The Great Reversal

"...and [Israel] shall take [Babylon] captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors." Isaiah 14:2b

The freedom that the Lord offers is not just the end of the captivity, but the reversal of the captivity. God will lead "captivity captive" (Psalm 68:18), and Christ has done the same (Ephesians 4:8). The slaves are now the freemen (Galatians 4:31, 5:1). The servants are now kings (Revelation 1:6). The ruled now the rulers (II Timothy 2:12 & Revelation 5:10). The unclean now the priests (Revelation 1:6 & 5:10). Everything that was once our tyrant is now rendered impotent and subservient.

"That through death [Christ] might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:14b, 15) Through Christ, our once cruel master (i.e., death) now lies impotent in defeat (I Corinthians 15:54, 55). Through Christ, our once great accuser (i.e., Satan) is now under our judgment (I Corinthians 6:3). The redemption of Christ is not merely the Great Escape, but the Great Reversal. The Cross of Christ literally did turn the universe upside down, or perhaps we should say, right side up. Indeed, it would be better if we did not see the Great Reversal as a strange thing, but the right thing, the return to the way things ought to be, a return to normalcy. If the reversal seems strange, that only goes to show how far we have been ravished by Sin and Death.

"O Death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." (Hosea 13:14) Whereas death is our plague and the grave our destruction, God is the plague and destruction of them, and redemption means that all that God is, we are.