Redemption Type Two: The Prisoner
In part one of this five-part teaching, I talked about the first type of redemption Psalm 107 presents to us. Type one was what I referred to as "the wanderer." Today, I want to talk to you about the second type, which is what I call "the prisoner." To get a background on what Psalm 1-7 says about the prisoner, I will share with you verses 10-16 of the NIV Bible translation.
Psalm 107:10-16 NIV
"Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God's commands and despised the plans of the Highest. So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of the darkness and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron."
Now, let me be clear, when I talk about being a prisoner, I'm not exactly talking about someone who is physically in prison. There are so many ways we may wind up as prisoners. Especially when we live in a world that tells us that obeying God's commands isn't ideal. Time and time again, we will be tempted to rebel against God. If we aren't careful, we could find ourselves sitting in this utterly dark prison cell, suffering in iron chains. So, what gets us to this point in life? Allow me to clear that up for you.
What A Prisoner May Look Like
Verse 11 tells us that to become a prisoner, must have had to rebelled against God and/or reject the plans of God at some point. When we rebel against God, we are committing sin intentionally. It happens when we know that something is sinful, but we go ahead and partake in committing the sin anyways. An example I can give you of this would be when someone partakes in blasphemy against the Lord. We know that this is unlawful in our faith, yet some people do it anyways.
When we reject the plans of the Most High, we are rejecting God's hand in our lives. We may say things like, "I can do it without him," or "I'm better off without God." Even worse, we may even believe that we are doing everything on our own. For example, we may attribute our success to our own doing. This could look like a baseball player hitting the game winning homerun and praising himself, not God's grace. It could also look like a successful businessperson saying that they made millions on their own account instead of their success being a blessing from the Father.
The Idea of Bitter Labor and Redemption
So, now that we have a better idea of what a prisoner may look like, we can continue through the scripture to see what their life may look like. Verse 12, then, continues with, "So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled and there was no one to help." If someone is in prison, they may be subjected to some pretty ugly labor. I've heard of prisoners having to pick up trash on the side of the interstate as part of their jobs. When I was a little girl, my dad worked for a medium security prison. The prison he worked for ran a farm. Every day, certain inmates had different duties that they were responsible for completing on the farm. Having been raised on a farm, allow me to be the one to tell you (if you haven't heard already) that it isn't all rainbows and butterflies. Farming isn't for the faint of heart.
Though we might be imprisoned and forced to bitter labor, we may not find ourselves on the side of the interstate or on a farm. These jobs are humbling, nonetheless. However, we may find ourselves in some pretty bitter situations of our own. When my husband and I were newly-weds (you should note that we weren't even old enough to drink when we got married, so we were very young), we got ourselves into a large chunk of debt. At the time, we had no bills at all. We had just moved out of our townhouse rental and were staying at his parents' house while we solidified our plans to build our dream house. I held an average paying job as I was just starting out in banking, and his job paid significantly well. We thought, "why use our own money when we can use someone else'." So, we took our credit card after credit card, and loan after loan, to purchase whatever our hearts desired and pocketed our own funds into our savings. In doing so, we charged my wedding set and countless lavishing jewelry purchases on one credit card, my not-so-cheap wedding dress on another, and expensive dinners after shopping sprees on another. We took out a significant mortgage and we both drove new cars.
You see, this looks like the dream, right? We got to have our cake and eat it too! We had nice things that people who have worked their whole lives may never see. We were living for money, and we never once thanked God for any of it at the time. We were living for the world like it was goin' out of style. It wasn't until 2019 hit that we would see our bitter labor. In 2019, my husband's work went downhill, and I had just taken on a new role as a stay-at-home mom. He was laid off more than half of the year. We had bills to pay and a new baby to feed. We ate our savings up in the first few months and were left to survive off of the very little we were receiving on unemployment. Luckily, my husband was thrown some out-of-town jobs here and there and we kept our heads afloat. The problem was, we had to put the credit card payments on the back burner in order to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. We had the promise of 2020 being better. That work would pick back up, and we would be in a good place again... until Covid19 hit.
My husband was employed less than half of the year again. At the end of 2020, we had not one, but two babies to provide for, we were running out of unemployment, we had made the decision to give his truck back to the bank because we couldn't make the payment any longer and we were at risk of losing the house. We entered 2021 optimistically. Because of God's mercy, my husband was sent back to work right away. He was promised a stable position in a stable location and was promised the next two years of nonstop work. Not only that, but we came into a decent sum of unexpected money that ended up being just enough to catch everything up that we owed. 2021 was also the year that God broke the chains of my addiction and redeemed me.
The Purpose of Bitter Labor
Do you see where I'm going with this story? Honestly, going into this post, I had no idea what I would use as my example because I didn't have much experience on this "prisoner" concept. But here we are, I just realized that I was a prisoner myself! I was a prisoner to my greed and my love for money. Nice things are great, but if you're not careful, they may come at a greater price. This experience alone has humbled us tremendously and taught us so many lessons. Now, we strive for the simple life and aim to live like less is more (because it is).
God uses these moments of "bitter labor," as part of the redemption process. They aren't meant to make us spiteful. These moments are meant to teach us valuable lessons and redeem us. It is in these moments that we are humbled enough to turn to God. When we turn to God, he will redeem us! It was in the tough times that my husband and I saw that we learned valuable lessons about greed and how to use our money wisely. We also learned that we must trust that the Lord would provide for us. We learned that more doesn't always mean better, and that material things aren't worth your destiny. In 2021, we saw the end of our bitter labor for that chapter in life, and we walked away with a stronger faith. Not only that, but I personally found my redemption. He truly brought us out of the darkness and broke away the chains that held us back.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
It is through your son Jesus, that the bondage sin holds on us has been broken. We may be prisoners to our sin now, but you have a plan of redemption in place that is going to set us free. God, I know that you are going to bring us through these times of darkness stronger than ever. I pray that in all of this, we may not resent the process or you. That it's going to hurt a little, but the risk is far worth the reward. Father I believe that you are bringing us out of our prison cells wearing crowns and not chains. That in our redemption, you will mold us into the Christians we were meant to be. Father we trust in you. We pray this in your son's name.
Amen!
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