Isaiah 63:9 NKJV (Copied)
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.”
The closeness with which the LORD relates to us in Christ is more intimate than we can ever imagine. Though God may not always make the closeness of His presence obvious, the truth remains that He is the “…[true, loving] friend who [is reliable and] sticks closer than a brother” (Pro 18:24 AMP). The LORD made Israel experience that truth and He has never changed that concerning us in Christ Jesus. To emphasize how God so intimately related with Israel during the Exodus, the Prophet Isaiah made a very insightful statement in our Scripture of reference:
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.” Hallelujah! Notice that “God is Spirit” (Joh 4:24 NKJV) but not physical flesh to be “afflicted” in that sense like Israel. Secondly, the LORD is so sovereign and Almighty that nothing in all creation can dare afflict Him. However, to express the close relationship the LORD had with His people, Isaiah used a language that ‘subjected’ God to the very things that His own went through.
When Jesus came to this earth, died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven for us, the Scripture says, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15 NLT). Therefore, nothing in our lives or about us surprises God. Nothing about us ever catches Him unawares; He knew every detail about us before we were even conceived. Just as the affliction of His people made Him save them, redeem them, and bear them all the days of old, God is doing the same thing with us in Christ by His Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
Pst. Emmanuel