201. Salvation in the Lord
Jeremiah 3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
Salvation is of the Lord. Because God promises salvation only from Him we are obligated and motivated to “have no other gods,” meaning, we will fear, love and trust in God above all things. Jesus is the only Way, and He is also the sure and certain Way. There is no other way of life or way to God or way to life. There is no other name by which we must be saved. The Lord our God is our salvation. Jesus is the Lord our God. He is our salvation.
The “hills” and the “mountains” signifies the idols and the shrines on the high places where the people of the Lord would go to worship and see what good they could get from the demon gods. The Bible is clear: these other gods and demons cannot help you or save you. God is our salvation. We may not worship the demons on the high places any longer, but we sure do look to many other gods for our good and trust in other gods for blessing. These other things in which we trust don’t look like idols or demons, but they surely are all the same. The “other gods” do not seek your good, but they seek to do you harm. They threaten you with harm if you do not look to them for good. We need protection and salvation. God promises to give it by grace. Even our worship and sacrifice will not earn it. Jesus saves.
The biggest idol on the high place that we trust in is our own self. People soon learn in life that they cannot trust in other people, but it takes a long time and a hard time to learn that we cannot trust in our self. “I” become the demon idol god that represents the strongest competition to faith in Jesus Christ. It is hard to give up trust in Self: in vain is salvation hoped for from ME. Giving up on self and trusting in the Lord alone is a daily lesson that the Lord is trying to teach us constantly. Thus we need to learn over and over that “in the Lord is salvation.” We look only to Jesus for all good. And He never fails.