Purchase Power

I have pretty much been crying on and off all day now. I'm going to get a headache in a little while that will probably ruin the rest of the afternoon. I'm not too excited about the headache, but the crying, well, its been the good kind, the kind that wells up inside you and refuses to be ignored. The crying that happens when you realize something so wonderful that it overwhelms you; and the only thing you can think to do in response is cry like an idiot.

It all started this morning when I read Isaiah 49.

Isaiah 49: 5-6

"'And now the LORD says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD,
And My God shall be my strength),
Indeed He says,
'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

Notice all of the capital letters in those verses. The Servant, the I, the Me, the one speaking here is Jesus.

I saw something in verse 6 that I'd never thought about before. The purchase price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross was too valuable to only redeem the nation of Israel. This would have been a revolutionary idea in Isaiah's day. The Jews understood that they were God's special and chosen people, set apart, marked off from the rest of humanity. They were right to think that way. God had declared it to them numerous times, and had given them specific laws to live by as a way of demonstrating their separateness to the rest of the world. But here, we see the LORD telling Jesus (part of Himself) that only redeeming Israel is too little to get in return for what He would do. So the Gentiles must be brought to the light as well.

Now, we know that God does not change His plan halfway through the game. Everything that has ever happened and will ever happen has been planned from the beginning. So it's not like God changed His mind and decided to throw the Gentiles in the deal at the last minute. It was part of His plan to include us all along. But I've just never seen it in this light before.

Which serves to illustrate an important point that seems to get overlooked a lot. This idea does an interesting thing. You see, this equation was never about our value, it was about God's value. It turns our perspective from ourselves back to God, which is where it should be anyway. So much of what we are exposed to encourages us to appreciate how much God loves us personally. That is important, don't get me wrong here, it is certainly part of the whole. But the part that gets overlooked, I'm afraid, is that God is about more than just loving us, He is always after His own glory. In everything.

This may be a subtle point, but I think its valid. Christ's worth is so infinitely valuable that we cannot even comprehend it. But one way God has tried to point us toward understanding it is by showing how much needed to be bought in order for the sacrifice of His son to be made. The Jews just weren't enough to make the trade worthwhile. Christ was too valuable. More had to be acquired for such a precious price to be given.

AND, not only does this high cost help us to understand Christ's worth, it brings Him glory as well. When we understand who God is and what He is, we glorify Him. Bringing glory to God simply means that we reflect His worth back to Him. The better we understand God, the more we can glorify God.

Boy I hope I expressed that in a way that makes sense. If I sound like I'm talking in circles, just let me know. I'll try to clarify.

There is so much more I want to share with you about Isaiah 49. These two verses aren't even the ones that made me cry. I'll try to get up another post this weekend. Maybe tomorrow I'll have settled down enough to express my thoughts clearly.