Category: Ransom - Lindsey Neal Photography + Fine Art

Pidyon... Yes, Redemption...

6/30/2022

The word for redemption in Hebrew is Pidyon. But what is it and why would anyone need redemption? Does redemption cost anything, and if so who has to pay?

You’re about to find out.

Korah was a tribal leader in Israel that led a rebellion against Moses while the nation of Israel was in the wilderness on route from Egypt to the Promised Land. With his status as a member of the Levites, he was able to minister in the tabernacle. Being jealous of Aaron, the brother of Moses who had been appointed High Priest, Korah demanded that he instead be the one to serve as High Priest. The Book of Numbers records his grim fate. He, his followers, and their families and possessions were swallowed by the ground in a judgment by God. But in a marvelous picture of grace, a few of his surviving descendants nearly 400 years later wrote some of the Psalms. Psalm 49 is one of the Psalms attributed to the sons of Korah. They knew full well the consequences of sin. In verses 6 through 9 they wrote of redemption and its price: They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him;
(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

The word Redemption is the word Pidyon and in conventional Hebrew it refers to a price that must be paid to redeem, to rescue, or to deliver someone. Its root is a legal term that concerns the substitution required for a person to be delivered from bondage. In this passage, a clear picture emerges demonstrating the fact that while many trust in their riches and even boast in them, there is at least one thing that their riches cannot purchase.

They cannot secure redemption and rescue from corruption. The word corruption is the word pit and refers to the ultimate destiny of those who have rejected God.

What can the Ancient Hebrew pictographs tell us about the word Pidyon? Pidyon, as used here, is spelled Pey Dalet Yood Vav Noon. Pey is the picture of the open mouth  and means to speak.

Dalet is the picture of the door and refers to a doorway, a place of decision, or an entrance to life or death.

Yood is the picture of the hand or arm and points us to a mighty work or deed.

Vav is the picture of the wooden peg or the iron nail and means to fasten or to secure two things that are separated from one another.
Noon  is the picture of the fish and describes activity or life. The message found in God’s Ancient Pictographs is very clear. He is declaring an entrance or a pathway that will require a mighty deed to secure life.

No amount of money will perform this mighty deed, something else will be required. Each of these five letters are also numbers that hold a certain meaning that is determined by how these numbers are used in the rest of the Scriptures. This added information will reveal even more about this mighty deed that money can’t buy. Pey is the number 80 and means a new beginning and a new birth. Dalet is the number 4 and refers to creation. Yood is the number 10 and stands for ordinal perfection. Vav is the number 6 and reveals man’s enmity with God. Noon is the number 50 and describes deliverance followed by rest. This explains something else found in Pidyon that brings great hope. This redemption will bring a new birth or a new beginning for all creation.

It has been ordained in heaven, will solve man’s enmity with God, and will result in deliverance followed by rest.   But the Sons of Korah had announced to us that no one is able to pay the price of redemption.

Then how will anyone ever be delivered from bondage? Is there someone who is able to perform the mighty deed that will be sufficient to rescue precious souls from the pit? The writer of the Book of Hebrews describes such a man and his mighty deed in chapter 10 verse 12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.

Here we read of a man who was able to pay the price necessary for mankind to be delivered from the bondage of sin. But just who was this man? In the Gospel of Mark chapter 10 verse 45, this man is identified more fully, and the mighty deed he performed is also revealed: For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

We can read that the Sons of Korah knew God would someday provide for Himself a way for us to be redeemed. They continued in verse 15 of Psalm 49 with this: But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Rabbi Paul completes this mystery for us in his first letter to Timothy. In chapter 2 verses 5 and 6, he tells us the name of the One who was able to pay the Pidyon: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in -due- time.

Redemption...

2/7/2022

Everyone is in need of redemption. Our natural condition was characterized by guilt: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Christ’s redemption has freed us from guilt, being “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

The benefits of redemption include eternal life (Revelation 5:9-10), forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), righteousness (Romans 5:17), freedom from the law’s curse (Galatians 3:13), adoption into God’s family (Galatians 4:5), deliverance from sin’s bondage (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:14-18), peace with God (Colossians 1:18-20), and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). To be redeemed, then, is to be forgiven, holy, justified, free, adopted, and reconciled. See also Psalm 130:7-8; Luke 2:38; and Acts 20:28.

