Rich Enough to Redeem

The name Yeshua begins with a yod that says “He,” the One who acts. The form with a waw in front tells that He has acted: “And the LORD saved.” But the law of the goel asks more of a redeemer than that he be willing to act. It asks whether he can.

Two Conditions Held Together

The goel law in Leviticus 25 opens with a brother who has fallen on hard times, and the one who comes to him is “his redeemer, the near one to him” (Leviticus 25:25). That is the first condition: he must be a kinsman. A few verses later the law adds the second. Among those who may redeem a man who has sold himself, the last case reads: “or his hand has attained, and he is redeemed” (Leviticus 25:49). The Hebrew verb there, hissiga, comes from nasag, “to reach,” and its subject is the hand: his hand has reached, that is, he has means that stretch far enough to pay. The law sets both conditions side by side. The redeemer must be near, and he must be able to bear the price.

The book of Ruth shows what happens when only the first condition is met. A kinsman nearer than Boaz stood in the right place in the family and still said, “I cannot redeem” (Ruth 4:6). The lesson is plain: standing without the ability to bear the cost does not redeem anyone. The place of the goel requires rank and capacity together.

The Same Three Letters in Job and Isaiah

In Book 4 we saw that the back half of the name Yeshua is Shua, spelled with three Hebrew consonants, shin, waw and ayin, and that Shua stands on its own as a name. The same three consonants are used in the Hebrew Bible in more than one way. Gathered from the whole Hebrew text, the words written with them fall into three kinds: words of salvation, words of crying out for help, and a word for a person of wealth and standing.

The third kind is the one that bears on the goel. It is the word shoa (שׁוֹעַ), written with the same three consonants and pronounced with a slightly different vowel. It does not name the act of saving. It names a standing. Two verses show what it means.

Job 34:19 Who does not lift up the face of princes, nor regards the rich before the poor; for they all are the work of His hands.

The YLV renders shoa here as “the rich,” and the verse sets him against the dal, “the poor.” God does not regard the one who has plenty above the one who has nothing. In this verse shoa is the one who has abundance.

Isaiah 32:5 The vile shall no more be called noble, and to the knave it shall not be said, "bountiful."

Here shoa is the last word of the verse, and the YLV renders it “bountiful.” The verse is built in two matching halves. In the first, the vile will no longer be called “noble.” In the second, the knave will no longer be called shoa. So shoa stands in the place that “noble” holds in the first half, and it is set against the knave, the man who is low in character. In this verse shoa is the one who is honored, generous and noble.

In one verse the word stands against poverty, and in the other against baseness. The single word shoa holds both abundance and nobility.

The Second Condition Carried in the Name

The redeemer must be near, and his hand must reach far enough. Redemption is not done by willingness alone. Only one who actually holds the price can do it, and he must be of a standing to pay it. A man who is poor cannot buy back his brother’s field, however much he loves his brother.

The three consonants at the back of the name Yeshua are the consonants of shoa, the one who has plenty and the one who is noble. So the back half of the name holds together both the work of saving and the One who has enough, in wealth and in rank, to carry that work through. Put with the yod in front, the name says: He saves, and the One who saves is rich and noble enough to do it.

This is where the second condition of the goel stands in the name itself. The kinsman of Ruth 4 had standing but could not pay. The name of the One Jacob waited for says that He has both. The kinship of Hebrews 2, His taking part in flesh and blood, answers the first condition. The abundance and honor carried in Shua answer the second.

A Cry for Help and a Living Redeemer

The second kind of word written with these consonants stands beside the goel in one chapter of Scripture. The words of crying out for help are frequent in the book of Job: the verb stands there eight times, and the noun shua, “a cry for help,” is found only in Job. In the nineteenth chapter, Job says this.

Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out, 'Violence!' but I am not answered; I cry for help, but there is no judgment (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt').

The verb for “I cry for help” is shava, from the same three consonants. Job cries out, and there is no judgment for him. Then, eighteen verses later in the same chapter, the same man says, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25). The word “Redeemer” there is goel. The man who cried for help and found no answer speaks, in the same chapter, of a goel who lives. Job does not say how that Redeemer will meet his need. He says only that the Redeemer lives, and that at the last He will rise upon the dust.

So the consonants at the back of the name gather three things the text keeps in view: salvation, the cry of the one who needs it, and the wealth and honor of the One who is able to give it. This is not a play on words. It is how the words written with these letters are actually used in the Hebrew text.

The front of the name says “He.” The back says salvation, and the plenty and nobility that can bear it. Hebrew writing carries one more picture in its letters, and it lies in two names: Judah, the tribe of the scepter, and David, the king of that tribe.