redemption

God’s Redemptive Love Part IX: The Prophets

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Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. 

Isaiah 59:1 NKJV

For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 

Jeremiah 30:3 NKJV

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Matthew 23:37 NKJV

Even in the midst of their depravity, God looked upon Israel with compassion and a desire to save them from themselves. He sent prophets to them such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Ezra, Micah, and several others. These prophets gave stern warnings to the people and encouraged them to abandon their sinfulness. They reminded the people of God’s love for them and His future glory that awaits. Even once Israel was taken away to bondage God used prophets such as Daniel to speak words of hope.

As prophecy was being fulfilled and the people were being gathered by God from captivity, He raised up more prophets such as Ezra and Zechariah to remind them of God’s goodness and His call on their lives as they enjoy their newfound freedom. But as Jesus states in Matthew 23, God was so much desiring His children, and they would not listen.

Despite our hard hearts at times, God is still whispering (sometimes shouting) His love in our ears. In my darkest days, I still saw God moving in my life. Even at my worst, God still loved me and didn’t abandon me. Whether you are started down a bad road, caught up in bondage, or experiencing your freedom in Christ, God is constantly after your heart. The stories of the prophets are just that much more of a reminder that God does not leave us nor forsake us. It is also a good lesson in listening to God, heeding His voice, and following His path which will keep us from stumbling. God and His word will never leave us no matter our circumstances because His heart is always seeking the redemption of our souls.

Peace in Christ brothers and sisters.

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God’s Redemptive Love Part VII: David

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So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

1 Samuel 8:4-5 (NIV)

But now your (Saul) kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man (David) after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

1 Samuel 13:14 (NIV) [my emphasis]

As we open up to the book of Psalms and read through the prayers of David we can see what it is like to have a true heart after God. He was the man that God would use to unify and strengthen the nation of Israel. David was by no means a perfect man but his heart was often in the right place. He was humble and repentant before God. Two of the most important characteristics required of a child of God.

Hear me, Lord, and answer me, or I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy.

Psalm 86:1-6 (NIV)

Towards the end of the time of the Judges, the people had longed for a king and no longer wanted a judge over them. They wanted to be like the nations around them, even though God had called them to be separate. However, the Lord gave them what they wanted. He rose up and anointed Saul. But Saul had a problem with following through completely with what God asked of him. In ways, he served the people before he served God. So God raised up another in his place.

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

Acts 13:22 (NIV)

David was chosen to be the seed of the Messiah of God’s children. The Lord brought the nation together and empowered them over their enemies. God gave them a leader, ultimately, in order to bring the nation back to Himself. God wanted them to recognize Him as their King and Judge. But the people lost sight. Even so, God used people, like the Judges, prophets, and certain kings, as part of His plan of redeeming a wayward people.

It’s incredible to see how God will redirect our lives after we make demands of Him. We, at times, will take a path that we think is best for us. Only an awesome God would allow us free will, knowing full well He can restore us and He can make us new. Just as He did for Israel, God has brought people into all of our lives to help guide us on the right path. Maybe we’ve embraced it, maybe we haven’t. But as the Good Shepherd, the Lord is constantly trying to reach us and lead us in the path of life. He doesn’t abandon us to our own despair. He doesn’t walk away from us even when we walk away from Him. Just as the father of the prodigal son God is waiting with open arms to embrace His wayward children. That is redemptive love.

Celebrate your redemption brothers and sisters. There is no greater gift.

God’s Redemptive Love Part VI: The Judges

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Courtesy https://bibleproject.com/

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them…

Judges 3:9 (ESV)

This verse from chapter three appears several times throughout the book of Judges and contains the main idea of the entire book. God’s people rebel, they are given over to what holds them captive, they are in misery and cry out for God’s help, and God is faithful and true to deliver them…again and again. It became very predictable and quite frankly sad. However, it serves as a mirror for our own stories. We have all refused to lay things down, whether it’s a vice or a character flaw. Anyone who has followed Jesus for a long time knows all too well, what it is like to repent for the same thing time and time again. God’s patience endured then, just as it does now.

In the previous book, Joshua had successfully led the people of Israel in capturing the promised land, divided the land, and called them to serve the Lord as he and His family were resolved to do (Joshua 24:15). In Joshua’s last days and especially after his passing, the people of Israel walked away from God. They walked in such a way that the world around them said was good and ended up in misery. They compromised their faith and pursuit of God and traded it in for the corruption of the world.

Throughout the book, God raises up 12 judges to guide the people back to His love, yet they fall away each time one of the judges is gone. God’s loving kindness is so amazing. His patience in our lives is unmistakable and undeserved, yet He remains true to us. It breaks my heart to know the times I have acted like the Israelites in the book of Judges, yet I press forward attempting to surrender my whole heart completely to Him.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
    your justice like the great deep.
    You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light.

Psalm 36:5-9 NIV

While Jesus is the full embodiment of God’s redemptive love, the book of Judges tells a story of a patient God who forgives and who saves, regardless of whether we deserve it or not. In that, we can have peace. In the next post for this series, we’ll be looking at the life and experiences of King David and how that reflects God’s redemptive plan. If you want to look at the first five posts on this topic click on the following links: God’s Redemptive Love Part V: Moses, God’s Redemptive Love Part IV: Joseph, God’s Redeeming Love Part III: Abraham, God’s Redemptive Love Part II: Noah, and God’s Redemptive Love Part I: Adam and Eve.

