Calamity can be a friend. When tragedies of whatever scale, disease or natural disaster, devastate a family or a nation, careful rebuilding can make things better than before. Yet it is hard to feel positive about the future when you have to pick up the pieces and build your life or your house again.

The most serious damage done by the awesome forces that assault our bodies or our homes is that damage done to our spirits. These are the times when people need to know how their emotional infrastructure can be rebuilt. Rebuilding is a main theme of many kingdom prophecies. God spoke through all His holy prophets of the rebuilding to come. One of those messages is found in Isaiah 61:4: "And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations."

We see though, from the preceding verses of the chapter, that rebuilding goes beyond the reconstruction of cities: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified" (verses 1-3).

There must be a rebuilding of the heart or spirit before there can be, or as part of, the rebuilding of ruined structures.

Amos also wrote of the rebuilding to come: "They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them" (Amos 9:14).

Rebuilding the Infrastructure

What has to be rebuilt? The answers to these questions will help us understand the future kingdom, how we are being prepared for it, and will give us some direction for our lives in the coming years.

One of the first items that must be rebuilt after a disaster is the infrastructure, which is the means to transport supplies essential to life as well as those materials necessary to rebuild. Two of the most basic elements of an infrastructure are highways and communications.

Both are found in the kingdom prophecies. For instance, in Isaiah 40:3-4: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.'"

Removing All Obstacles

Let's concentrate our thoughts first on a highway. Highways are necessary for the free flow of traffic. Rebuilding a highway requires then, the removal of obstacles which prevent that free flow.

Obstacles might be objects as small as rocks which can be removed by bulldozers. Or they might be mountains that have holes blasted in them so that traffic can go through. Breaks in the road might be holes small enough that they can be filled in with patching material. Or they might be canyons or rivers so great that bridges have to be constructed over them. Sometimes embankments are needed across valleys, or mountains leveled, to ensure a road goes through.

Verse 5 of Isaiah 40 indicates to us that there is a spiritual element to this highway: "The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.'" The revelation of God's glory so humans can see or understand doesn't refer to a physical highway, but rather to a "highway of the mind." Many thoughts must flow freely between God and His people, but some of the first ones include hope and trust in God.

Communication Between God and Man

The prophet Malachi foretold the rebuilding of this communication highway. "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me" (Malachi 3:1). In Matthew 3:1-3, Matthew wrote that John the Baptist took up this prophesied work: "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!' For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight."'"

People have lost contact with God. There are untold obstacles in the way of the free flow of thoughts to and from Him. Isaiah 59:1-2 says: "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; nor is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."

Some of those spiritual obstacles are like rocks, small enough that they can be pushed aside, while others are of such size that, like mountains, they cannot be removed without calculated force. Some are like small holes which can be patched with strong material, while others are like yawning chasms which can be spanned only with careful engineering.

Jesus spoke of this spiritual rebuilding (Luke 4:17-21), and also quoting from Isaiah 61, He announced that what Isaiah had predicted was His responsibility, to make a way to free us from obstacles that block our connection to God. The gospel of the kingdom is a message of restoring that way.

Jesus is now in the process of building His Church (Matthew 16:18). Through His Spirit we can have sin and its damage removed so that we may have free flowing communication with God the Father. This message of Isaiah is one of reconstruction of a hope and trust in God in our hearts now, not just that of the hearts of others in the future.

The Vision of Our Calling

Can we capture the vision of what God is doing in us, and welcome the rebuilding process? Think of the calling of God as a sign which reads: "Wanted: People Who Have The Heart to Rebuild."

How inspiring it is to witness a cross-section of all ages and types of people pulling together to rebuild after a natural disaster. Similarly, we too need all those in our church to have a heart to rebuild. Young people, because of their natural enthusiasm and their love for a challenge, can ignite vision and passion in the hearts of the disheartened. Older people, because of their experience in rebuilding and having had their hearts strengthened through pain, can inspire patience and persistence in the demoralized.

I hope you can see how these rebuilding prophecies can unfold in the coming kingdom. I hope you have a clearer picture of how we are being prepared for it.

We have been called by God to a work of restoration, foretold by the prophets, joined by John the Baptist, begun in earnest by Christ and continued in the early Church. The work includes building a highway showing people the way to God. The first "vehicles" to move along that highway are hope and trust in God. Once they are restored, other aspects of His kingdom can be rebuilt. The obstacles of sin and unchecked human nature can be pushed aside or blasted away by the power of God. Gaps or holes left by sin can be filled with right ways.

Let's pray for the heart to rebuild. Let's be about living and preaching the gospel of the kingdom so that the way is prepared for others. In doing so, we are part of God's restoration work.