Consignment

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. -- Romans 11:32

Consign is a verb meaning 1) to hand over, give up or deliver (consigned to prison); 2) to put in the care of another, entrust; 3) to relegate or assign to an undesirable position; 4) to send or deliver goods to be sold.

Various translations, notably the NASB, say "shut up", as if imprisoned.  Wuest's Expanded Translation says, "God included all within the state of unbelief".  Translators split in choosing "unbelief" versus "disobedience".  There really is no difference.  To truly believe is to obey. 

We all -- Jew or Gentile, male or female, aristocrat, peasant, scholar, barbarian -- start out locked down, shut up in the dungeon of unbelief.  We open our eyes in this world, learn its rules, how the system works and how to work the system. 

I would go so far as to say that being so consigned is not a bad thing of itself.  Isn't it a little like hide-and-seek -- that best of all children's games played across wide yards in the long twilight of a mid-summer's evening?  Or maybe it could be compared to that great schoolyard game of dare-base.  Consigned to the prisoners' base, we need a swift and true friend to outrun the opposition, touch us and set us free. 

But, we say, this is not a game.  This is life and death.  Yes, we might want to think about that for a minute.  Life and death, heaven and hell -- we could end up tormented forever because we fooled ourselves into believing the lie and turning away from the truth, because we clung to something passing away -- took this world's game, and ourselves, too seriously -- even as we rejected that which can never pass away. 

It's not a good idea, not when there is mercy poured out upon us all.  He dares, calling out and challenging those that would keep us shut up.  Through their midst, He dashes.   For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.  There is the hand of God reaching out, stretching toward us.  All we have to do is stretch out our own hand, lean a little His way.  He's the one who took the risk, takes the risk.  He's the one who runs like a warrior to the battle, to reclaim, redeem, and liberate us. 

He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water. (Psalm 18:9-11)

He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:19)