"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name;
you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life."
God, out of his compassion for his lost people, could no longer stand by waiting for his people to return to Him; the Lord himself speaks in Isaiah 42:14:
"For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth;
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do, I will not forsake them."
Because of love, God turned back to us; broken and in our depravity. He reached into the depths, thereby shedding his sovereignty, if only for a moment, in order to find his people.
He groaned and longed, as a woman in the throes of childbirth, for his people to return to him.
His heart has always been for us, never against us.
Jesus reached out, not to strike with the wrath of Heaven, but to bring his people back to Him.
Jesus' own were so important to Him, he made himself nothing; relenting all his authority for the sake of His people. He associated with people of the lowest sort, never once refusing a beggar or sinner his inheritance in the kingdom of God.
So we come to this day, knowing that our God has come through His son, Jesus, so that we may once again have the relationship with God that captured David's heart. We now have access to the streams of living water-where there once were deserts, there are now streams of life.
We are the culmination of thousands of years of waiting, and the scriptures tell us that the time is coming and has now come where the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. (Isaiah 40:5)
You were made for such a time as this.
