“Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
Isaiah 26:4
Come what may, come what must, there is no force, there is no strength that can stand against the force or the might, the power or the authority of the Lord God Almighty. Come bitter captivity and brutal iniquity, against the will and the righteousness, the judgment and the Word of the Lord it shall have no ability to stand amidst the test of time. Come evil men in their wicked ways who act through their sinful hands to oppress and to subjugate their fellow man in fearful loathing and bitter hatred they have not the capacity to challenge the Lord God of deliverance who governs the affairs of men.
This is the faithful assurance of a loving God who, through His mercy and His compassion, contends with the cause of His children, a loving and faithful God who shows them that He shall forever by the rock in which they can anchor themselves even as evil seeks to sweep them away and drown them in a sea of affliction and pain, anguish and agony, suffering and torment. He shall be the ever present, ever vigilant force for freedom and liberty in this world as He shows that there is justice in His hands and grace in His works, forever contending with the cause of His people for the sake of their righteousness.
So much so has He shown this that even as a lost and fallen humanity found itself in held by the dark power of sin, death and the Devil, kept in that captivity that would lead to the torment and the torture of the fiery pits of hell, He, through the power of that great and encompassing sacrifice, set us all free. Through Christ Jesus, His only Son, God made manifest His great love for mankind, as they were ransomed by that Cross and in that power. No longer held hostage to iniquity and transgression, by the old adversary who took them and held them in such gloomy, grim places. It was there, only there, that they found hope. A hope that could only come through the grace of God and the love of Christ as we were led by the power of the Spirit to the blessed air of liberty.
Just as He has set the soul free from all that would seek to assert its dominance over it, all that would seek to hold it amidst the chaos and the torture that could be inflicted against it, so too does He now do battle against all that would strive to hold the body and the mind, all that would seek to break the heart and crush the spirit amidst this world as evil men try to work their wicked ways. He sets Himself to the cause of the prisoner and the captive, the slave and the hostage, showing that though this world may favor the strong, He shall always and forever favor the weak, never letting them, in their anguish, suffer through the hatred that holds their life to be cheap and without value or dignity, without any integrity attached to it.
He shall always and forever favor the weak, showing them mercy and love, compassion and kindness, as He tells unto them, whispering gently into their ears, that they will never be given more than they can handle, and through His hand, even as it seems as if it is too much, too much for them to bear, He shall give them a means of escape, a way out as He leads them to righteousness.
What a promise that truly is, what a blessing that rightly must be seen as. For even when it seems like evil is on the rise and that the slow march of hatred seems to be gaining the ground we know that that is not just the end of the story, we know that that is not just how events will run its course. Even when darkness seems to be all around us, ready to engulf us and swallow us whole we know that there is more, that there is forever and always going to be more. God will work His will and work His ways throughout this world, putting such iniquity and wickedness to flight as His Spirit gives peace and comfort, grace and solace, soothing even the most troubled and afflicted, even the most tortured and tormented of souls.
As He walked with Moses, as He stood with David, as He contended with Elijah, as He held the hand of Isaiah, as He proved Himself with Christ Jesus, so too shall we see the light of life shining through when we put our faith and our trust in the power of the Lord and the promises that He has made in the devotion that He has for us. It is undying, unending, inalterable love that He shows and against it no hatred or fear, no loathing or detestable, repulsive behavior inflicted against our fellow man shall be able to stand.
What a blessed comfort and a wondrous assurance that truly is in the lives of all those who would be left to the hopeless and detestable state of captivity that would seek to destroy them and cast them away as if there was nothing of any value and importance about them, as if there was nothing significant in their lives, worth seeing or being respected, that should be honored or cherished .
Here then must we view the nature of God rightly, as the Rock of Salvation in which we can put all of our trust, all of our hope in, even as captivity comes, even as wicked men seem on the rise, even as evil tries to triumph, He shall move in and through this world, weaving Himself through the course of its events, showing that He is a God of righteousness and of mercy, a God of justice and a God of love, who shall always hold freedom and liberty in His hands, dispersing it to the lost and broken spirits that are in so much need of it.
Lord, grant this unto us all.
Now may the peace of the Lord, that transcending, encompassing peace, that peace that surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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