September 4 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Genesis 49:9–18

Devotional

Salvation. When we look at this word as it is in Hebrew, then we read: Yeshuwah. You have already noticed that the word is akin to the name Jesus, which is Savior. If there would not have been a Savior, then the word salvation would not exist. Even for Jacob under the Old Covenant there would not have been salvation. There can be no salvation without a Savior. The bitterness of death can only be made sweet because of a Savior who entered death and now stands behind and above death for Jacob and for all Jacob’s spiritual children.

“I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.” This could not have been said if the name Jesus was not given for those who are wretched in themselves. It is Christ who has the love to descend into our misery, and He also has the power to draw us out of that misery. Therefore there is life after death for Jacob. Life is only through Him, who said: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Therefore they shall not die, even though they have died. This is the basis of salvation for a guilty Jacob. The blessed Surety, the Savior, is born from the Virgin Mary, but without the poison of the serpent in His blood. At the name of Jesus man is redeemed from the poison of sin. That is what salvation is all about.

Salvation does not only purchase the wonders of eternal residency in heaven—for who does not want to go to heaven’s splendors—but it attains the release of sin’s hold on man. There will be salvation in heaven for Jacob. There he will be redeemed from his body of sin, and delivered from his carnal flesh and blood that has been bitten by the serpent of sin.

Salvation becomes still more valuable when we realize that where sin is gone, communion with God is present. Salvation is to have God’s friendly countenance shining on us, for salvation will only be where God is present. The true substance of salvation is not the heaven of God, but it is the God of heaven.

The angels in heaven are called stars, but if God Himself were not present, then it would even be night there. Suppose that the prodigal son had come home and had not found his father there; it would not have been a homecoming. He wanted to go back to his father. The gates of pearls, the streets of gold, and the crowns and palm branches of heaven would be of no value if God were not present! Without God heaven would be nothing but darkness.

Desiring salvation means, therefore, to desire God. Only those who seek after God, and not after the heaven of God, will praise Him. Then God receives His fallen creature back again and that is what constitutes man’s salvation.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.