Isaiah 43:14 Thus said the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles… Proof of the existence of God is not the proper subject of a revelation made to man in a book. The being of God is assumed by making a revelation in a book. The proper subject of a book-revelation is not God creating. That we might learn from the things created. Not God providing. That we could sufficiently understand by due observation of life. Not God ruling. That would be impressed upon us with ever-increasing force by the history of the ages as they accumulated. The great subject of a book revelation must be God redeeming. That we could not learn from the perfect order of creation. That we could not reach by the keenest observations of his providence. That is not traced upon human history save as the deeper, hidden lines which we need some key to decipher. With that our Scriptures are full. That must be told in human language, and shown in human signs. No researches of science will declare it; no natural relations of men involve it; no creature is commissioned to show it forth. No inquiry of the human mind can reach it. God the Redeemer. This is the unknown mystery - unknown till God himself declares it. Too glorious to be received by men until it is seen proved over and over again, and at last gets its most melting display in that cross whereon God's beloved Son dies in agony, for the glorifying for ever of the redeeming love of God. The Scriptures may have side information on matters of creation, providence, science, government, and duty; but these are not its great message. Creation is God's first work; redemption is his second and greater, called for by the world's confusion and man's moral ruin. That second thought God could tell to man in no other way than by words; only words could reveal the deep fact of the pitying love of God, which the heart, not the head, of man alone can grasp. The heart wants to be spoken to with human words. I. REDEMPTION IS GOD'S CONSTANT WORK. Our Bible is full of it. It is the prominent thing on every page. Clouds of curse and woe hang heavy over the very first page of human history. The darkness of Divine indignations drops down on man and woman and tempting serpent. But right across the great thunder-clouds God threw a brilliant rainbow of promise. In symbol it said, "Redemption is coming." In words it read thus: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Abraham stands forth the head of a new race. Behold a man redeemed from Chaldean idolatries, redeemed unto God. A mystery hangs round the second patriarch, Isaac. Behold a sacrifice redeemed by God, through the substitution of the ram caught in the thicket! Jacob reads his life, and sees everywhere the "angel who redeemed him from all evil." The national life of the Jewish people started in a glorious redemption, which was to be remembered for ever as giving the first and foundation-truth concerning God. A mighty host fled hurriedly forth from Egypt, and found themselves hemmed in by lofty hill-ranges, a flowing sea, and foes pressing hard upon their rear. But there is a pathway through the mighty waters, and the delivered sing of God their Salvation. Redemption is a constant theme in the Mosaic system. The story of the wanderings is a series of illustrations of redeeming grace. God was ever delivering in the time of the Judges. David was redeemed from Saul, Asa from the Ethiopians, Hezekiah from the Assyrians, The saints from all the ages unite to say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." II. ALL GOD'S REDEMPTIONS DISPLAY HIS POWER, HIS HOLINESS, AND HIS LOVE. If they did not, they could be no redemption for us. If there is not Divine power in them, then he cannot reach our case. If but one of those redemptions start a question of the Divine righteousness, then we can have no confidence in the worthiness of his scheme to rescue us in Christ. We cannot be satisfied with Christ's salvation unless it is perfectly plain that in his work "justice and mercy have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." And if the redemption do not take such a shape as shall display a "love Divine, all love excelling," then our hard cold hearts will never be melted and won. But all these are fully seen in that great redemption wrought by Christ. His is a mighty salvation. The perfect obedience unto death of the beloved Son seals for ever the righteous Father's claims. And as to love, what shall we say about love in sacrifice? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;" but "God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Love! It drops from the overcharged heart in the agony of the garden. It drops from the thorn-crowned brow in the mock judgment-hall. It drops from nail-pierced hands on the cruel cross. It drops from the wounded side of him who "bore our sins in his own body on the tree." O melting drops! Let them fall afresh on your heart and mine, and melt us into penitence and responsive love! - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. |
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