Our God Goes Before Us

Our God Will Go Before Us - Worship song

Annie

Scriptures Isaiah 52:12 Deuteronomy 31:1-8 Judges 7:1-19 Deuteronomy 1:30 Psalm 139:5 Psalm 23 John 14:15-18

For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard

Quite a few years ago, we used to live in a house on top of a cliff, with access to a small bay that was through our garden, then down a steep, rough path. I remember being so wary when we moved there with 2 youngsters, they were only allowed down the path to the bay if Dad was leading the way and I was bringing up the rear. We cared too much about the safety of our children to let them risk going alone.

The words of Isaiah tell us so clearly that the love of God for His children is infinitely more intense and alert than our love for our children could ever be. As parents we want our children to be safe, so, as they go through all the stages of growing up, we try and teach them to take care of themselves because we know we cannot always be with them. Yet God is always with us. This is the very essence of Who He is, the Omnipresent One, Who is completely and utterly committed to being with us, as individuals, each and every second of our lives. As I write those words, the enormity and gravity of this startles me yet again, and I am, for the umpteenth time, in awe of just how amazing our God is.

Can you imagine how Joshua would have felt when faced with the reality of leading the nation of Israel into the Promised Land? He had pursued Moses, longing to know God in the way that Moses did, yet the task that lay before him would have been daunting, in the extreme. BUT GOD! God’s love and care for Joshua was so wonderfully demonstrated as Moses stood before the people and declared, emphatically, that God would go before them, He would give them victory and He would never leave or forsake them. This was not just spoken to Joshua, Moses spoke to “all Israel”, hundreds of witnesses heard the words that day. In His wisdom and grace, God allowed Joshua to know that he had not dreamt up these words, there were witnesses who could confirm and remind him of what God had promised.

Another hero of ancient Israel is Gideon, and what God asked Him to do was outrageous. The Midianites and their “hordes” had been making life miserable for the Israelites for a long time, until God raised up Gideon. Gideon, who bargained with God not once but twice. Putting out one fleece, you would think, should have been enough to convince him that God had answered, but his courage and belief needed a little more building up, so Gideon put out another fleece. Then, his courage and belief were challenged yet again when God, through a series of the most outlandish instructions, told him to face the (estimated) 135,000 Midianite hordes with 300 men, yes, 300. Then God instructed Gideon, in the middle of the night, to go down to the Midianite camp where he would hear something astounding. But, not to go alone, he was to take his servant with him, as back up but, more importantly, as a witness. In response to hearing the Midianites discussing a dream that, they said, could only mean that the battle had been given to Gideon, Gideon knelt down and worshipped God. Then, he went back to his army, instructed them to each carry a clay jar with a lamp in it and a ram’s horn, and, that day, the Midianites were so terrified that they ran off in disarray. God had promised him victory, but it was done God’s way.

Wonderful stories, aren’t they? And, is that all that they are? Bedtime stories of heroes from long ago, whose exploits amaze young hearers. What a travesty it is if that is the case, if we, as adults, fail to recognise that these men trusted and obeyed God, believed that His promises indeed are “yes and amen”. And they are not figments of someone’s imagination, these men lived, they were real and alive, they knew fear, they knew doubt, but they also knew God. Their lives are recorded to remind us that God is faithful, His promises do not fail, no matter how strange and illogical, to our way of thinking, God’s way of achieving them is.

Jesus made one promise that we can trust and implicitly believe in, wherever we may journey, we are never orphans, alone and abandoned, Holy Spirit is always and forever with us. 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Prayer: Abba Father, grant us Your Grace to take You at Your word, to take Your promises seriously, to trust You and obey You in all and through all. Amen.