To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them beauty for their ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. Isaiah 61:3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
I give you beauty for your ashes. This is your inheritance. What am I talking about? The burnt offering and so much more.
“He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor. 1 Samuel 2:8.
I am talking about restoration. All you lost Jesus has bought back. Open the floodgates and let the glory rush in. You have an inheritance of glory. It is time to stop looking back and to go forward.
As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation (Yeshuah) of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you and you hold your peace.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. Exodus 14:10-16.
The enemy who seemed so real and so threatening, the one whom seemed stronger and mightier than you, the one whom had enslaved you and taken away your riches and left you with nothing, when you cry out to Me, when you call upon the Covenant, I will fight for you if you hold your peace and go forward, and that enemy that loomed so large and controlled your life, you will never see again forever.
I just want to interject here that the word used that is translated “hold your peace” and often “keep silent,” that is, The LORD will fight for you and you hold your peace, is the Hebrew word “charash (חָרַשׁ)” which means “to cut in, engrave, plow, devise, to be silent, hold it altogether.” Do you recall what I tell you about not looking back and going forward? I liken it to plowing:
But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62.
Stop grieving about your past, about the abuse, about the mistakes, about the years and promotions you lost, about the sins you did and others did to you, and stop fearing the future that there will be lack and repercussion for the past mistakes, that your failures and addictions cannot be rectified or overcome. When you turn and return to Me, I take these away and restore all that was lost. All that has been put on the bronze altar with your sin offering and all that is left are the ashes that the wind has driven away.
And all the devil planned for you as been as stubble in the furnace and you shall tread those ashes under your feet.
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 4:2-3.
Divine restoration. Will no one say restore? My people had forsaken Me for idols and refused to return to Me despite the warning of the prophets whom I sent. Ignoring My Words as delivered by Jeremiah opened the door to Nebuchadnezzar and the conquest of Jerusalem, with My house, which was full of idols, being burned to the ground and turning the homes to ashes.
All the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his officers, he brought them all to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. 2 Chronicles 36:18-19.
But I gave My people hope, the prophet Jeremiah told them to be fruitful in their exile and he gave them My Word that I would return them to their land in 70 years.
Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.
And My prophet Isaiah told them how they would return to their country. A king came into power named Cyrus who did not know Me but he opened his heart to My promptings and sent My people home to Jerusalem and funded the building of My house. But his was not without the prayers of My prophet Daniel and My servant Nehemiah who knew the prophecy I had given to Jeremiah and they kept it in My remembrance. And when the time came, they took possession of the promise and spoke it into the earth and I performed it. The restoration and the building of a nation that had laid in ruins for seventy years came to life again. Paid for by the decrees of three pagan kings and a pagan people.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah—the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!’” 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.
Nothing is too hard for Me. I watch over My Word to perform it.
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together; state your cause, that you may be proved right.” Isaiah 43:25-26.
The Babylonian exile and the return to rebuild the city and the walls funded by three pagan kings is the story of all lost and all regained. And I do this time and time again.
That is the story of Ruth and Naomi—all lost and all regained, but with one difference the restoration was better than that lost. When I restore it is better in quality and quantity.
The Israelites had lost all they had acquired at the time of Joseph when their lives were turned from favored people to enslaved people. But when I brought them out I not only restored their wealth but gave them far more than they ever had before. I brought them out laden with silver and gold, precious gems, fabric, yarn, and clothing. More than they needed to build the tabernacle.
The threshing floors will be full of grain and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame. Joel 2:24-26.
I will dwell wondrously with you. I restore all to you and more. Believe not only that you are forgiven but also that restoration is yours as well. Don’t let go until you see it come to pass.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you. Isaiah 60:1-5.
Let us go back to the Red Sea miracle again. How did the enemies get taken out that were pursuing My people so they never saw them again? They drowned. They were covered by the sea. It is time you drowned your past and went on to something new. It was by a flood that I cleansed the world at the time of Noah. And when Jesus sent the demons into the pigs at their request the whole herd rushed into the sea and drown. And My Son told you how to get rid of the mountains in your life, speak to them and cast them into the sea. The sea can cover a mountain. I will fight for you but you must be willing to go forward, hold your peace, and stop looking back.
Beauty for your ashes. I Myself provided the lamb for the burnt offering.
In the burnt offering, the sinner brought his unblemished lamb to the bronze altar at the entrance to the Tabernacle and laid his hand upon the head of the lamb. This symbolized transferring the sinner’s sin to the unblemished lamb and the purity of the lamb to the sinner in place of his sin. The divine exchange. And then the lamb was sacrificed, its blood poured out and sprinkled, and the lamb burnt to nothing but ashes. The ashes were placed at the east side of the altar and then taken to a clean place outside the camp. The sin was gone to ashes and the sinner was given beauty before Me. Jesus fulfilled this once for all and gave you beauty for your ashes.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
He has made you holy, blameless and beyond reproach before Me by the blood of His cross.
And what happened to the ashes?
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. Psalm 103:16.
The past, the Holy Spirit has blown away.
When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Acts 2:1-3.
I send forth My Spirit, and you are created a new creation in Christ and I renew the face of the earth. And the Holy Spirit testifies to you that your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE. The fire and then the wind of the Spirit swept the ashes away.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:11-12.
You have come to Mt. Zion and the great wedding feast of the Lamb.
In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord (Adonai) has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain. Isaiah 4:2-6.
I love you. Speak My Words of restoration and increase so that I can perform it in your life. It is your inheritance—beauty for your ashes.