120. Rear Guard
Isaiah 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
God promises to have your back. When the Son died on the cross, the Lord said, “Go out. You are free.”Your “exodus” will not be quick or in a hurry. You may go out holding your head high and with confidence because the Lord will go before you and He will be your rear guard. With the Lord’s exodus and liberation on the cross and the empty tomb the Lord Himself will lead you out from the evil and dark kingdom, bring you into the kingdom of goodness and light, and He will march behind you to make sure you are not prevented from freedom by enemy attack.
This promise should be most comforting to us in our lives. God is with us, in front of us, and behind us. He delivers us from evil; He frees us from the entrapments of our own sins; He leads us not into temptation; He leads me beside still waters; He brings me from darkness into light; He takes me out from the stranglehold of death and grants eternal life. All of this and more is an Exodus. The first Exodus was the exodus of the people under Moses out of bondage in Egypt; the second Exodus was the return of the Jews from Exile in Babylon; the third Exodus is the setting free from Sin, Death and the Devil through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The prophecy, “Ye shall go out,” was directed to the exiles in Babylon. By extension, and by obvious inference, reference is made to Moses’ Exodus, and the prophecy concerns the Exodus bought by Jesus Christ for all believers. This is the promise that we can take hold of in our day. God Himself leads us out of evil and pushes us into the righteousness of God. And His power will protect us on the way from sin to grace, from darkness to light, from death to life. This means He will guide us and guard us on the Exodus journey He has placed us on. We may daily remind ourselves of this promise: “I got your back!”