Winds of salvation

[david omweno ongori]

 

Yahushua’s creative use of the wind in the final saving event of Israel’s Exodus firmly establishes wind as a symbol of Yahushua’s saving power. Israel’s first worship song, written immediately after this event, poetically links the wind with  Yahushua’s “breath.”  [Exodus 15:8-11]

Yahushua’s “breath” not only brings salvation. It also brings life to the first human being. [Genesis 2:7] Presumably this life is passed on in the great chain of human reproduction, so you do not need to see Yahushua physically breathing into each human being as it is born.

In one of the great prophetic passages of comfort to a people in exile, Yahushua gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley of dry bones. [Ezekiel 37:1-14] These bones represent a nation totally destroyed beyond hope of restoration. In this vision, Yahushua puts the bones back together and covers them with flesh and skin. He tells the prophet to call for “breath” to come “from the four winds” and enter the bodies to bring them back to life. Interestingly enough, the words translated “breath,” “wind” and “spirit” in this passage are the same word in the Hebrew language that this was first written in. Yahushua’s “breath” or “wind” gives hope for a lost and hopeless people.

One important aspect about wind as noted in Exodus 14 and 15 is that human beings cannot control it. It is symbolic of  Yahushua’s sovereignty that the wind can only be controlled by Yahushua. Psalm 104:4, referring to Yahushua’s greatness, states,