Christ then came as God’s appointed Saviour and abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He died and was resurrected through the power of God and became a son of God in power through his resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). The explanation, therefore, is that it was the power of God that enabled Christ to be sent as God’s designated Saviour to the world. Now, do we have any other texts against which to test this hypothesis? Hosea is emphatic that there is no Saviour beside God. Hosea 13:4 I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. (RSV) Here, He is Yahovah (Jehovah) Elohim and beside Him there is no Saviour. However, we also know that He brought Israel out by means of the Messenger of Yahovah and this messenger was the Face of God in the wilderness who was also the voice of the Lord (see Acts 7:30-31). No man has ever seen God. The only born God, that one being in the bosom of the Father, spoke (Jn. 1:18 see Marshall’s Interlinear and also the Syriac). The Lord had given Israel a Saviour on more than one occasion in Old Testament times. He sent Christ as the Messenger in the Wilderness to bring Israel out on eagle’s wings. Messiah was that eagle. God also gave Israel a Saviour when they repented and brought them out from under the hand of the Assyrians. This was also their Saviour. 2Kings 13:5 Therefore the LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they escaped from the hand of the Syrians; and the people of Israel dwelt in their homes as formerly. (RSV) This Saviour had been earmarked from the foundation of the world for the redemption of Israel. Genesis 48:15-16 And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has led me all my life long to this day, 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. (RSV) This Elohim was the Angel of Redemption of Israel. 2Samuel 22:2-3 And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; 3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. (KJV) This is the start of the Song of David when Yahovah had delivered him from the hand of Saul and his enemies (cf. Ex. 15; Deut. 32). The distinction here seems to be of the rock and the God of David’s rock. We are speaking here of the mountain that was God and the rock uncut by human hands that was taken from this mountain and which was sent to destroy the world systems in the Last Days at the end of the empires mentioned in Daniel Chapter 2. Daniel 2:44-45 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. (KJV) The Psalms (106:21) refer to El the Saviour of Israel who brought them out of Egypt. This reference here at the end of the fourth book or the Numbers book of the Psalms deals with the Rest for the Earth and looks forward to the coming Kingdom of God. The Hebrew term is In the Wilderness (bemidbar) derived from the fifth word in verse 1. The term Numbers is derived from the Latin Vulgate Numeri, which translates the Greek Arithmoi in the LXX. The Numbers book is broken into three stages. The first stage deals with the Desire for Rest for the Earth (Pss. 91 to 94). The second stage deals with the Rest for the Earth being Anticipated (Pss. 95 to 100). The last section is the sections from Psalms 101 to 105. This is the Rest for the Earth being Celebrated. Sin had come into the world and hence the earth and not just man was being destroyed. The Numbers book needs exposition in its own right but from here we can see that Psalm 106 refers to the final summary of the way God deals with Israel and the looking forward to the fact of the promise of the Saviour. From Psalms 90 and 91 we see the contrast, as these are in fact one Psalm written in two parts by Moses at the beginning of the thirty-eight penal years wandering in the wilderness. Psalm 91 represents the contrast of those under the Shadow of the Almighty. Here they are protected by the Saviour who is referred to in Psalm 106 as being forgotten but Israel is redeemed and the earth is at rest at the end of this process. Thus, the Saviour here is also the redeemer of Israel and thus we are referring to Messiah as the Face of God in the wilderness.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:35:00 +0000
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