The Name
But I in Your kindness do trust, my heart exults in Your rescue. Psalm 13:6 (Hebrew text translation by Robert Alter)
Rescue – If you read this verse in most English translations, you might see the word “salvation” here instead of “rescue.” Don’t worry; the Hebrew word can be translated both ways. What’s important, however, is the difference between our understanding of salvation and the Hebrew idea of salvation. That difference is crucial, and it’s one of the reasons why Alter chose the word “rescue.” Once we see the difference, it changes our outlook on the whole evangelical idea of being saved. Oh, yes, and by the way, there is something else in this Hebrew word that is really cool. You’ll see.
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word translated “rescue” or “salvation” is deliverance from distress or danger. We’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again. This word is not about escape from threatening circumstances. It’s about the provision of reinforcements in the middle of the threatening circumstances. So, from a Hebrew point of view, salvation isn’t about heaven. The evangelical emphasis on “Where will you go when you die?” doesn’t recognize this fundamental fact. As far as the Bible is concerned, without a relationship with God, I am already dead. Where I go when my body expires makes no difference to my present dead condition. From a Hebrew perspective, the question is not about what happens after the grave. The question is about what kind of life I have right now. The Biblical promise is that I can be alive now by entering into fellowship with the Father. I can discover what it means to be alive when He provides reinforcements now so that I can fulfill His will on the earth (just as Jesus taught us to pray, by the way). Heaven is the by-product of this relationship, not the goal. If I want to experience being alive, I will enter into this relationship and discover that I am regenerated right now and forevermore.
So, when we read this word in the Old Testament, and on the lips of Jesus, we need to disconnect from the penchant of the evangelical idea of getting to heaven. We need to think in terms of actually living with God in the midst of our trials and tribulations, not escaping from the mess of life. We are called to redeemed response, not jumping ship. The reason that the Psalmist rejoices in God’s rescue is because it happens in the middle of all the junk of life. That’s deliverance.
Now let’s look at the cool part of this word. The Hebrew word here is yeshua. Yes, that’s right, it is the same Hebrew word that is the name of the Messiah, Yeshua. When the men and women of the Old Testament rejoiced in God’s rescue, they were rejoicing in the Messiah Yeshua. In other words, the Father had been sending the Son to rescue human beings for thousands of years before He arrived in bodily form. And if you read Hebrew, you would have seen it instantly. Pretty cool!
Topical Index: Salvation
