Fresh Bread
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From Prison to the
Palace
In
one of history’s strangest
reversals of fortune, South
Africa’s Nelson Mandela, who had
been imprisoned for more than twenty
years by the country’s former
apartheid government, became its
first president in 1994 as well as
the winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace
Prize. Similarly, Bible history is
dappled with amazing examples of
those who have transitioned from the
prison to the palace. The following
is one of the most beautiful.
It came
to pass in the thirty-seventh year of
the captivity of Jehoiachin king of
Judah…that Evil-Merodach king of
Babylon, in the year that he began to
reign, released Jehoiachin king of
Judah from prison. He spoke kindly to
him, and gave him a prominent seat
than those of the kings who were with
him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin
changed from his prison garments, and
he ate bread regularly before the
king all the days of his life”
(2 Kings 25:27-29).
What a
splendid symbol of salvation! The
king of Babylon shows mercy to
Jehoiachin, who had been languishing
in a dungeon for thirty-seven years.
He not only frees him from his chains
but also speaks tenderly to him and
gives him new royal robes in exchange
for his prison rags. He even grants
him a majestic seat at his own table
in the palace in Babylon and feeds
him with royal food from the palace
kitchen. What’s more, he does
this for the rest of his life-an
obvious symbol of the coming
eternity.
Jehoiachin’s story is also the
story of the demoniac’s
deliverance and the story of our
salvation. After we come to Jesus
just as we are, He not only breaks
our chains and brings us new royal
clothing. He changes our status from
death-row prisoner to child of the
King!” “Behold what
manner of love the Father has
bestowed on us, that we should be
called children of God!” (1 John
3:1).
In one
day, Joseph’s rank was changed
from imprisoned slave to the prime
minister of Egypt. In one day,
Moses’ status was changed from
doomed helpless baby slave to the son
of the Pharaoh. Likewise,
Daniel’s position was changed
from Judean captive to chief
counselor of Babylon.
God has
a royal plan for your life too! This
is what He wants to do for you: He
wants to grant you freedom from your
chains, to give you a new name, to
make you His child, to cover you with
His royal robe of righteousness, and
to feed you forever with the living
bread and the fruit from the tree of
life (see Revelation 2:7)!”
“To Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood,
and had made us kings and priests to
His God and Father, to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever”
(Revelation 1:5, 6).
“He who
overcomes, I will make him a pillar
in the temple of My God… And I
will write on him My new name.”
–Revelation 3:12
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