God Our Savior and Redeemer – ( yāsha ) = Yeshua = Joshua
We’ve looked at God through many prisms in this study. This one is God our Savior, Redeemer, and Deliverer. Of course, we’ve seen glimpses of this aspect of God’s Person, in all of God’s names or descriptors. But we need to look at how God has gone out of his way to rescue – to save - his people from bondage and set them free.
The first title or descriptor we’ll consider is Deliverer. It only occurs six times in the Old Testament and not at all in the New. The title is a participle of the verb pālat, which means “deliver."…“Yasha palat” (Psalms 144:2 ) "He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer.”
A second title or descriptor is Redeemer. While "redeem" is translated by two Hebrew words pādā and gā.al, only gā.al is used as a title or descriptor of God. It means "redeem, or ransom, as in “kinsman redeemer.” If a close relative lost his property to a debtor, it was the responsibility of his kinsmen to redeem it. If a relative was murdered, his kinsmen were responsible to avenge his death. If a relative was in prison or in slavery, a kinsman was obligated to pay whatever was necessary to get him released.
The Bible has a number of examples of this. Probably the most endearing story in the Bible that illustrates this is the relationship between Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz (Ruth 1-4). Naomi and her husband travel to Moab during a famine. During the interim, both Naomi’s husband and both her sons die. Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth return as poverty-stricken widows to Naomi’s home in Bethlehem. Ruth is reduced to gleaning the fields behind the harvesters, picking up whatever stray wheat stalks are left. "It just happens" that she is gleaning in the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s husband. In various translations he is called "kinsman-redeemer" or "next-of-kin" Boaz loves Ruth, and takes on this role of kinsman-redeemer, not only purchasing back Naomi’s dead husband’s property, but also marrying Ruth.
Let’s look at a few of the many verses that call God our Redeemer:
* "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." (Psalms 19:14)
* "the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth." (Isaiah 54:5)
* "You, O LORD, are our father; our Redeemer from of old is your name." (Isaiah 63:16)
In (Job 19:25) a remarkable passage that points forward to Jesus the Messiah and Redeemer, Job calls out in faith:
* "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.", NIV)
Depending on the translation, the title "Savior" is used of God 25 to 30 times in the Old Testament. The descriptor is yāsha, or "save.” It is no accident that Jesus’ own name, in Hebrew yeshua, is derived from yāsha. "to save." The angel told Joseph, "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, (Yeshua) because he will save his people from their sins."
Several times in the New Testament the phrase "God our Savior" ( Yaweh Yasha ) or "God my Savior" appears in much the same way as it does in the Old Testament. While the Old Testa-ment tended to see salvation for the nation of Israel, the New Testament broadens the focus from one people to all peoples! "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ( Yaweh Yasha ) who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." "We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
Twice in Titus we see the work of the Father and Son merging together to save their people from sin: First in (Titus 2:13-14) "We wait for the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."…( Yaweh – God and Yeshua – Jesus Christ.)
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