What Must I do to be Saved?
Point 3: God’s Plan for Your Salvation is Broader than You Think
Genesis 19:1-3, 12-29, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/23/19)
Biblical salvation encompasses much more than just "going to heaven." Scripture clearly states that God's plan for your salvation includes a desire that you enjoy a long, healthy life; that you be safe and comfortable; and that you enjoy life in relationship with God and Jesus Christ. (If we have learned one thing from history, however, it is that even God's desires don't always come to pass. Why not? Sin, mostly.)
The history of Israel is the history of God's plan for salvation. The Old Testament idea of salvation is almost exclusively one of saving your physical life or the physical lives of a remnant of the children of Israel. Here in the story of Lot, the angels are clearly sent to save the physical lives of Lot and his family. As we always see, some – here the sons-in-law – choose not to accept salvation, and others – Lot's wife – turn back.
Word Study: Sometimes it can be a little hard to see the breadth of "salvation" in translation, because translators get tired of using the same word over and over. Instead of consistently translating, e.g., the Hebrew
yasha and the Greek
sozo as
save, they'll use a variety of words like
deliver, preserve, rescue, or even
give victory or
make well.
The situation is made even more confusing in English because there are a couple of other Hebrew words that are often translated
sozo in the Greek OT, the
Septuagint, e.g.,
malat, which is in today's reading. These also may or may not come into English as
save. So for much of Point 3, there's likely to be a little word study in the final paragraph of the study tip. (As always, you can just skip the study tip altogether and read the scripture.)
Yasha is used 205 times in the Hebrew OT, and
sozo is used 286 times in the Septuagint. Since
malat is used 94 times, you can do the math and see that the rabbis themselves didn't always translate consistently! Translation is really hard work.
Exodus 3:1-17, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/24/19)
I happened to wander by the television the other day while an archeologist was talking about some new finds of graves at some of the great building sites of the pharaohs. She made the point that the workers in the graves showed signs of abuse and malnutrition – and that many of them were little more than children. While the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they were afflicted indeed. God calls on Moses to lead them out – nothing is said about preaching to them, only about rescuing them and taking them to a land of milk and honey. No wonder Moses wants to know who he's talking to! The idea of escaping from slavery and getting a decent meal must have been mind-boggling.
Judges 2:10-23, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/25/19)
Sigh. Remember just a few days ago when we listened to "
Gotta Serve Somebody" and read about Joshua and all the people who swore to serve the LORD? It didn't last very long. A couple of generations later, the people as a whole are worshiping other gods, mostly the gods of the land they had come to. Unfortunately, God isn't in the business of saving people who are determined to worship other gods, and things go badly for them. When they repent and turn back to him, God raises up judges to
save them, but clearly it's their lives that the text is talking about.
Word Study: In the Modern King James Version, we see the Hebrew
yasha and the Greek
sozo translated as
delivered in vss. 16 and 18 – and then two completely
different words translated as
delivered in vs. 23! Many translations, seven of the fourteen I looked at, use
save in vss. 16 and 18, and none use
save in vs. 23. (You should have, and read, two unrelated translations.) Don't forget that "Joshua" means "God Saves." Keep this in mind, because we'll come back to it later.
1 Samuel 9:1-17, 10:1, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/26/19)
Eventually the Jews defeated most of the surrounding peoples that they had so much trouble with during the time of the judges. They had not defeated the Philistines, who lived down on the coast and were militarily more powerful than the Jews and the other inland groups. Very briefly, the people decided that they needed a king to lead them in battle; the prophet Samuel was against it on the grounds that they already
had a king, God; but God decided it was okay for them to have an earthly king as well. God tells Samuel that Saul will "save My people out of the hand of the Philistines." Obviously God is talking about physical lives being saved from physical enemies.
Word Study: 1 Samuel 9:16 has the ordinary Hebrew and Greek words for
save,
yasha and
sozo. Verse 10:1 is interesting because the Hebrew stops after "... prince over his people Israel?" The Greek OT goes on with the rest of the verse and uses the word
sozo. It looks like translations are about equally divided between including this part of the verse and not including it.
