“The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” (Deuteronomy 1:30-31)
Moses here begins his final addresses to the people of Israel. They are poised to cross the Jordan and finally enter the Promised Land. Moses is rehearsing what he had told their parents forty years earlier as they too had been poised to enter the Promised Land. They did not believe but rebelled.
Will this new generation be any different?
The only thing that will make this generation different than the previous one (and the only thing that can possibly mark us out as faithful) is the presence of God actively, manifestly with them. His presence is repeatedly promised to them (e.g., Deut. 31:6, 23; Josh. 1:9). Will they believe His promise and act based upon its surety? Will I?
What exactly is the promise here? It appears to be three-fold.
The Lord is my advance team — “The LORD your God who goes before you …”
The Lord is my seal team — “The LORD your God who … will himself fight for you …”
The Lord is my home team — “The LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son …”
The Lord Himself goes before you, fights for you, and carries you. You well never step into anything where He is not already and where He hasn’t prepared the way for you. You are not responsible for victory, just obedience. You aren’t sufficient, but He who is holds you in His arms.
Now that sounds promising, right? Is should, it is a divine promise.
But to bolster their faith in its certainty, Moses set before them two illustrations of God’s faithfulness to these very ministries. They came from their own experience with God.
First, was their experience with God in Egypt and their deliverance from it (“just as he did for you in Egypt”).
Second, was their experience with God in the wilderness for the next forty years (“just as he did for you … in the wilderness”).
In biblical theology terms, we might say, God has demonstrated His faithfulness in our salvation and sanctification (since these events represent these new covenant realities).
Surveying my life and experience with the Lord, I can see His faithfulness in just these ways, both over the course of my life and in the past year.
Lord, thank you for going before me, fighting for me, and carrying me as your child. Lead on. Enable me to follow faithfully. Amen!
