Quick Note – Isaiah 43:1-4 – Exchanged for You

Isaiah 43:1-4 – ¹ But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  ³ For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.  I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.  ⁴ Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. 

When they were being punished and disciplined by the LORD for their sins, the people of Israel must have thought that God had forsaken them.  They must have thought that they were being abandoned, because God allowed them to fall into the captivity of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.  This must be why the book of Isaiah was not only filled with prophecies of punishment but also with words of encouragement.   

One of these encouraging words is found in Isaiah 43:1-4, where God tells the people of Israel not to fear, because He had redeemed them and called them by their name.  He had declared them as His own and would watch over them in any trial or difficulty.  They need not fear, because God loved and treasured them so much that He willingly exchanged other nations for their lives.  It was like a prisoner exchange, where God gave up other nations for them – greater, stronger, and mightier than them like Egypt, Cush, and Seba – simply because He loved them and would do anything for them.  God would give up these treasures so that He could have His people return.   

I find beauty in these four verses, because it reminds me of how much God loves me.  God found me to be so precious in His eyes and loved me so much that He also gave up a ransom for me – a ransom that is worth a whole lot more than a nation; He gave up His Son.  Because of our sin, we deserve death and hell.  We deserve eternal punishment.  But rather than leaving us to die, God traded His Son for us.  He let His Son die on the cross as a ransom, as an exchange, so that we could have new life in Him, so that our relationship with Him could be restored.  He found us precious enough to trade His own Son – Jesus Christ.  He loved us so much that He died on the cross to redeem us.   

So the next time you feel worthless, the next time you feel like God doesn’t care or you are unworthy or unloved, remember that God gave up His Son, the greatest treasure, to have a relationship with you.  He loves you so much that He did everything to get you back.  So place your trust in Him.  Do not fear, do not be discouraged, and do not be dismayed – your God truly loves you.   

Quick Note: 1 Peter 1:17-19

1 Peter 1:17-19 – “And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Whenever we watch a movie in which someone is kidnapped or held hostage, the one thing that the captors almost always ask for is money.  They want a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills that add up to millions of dollars in total.  The demands never really change, except in a few cases, where they actually ask for some specific possession or something in conjunction with their freedom, but nonetheless it usually includes some material object that will fade in time.  They ask for these things because they think that it is the greatest thing in the world and will give them lasting happiness and security, but they are completely wrong.  There is only one thing that can bring lasting joy – a relationship with the one true God, Jesus Christ.  There is only one thing that is worth everything in the world – Jesus Christ.  But you never see criminals asking for Christ!  They don’t understand the value of Christ.

Our passage today was a letter written from Peter to the saints throughout much of the known world at the time.  In these verses, he reminded them that since they called God “Father,” they should conduct themselves in a way that displays fear (respect) of Him through their actions and lives.  They should live a life which shows that they are children of God not children of man.  Why?  Because they had been ransomed away from these sinful ways by the precious blood of Christ.  They were ransomed with something that is not passing and eventually useless like silver and gold but with the blood of Christ – the blood of the Son of God.  How much more valuable and precious can that be! The life of the Son of God for you.

There are so many Christians today who no longer fear God.  They take the gift of grace that He has given and abuse it for their own pleasure, playing on the notion that God will always forgive them.  It is true that God is a forgiving God, but God is also just and will punish sin.  But more than that, they forget that God had bought them with a price – the price of the spilled blood of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.  God bought/ransomed us in exchange for the one thing with the greatest value in the world – His Son.    By forgetting how precious the blood of Christ is, we can easily stumble back into our old ways of sin, for we take lightly what He has done for us.  If we constantly keep in our hearts and minds what Christ did for us, then it becomes much harder to sin, for we know that every sin was one more pain that He had to take upon that cross.  You won’t sin because you know exactly how costly it is.  You weren’t saved by gold or silver that perishes, money that eventually burns, or possessions that will become dust over time; you were saved by the precious blood of Christ so that you could live a new life in Him.  Don’t trample on the grace of God or on His precious blood.  He did it all for you.  Will you not live your whole life for Him?