The Brooks

Redemption is much more than ‘getting saved’. Take Jeremiah for an example. Scripture records Jeremiah laying a withering assault on the pretensions of Judah and her temple. The result of their sin? The unthinkable: the Temple will be smashed by the Lord’s servants, the Babylonians. God’s people will be taken into exile.

What does redemption look like for such a people? Jeremiah records the words of God in Jeremiah 32:43-44:

43 Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate waste, without men or animals, for it has been handed over to the Babylonians.’ 44 Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes, ^[a] declares the LORD.”

For the people of God redemption was simple and mundane. When they found themselves able to buy and sell fields, able to have legal witnesses, they would know that God had redeemed them.

From Jeremiah we can gain a true (if incomplete) picture of redemption.

Brian Walsh says it best:

“According to this text, and I believe, according to the biblical witness as a whole, this is precisely what redemption is all about – the restoration of creation and cultural activities in ways that please the Lord.”