The month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar began March 23rd and ends April 21st and is known as the “month of spring,” the “month of salvation,” and the “month of redemption.” God declared it as the first month of the Hebrew year according to Exodus 12: 1-2: “God said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.” Later in Exodus 13:4 He said “You are going free on this day, in the month of Nisan.” The metaphor of redemption includes the ideas of loosing from a bond, setting free in one’s possession for something possessed by another, and ransoming. The month of salvation looks back on the physical deliverance from the political powers of Egypt but more profoundly to the spiritual deliverance through Jesus the Messiah—the new salvation—the new covenant power we are given in Him. The central theme of redemption in Scripture is that God has taken the initiative to act compassionately on behalf of those who are powerless to help themselves. The New Testament makes clear that Divine Redemption includes God’s identification with humanity in its plight, and the securing of liberation of humankind through the obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection of the incarnate Son.
In the Old Testament, redemption involves deliverance from bondage based on the payment of a price by a redeemer. The term Goel is used for the person who performed the duties of “redeemer.” This term is found eighteen times in the Old Testament (13 times in Isaiah). It was the duty of a man’s redeemer, usually his next of kin, to buy back the freedom that he had lost. Boaz was a Kinsman Redeemer in the Book of Ruth. The paradigm of God’s redemptive activity in the Old Testament is the historical deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, but the metaphor of redemption was also utilized by the prophets in relation to the Babylonian captivity. Redemption of Israel from Egypt was but the foreshadowing in history of the great act of deliverance that was to be fulfilled in Jesus.
Jesus conceived His mission to be the Son of Man, who came to offer Himself in obedience to God’s redemptive plan. He applied to Himself the things said in the Old Testament of the Servant of the Lord concerning His rejection, humiliation, death, and resurrection. (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34) God knew before the foundation of the earth that His Son would come to this earth and become a man and purchase back lost mankind from the power of sin and death. He had to become the God/Man in order to be our Kinsman Redeemer. God brought me to a teaching today from the Biblical scholar, Dr. Michael Heiser, who went to be with the Lord earlier this month. He carries us to Hebrews 1 and 2 to unfold the reality of Jesus as our Kinsman Redeemer. In Hebrews 2: 10-13 we read “For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to all them brothers saying ‘I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.’ And again, ‘Behold, I and the children God has given Me.” God the Son became human and so He is not ashamed to be called our brother—joint heirs with Christ. Verses 14-18 reveals that through His death He destroyed the one who has the power of death—the devil and delivered us from fear and death and lifelong slavery. Verse 17 says: “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Verse 18 declares that “He is able to help those who are being tempted.” That help = rescue from death (via resurrection) and, therefore, a home in the new Eden, the new earth. That’s the destination of the redeemed! The salvation of humanity is the goal of the plan of incarnation, substitutional death, and resurrection. Putting our faith in Jesus gives us bold access to the throne of God’s grace so that we can find deliverance (help) in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
In light of the condition of this present evil world, we cry out for the Jesus to return now! (Revelation 22: 20) We want His deliverance, just as He delivered the Jews from ancient Egypt with great signs and wonders. Most politicians by definition exhibit Pharaoh—like lust and control and exploit people. They are called “the lords of the darkness of this world.” (Ephesians 6:12) This is the nature of the corruption of those who crave power over us and money for themselves. Today, so many people live in fear because they believe the propaganda of the “princes of this age.” We must always keep in mind that reality and truth centers in the LORD God of Israel, not in appearances and the rhetoric of political or media figures. Our Lord cares about people’s liberation from deception and tyranny. The story of the Exodus is His everlasting rebuke to all the world’s dictators and should cause every politician to soberly assess their fate…The time is coming when His judgment will fall upon all the kings of the earth who take counsel against the LORD and against His people. (Psalm 2:2)
Are you discouraged by this evil world? Do you sometimes pray: “O Lord, I know that you will help us; but will You help us before You will help us?” When things are dark and seemingly hopeless, it is tempting to yield to passivity and even to despair, but it is precisely then that our faith must rise up and become all the more emboldened. The world runs on a different clock and operates under its own set of mistaken assumptions. The “wisdom of this world is the prevailing cultural spirit that suppresses the reality of God’s Presence and Truth. Such wisdom is regarded as foolishness before God, and God has promised to “seize the so-called wise in their craftiness.” (I Cor. 3:19) The life of faith, on the other hand, sees what is invisible. Faith apprehends “the substance of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Faith “looks not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18) For the Christian eternal life begins when we accept Jesus as Savior—our Redeemer who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Faith in God’s love is the victory that overcomes the world and its illusions. (I Jn. 5:4) The LORD is our Deliverer and Kinsman Redeemer, a “very present help” in our troubles. (Ps. 46: 1-20)
Nisan is about experiencing the deliverance of God from our fears, despite the appearance of rampant wickedness in the world. May we not only during this Hebrew month that extends from March 23-April 21st but always walk by faith, not by sight knowing that God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus. (I Cor. 15: 57) ALWAYS remember--God is real, God has a plan, God is in control and God loves us. May He give us comfort and reassure us of His strong arm of deliverance and redemption at this time.