2 Samuel 8:5-14, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/27/19)
King David followed King Saul, largely completing the defeat of the Philistines and a number of other pagan peoples in the area. It's clear from the context of military battles that when God
saved David wherever he went, the Bible is talking about David's earthly life. Now, I fully expect to see David when I get to heaven; however, you can't prove it from this story.
Word Study: The Modern KJV renders
yasha/sozo as
preserved in vss. 6 and 14, and that's perfectly in line with the sense of "saving physical life." A couple of translations have "saved." What I don't get is that a lot of translations have "gave victory to" or some variation on that, and I can't see where that comes from at all. Neither the Hebrew nor the Greek have anything like that.
2 Samuel 22:1-25; Psalms 8:1-8, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (09/30/19)
Do you own a copy of the King James Version or Modern King James Version? Although they're difficult to read unless you've been reading them for your entire life, there's one really great feature: italics. These italics do not indicate emphasis, as they normally do in English. Instead, they indicate words that are not in the Hebrew or Greek but are required by English, e.g.,
is. Of course, nothing in our world is perfect, and "
A Psalm of David " (Ps. 138:1) actually is in the text. But it's a pretty good rule of thumb, nevertheless.
Anyway, notice today that in these two psalms by David, he is being saved from the hand and wrath of his enemies, from Saul, and from the snares of death. In the MKJV, he's also saved from "the sorrows of hell," but that is really
Sheol, which is the shadowy place that Jews believed everyone – good, bad, and indifferent – went to when they died. A better translation of the Hebrew is "the ropes of Sheol," which again would be talking about ordinary death.
2 Kings 14:17-29, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/01/19)
The tricky part of reading 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and the prophets is that in 1 and 2 Kings the histories of the southern kingdom (Judah) and the northern kingdom (Israel/Samaria) are intertwined. The beginning, and often the end, of the reign of each king is dated by the year of the reign of the king in the other kingdom. (And if you think that's confusing, just try reading Kings!) Then the same thing happens in 1 and 2 Chronicles, telling the entire story over again from a different point of view. The prophets spoke to various kings (often named at the beginning of the prophetic book), but the material isn't in chronological order. These books are interesting and repay study; however, you need a Bible with
cross-references ! If you don't have one, our
previous study on this topic could help.
Word Study: As we have been seeing, God often acts in history to save the lives of his people. Sometimes he acts "by the hand of" a particular person, for example, King Jeroboam the son of Jehoash. The words for
save in this case are our old friends, the Hebrew
yasha and the Greek
sozo. It's also worth noting that both Jeroboam and the people whose lives God was saving through Jeroboam were idolaters; that was the "sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat," who was the first king of Samaria.
Isaiah 37:9-35, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/02/19)
King Hezekiah of Judah asks God to save him and the people of Judah from the king of Assyria. The words for
save are our old friends
yasha and
sozo. My favorite part of this reading, as I've said before, is when Hezekiah takes the letter and shows it to God, pointing out the most important paragraphs!
Jeremiah 23:1-8, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/03/19)
Sometimes God acts directly to save his people, and sometimes God saves his people by the hand of a leader. And sometimes God is really annoyed at leaders who were
supposed to be acting on his behalf and didn't do it! Jeremiah's message from God is directed at the kings and other rulers, priests, and prophets who should have been saving the people, not scattering them.
Word Study: Verses 5-6 of this prophecy are generally taken to be Messianic. The Messiah will
save yasha/sozo Judah and Israel, restoring them to their lands, reigning and acting wisely, and doing judgment and justice in the earth. Particularly considering vss. 1-4, I'm inclined to think the Messiah's actions are directed here at saving physical lives, but if you read it to be talking about eternal lives, I'm not going to argue about it.
Jeremiah 31:1-14, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/04/19)
Only the "remnant of Israel" – that is, the small number of people who have not worshiped false gods – are going to be saved. They will be saved from the sword (vss. 1-2) and sorrow (vs. 9), and they will be saved to live in Samaria, enjoying life (vs. 4) and the bounty of the land (vs. 12).
Word Study: Again we see that
save is the translation of
yasha/sozo.
Ezekiel 14:12-23, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/07/19)
We can probably all agree that not even Noah, Daniel, and Job could "save their own souls" in the sense of giving themselves eternal life. God is telling Ezekiel that those righteous men could preserve their own lives, if they were here, but not the lives of anyone else in the current sinful generation. Nevertheless, God will graciously rescue a remnant of the people.
