In the anguished situation of the Exile – after the loss of the Land – Second Isaiah, a prophet whose name is unknown, announced to the exiles an unheard-of message: the Lord was about to repeat his original liberating intervention – that of the Exodus from Egypt – and even to surpass it. To the descendants of his chosen ones, Abraham and Jacob (Is 41:8), he would manifest himself as “Redeemer” (g(o-)’l) in rescuing them from their foreign masters, the Babylonians. 86 “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour; I declared and saved” (Is -12).
The New Testament follows the Old in presenting God as Saviour
After the return of the exiles, seen as imminent by Second Isaiah and soon to become a reality – but not in a very spectacular manner – the hope of eschatological liberation began to dawn: the spiritual successors of the exilic prophet announced the fulfilment, yet to come, of the redemption of Israel as a divine intervention at the end of time. 87 It is as Saviour of Israel that the messianic prince is presented at the end of time (Mi 4:14-5:5).
The sure hope of the martyrs’ rising “for eternal life” (2 M 7:9) is forcefully expressed in the Second Book of Maccabees
In many of the Psalms, salvation takes on an individual aspect. Caught in the grip of sickness or hostile intrigues, an Israelite can invoke the Lord to be preserved from death or oppression. 88 He can also implore help from God for the king (Ps ). He has confidence in the saving intervention of God (Ps -19). In return, the faithful and especially the king (Ps 18 = 2 S 22), give thanks to the Lord for the help obtained and for the end of oppression. 89
In some texts, salvation after death makes its appearance. What, for Job, was only a glimmer of hope (“My redeemer lives” Jb ) becomes a sure hope in the Psalm: “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me” (Ps ). Likewise, in Ps the Psalmist says: “Afterwards you will receive me in glory”. God then can not only subdue the power of death to prevent the faithful from being separated from him, he can lead them beyond death to a participation in his glory.
The Book of Daniel and the Deuterocanonical Writings take up the theme of salvation and develop it further. According to apocalyptic expectation, the glorification of “the wise ones” (Dn 12:3) – no doubt, the people who are faithful to the Law in spite of persecution – will take their place www.hookupdate.net/escort-index/clearwater in the resurrection of the dead (12:2). 90 According to the Book of Wisdom “people were taught. and were saved by wisdom” (Ws 9:19). The just man is a “son of God”, so God “will help him and deliver him from the hand of his adversaries” (2:18), preserve him from death or save him beyond death, for “the hope” of the just is “full of immortality” (3:4).
32. From the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, Mary praises God her “Saviour” (Lk 1:47) and Zechariah blesses “the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has. redeemed his people” (Lk 1:68); the theme of salvation resounds four times in the “Benedictus” 91 with ever greater precision: from the desire to be delivered from their enemies (1:71,74) to being delivered from sin (1:77). Paul proclaims that the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Rm 1:16).