Topic: A Dire Transportation [November 26, 2016]
Text: Isaiah 27:1-13
Key Verse:“By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up” (Isaiah 27:9).
Penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation of convicts by France to ‘Devil’s Island’ and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s and then to Australia between 1788 and 1868. The penal system which saw more than 40, 000 convicted criminals sent to America and about 200, 000 to Australia required the convicts to work on government projects such as road construction, building works and mining, or assigned to free individuals as unpaid labour.
Women were expected to work as domestic servants and farm labourers. A convict who had served part of his time might apply for a ticket of leave permitting some prescribed freedoms. This enabled some convicts to resume a more normal life, to marry and raise a family. From the passage, having seen the unrepentant nature of the children of Israel to be reformed, God laid the nation waste when He sent them away into captivity in Babylon for a while. Though He promised to afflict them, yet He will make their afflictions to work for the good of their souls and correct them as a father does the child, just to drive out foolishness in their hearts. The affliction was intended to cure the besetting sin of idolatry.
Though Jerusalem shall be desolate and forsaken for a time, yet there will come a day when its scattered occupants shall resort to it again out of all the countries whither they were dispersed. At present, you may be going through conditions you can clearly liken to either imprisonment or exile in a strange land. Rather than run from pillar to post, take a cursory look at your life and repent, if need be. That may end your captivity faster and ease your pains quicker.
Thought for the day: Simple obedience may end a long captivity faster.
Bible Reading in one Year: 1 Peter 1-5
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