Neither Hebrew nor Greek really has separate words for "life" and "soul," and English doesn't really have a single word that means "a-living-soul." This makes things difficult for translators and can be confusing for us who read English.
Word Study: In the American Standard Version, we see
deliver as the translation of the Hebrew
natsal, which the rabbis translated into Greek as both
sozo and
ruomai. Other English translations have
save, deliver, or even
rescue.
Joel 2:18-32, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/08/19)
Joel 2:28-32 is generally taken to be Messianic prophecy because Peter and Paul quote it to show that Jesus is the Messiah. Nevertheless, if you look at the context of what the people who call on the name of the LORD are being saved from (e.g., armies) and to (e.g., good crops), it appears that at the time of Joel's preaching, the idea of salvation was for physical life. Note also that it's the remnant that will be saved, not the entire nation.
Word Study: Here's a third Hebrew word,
malat, sometimes translated
sozo in the Greek OT and
save in English.
Micah 5:1-9, God Wants to Save Your Physical Life and Health. (10/09/19)
I could provide a few hundred more Old Testament examples of to show you that in the OT, God saves primarily
physical lives; however, I think you get the picture. When you read "save" or "salvation" – or even "deliver" or "rescue" – in the OT, don't unconsciously assume that it's talking about eternal salvation, because it probably isn't. Look at the context. Is there war, famine, or pestilence? Then probably it's physical death that God is saving someone from.
On a totally separate topic, I was doing some online research yesterday to update this study-tip archive. If we could somehow remove all the unloving, hateful, spiteful, pejorative, non-scriptural nonsense that masquerades as Christian comments, the web would be a smaller place. Be careful about this stuff, brothers and sisters. I've told you before not to take my word for anything, but I've changed my mind. You
can take my word for it that not everything on the web that claims to be "biblical truth" is either biblical or true. Love God; love your neighbor; and neither post nor believe malicious stuff on the web.
Word Study: Micah doesn't use
yasha/sozo save, but rather
natsal/ruomai deliver, which many translations also render
save; however, the main point here is the lives of "the remnant of Jacob" will be preserved.
1 Samuel 19:1-18, Both people and people acting at God's direction also save lives. (10/10/19)
Not only God, but also people and people acting at God's direction save lives. Jonathan and Michal act to save David's life when he is threatened by Saul. It's also worth noting that Saul's anger stems in part from David's "deliverance" or "salvation," depending on what translation your read, of all Israel. People, as well as God, save lives.
Word Study: Here's another example of
malat, sometimes translated
sozo in the Greek OT and
save in quite a few English versions.
Judges 6:11-16, 8:22-31, Both people and people acting at God's direction also save lives. (10/11/19)
Sometimes I really wonder about the International Standard Version. While I agree that if I were hiding out from the enemy, and an angel came and addressed me as "valiant warrior," I might say, skeptically, "Right." However, the Hebrew word here only occurs twelve times, always with "my Lord," and is more of a request than an agreement: "if you please, sir." Even the ISV only has "Right" here in these two verses. While it may be true that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, it's also true that a foolish inconsistency can be just plain foolish. Always read more than one translation.
Word Study: Here we see
yasha/sozo translated
deliver and
rescue. Each time, it is people who do the saving.
1 Kings 17:8-24, Both people and people acting at God's direction save lives. (10/14/19)
I can't tell you that God will save the physical lives of all children, because that isn't true. Once in a while, however, a child whom we really expected to die is miraculously saved from death, and once in a
great while, a child who has lost all the traces of life is miraculously restored to its family. Elijah, also known as
the prophet, prays for a boy who has died, and the boy is restored to his mother alive.
And before you ask, no, God does not kill children (vs. 20). Children die of many causes, but God is not one of them. God's nature is love, and God does not change. Our
understanding of God does change as our history as his people progresses. We've looked at
verses similar to this one before in this study.
More of What Must I do to be Saved
Point 1: God Wants to Save Everybody
Point 2: You Can Reject God's Plan for Your Salvation (Not Recommended)
Point 3: God’s Plan for Your Salvation is Broader than You Think
Point 4: How the Bible Answers the Question
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