"In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence
shall be your strength." God was the defender of His people. Their
strength was to trust in Him. It is so still. He is the only Saviour.
A Divine salvation is--1. _Needed._ As much as when Sennacherib
spread his hosts before Jerusalem; as much as when the children of
Israel in the wilderness needed the manna, without which they must
have perished, &c; for man is sinful; and because sinful helpless.
2. _Proclaimed_ (Isa. xlv. 22; Acts xiii. 38, 39). God pitied the
world, and sent His son. Jesus died and rose again. His death
satisfied for sin. Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost. And
willing. In the ministry of the gospel He invites every sinner to
come to Him. 3. _Conditioned._ "Return--rest." There must be a
complete change from sin; from wrong confidence to simple faith. Many
examples in the Old Testament show that believing reliance on God was
a surer way to deliverance than the power of man. Apostolic preaching
points to faith as the link of connection between the sinner and the
Saviour. The salvation is by faith, that it may be free.