The word redeem means “to buy out.” The term was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom. The application of this term to Christ’s death on the cross is quite telling. If we are “redeemed,” then our prior condition was one of slavery. God has purchased our freedom, and we are no longer in bondage to sin or to the Old Testament law. This metaphorical use of “redemption” is the teaching of Galatians 3:13 and 4:5.

Related to the Christian concept of redemption is the word ransom. Jesus paid the price for our release from sin and its punishment (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6). His death was in exchange for our life. In fact, Scripture is quite clear that redemption is only possible “through His blood,” that is, by His death (Colossians 1:14).

The streets of heaven will be filled with former captives who, through no merit of their own, find themselves redeemed, forgiven, and free. Slaves to sin have become saints. No wonder we will sing a new song—a song of praise to the Redeemer who was slain (Revelation 5:9). We were slaves to sin, condemned to eternal separation from God. Jesus paid the price to redeem us, resulting in our freedom from slavery to sin and our rescue from the eternal consequences of that sin.

Numbers 32:23 says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (KJV). This is a curious-sounding caution, especially if read in isolation. So we’ll review its context, especially the entire chapter of Numbers 32, then see what else the Bible has to say on the topic of our sin being “found out.”

The statement “be sure your sin will find you out” is set in the completion of the exodus of Israel from Egypt. After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the tribes of Israel were finally preparing to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Military-aged men from all twelve tribes were required to help each tribe conquer its assigned territory, a task that would involve much time and hardship.

Before the Israelites crossed over the Jordan, the tribes of Gad and Reuben let it be known that they liked it right where they were, east of the Jordan. The land there was ideal for raising cattle (Numbers 32:1), and the leaders of those tribes approached Moses for permission to settle on the east side, rather than in Canaan. Moses at first said “no”: “Should your fellow Israelites go to war while you sit here?” (verse 6). He then accused them of failing to desire to enter the Promised Land, as the previous generation had done: “This is what your fathers did” (verse 8). And he reminded them that it was this very sin that caused the Lord’s anger to burn against them for 40 years, and he warned them that they risked bringing destruction on the whole nation all over again (verses 13–15).

But Gad and Reuben had a different intention, as they explained. They asked Moses if they could leave their flocks and families behind in settlements while the men armed themselves and went to war in Canaan. After their assurances that they were not abandoning their fellow Israelites, Moses agreed to their request. He told them they must fight until the land was subdued, and only then could they return to their property east of the Jordan. Moses then added the warning: “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

When Moses said, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” he did not mean, “Everyone will find out about your sin.” If the trans-Jordan tribes failed to keep their promise, it would be a sin against the Lord and the whole nation, and their sin would be obvious to all. Rather, Moses’ warning that they could be sure their sin will find them out hints at the strange-but-true nature of sin.

In several places in the Bible, sin is described in terms that make it seem as if it were a living being with a mind and will of its own. God poetically warns Cain that “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). James explains how, figuratively speaking, people “are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14–15). Paul, in Romans 7:14–25, describes sin as though it were a being living within him, enslaving him against his will and making him do what he himself hates and condemns: “It is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (verse 20).

In the statement “be sure your sin will find you out” is revealed the mystery of sin. The nature of sin is such that, whether or not others discover your sin, your sin will “discover you.” You cannot run from the consequences. Sin carries within itself the power to pay the sinner back, and sin’s payback is hell. Don’t even think about toying with sin. It cannot be tamed, outrun, or shaken off. No matter how safe you think you are, if you are a sinner, your sin will find you out.

Moses’ warning to the tribes of Israel, “be sure your sin will find you out,” is echoed by Paul: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7–8). The only way to escape sin’s consequences is to be forgiven of your sin by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 10:9; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 1:5).

Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Colossians 1:14
In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Titus 2:14
Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Colossians 1:20-22
And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Psalm 111:9
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!

1 Peter 1:18-19
Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Psalm 130:7
O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

1 Corinthians 6:20
For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 1:30
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Romans 3:24-26
And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

1 John 3:16
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Hebrews 9:12
He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Psalm 107:2
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:10
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”--

Galatians 4:5
To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Hebrews 9:15
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.