Psalms 103:4 “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowned thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;”

 

Here is a word that we use all the time and never really stop to think about what it means.  I am referring to the word redeem or redemption.  I never really thought much about that word redemption until I saw the movie The Shawshank Redemption.   The Shawshank was a prison that the main character was sent to after being wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover.   The word redemption is used because the main character redeems the wrongs of a corrupt warden by exposing his corruption.  I am still not sure how the word redemption fits that scenario perhaps I will understand at the end of this study.  Hey, these are not teachings that you are reading.  I am only sharing with you my journey to the Heart of God and this journey means asking some of the hard questions and seeing if I can find an answer in the Heart of God.

 

In Psalms 103:4 we are told that God redeems us for a life of destruction, some translations says he redeems us from the pit.  My immediate thought is that he simply rescues us from a life of destruction or pulls us out of the pit when we fall in.  But I have to ask, why not use the word rescue or even saved?  Instead the writer uses the word go’al which is really the word for a kinsman redeemer.

 

We have an example of this in the book of Ruth where Boaz takes the role of a kinsman redeemer or a go’al. The kinsman redeemer was a male relative who had the responsibility to act on behalf of a relative who was in need.  The word go’al in its root form means one who delivers or rescues or redeems property or a person.

 

If you recall the story of Ruth you will remember how Naomi, Ruth’s mother in law, is widowed as well as Ruth herself who was married to Naomi’s son. The women were left penniless and without a male protector which in those days was a near death sentence.  Naomi sends Ruth to glean in the fields of  Boaz without telling her he is a wealthy relative.  When Naomi learns of the benevolence of Boaz and that he was possibly sweet on Ruth, she then reveals that he is a relative who has the duty to take of them.  Apparently, the land owned by Naomi’s husband had to be sold off because of their poverty.  According to Leviticus 25:25, the closest blood relative is obligated to redeem the land.  He was also obligated to buy back the relative who fell on hard times if he were in slavery.  If the relative male had died the near kinsman was obligated to marry the widow or the daughter if the widow was past child bearing years so as to provide an heir to the land that he had purchased back or redeemed. Not a fair deal for the go’al or kinsman redeemer, he not only had to purchase his relative’s land, but he has to marry the widow or the daughter  or whomever could produce a child who would then claim the land that was bought and paid for by this kinsman redeemer or go’al.

 

Anyways that is the story of a kinsman redeemer and the story behind the word go’al which is the word used in this passage for redemption.  Redemption involves a payment or a price.  As an employee of the town I live in I am obligated to report any stray animals.  So if a I see a dog wandering around without a leash I am to report it the town’s animal control who have the authority to arrest the offending dog and put him in the pound or doggy jail.  The moment he enters doggy jail he is on death row and unless someone comes to redeem him, pay the fine for allowing an animal to run loose the poor pooch may walk that last mile.  I walked through doggy death row one time, somehow they all knew they were condemned and they would look up at you with that pleading look in their eyes begging you to redeem go’al them before the executioner gives them that lethal injection and throws their remains into the fiery furnace.

 

Such is the redemption go’al  that Jesus offers us.  We are on death row, a price must be paid for our sins and we are just as incapable of paying that price as the poor dog is, we need a go’al  a redeemer and that is Jesus.

 

I walked through doggy prison as I had to drive a go’al  in my disability bus to the shelter so she could pay the fine and redeem her pet.  I tell you when she picked up her little doggy he sensed he had had a close call with the executioner as he just  covered his go’al with wet kisses and snuggled up to her all the way home.

 

I occasionally drive five men to dialysis, actually that is five men and one woman.  The woman is the wife of one of the men on dialysis.  She goes with him every time he goes in  which is three days a week and she sits there with him for four hours in dialysis on each visit.  Yet, she is there by his side each time.  I mentioned this to a woman I was driving home this afternoon and she said: “That’s ridiculous, why she should be home cleaning her house and preparing a meal for the man, not waste four hours sitting with him.”  I then told her the story behind this.  About twenty five  years ago the man came from Mexico, left his young family in Mexico so he could start building a life in America.  A relative gave him a job and it took three years before he could save enough money to purchase a house so his family could live in comfort.  Once he had purchased a house he went to Mexico to get his family and they came to live with him in America.  When I asked his wife why she was always going to dialysis with him she said we were separated for three years and I cannot stand to be away from his for just a few hours. This man was a kinsman redeemer only he redeemed his wife not out obligation but love, just like Ruth and Boaz.

 

A go’al redeems out of obligation but Jesus had no obligation to redeem us, He did it for the same reason Boaz redeemed Ruth and this man redeemed his wife, because of love.   I am not sure what this shachath which is rendered as pit or destruction is.  This word has a wide range of usages and only the context will tell you which one to use.  The word has been used for a ditch, a grave, corruption and even hell itself.   One thing is certain, whatever he redeems us from it cost Him something, it cost Him His life.   So I am just going use the English word hell here and say that he has redeemed our life from the flames of hell and the price of that redemption was His life.

 

At the end of the Shawshank Redemption the warden found his redemption which was that his  corruption was discovered and the price he paid was his life.  Too bad, although the story is fiction, he did have a go’al, a Kinsman Redeemer who died so he would not have to.

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