We must put our confidence, faith and trust in Jesus Christ – our Saviour from sin.
KEY POINTS
- God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. He gave them victory over the Canaanite nations. He delivered them from their enemies through the judges.
- He saved them time and again from their enemies during the time of the kings. So to the Israelites, God the Saviour was most often a military conqueror.
- More importantly, although less appreciated, He also saved them from sin and its consequences. He gave laws and procedures [the sacrificial system in Leviticus] by which their sins could be forgiven and removed from their record. He saved them from divine judgment.
- God was their Saviour.
- Israel however, got to a point where they rejected their God and adopted the culture, language and religion of their Babylonian captors. When they were finally able to return to Israel, after 70 years of bondage, only a remnant returned.
- Eventually, God simply stopped communicating with them. They entered a dark age – 400 years of “silence”.
- God’s character, will and desire have never changed. He was Saviour to Adam and Eve after their sin in the Garden of Eden and throughout the Old Testament (OT) He continued in this vein.
- God always had a global plan — from personal salvation (e.g. David), or even national (e.g. the Day of Atonement), to international salvation from sin (worldwide for all humanity).
- After the 400 years of silence, God renewed His outreach to humanity, sending the angel Gabriel to announce the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias (Luke 1:5-20).
- Zacharias’ speech in Luke 1:68-75 (NKJV) begins in familiar territory, i.e. God’s physical protection of Israel from their enemies through the centuries. Then he gets into the real ‘meat of the matter’ (vv. 76-77): God’s new initiative and the part his son (John) would play in this divine drama.
- God was about to show Himself and act in His most cherished role: Saviour of human souls. God is, and wants to be, the
- Matthew’s gospel (1:18-21) gives more detail about the coming of the Lord as prophesied by Zacharias.
- Pay close attention to this crucial statement: “You shall call His name Jesus.”
- This is the last name of God revealed to us in scripture: “Yeshua” in Hebrew, “Iesous” in Greek, “Eashoa” (pronounced ‘eesho’) in Aramaic, or “Jesus” in English.
- It literally means: “YHWH saves,” or “YHWH is salvation.”
- Jesus’ destiny was clear, as Gabriel announced: “He will save His people from their sins.”
- The first name used for God in the OT was Elohim. He was known as El Olam: the Everlasting God; El Shaddai: the Lord God Almighty; El Elyon: the Most High God; Adonai: Lord, or Master; Yahweh: I Am Who I Am.
- He is Jehovah Nissi: my banner; Jehovah Raah: my shepherd; Jehovah Rapha: my healer; Jehovah Shammah: the Lord who is here; Jehovah Tsidkenu: my righteousness; Jehovah Mekoddishkem: my sanctifier; Jehovah Jireh: my provider;
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