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When God acts to deliver, he always has a reason. What are the reasons that cause God to deliver people? Sometimes, God’s deliverance depends on the actions of his people. Other times, he delivers because of who he is. Let’s look at a few examples.
God’s Deliverance Results from Who God Is
God’s deliverance is an outpouring of who he is and how he feels about his people.
1. God delivers because of his love.
One of God’s most well-known characteristics is love. It pervades everything he does, and his deliverance is no different. He delivers his people because of his steadfast love for them.
Psalm 6:4: Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
Psalm 33:18-19: 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
Psalm 109:21: But you, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
Isaiah 38:16-17: 16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live! 17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
2. God delivers because he is gracious and merciful.
God’s people had a pattern. They would reject God, God would deliver them over to their enemies, then they would cry out in their distress, and God would deliver them from their enemies. Even in the midst of repeated rejection, God was merciful and gracious to deliver his people when they turned back to him.
Nehemiah 9:28-31: 28 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
3. God delivers because of his righteousness.
Sometimes, God delivers simply because he is righteous, and his deliverance shows his righteousness to people.
Psalm 31:1: In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!
4. God delivers because he favors his chosen people and delights in them.
God’s deliverance is reserved for his chosen people, and he delivers because he delights in them. Here are just a few examples.
God delivered Abram’s enemies into his hand:
Genesis 14:17-20: 17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
God delivered David from Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:37, 45-47: 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
God delivers those he delights in:
Psalm 22:8: “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
God’s Deliverance Depends on the Actions of His People
As we will discuss more later in this study, sometimes God’s deliverance depends on the actions of his people. If they repent and seek him, he delivers them from their enemies. If they turn away and reject him, he delivers them to their enemies. In this lesson, we’ll look at some of the actions of people that would cause God to decide to deliver them from their enemies.
1. God delivers his people because he sees and hears their distress.
This started all the way back when his people were enslaved in Egypt, and it continued through much of the Old Testament. These are just a few examples.
Exodus 3:7-8: 7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
2 Kings 20:4-6: 4 And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”
Psalm 34:17: When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Psalm 72:12: For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
2. God delivers his people because they repent and seek him.
One of the most common reasons that God delivers is because his people, who had rejected him in the past to follow other gods, turn from their wicked ways, repent, and seek him. We see this cycle over and over again in the Old Testament.
1 Samuel 7:3: And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
2 Kings 17:37-39: 37 “And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”
Psalm 34:4: I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
3. God delivers his people because of their righteousness, wisdom, or integrity.
When God’s people follow him in obedience, they act with righteousness, wisdom, and integrity. God delights to deliver people with these characteristics.
Psalm 37:39-40: 39 The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. 40 The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.
Proverbs 28:18: Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.
Proverbs 28:26: Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
4. God delivers his people because they trust him and place their hope in him.
When God’s people are faithful to him, he delivers them out of their trouble because they trust in him and hope in him.
Psalm 22:4-5: 4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10: 8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
5. God delivers his people because they hold fast to him.
One theme we see throughout the Bible is that God wants his people to remain in him. When they do this, he promises to deliver them.
Psalm 91:14: “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
6. God delivers his people because they are faithful to speak his message.
Sometimes, God gives a specific message that he wants his people to deliver to others. When they relay that message, God promises to deliver them, regardless of the outcome of the other person’s decision.
Ezekiel 3:16-21: 16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”
Conclusion
God delivers his people because of his love for them and because of his own righteousness and mercy, but he also often reserves his deliverance for the times when his people specifically seek him and repent from following other gods. God longs to have his people trust in him, hope in him, and remain in him. When they do this, he delights to deliver them.
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