FEBRUARY 13

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

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Hebrews 2:3

“how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,”

Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

John 3:17

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Exodus 15:2

“The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation;

He is my God, and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”

Psalm 62:5-8

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense;  I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory;  the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;  Pour out your heart before Him;  God is a refuge for us. Selah”

1 Chronicles 16:23

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.”

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Our book for this month  is called “100 NAMES OF GOD”  written by Christopher D. Hudson.  Each day we’ll take one Hebrew name for God as given in the Bible to study and relate to.

EL YESHUATI

THE GOD OF MY SALVATION

Isaiah 12:2

“Surely God is my salvation:  I will trust and not be afraid.  The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”

After the death of Moses, God chose Joshua, a gifted military general, to lead His people.  In short, Joshua was tasked with bringing the Israelites OUT OF a bleak, four-decades-long wilderness experience marked by death and unrest and INTO a rich new life in Canaan, the land said to be “flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 6:3).  Once settled in that land.  God’s desire was for His people to experience peace and rest. How fitting that Joshua’s name in Hebrew is YESHUA, which means “Yahweh is salvation.”

Some fourteen centuries later, a baby boy was born in this part of the world.  The child’s name?  Joshua ~ ~YESHUA ~ ~or translated into Greek, JESUS.  The parallelism isn’t coincidental.  God wants us to see that in the same way that Joshua delivered his people from a restless existence into a place of peace and fullness, so Jesus, the new Joshua, offers to lead all those wandering in spiritual deserts everywhere to a place of ultimate rest.

The writer of Hebrews 4:8 says:

“For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.”

The historical context is important when we read that the prophet Isaiah calls God EL YESHUATI. This is a variant of YESHUA, and a way of saying that God is the GOD OF OUR SALVATION.  God’s salvation is wonderfully comprehensive.  It encompasses the past, present, and future.  And it includes every aspect of life.  It is spiritual, to be sure – the forgiveness of sin and imparting of new life.  But it is also physical and temporal (many of the cries for deliverance in the Bible are pleas for God to rescue His people from temporal enemies and earthly troubles).

 In short, we have a  God who can and does bring us out of (or through) all kinds of messes:  relational, occupational, emotional, social, and financial.

By calling God EL YESHUATI  Isaiah reminds us of two great truths: 

1.  We are in desperate need of rescue; and
2.  our God is the One who can provide that needed deliverance.  Because His heart desires to give rest and victory,—bot spiritual and material — He is mighty to save and intent on liberating, redeeming,  bringing out, and restoring.

By focusing on EL YESHUATI,  we model the hope expressed in Psalm 68:20:

“Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.”

When we focus on God as the author and finisher of our salvation, it drives us to be dependent on Him.

Have you received the ultimate, and necessary Salvation of receiving Jesus as your Personal Savior and the Lord—-most important focus – of your life?   The alternative, quite simply, is eternity in hell.  The choice is clear….do it before it’s too late.  The guidance and salvation in material things  is a bonus after the most important decision.  Without that decision, none of the things spoken of in this lesson are yours.)

PRAYER

God grant me vision to see that I constantly need rescue, and that You never cease being the God who rescues.  Please give me the grace to accept spiritual salvation, the forgiveness of my sins, not because of anything good in me, but only because of Your sacrifice on the cross. 

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