Creation is Still Waiting

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Creation is Still Waiting

Let’s talk about the firstborn and redemption. In fact, the redemption of the firstborn of man and beast is presented as a reminder of the miracle of the exodus just as pesach and unleavened bread are. The Brit Chadasha and the ministry of Yeshua is also replete with the same language of the firstborn and redemption. There is an important connection here, lessons that God wants us to learn and know. God says "I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm..." What does this mean? To answer that we must understand redemption. Redemption is no more than a transaction that transfers ownership. In the Torah many things can be redeemed in a variety of ways. People, animals, and land can all be redeemed through sacrifice or monetary payment. In the case of the exodus, God wanted to reassert His ownership of Israel to Pharaoh. They had been sold into slavery just as an Israelite who is poor may do.

They had served much longer than seven years and now their kin (God) has come to redeem them so they may be free again. The final plague is the killing of all the firstborn in Egypt from the son of pharaoh to the livestock, God sets forth a principle of redemption. He says that the first issue of every womb is His. Why? Because with Him lies the power of creation. As the Creator, the first time that womb creates, the creation is His. This is true everywhere, for all people and every animal we derive benefit from. It is a reminder that it is God and not our wisdom and technology that creates and fosters life. For people, we substitute. The Israelites substituted the lamb on Pesach (Passover), the Egyptians did not and God took what was rightfully His.

All this death and sacrifice is rather graphic, but the spiritual and the physical are inseparable in reality. We understand the physical, we can see the sacrifices, hear the cries of Egyptian families and see the money paid to redeem land or tithes but what is the ‘spiritual’ significance of all this? How does it make sense to us today? The redemption process is there to remind us of the illusion of our ownership of self. Paul says in Roman 3:23 that we have all sinned and put ourselves far from God’s presence. We are far not in time or space, but in awareness. We remain blind to the reality of God’s presence around and within us, and our connection with Him, each other and all of creation. And as descendants from Adam, God’s first creation, the firstborn, we all share in that deception and in the need of redemption. So God buys us back (Eph 1:13, 14, 4:30, Titus 2:14) with the second adam, Yeshua (Rom 3:23-25, Heb 9:12).

The seal of that redemption is the Ruach which is the experience of the presence of the Almighty. The ancient meaning of the Hebrew ‘redeem’ will make all this even clearer. The Hebrew word for redeem is ‘padah’; a peh (mouth/opening), a dalet (door/way) and a heh (to behold). It’s ancient meaning would thus be something like ‘the opening of the way to behold’. Behold what? The glory of God’s kingdom and person. The Ruach is the seal and sign that one has been redeemed and the Ruach is the intimate connection with God Himself. This redemption is crucial not only to us but to all creation. Romans 8:18-23 tells us that all of creation is waiting for the revelation of God’s redeemed ones. Why? So we can take our proper place as stewards of the earth and restore harmony and balance. Israel, the people and the land, were supposed to demonstrate that harmony as a redeemed nation. Creation is still waiting.