Everyone is worried about the Iran war. As well as the suffering and destruction in the Middle East, the economic fallout is being experienced worldwide. The world depends on oil, and when the oil supply from the Middle East is interrupted everyone feels the consequences.
Nobody knows how the situation will progress. The problem is global, very grave, and totally unpredictable. Some people question whether the God we believe in actually cares about us.
He most certainly does! Throughout the Bible God shows His care for people, and especially the poor and needy. The Law that He designed for the Jews – the Law of Moses – had specific provision for the poor. The Jews were commanded to care for them, not exploiting them or making profit from them. Even if a poor person volunteered himself as a hired worker in order to survive, he could be redeemed. And he was only required to serve for a limited period of time. Some of the instructions were:
‘He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee’ (Leviticus 25:53-54).
Being ‘redeemed’ is a theme in the Bible; the most important example being the redemption achieved by Jesus Christ. Jesus died a cruel death so that we could be redeemed from the worst possible crisis: eternal death. Because in the natural course of events our death is absolutely certain and predictable.
This redemption is the most supreme way in which God and Jesus cared about us and our predicament. And the cost involved was incomparably high. It involved not money, but a life of total obedience and then an excruciating death on a cross.
Apostles refer to this ultimate ‘cost’ when addressing Christian believers:
‘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’ (1 Peter 1:18-19).
‘You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body’ (1 Corinthians 6:20).
‘The church of God, which he obtained with his own blood’ (Acts 20:28).
This enabled us to have the opportunity of the free gift of eternal life.
Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow him. He has ‘paid the price’ for our eternal life, doing much more than we could ever begin to achieve. Surely this is the ultimate cost of living, and we should never ever doubt that God does care.
Anna Hart
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