Saved without Swords: Who Can Be Saved, and How?

By Wilma Zalabak

Have you ever been betrayed by friends, stabbed at work, hurt by the church, gossiped about, slandered, let down by your own body, or even crucified by those you trusted? Have you ever been on either side of coercion, fear, shame, or guilt in operation as motivators? Have you ever bullied or been bullied? This book is for your rescue and restoration. Throughout this book, you will hear the author's story of death and resurrection in Christ, which she expects to be ongoing in her life through the grace of Christ. This book is a good choice for Lent or any time of deep engagement with God, in fall, spring, winter, or summer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Dec 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666759655

Wilma Zalabak

Wilma Zalabak, a pastor and business owner in Marietta, Georgia, earned her MDiv at Andrews University, Michigan, and her DMin, with specialization in preaching, at Phillips Theological Seminary, Oklahoma. Called to the ministry at age twelve, she developed a decade-long ministry of preaching on the street and thrives on biblical preaching where she can showcase the beauty in the Bible.

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Introduction

Each chapter of this book is made of material I preached for Lent. Lent is the time of the church year in which we are encouraged to do introspection and confession. Lent precedes and leads up to Easter. Another excellent time to use this book is during the lead-in to Thanksgiving in preparation for the Advent season.

The Old Testament stories came out of preaching on the street in 2016. These are shorter than the other pieces which were preached in First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Marietta, Georgia. Romans came during the first wave of COVID-19, in 2020, and Luke during COVID-19 recovery in 2022.

I left in this copy some evidences of its first presentation, some incomplete sentences, the use of the 1989 edition of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and some work with the COVID-19 pandemic which took over our lives during this time.

I believe Lent and the humility before God that is taught by the Bible readings recommended for Lent, are prime contexts in which to get wise regarding our own lack of control, power, and superiority, as well as our persistent desire to claim these for ourselves.

In chapter 1, Old Testament Stories: Saved without Swords, we will consider some very unfair situations with smart bullies and large tormentors. Rather than nurturing resentment and revenge, we will consider what Bible story characters did in similar circumstances. Our confession will be that we did not trust enough in God’s ways, and now we can do better at that.

In chapter 2, Luke: Jesus Saves, we will rejoice in Jesus’ deliverance and come face-to-face with the one lesson Jesus longed to know that we had learned. We will follow Jesus, alone and in the crowds, to learn his deepest desire for our good and his strongest lament. Our confession will be that, more than anything else, we need Jesus.

In chapter 3, Romans: Who Can Be Saved, and How?, we will don our logic hats and follow Paul’s reasoning about being saved. We have gleaned hints about what it is from which we will be saved, and Paul spells it out, with many metaphors and in various ways. Our confession will be that our purpose on earth, in Christ, is to be freed from shame and to be a blessing to others.

For the purposes of this book, the word saved may have any or all of a wide variety of meanings. Many of us assign it a theological meaning, for instance, saved from sin and saved to serve. It is linguistically appropriate to overlay that meaning with many other more mundane meanings. With the following list of synonyms and near-synonyms, would you ponder and circle the words that reach out to you in specific ways, and note, for each word you marked, what it is from which the fulfilling of that word would save you? Here are the words: defended, delivered, disentangled, emancipated, extricated, forgiven, freed, guarded, liberated, pardoned, preserved, protected, reclaimed, recovered, redeemed, reformed, released, rescued, restored, retrieved, safeguarded, salvaged, shielded, supported, sustained.¹

The thoughts given here, whichever prove helpful, are called into existence by the God who knows the end from the beginning, and who can free us from pandemics, both COVID-19 and fear, shame, and guilt.

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. Saved, Merriam Webster Thesaurus.

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Old Testament Stories

Saved without Swords

Grasshoppers and Hornets, Num 13:1—14:12

What is bothering you right now? What is holding you back from your dreams? What unfairness seems to follow your footsteps?

Well, these Bible stories might make a difference for you. Come along with me. I promise you it will be a journey worth taking. Here is a map (drawn not so accurately by me) showing the tribes and empires we will meet in this journey.

First, please observe with me a couple of insects.

The people were ready, half a million people poised to go home. The advance intelligence about their new home was that it was beautifully situated, fruitful, productive, and already effectively supporting human habitation. Twelve people had gone there to gather this information, and two of them produced a moving inspirational presentation. Let’s go! they said.

One might think the crowd would be unstoppable in moving out, but not so.

Ten of the intelligence crew, more than 80 percent of them, wailed and moaned and grumbled and spread fear throughout the crowd. Among other statements, they cried out, We are like grasshoppers beside the giants of that place! (Num 13:33, author paraphrase).

