going to be fixed without us first seeing the devastation we caused. This may be in our relationships, our finances, or any number of other situations.

Man needs to recognize that God is necessary for restoration, and brokenness is often the necessary means of surrendering to God. As author and pastor Vance Havner said, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”

Brokenness was no doubt what the apostles experienced after Christ’s crucifixion, and it was this brokenness that led them to the restoration that followed.

Restoration is often a very challenging process and involves much effort. Even though the returning exiles were on the path to restoration, it took time and effort. There were no shortcuts. From Zerubbabel’s laying of the foundation to the Temple’s completion was twenty-one years (cf. Ezra 3:8-10; 6:15). It wasn’t easy; as the Book of Ezra details, the returning exiles had adversaries and faced opposition from the people of the land (4:1,4). It took a willingness to submit and surrender to the will of God.

Through God’s help and encouragement, Jerusalem and the temple were restored, but more than that, the Jewish people themselves were restored. God’s desire was not for a city or even a temple to make burnt offerings and sacrifices, but for His people to worship Him in truth and from the heart (cf. Jer. 31:31-33; Mic. 6:6-8; Jn. 4:23). God’s desire was for the nation of Israel, the people, to be restored.

After the temple was complete, Ezra, the priest, would come to Jerusalem to restore true worship of God, for he had “prepared his heart” (Ezra 7:10), but once again, the process would be difficult. The people would stumble and fail, but eventually, because of God and the willingness to surrender to Him, there was restoration amid the ruins, and there will be again. The day is coming when God will once again fulfill His promises and restore the kingdom to Israel. God will once again restore His people, Israel (cf. Rom. 11:26).

We can learn a lot from our example in the Book of Ezra. God is still able to restore the ruins of our lives if we are willing to recognize that He is necessary, turn to Him, surrender our hearts to His will, and put in the work He calls us to do.

Many marriages today are on life support and in desperate need of restoration, but the first step is acknowledging that God is necessary for restoration. If God can restore the relationship between Himself and unrighteous men, He can certainly restore any relationship between men. God is still in the business of bringing restoration amid the ruins. Whether it’s a broken marriage or a broken friendship, there is no relationship that God cannot fix if we are willing to let Him.

Another great thing about restoration is that it bears fruit and brings joy.

“And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy” (Ezra 6:16).

Those who returned from Babylon and went through the lessons and labor found joy. It was God Who restored their joy, and He can restore yours, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 15:13).