God bless you brothers and sisters.

God’s Redemptive Love Part V: Moses

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The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…

Exodus 3:7-8 NASB

God’s people are in bondage, they cry out for His help, and God provides a way for their freedom…sounds like a pretty good redemption story to me. Not only that but He used a man who (as a baby) was a prime target for Pharaoh’s mass murder but was saved by God and found by Pharaoh’s daughter. In addition, Moses was not the best of speakers (Exodus 4:10) and had fled Egypt years before. This was not what most of us would picture as the primary candidate for a leader. But God uses what the world sees as lowly to do some of the most incredible things. God did not abandon those who loved Him nor did He turn a deaf ear to their cries. Sometimes we just need to rejoice in hope, remain patient in tribulation, and stay devoted to prayer (Romans 12:12), knowing that God will save us one day. God has shown time and time again that He is our freedom from bondage, the one who breaks our chains and places us on high ground. Just as He did not leave the children of Israel to slavery in Egypt, neither will He leave us to the slavery we battle.

Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

Exodus 3:10 NASB

Today is the Passover. As part of this story, God would use His miraculous power to shock the conscience of the Egyptian people and strike down each of their gods one by one, plague by plague. End the end, God would bring the ultimate consequence for rejecting Him…death. However, anyone who placed their faith in Him, and was covered by the blood on the doorposts, would not experience this last plague. God provided a way of escape from death. He opened the door for faith to be the means by which people are rescued.

This man, Moses, was placed into the story to be a key player in God’s beautiful act of redemption. An act that would be mirrored, only in greater magnitude, many years later when another baby would be rescued from death, to lead a movement, to reveal God to us, to go to a cross, and to provide the blood that never runs out. The act of redemption that never needs to be repeated. This lamb died once and for all to cover, not our doorposts, but our hearts with His sacrifice and save us from wages of sin.

I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God…

Psalm 40:1-3 NASB

Peace in Christ brothers and sisters.

God’s Redemptive Love Part IV: Joseph

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Joseph and his brothers

I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…

Genesis 45:4-5 NKJV

The Old Testament is full of major moves of redemption. God was constantly working things out as His creation was busy messing things up. Today’s focus is yet another example. The story of Joseph is such an amazing portrayal of God’s redemptive love. The opening verse alone depicts God’s master plan for the redemption of His people, in spite of their wrongful actions. The full story extends over 14 chapters making it one of the biggest stories in the Bible. If you want to read it in its entirety, check out Genesis 37-50.

The tremendous faith that Joseph demonstrated even as he was sold by his brothers into slavery and cast into prison shows the power of relying on God’s redemptive plan in our own personal lives. Knowing that our circumstances do not dictate whether or not God loves us and cares for our lives, by trusting in the fact that God works all things out for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  Understanding this story can help us to realize that even in the most difficult of times in our lives, God could be working out His salvation story, for us, and for others as well. God saved His people once more, despite their mistakes, in order to preserve their lives. No matter our mistakes up to this point, God is extending His hand, asking for all our hearts, because of His unfailing love. No matter what others have done to you, God can turn things around. We find this ultimate redemption in Jesus. Though we slay Him, He loves us. Though our sins put Him on the cross, He loves us. Though we mess up time and time again, He is always there. Just as Joseph extends grace to his brothers, much more does Jesus show unfailing grace towards us.

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 36:7 NIV

Peace in Christ brothers and sisters

God’s Redeeming Love Part III: Abraham

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As we work our way through the Old Testament, we’re looking at acts of God’s redemption towards broken humanity. I feel it important to address those claims that some (even Christians) have made about God being different in the Old Testament then he was in the New Testament. Because we believe that Jesus is the exact imprint and expression of God, we know that the life of Jesus shows the heart of God. Because we know that Jesus demonstrated love and sacrificed Himself for humanity, we can know that God is in all of that. Jesus is God in the flesh. Because of that, everything Jesus did, God did. We have to remember that it is God who redeemed the world, and He did so in many ways before coming to Earth in Jesus. Today’s story is still early in the book of Genesis.

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV)

At the age of 75 Abram (Abraham) departed from his home, the only place he had ever known, to follow the Lord on a journey that would change the future of mankind. The place Abraham was leaving was in the heart of the Babylonian Empire. This empire was the origin of corrupt pagan tradition first established by Nimrod and his wife, the source of the modern false religions. It is truly amazing that God would look at this place and call out a remnant from among them, especially one that will be the patriarch of God’s people. Rather than allow mankind to remain subjugated to the rebellion of this land, God chose redemption. God chose to bring goodness out of evil and light out of darkness. God has made a way for us to escape the sin of this world out of His immense love for us. He will never leave us or forsake us but rather, He will call us out of the mess we’re in, and place us in a land of freedom.

And the Lord said to Abram… “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Genesis 13:14-16 (NKJV)

Peace in Christ brothers and sisters.