Redeemed!

          From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 59:19-20)

          To redeem something, one buys it back or compensates for its bad behavior. According to today’s passage, the Lord will come as an unstoppable force to redeem those in Jacob who repent. Add that to His coming to be injured, to crush the serpent’s head, to act as an intermediary between God and man, to judge the world, to do battle, and to deliver both vengeance and retribution, and you get a general picture of the reasons Jesus came, according to the Old Testament. No doubt, there are other pieces to this puzzle in the Old Testament, but these are the passages that specify what He was/is coming to do. Whether they excite you, frighten you, or anger you depends on your perspective.

          Since today is Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to consider these things as reasons to be grateful. God will set things right. He will do battle for you and for me. He will put an end to the reign of the one who has terrorized this world for thousands of years. In fact, He has put an end to it, but in terms of what we’ve looked at so far, it was all still in the future. Now it’s only partly in the future.

          I am thankful for God’s redemption this Thanksgiving. I don’t what’s on your list of bad behavior that you can’t seem to get past. Mine is long. What redemption gives to us is hope that those things that we try to turn from cannot hold us forever. If we can focus on that, perhaps our repentance will be easier.