Prisoners of the Earth

“To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,” (Lam. 3:34)

Lamentations 3:34 reminds us that we are prisoners here on earth. The verses immediately preceding this verse say that God does not want to destroy us nor cast is off forever, (vs. 31- 34). Then He says that He does not want to “crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth”. What a statement! That is exactly what we are when we are redeemed by the blood of Christ—prisoners, held captive by the flesh. As Children of God, we are kidnapped by the devil, and held for ransom in a matter of speaking, but the unsaved of the world, the natural man, is indeed a prisoner in a much greater way in that he is under the control of the devil. Yes, mankind is taken captive and only the Lord can set Him free.

We live amid a world of sin—gross sin, flagrant sin, and yet we do not belong to this world, we are captive here until the redemption of the body by our Champion, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must live here amid the strife and the evil, every day, and yet we are not to be partakers of it. We are prisoners in a foreign world. Pray for deliverance; pray for our Deliverer to complete the plan He has for us in the total redemption of body and spirit. Pray for the rapture! Only then will we be set free from the flesh and the lusts thereof, totally free, in body, soul, and spirit.