“There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty.”

Deuteronomy 33:26

I’m a sucker for a good chase scene in a movie. Every action-adventure movie includes a chase scene. Is it even an adventure movie without such a dramatic back and forth with hairpin turns and exploding cars? Of course there are different kinds of chase scenes. The bad guys chasing the good guys. The good guys chasing the bad guys. A race against the authorities and a race against a ticking clock inching its way towards detonation. With the adrenaline pumping music, the creative camera angles, and the near misses—the director builds all the components to capture your attention. And you get engrossed even though you’ve seen how many different chase scenes through the years? They are all different and they are all the same.

I especially enjoy the chase scenes that are a race to the innocent character. The bad guy running to bring the innocent’s demise and the hero, despite every obstacle, overcoming the odds to rescue the would be victim at the last possible moment. Life or death hangs in the balance when the hero rides in on the white horse to save the day.

This is the image that we have today of God’s heroic pursuit of you. He rides through the heavens to save you.

Sit with that image for just a moment—the God of the universe pursues you at a full gallop in order to deliver your from death to life. This is our God. This is your savior. It is true, there is none like our God.

The word for help is a powerful word in the Old Testament. It is the word ezar (pronounced azer). It is often give to us in our English bible’s as help or helper. But its meaning is far deeper than a simple help. When I think of help it calls to mind what my kids ask for with their math homework. When we help someone we lend a hand and try to lighten the load a little. This kind of help is great. It is a mark of the Kingdom of God to be made of people who help one another. To offer aid is a noble task and it is something we are called into each and every day. I hope you help people.

Rest assured, God doesn’t ride through the heavens to help you with your math homework—even though that was the prayer I often lifted up before my math exams! God’s help is deeper. It is fare more heroic. God’s help is about His deliverance. It is about Him coming to your aid when you are shipwrecked without Him. God’s helping hand is more than getting you out of a bind. God doesn’t ride through the heavens to give you a little nudge of encouragement. The almighty Lord of heaven and earth gallops through the heavens to grasp your hand from the clutches of death. He is your salvation—not only in some far distant work on a hill outside the holy city. He is your salvation in the here and now that liberates you from the shackles of sin and death today.

Are you burdened and weighed down by your past that still haunts you? Is there an addiction that eats at you daily? Do you keep going back to the same well of the same mistake and the darkness is taking its toll? Do financial burdens and relationship woes haunt your dreams and keep you from sleeping? Does your sin and brokenness chase you and you can’t keep ahead? Has grief swallowed your heart whole and you are spinning within its cold, dark cocoon?

Jesus is the one who helps. Not in a subtle, let me lighten your load kind of way. No, Jesus is the helper who rides across the stars to enter into our lives and redeem us. He is the Ezar who intercedes for you and supernaturally rights the wrongs. In fact, this is the gift of God’s grace. It is so subtle we often miss it. The whole point of the chase is the hero comes to us. We don’t go to the hero. This is the beauty of Jesus. He runs to you. You don’t run to Him. This is why He is the helper. You don’t help yourself. You and I, we can never help ourselves. We are, in a word, helpless.

Of course, this isn’t the only time that the Lord has been given the name of ezer. It appears a number of times in scripture to talk about the divine quality of God to come to the aid of His people. It also isn’t the first time the word appears in our scripture. The first time this word appears it isn’t in connection to God. It is the descriptor—or the activity—proclaimed about Eve. As the Lord creates Adam he declares that it isn’t good for Adam to be alone. From the beginning the Lord recognized that Adam needed a helper. As Eve is formed she fulfills this role—the first helper.

Sadly, for far too long, this descriptor has been used to subjugate women. Abuses, both grand and minor, have been inflicted upon women from this poor understanding of God’s word. In truth, Eve is the only one to share the same description as God Himself—our helper. And what a beautiful descriptor it is. I can assure you, Deanna is absolutely my ezer in more ways than I can count. She consistently comes to my rescue in the big and small things of our life together. As I often say, I am often lost with her, could you imagine how lost I would be without her?!

The truth is, each of us needs saving. We need people to rescue us in the big and small things of this life. Part of our discipleship is growing to be rescue agents in the small things of our lives. Who will you rescue this week? How will your eyes be peeled to intercede on someone’s behalf?

Of course we can’t save people from the really big things—you and I aren’t that strong or good. Thanks be to God that He continues to save us in the really big things that are life and death. He is our rescuer. He is our redeemer. Like your favorite super hero in your favorite chase scene, Jesus makes all the right turns, doges all the obstacles, and anticipates every move. His hand reaches out to grab you. Every time. He is our helper. He is our salvation. He is the Lord.

How have you experienced the Help of the Lord?