Word of Encouragement (10/30/2024)
Say also: "Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 36 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!" Then all the people said, "Amen!" and praised the LORD. (1 Chron. 16:35-36)
God is addressed as “God of our salvation.” This is so because He is able to save His people. Consider how He delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery. He performed mighty signs and wonders to bring the arrogant Pharaoh down on his knees. The ten plagues demonstrated that the God of Israel was in charge of nature, not the numerous gods and goddesses that the Egyptians believed. He delivered Israel from the chariots of Pharaoh by dividing the Red Sea. He delivered Israel from hunger by providing manna from heaven and quails from the sky. He delivered Israel from thirst by making water gush out from a rock. God delivered His people also from the Babylonian Captivity by punishing Babylon as He promised for the cruelty with which she afflicted Judah, His people (even though Judah had to be punished for its sins). God is able to “gather and deliver [His people] from among the nations” because He is the sovereign Lord of the whole world.
God is also willing to save His people. What does it matter that God is able to save if He is not willing to save? We know that God is willing to save His people because He bound Himself to them by a covenant. God is faithful: He cannot violate His promise. He guaranteed His promise by swearing an oath: “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath...” (Heb. 6:17).
The covenant by which He bound Himself to His people is a covenant of grace. Grace is divine favor extended to underserving, demerited sinners. God knew what He was getting into when He established His covenant with Abraham and his descendants—how unfaithful they were, how fickle they were, how rebellious they were, and how sinful they were. Yet, He was willing to commit Himself to save them.
When God committed Himself to save His sinful people, He knew what it required. He could not simply wave His royal scepter of divine power and forgive their sins. He was a God of justice as much as He was a God of salvation and grace. He could not compromise His justice in saving His sinful people. This was the great divine dilemma in the Old Testament. So, when you read the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament, it seems like God is constantly vacillating between His justice and His grace. Consider what the LORD said in Ezek. 39:23-25:
“And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them. ‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.’”
Why the sudden change to restore the fortunes of the house of Israel? Was it because they suffered enough for their sins? The only reason the LORD gives here is, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.” Do you see how His mercy and His holy name are joined together?
The tension of divine dilemma continues and builds up throughout the Old Testament until it is gloriously resolved in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There, God’s grace and His justice kiss each other in perfect harmony. We see here how much God was willing to save us: He knew all along what our salvation required, and He was willing to do it for us.
Let us meditate on the glory of our salvation by our God of salvation! Let us remember that He is not only able to save us but also willing to save us!