The readings in my plan today were full of wonderful blessings and encouragements, and I spent a while trying to decide which one of them I would highlight here. In the end I gave up and decided to mention all of them, not least because there are glorious threads running through them and joining them together, as we might expect when we come to God’s Word!
The first passage is from Deuteronomy 16, where Moses is reviewing the Passover regulations with Israel and says this:
Deuteronomy 16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
I hadn’t really focused on Moses calling the unleavened bread of the Passover “the bread of affliction” before. When Israel came out of Egypt, they did so in haste. The land was in shock and confusion because every firstborn was dead - except among the Israelites who were redeemed by the blood of the Passover Lamb. But the exodus of Israel wasn’t a walk in the park for them. There was haste, there was trouble - affliction. There was no time to make the bread with yeast as they usually did, so their food was unleavened bread for a time. Project that forward to the Lord’s Supper, where now the bread points to the affliction and suffering of Christ, and His words “this is my body which is for you” speak of His taking our place and being our substitute in the affliction that came upon Him. The cup, of course, represents the poured out blood of our Passover Lamb, Jesus, by which we are redeemed from our slavery to sin.
The second passage I read was Psalm 103. It’s all wonderful, but I will dwell on these verses:
Psalm 103:2–4 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
David is talking to his own soul, and exhorting himself to bless the LORD for all His benefits. What are some of the chief among these? That He forgives all of David’s iniquities, heals all his diseases, redeems his life from the pit and crowns him with unfailing love and compassion. How was God able to forgive, heal, redeem and crown David? Through the afflicted Christ at Calvary and the shed blood of The true Passover Lamb. How great is this unfailing love of God? How certain and irreversible and complete is this forgiveness, this healing, redemption and crowning? David tells us:
Psalm 103:10–12 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
How high is heaven above the earth? How far is east from west? That is the answer to these questions!
Then I turned to Isaiah 43 and read these words:
Isaiah 43:1–4 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.
We will go through trials and afflictions. Sorrows like sea billows will roll over us. Our pathway will lie through fiery trials as we live for God in a fallen world. But what sustains us in these seasons? He is forming us into a treasured possession from all the tribes and nations and peoples and languages of the earth. He has redeemed us. We belong to Him. He is the Holy One of the New Israel, our Savior. He has given a man - no, a God-man, in exchange for our lives. We are precious and honored in His sight, and He loves us! Therefore we can be sure the waters will not overwhelm us and the flame shall not hurt us - His designs for us are for our good - it is well with our souls!
Finally, a little later in the same chapter, we read these words:
Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
One of the characteristics of the New Covenant God has made with His people is that He will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and here it is repeated as God declares His everlasting and unconditional love for those He has redeemed. Again, all these promises and blessings find their ultimate fulfillment in the church, redeemed through the blood of Christ.
Can you hear the drumbeat getting louder and louder through these passages as common themes are repeated: Substitution, Redemption, Ransom, Forgiveness, Healing, Inheritance, Possession, Unconditional and Sacrificial Love?
Can you see how, being assured of these truths, we can go through the waters and through the fires. As the hymn writer put it, how “With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm?”