There are several concepts throughout Scripture which reveal the character of our Heavenly Father. Of these, ‘Deliverance’ is prominent and consistently portrayed from Genesis to Revelation. Other similar words are used such as ‘Saviour’ or ‘Redeemer’ but it is interesting how many times God is described as, ‘The Deliverer’. The word has the sense of being saved from an enemy that has seized and captured through the intervention of another. In fact the Scriptures reveal that God is the only true Deliverer. Sometimes He provides deliverance on a national basis and sometimes only to individuals, but the principle shown is always the same. In most cases the one captured cannot save himself – a deliverer is required.
Deliverance in the Garden of Eden
In the opening event of Genesis chapter 3, we find the first human pair being seduced and captivated by sin through the deceit spoken of by the serpent. As a consequence of that failure to obey their Creator they were, for the rest of their lives, held captive to the mortality which God had told them would result. They would never be able to deliver themselves, or their posterity, from that consequence – no matter how long or short their lives. They had so easily fallen for the serpent’s deception, and now they and their children would bear the consequences. It would doubtless cause them much grief and sorrow – a sorrow which God would be cognizant of. He promised that one day a deliverer would be born, a seed of the woman, to defeat the results of the deception perpetrated by the serpent. Being unable to deliver themselves they relied on one to come.
To give substance to their hope, God provided an illustration of the means employed to deliver them. A lamb was slain and its skin used to give them a covering for their shame awakened by their sin. The skin of the sacrifice would symbolize the covering for their sin, so they were no longer exposed to the gaze of God. The lamb’s death was so indicative of the deliverance to come it must have caused them to deeply contemplate their situation and to be very thankful that God had promised an ultimate deliverance. They would need to exercise faith in that promise for it to become the anchor of their hope without which their situation would have been hopeless. It is probable they would have had conversations with the angel who had been with them in the Garden and this would provide some instruction and consolation. They became the first among many who looked forward in faith for one to deliver them from the fear of death to which all their lives they were in bondage (Heb 2:15).
We are their descendents and are by nature in a similar situation to Adam and Eve. When we ponder this we are also acutely aware that we spend our lives subject to the same bondage. Our need for a deliverer is no less than theirs and the writer to the Hebrews says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation” (or deliverance) that has been offered to the human race by our God (2:3).
Deliverance of eight souls
As time and generations passed people became less aware of the bondage to sin and death. They forgot about the promised deliverance and the gift of unending life for those who would faithfully wait for it. They became preoccupied with the transient present, forgetting about God and living selfishly without regard to His oversight. This led to an increase in sin and violence until God had to intervene. The human race had become so evil that only eight persons remembered Him with faith in the promise made to Adam and Eve. For those eight, God provided an interim deliverance from His corrective judgment. God sent the Flood to restrain evil but He also provided an Ark of Salvation by which faithful Noah and his family would be delivered from wickedness. It was not the ultimate deliverance promised but it extended their lives and reduced the level of sin. The corrective judgment was severe, but was relative to the extent of sin and violence which had taken over the human race. By that means God provided temporary deliverance for Noah, his family and subsequent generations.
The saving of Noah and his family from the calamity of the Flood was an illustration of both a personal and a collective deliverance. It was Noah who had “walked with God” and it was Noah who “found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” He alone is listed in the catalogue of the faithful in Hebrews 11, and his family was saved with him because they had identified themselves with Noah’s faithfulness. They held to a shared faith. They joined with him in building the Ark and with Noah they experienced both the privations and the deliverance. This is similar to God’s offer of deliverance to us. It is not on the basis of our righteous deeds, but because we have embraced and identified ourselves with the righteousness and faith of Jesus Christ. If we have faith in him as the great deliverer promised, and engage whole heartedly in preparation for his coming, then we are assured of gaining a place in God’s eternal Kingdom.
Deliverance through Abraham’s seed
Even after the dramatic events of the Flood it was not long before the folly of Noah’s generation was repeated. Out of this population of self-centred men and women, God, in His wisdom, chose out one through whom the promises could be kept alive in an alien world until the day of deliverance. That man was Abraham, to whom God renewed and extended the promise of ultimate deliverance with the added promise that it would be done through his seed.
This promise was reiterated to Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Circumstances of great famine led Jacob and his sons to leave the land of Canaan to which God had initially called them and to go down to Egypt where they were graciously given food and land to dwell in. At first the Egyptians were welcoming but as Israel grew in numbers and the royal dynasty of Egypt changed, their hosts grew suspicious and enslaved them. The Israelites were set to work building cities and were treated harshly. These punitive measures meant they were no longer free to worship their God. Their position seemed hopeless. Their cries ascended to heaven and their God heard.
God was faithful to His promise. He knew of their dire position. He sent His angel to say to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt … for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up … unto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod 3:7–8). But Moses was not able to singlehandedly deliver his people. God said to him, “I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (v10) and significantly added, “Certainly I will be with thee” (v12).
