God sometimes leads his people into captivity: a captivity that burrows to the very depths of the spirit, chaining the soul in all encompassing, perpetual fear. All other affections are drowned out by fear: fear controls every desire, every choice. The soul ceases to live, for every day is simply a battle to survive. Even when the body is freed and circumstances change, the spirit is still in bondage; for no earthly power can avail against the bonds of fear.
Fear not, oh captive soul! For Jehovah shall release the bondage of your spirit through his own patient, understanding, compassionate love. He will whisper “fear not” in your ear, and as your chains of fear burst, you will understand to the depths of your being that most blessed truth of Christianity that few really grasp on this side of glory: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” Your captivity was terrible, but it was lovingly woven into your destiny so that you may taste the fullness of freedom in Immanuel’s love.
The apprehension of God’s intense love for his people frees them from the trauma-induced expectations that circumscribe their expectations; enabling them to experience the full beauty of the life he has prepared for them.
- The Love of God creates a real union between himself and his broken people (Isaiah 54:4-6)
- Past traumas are real, but they will not constrain his loving intervention
- The transcendent Jehovah joins himself to his people as husband and kinsman-redeemer
- This blessed union is given to a people in the lowest state of dejection
- The love of God is the emotional expression of his inmost being, bound in an unshakable covenant (7-10)
- The progression of our apostacy is overshadowed by the progression of God’s love
- The progression of assurance in God’s love
- The love of God provides the emotional stability to apply his promises in a broken world (11-17)
- The love of God bestows an emotional core of beauty that outshines our trauma-based emotions and present difficulties
- The love of God bestows hope in the midst of fear
- The love of God bestows heavenly perspective of life’s troubles
