How do we understand God’s rescuing role in history?

David Arnow Jewish

Judaism assumes that God “cares” about the state of the world. Upon finishing creation, God “found it very good” (Genesis1:31). In the Bible, God often acts when that “goodness” is threatened. When Pharaoh cruelly oppresses the innocent Israelites God rescues them “with a strong hand.” Nowadays it’s not so easy to see God’s saving hand in history. But we see signs of it whenever human beings act to repair the world. God works through us, not in place of us. For a people with a long, painful history, the Exodus stands as an indestructible symbol of our hope for a world redeemed — and our commitment to bring it about.

Mary C. Boys Christian

Christianity also affirms, as David has said in his response to this question, that “God works through us, not in place of us.” We view God’s work in us particularly through the lens of discipleship to Christ—a way of living that saves us from excessive self-absorption, fear and enslavement. In living as disciples, we not only experience salvation but also act in ways that contribute to the world’s salvation. To say that God “rescues” us through Jesus Christ is in large measure to claim that Jesus offers a Way to God that patterns our daily lives. By striving to love our enemies, we lessen the world’s violence and the violence within our own being. By engaging in acts of service, we are redeemed from the constriction of selfishness and become part of activity larger than ourselves—an activity that partakes of the coming reign of God. By forgiving others (and ourselves), we experience deliverance from an anger that can so easily corrode us by sapping our psychic energy. By responding to those in need, we mediate God’s healing.

Related Texts

Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.
— “Justice in the World,” 1971, Synod of [Catholic] Bishops

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
— Luke 18:1-8

For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that in each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God. As the holy defender of God’s rights and of God’s images, the church must cry out. It takes as spittle in its face, as lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers. They suffer as God’s images. There is no dichotomy between humans and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom.
— Oscar Arnulfo Romero, The Violence of Love, cited in A Lent Sourcebook, Book Two, ed. J. Robert Baker et al. (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1990), 179.

Muhammad Shafiq Muslim

God made people custodians of the earth to live in peace and to preserve its beauty and life. The Qur’an has continuously warned people to stay away from corruption and destruction. Sadly, some people of power become arrogant, spread corruption and destroy the environment and its fruitfulness (2:205). God sent prophets to restore justice on earth and to warn people against their misbehavior. The Qur’an has stories of God’s rescuing his prophets and their righteous followers and destroying the arrogant. God sent floods in Noah’s time and rescued him and his companions (11:32-48). When Abraham was thrown into the fire by his people, God told the fire to be cool and comfortable to Abraham and not to harm him (21:66-69). The Qur’an speaks of David’s defeating the forces of Goliath: “And David slew Goliath; and God bestowed upon him dominion, and wisdom, and imparted to him the knowledge of whatever He willed. And if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, corruption would surely overwhelm the earth: but God is limitless in His bounty unto all the worlds” (2:251). The same is true about the rescue of Israelites from Pharaoh. The Qur’anic principle is: “O ye who believe! If ye will aid [the cause of] Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly” (47:7).

Qur’anic resources

Note: Translation of the Qur’anic verses and many of the Hadith translation with references were taken from Islamicity.com; some translations of and references to the Hadith were taken from ahadith.co.uk.