`A god that cannot save'.  Prayer, praise, thanksgiving, hope, service,

worship, yea life itself become hollow mockery in the presence of a god that

cannot save.  Men and nations need more than anything else salvation, for sin

and death are in their ways, and the realization of the purpose of their

being is frustrated and rendered impossible.  Isaiah has much to say about

salvation.  The verb yasha occurs twenty -nine times, the noun yeshuah five

times, and teshuah `salvation' three times in his prophecy, making thirty -

seven references in all.  The word implies:

`in the largest sense, deliverance, help and victory; it comprehends

either the removal of evil and misery, or the restoration of good and

former happiness.  It is most commonly used of God, sometimes of men,

and also of the Messiah; hence it has reference to that deliverance,

spiritually, which He was to effect, having paid the price of our

redemption: Isaiah 35:4 ... It is applied to His victory over death and

the grave as our surety: Psalms 98:1 comp. Isaiah 63:1,5' (Wilson, note

in his Lexicon and Concordance).

The word which is translated salvation enters into the composition of

Joshua, the name of the Captain of the Lord's Host, and also of the High

Priest at the time of the return from the Babylonian Captivity.  In the Greek

form `Jesus' it becomes the name of Him, Who in the fulness of time, was born

the Saviour, Christ the Lord.

We shall lose more than we gain if we limit the Old Testament reference

to salvation to the Evangelical sense which the word bears in Paul's

epistles.  When the Psalmist said:

`Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!' (14:7),

he meant national restoration more than individual and spiritual salvation,

and this is easy to see if the remainder of the verse be read:

`When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall

rejoice, and Israel shall be glad' (Psa. 14:7).

Although we cannot hope to deal with all the ways in which `salvation'

is used in the Old Testament, we draw attention to some of its usages in

Isaiah.  As we have seen when surveying the prophecy as a whole, the threat

of Sennacherib and the deliverance of Jerusalem is the historic centre around

which is grouped the glorious prophecy of a future and more wonderful

deliverance and restoration.

The deliverance of Jerusalem is spoken of as its salvation.

prayed concerning the threat of the Assyrian King:

`Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand' (Isa. 37:20),

and in answer, the Lord uses the same word `to save' in speaking of the

deliverance of Jerusalem:

`Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall

not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it

with shields, nor cast a bank against it.  By the way that he came, by

the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the

Lord.  For I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake, and

for My servant David's sake' (Isa. 37:33 -35).