Grasshoppers!

As grasshoppers, we’ll get stepped on, pushed aside, and hated. We’ll only go there to die! Oh, no! We must return to where we knew what our death would look like!

The crowd rose up and rioted, turning their faces away from the adventure toward which they had been traveling for a more than a year. They turned back, and the inspiration of the two had no power to sway them toward trusting God again and going forward.

Grasshoppers. To ourselves [and to them] we seemed like grasshoppers (Num 13:33).

However, in the Bible, grasshoppers have an additional metaphorical meaning besides smallness. In a story we will read here later, the enemy armies came in like grasshoppers, eating as they came, and covering the ground (Judg 6:5; 7:12). Had the ten advance intelligence officers been able to turn around the grasshoppers metaphor, into adventure rather than fear, they would have known that God would make a way for them to enter their new home.

Grasshoppers are not the only insects used as metaphors. In God’s instructions for Israel’s entrance to their new home, God said he would send hornets to make a way for them. The meaning of the Hebrew word translated hornets is not very clear and might simply mean the trouble and terror that God would use to keep any enemies from hindering them (Exod 23:27–30; Deut 7:20–23, see footnote).

At any rate, there are scholars who believe that it was not God’s plan to have people fighting any wars, but that God would make a way for them without swords. This series of stories from the Old Testament features people being saved without swords, some instances where the trouble was handled without fighting and people were enabled to thrive despite the odds.

Please ponder and talk with God about your current enemy or difficulty (or that facing your church, family, business, or ministry). Name it. Describe its history in your life. Name all pieces (even financial pieces) of what it is stealing from you. Imagine some ways God could handle the situation without your fighting. Name what you are afraid of happening if you did decide to refuse to fight and step firmly into believing in God’s power to save. Describe, and in your imagination let yourself feel now and often, how you will feel when God has handled the situation.

Let’s go!

Moses, Exod 14:1–31

After all, the people were slaves. They were not outdoors people. They had taken no wilderness survival classes. Obviously, they had gotten lost in the wild deserts.

Except this was Israel, and God was with them! God gave them air conditioning during the day and special effects lighting at night.

Pharoah came after them, expecting an easy capture, expecting them to be hot and despairing, lost and ready to fall into his hands, begging to be taken back to the comforts of home. He was mistaken.

Moses said to the people of Israel, Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still (Exod 14:13–14).

Egypt has a long history, and the interactions of Israel’s ancestors with Egypt had mixed reviews. Abraham found shelter there from famine, irritated the Pharaoh with his half-truths, and was expelled (Gen 12:10–20). Jacob also found shelter there and sustenance during a great famine because Joseph had been sent on ahead and was blessedly enabled to offer them a royal welcome there (Gen 46:1–7; 47:1–12). Yet over hundreds of years, the welcome in Egypt deteriorated drastically.

The Egyptians mentioned here were Israel’s former bosses, supervisors, and drivers, their former owners. The people of Israel had absorbed the view of themselves put upon them by the people with the power, tools, and willingness to hurt them. They were unarmed, unthinking, incompetent, and had no goals for themselves. The Egyptian slave drivers were cunning and cruel, imposing and insistent.

Who could resist Pharoah and his soldiers and slave masters? God could! The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still (Exod 14:14).

The Lord used God’s own climate and lighting systems to guide and protect Israel. This, however, did not get them over the primary obstacle. The sea blocked their way forward and the Egyptians were coming behind.

The Lord used Moses’ walking stick and a strong east night wind to break through the huge barrier. Moses spread out his staff and the wind blew, and the water parted to reveal, in the light of the next day, dry ground on the sea bottom. Israel went over.

Let us review what Moses had told them. Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still (Exod 14:13–14).

Do not be afraid. Sometimes it is fear that stalls me. Worry and anxiety keep me stuttering on a decision. God says, Don’t.

Stand still, stand firm, and watch. Don’t touch, just look. Don’t just do something, stand there. Sometimes a forced inactivity produces the direst depression. Sometimes I pace, hunting for something I can do to fix a problem. God says, Stand still and watch.

They did not really stand still, did they? Moving all possessions of a newly nomadic people even a mile would require huge expenditure of effort. They did not stand still. They walked through the sea. The way they needed to stand still was in not looking back. They had to determine to keep their minds facing front.

Sometimes I think of the last family moving through the sea. I wonder how many children they had, how many cattle, how many adults helping. I wonder if a child looked back in fear or even in excitement toward a sword-flashing battle. I wonder if the adults hurried a bit, close on the heels of the family who went before them.

Moses had said, Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still (Exod 14:13–14).

Joshua, Josh 5:13—6:5

After Moses, God did have a succession