"And the ransomed of the LORD will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away." Isaiah 35:10 NAS

Who are the ransomed of the Lord? Do you know? Well let me state it frankly: You better know! We are the ransomed of the LORD. We who love Jesus and call Him our Savior are the ransomed of the LORD. This verse speaks to the return of Israel from captivity in Babylon. The Lord had redeemed Israel and they were returning home to Zion. This is also a picture of the Messiah redeeming the sinners to be reconciled to the Lord to come home to be with Him in heaven.

The word ransomed is so powerful. The word ransomed in Hebrew is padah (paw-daw') and means to sever, i.e. ransom; to release, preserve. KJV usage: to deliver, (that are to be, let be) redeem (-ed), rescue (1). To be ransomed means a price was paid. The price had to be in paid in full on demand. We see an example of this in Exodus 21:30, "If a ransom is demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him (NAS)."

We were not able to pay the price that was demanded of us. When we were under the law there was a ransom price before the Lord. It was not effective an permanent though. In Exodus 30:12 there was a price to pay for atonement. It says, "When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them (NAS)."

What was the price that had to be paid? "This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD (Ex 30:14 NAS)." In verse 15 it says, "The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves." We all owe the same amount of debt to the Lord for our sins.

Whether rich or poor the wage owed was and is the same. The ransom price was too much for us to pay. There was only One who could pay the ransom price in full once and for all. That was Jesus Christ. "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time (1 Tim 2:5-6)." The Greek word for ransom is lutron (loo'-tron) and means something to loose with, i.e. a redemption price (figuratively, atonement) (2).

Just as Israel was released from the captivity of Babylon, so we were released from the captivity of sin and death. Death was the wage that would have been demanded of us (Rom 6:23). That is eternal death and separation from God. Eternal sorrow in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25:30). Instead we "...have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:20)." Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us with the perfect ransom. He paid the price none of us could ever pay.

How awesome it is to think on how "God so loved the world..." He so loved me and He so loved you to give the ransom payment we could not give and will never be able to give. He gave it as a free gift (Eph 2:8, Rom 6:23). In fact Second Corinthians 9:15 sum's up our hearts attitude, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" There is not one man rich or poor who would be able to come back and boast that he was so lofty to make payment.

Proverbs 13:8 says, "The ransom of a man's life is his riches...” Meaning he will end up giving up his riches to try to save his life. Because of God's free gift to us as the ransom price for us, the result for us is perfect atonement and perfect joy. We like Israel will come with joyful shouting to our Zion -Heaven. We will come with everlasting joy upon our heads. We will not be able to compare it to any joy here on earth and it will be everlasting and eternal.

We will truly be in the forever joy of the Lord. No sin will ever again rob of us of our joy. We will know what true gladness is. Here on earth in Christ we get a taste of His joy and gladness that the world misses out on. We who love Jesus express that joy and gladness to the world as a picture of what is to come. The world wonders how we can be so joyful in a tough situations. That's the result of being one of the ransomed.

Are you walking as a ransomed child or as a chained prisoner? Are you walking in the everlasting joy of the LORD? Or are you walking in the sorrow of sin. It is possible to feel trapped in the sorrow of sin and be a Christian. Be reminded that you have been ransomed and freed from the bondage of sin. Always remember that and always remember that there is no never no never condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom 8:1).

There will come a time when "...sorrow and sighing will flee away." It will never be able to bring us down again. Our sorrow and sin will be gone forever. How exciting to think about isn't it? It is breath taking to imagine that day. We will no longer mourn the death of our loved ones. We the ransomed of the LORD will no longer face sickness. We will no longer feel pain and hurt. All that will flee away.

Take heart in that and remember that the Lord will return and take us His redeemed children home. May you His ransomed child be filled with His joy as you think on His return. Say aloud, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"