24 Days to Reflect on God's Heart for RedemptionSample

How does God teach redemption to his people?

The concept of redemption was taught to God’s people, the people of Israel, by relating it to everyday life and worship practice. Old Testament writers spoke in terms of financial transactions to explain what God wanted to do in their lives spiritually. Redemption was often used both as a financial and spiritual transaction, as an expression of faith.

Leviticus 25:24-51 describes redemption in terms of a real estate transaction whereby redemption had to be paid to transfer ownership of land in the context of the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee came every 50 years on the Day of Atonement. In the year of Jubilee, all the inhabitants of Israel were to return to his or her own land and arrange for the redemption of their lands by paying redemption money for the land.

The passage describes the procedures and regulations involved in the sale of a plot of land by its original owner. If a land owner wasn’t able to redeem himself from his situation and redeem his land, he and his children were to be released in the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:54).

Jubilee was a year of celebration when debts were forgiven and people were released from difficult circumstances. The concept of redemption was woven into the fabric of economic life and practice.

In the readings from Leviticus and Numbers, you can see redemption, as a financial transaction, woven into the fabric of social and religious aspects of Jewish life. The basic teaching was that provision was made possible through redemption. All the needs we might have are provided for through God’s redeeming work in our lives.

In Psalm 130:7-8, the psalmist writes about God’s redemption not only from sin but also from difficult circumstances. In this passage, redemption refers to deliverance as a visible sign of divine forgiveness, rather than only the forgiveness of sins. The word for redemption in Hebrew is padhah. This word is used to describe redemption beyond sin alone to include deliverance from a tangible and visible menace.

God’s redeeming work in our lives goes beyond the spiritual to the practical and real menace in our lives that seeks to destroy us. God is able to reverse those situations and turn them into good, for our good, for his glory.

Reflection question:

• If redemption is God’s great reversal in the lives of those he loves, what has he reversed from bad to good in your life?