Deliverance against a hardened heart
It was a humanly impossible undertaking. Moses was to take up to 2 million dispirited slaves out of the control of the great power of Egypt, without any visible support other than a wooden staff (and faith in God)! Clearly it was not to be a human undertaking and from the outset Pharaoh was implacably resistant. He was not going to let his slaves go. They were to remain under his invincible control. Thus it was to be a contest between the God of Heaven and the human might and determination of a powerful king. God has available all the power by which He had created the world and keeps it sustained, and through a series of ten dreadful plagues over which the Egyptians were powerless, Pharaoh was finally forced to say to the Israelites – “Go!”
This was to be one of the great deliverances which God provided for His people in the course of their history. It was in fact to be an illustration, a prototype, of the great deliverance from sin and death originally promised to Adam and Eve. And again a ritual was provided by which the deliverance was to be remembered and regularly memorialized. As in Eden, a lamb was to be slain and its blood sprinkled on the doors of all their houses to signify they had faith in the deliverance God had promised. Annually the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was to be re-enacted in memory of the great deliverance from Egyptian slavery and to reinforce their continued looking forward to the ultimate deliverance from sin and death.
The death of every Egyptian firstborn on the night of the Passover caused such distress on the Egyptians that Pharaoh told the Israelites to immediately go. But later he reversed that command and with his army set out to bring them back. Again God intervened for His deliverance was not to be thwarted. As the Israelites crossed the Red Sea through a divinely provided pathway the Egyptians were caught by the sea returning and were all drowned. It was a great deliverance and has been celebrated ever since by faithful Israelites.
Prayers heard and answered
Another example of deliverance by God’s faithfulness occurred during the reign of King Hezekiah. It was when the Assyrian Empire was reaching its zenith, having conquered many nations including the northern kingdom of Israel. Many had been taken captive to Nineveh and Judah’s days were numbered! God’s city, Jerusalem, stood in their path and was an affront to the ambition of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib. While Hezekiah took all practical steps he could to strengthen the defences of the city, his primary trust was in Yahweh, the God of their fathers. The power of the king of Assyria was terrifying and was painfully felt by Judah. City after city fell until only Jerusalem was left (2 Kings 18:13). Sennacherib sent a letter to Hezekiah demanding surrender. To all appearances Hezekiah’s forces would have been unable to resist but, with faith in the God of his fathers, Hezekiah took the letter to the Temple and spreading it out, prayed for deliverance. God heard and answered the prayer and saved His city by a miraculous deliverance. That same night God sent His angel and 185,000 of the Assyrians perished in their sleep. In the morning the rest fled and returned to their own country.
This was a very great deliverance by the power of God alone. It came as a result of the faithfulness and trust of Hezekiah. It typifies the yet future deliverance spoken of by the prophets when the enemies of Israel make a final effort to destroy the nation. God will save them for His Name’s sake.
The prophet Daniel was an example of one who risked his life in demonstrating faithfulness. When his consistent worship of God caused him to be thrown into the den of lions, the Persian king, Darius, who greatly respected Daniel asked, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” (Dan 6:20). God responded to Daniel’s prayer of faith and shut the lions’ mouths and delivered him. It is another example of God’s ability (and willingness) to deliver in the face of certain death.
The Son of God was saved out of death
All of these acts of deliverance are illustrations of the great and ultimate deliverance to be provided by God for His people. The Lord Jesus Christ will return at the appointed time to avenge God’s people and redeem them. He will be the deliverer who will come out of Zion and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Rom 11:26; Joel 3:16). But it required that the Lord, himself, should firstly be delivered from the tyranny of sin and death. That deliverance was wrought upon the same basis as the foregoing instances – God’s Word being faithfully obeyed and honoured. The psalmist shows the determination of the Lord to always set his Father before him: “because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psa 16:8–11). His struggle was intense, in life and in the Garden of Gethsemane. With strong crying and tears he cried unto Him who could deliver him out of death (Heb 5:7). We marvel that he was never under the dominion of sin and, in a nature where sin normally holds sway, he crushed sin in the head and rendered it impotent. His Father was pleased to raise him victorious from the grave and, through the victory of the Father and the Son, our deliverance is assured. Paul says that we are “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God,” and are “more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom 8:21–23, 31–39). How thankful we should be that in saving himself, the Lord can save others, including us!
Examples of individual faithfulness and trust in God are found throughout the Scriptures. God has promised that men and women can be delivered from sin and permanent death by their faithfulness and that deliverance will come when the promised deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, returns to the earth to establish God’s Kingdom. Truly these are glad tidings! This good news is the gospel of salvation which God has promised from the foundation of the world. As we have seen, Christ will provide deliverance for God’s national people of Israel and for faithful individuals of every generation. At that time all God’s people will be delivered, everyone that is found written in the book of life (Dan 12:1).
We would all wish to be included in that great salvation promised to God’s family yet it requires our deep conviction and trust in the living God. Only those who demonstrate such personal faith will receive the promised blessing of eternal life – that final, great deliverance. So as we await that deliverance soon to come, let us focus our lives on the ways of God and walk worthy of our calling. God has repeatedly shown that He is willing to save His people. Those examples of deliverance can stimulate us to manifest faithfulness in our own challenging times so that we are able to say, like the friends of Daniel, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us … and He will deliver us out of our enemy’s hand.