SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 49
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce ? But this is what the Lord says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. [Isaiah 49:24-25]
This chapter describes how God’s loving purpose is to rescue and restore His family, including both the Jews and Gentiles.
They are engraved on His hand, they are loved even more than a mother loves her child.
If we are enslaved by our own folly, we are released and restored by His love and mercy.
The messiah (God’s anointed servant) will defeat the enemy – sin, death and hell – and will enlarge God’s family from all nations.
He will contend with the power that enslaves us, and set us free!
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house. [Matthew 12:28-29]
Jesus is our liberator, He has bound the strong man, we are released, no longer slaves.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil– and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. [Hebrews 2:14-15]
Like the slave owners after Lincoln abolished slavery in the states, Satan is reluctant to let his slaves go.
He lies to them – like the slave owners did to their slaves – telling them that it’s a lie, that it doesn’t apply to them, or that they will hurt them if they try to leave.
But we are free, despite what we think, see or feel; we need to first choose to believe this, then with His help we need to start living in this freedom!
It begins as a mindset, a way of thinking or believing; Isaiah’s audience needed to choose to believe his words, because it didn’t look like what he said was true.
And the messiah did not actually come for many more centuries, so that his words were only promises to be believed, to cling to through hard times.
The same applies to us today – Jesus has defeated the enemy (Colossians 2:13-15] but He has not completed the liberation yet – His return is still to come.
In the meantime Satan deceives and distracts us from this good news, trying to keep us as slaves to him.
We need to affirm the truth, whether we see or feel it or not; the strong man has been bound, we are free!
“Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we’re free at last!” – as this was a faith statement for MLK, it is also a faith statement for us.
We are His, Satan has no legitimate power over us, we are engraved on His hands, nothing can separate us from His love.
Are you living in this freedom, or are you still in bondage to the lies and trickery of the defeated enemy?
PRAYER:
Lord, help me to affirm again today that I am forgiven and free in You! As I move into Day 14 of my own journey of freedom, may I find strength for the battle that lies ahead, knowing that I am yours, and I am free!