2482) I loved the show Gilligan’s Island when I was a kid. I still see it occasionally, and when I’ve watched it, I’ve thought, this show isn’t anything special. It’s juvenile and predictable. And yet, there’s something about it that still draws me; it’s the idea of rescue.

As I read Daniel 6:7, I think of this. The verse reads, he delivers and rescues … he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

What caught my attention in this verse is the fact that it includes both words delivers and rescues. Aren’t these two things really the same? Daniel was delivered from the lions. Daniel was rescued from the lions.

When things like this pop up when I’m studying the Bible, it doesn’t take much to encourage me to look at the original Old Testament language of these two words.

The Hebrew word used here for delivers is shzab. It means to snatch away, rescue, deliver, and/or save from danger. The word for rescues is ntsal, which means to set free, preserve, and/or rescue safely.

Putting them both together in the verse in Daniel, shzab emphasizes being rescued from, while ntsal means to persevere through.

In Daniel’s case, God did both of these things, and yet, I realize that sometimes we receive only one or the other.

God can rescue us from something, and when he chooses not to do this directly, he will give us what we need to persevere through. Both are forms of rescues and recognizing both of these is beneficial.