Silence of the Lambs (4)
It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26 NASB
Salvation – The goal of silence is freedom. Really? Do you experience silence that way? Or is silence a fearful thing, a place where you just don’t have any answer to your puzzles, a place where God was jailed for vagrancy and can’t be reached? If our backward exegesis guides us, we already know that there are desperate times worth remembering. Maybe one of those times was when we waited—without answers—for God to arrive. When we waited in the tight quarters of our closeted spirits for someone to unlock the door.
Times like these require a Hebrew view of salvation. From the root yāšaʿ, Hebrew salvation is a far cry from the Sinner’s Prayer, walking the aisle to the altar or stepping into the confessional. Those might be rituals we perform, but they aren’t tĕšûʿâ (salvation) from God’s point of view. Why? Because tĕšûʿâ is His action, not ours. And it has important consequences.
The root meaning in Arabic is “make wide” or “make sufficient”; this root is in contrast to ṣārar “narrow,” which means “be restricted” or “cause distress.” That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. To move from distress to safety requires deliverance. Generally, the deliverance must come from somewhere outside the party oppressed.[1]
In other words, tĕšûʿâ is rescue. It is deliverance into the open spaces. It is the removal of what confines, restricts, binds, and holds us captive to our oppressors whether external or internal. And it is something God alone can do. Hartley remarks: “The word ‘save’ developed a theological meaning in that God saves by forgiving sin and by changing the character of an individual;”[2] We wait for salvation because it is God’s prerogative and God’s action. That’s not the same as forgiveness of guilt. That requires confession, repentance, and restoration—all actions initiated by us. But forgiveness is not salvation. It is not the cascade of light when the door is opened from the other side. It is not being rinsed in graciousness. And in this regard, salvation is still coming, for all the doors have not been opened, all the light has not flooded every dark corner, and the wide way is still a hoped-for reality.
We wait silently because God is at work—somewhere, somehow—bringing about the true salvation that will burst every chain and free every heart. We wait.
erchomai tachy (Revelation 22:20)
Topical Index: salvation, tĕšûʿâ , Lamentations 3:26
[1] Hartley, J. E. (1999). 929 יָשַׁע. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 414). Chicago: Moody Press.
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