The Christian’s Rear Guard

“Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.” -Exodus 14:19-20

On November 18th, 1985 the Washington Redskins squared off against the New York Giants. The score was tied at 7 in the second quarter and legendary Redskins quarterback, Joe Theismann, took the snap. It was a trick play, a flea flicker. But that didn’t stop lumbering Lawrence Taylor’s blitz. Taylor managed to slide into Theismann’s blind spot and crush him with freight train force. Tragically, Theismann’s leg snapped like a dry twig and he never played another down of professional football… all because his rear guard failed. 

In life as in football, it’s good to know that someone has your back. It is an aspect of God’s love for His people that is subtly but surely seen in the moments leading up to the Red Sea rescue, the most celebrated act of divine deliverance in the Old Testament. Picture the scene…

The freshly liberated Hebrews have come to a dead end. Before them rolls the mighty Red Sea, with mountains hemming them in on either side. They’re trapped! But then, maybe they heard it first, like the low rumble of distant thunder. Perhaps they felt the earth trembling beneath their feet. Or they might have looked and the great cloud of dust or the gleaming armor of Pharaoh’s army in the Egyptian sun, cresting the horizon and closing in. The Israelites were staring down the double barrels of certain doom!

But when all hope seemed, lost, at the command of God, Moses stretched his hand out over the water and the sea miraculously split so the people could pass through safely to other side. Though Pharoah’s forces followed, they weren’t so fortunate. Those walls of water that were to the deliverance of God’s people, were to the destruction of Pharaoh’s as they came crashing down like deadly cymbals reducing Egypt’s chariots to splinters.

But have you ever noticed what God did just before parting the waters? The Bible says, that the Angel of the Lord who was leading the people of Israel by the pillar of cloud and fire, “moved and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel” (Exodus 14:19-20). 

Now, God could have halted the Egyptian advance any way He wanted. Remember the plagues? But instead of frogs, gnats, or locusts, God covered Israel’s rear guard Himself. He wanted Israel to see and to know that He, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Covenant Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had their back. God put himself between his people and danger.

It is no different for you, Christian. In Jesus Christ, we have the certain hope that the God who goes before us is the One who goes behind us. He Who guides us by his word and Spirit is He who guards us by his mighty hand. The Shepherd who leads us in paths of righteousness and is with us in the valley is the same Shepherd who pursues us in goodness and mercy. So David taught us to sing, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5). The Westminster Divines put it this way, “Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies” (WSC26).

As we fight the good fight against indwelling sin and the spiritual forces of evil in the world that’s, awfully good news. Christian, God has your back. That truth can free us from anxiety, help us breathe easy, and sleep well at night. Isaiah said, “the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:12). That means God has promised to protect us from enemies we can and can’t see coming. He keeps us back from the evil we pursue and he restraints the evil that pursues us. And nothing is getting past him that he doesn’t let past because he has “meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Praise God for not only saving us from our sins by the cross of Christ, but by defending us as his eternally, infinitely, and unchangeably beloved children.