What does it mean that God will fight our battles (Exodus 14:14; Deuteronomy 1:30)?

To return to the figure in Exodus 14, what is the first word Israel gets, as the enemy is seen approaching? "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you this day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (vers. 13, 14). What is God's salvation? That Christ has gone down beneath the waves and billows of divine judgment, for His people, bearing their sins, enduring the judgment due to them, and He has risen again in the power of an accomplished work — an atonement by which God has been glorified — and what is the result? The power of the enemy is destroyed, and we are called to gaze on a risen Saviour, and an empty tomb.

At the Red Sea we find a second aspect of the cross of Christ, which is redemption: "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth thy people which thou hast redeemed." (Ex. 15:13) Now if God delivers and redeems us, He is for us instead of being against us; indeed, it says: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." (Ex. 14:14) The Passover stayed God Himself as a Judge, and set Israel in safety; at the Red Sea God intervenes as a Saviour (Ex. 15:2) in favour of His people, who have nothing to do but to look on at their deliverance: "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." (Ex. 14:13) In redemption God, so to speak, acts as if the enemies which were against us, and which we were quite powerless to overcome, were against Him.

Israel might have thought, Someone will have to fight if we are to be saved, and the Lord answered this with the words, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Not even one word was required from Israel in this conflict, the fighting and the salvation were both to come from the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and Israel were but to be witnesses of the mighty power of God, but once the salvation had been secured God allowed Israel to join the song of praise led by Moses who had complete confidence in Jehovah, and whose confidence had been vindicated in the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.

Despite the unbelief of His people and their lack of confidence in Him, as the psalmist declares, "Our fathers in Egypt considered not Thy wondrous works; they remembered not the multitude of Thy loving kindnesses, but they rebelled at the sea, at the Red Sea (Ps. 106:7). Yet God had respect to the greatness and glory of His Name and His faithfulness in carrying out the terms of the covenant He had made with Abraham of old, and so we read, "And Moses said to the people, Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today … the Lord will fight for you and ye shall be still (Ex. 14:13-14). Then He commands Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." There is nothing inconsistent between the command to "Stand still" and "Go forward." The one action is passive and the other is active; one is inward, the other outward, but both require the exercise of faith in laying hold of the never-failing divine resources to enable one to "Stand still" as well as to "Go forward."

Out from Egypt and its bondage, moving on towards their inheritance, this redeemed people (Ex. 15:13) were not yet in complete liberty, not yet able to respond to God in the song of Scripture! The enemy pursued and they were helpless before him — they needed salvation! The precious blood had settled the question of their standing before God — they did not need salvation from God — He was not their enemy — He had "come down to deliver them" (Ex. 3:8). But they did need salvation from their enemy, and we are to take account of the way in which that salvation reached them — "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew to you this day." The whole position was under the eye of God, the people's helplessness, the enemy's power; and His arm brought salvation. Their part was to "stand still," and take account of the way in which God dealt with the situation and then in faith to "go forward."

284 God did not put Amalek out of the way of Israel - they must fight with him: and it is just so with us. "And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand," v. 9. This is very different from what we get in chapter 14, "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

"And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword" (vers. 9-13). When it was a question of Pharaoh, the word was, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. … The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Ex. 14:13-14). God does all the fighting if it be a question of delivering you from the power of Satan. But when it is a question of the flesh — and mark you, you have always the flesh in you — then there must be conflict, and, "Fight with Amalek" is the order. What is the power for the conflict? It is the Holy Ghost. The very fact of the conflict shows that the Holy Ghost is in me. It is not a question as to whether I am saved or not, but it is a question as to whether the will of God is to be wrought out, or whether the flesh, which is always trying to hinder me, is to stop me in my course as a Christian.

"They could not enter in." They could not see the glory of God. Hearken to the deeply affecting words of Moses. It does the heart good to read them. They touch the very deepest springs of our renewed being. "Then I said to you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goes before you, he shall fight for you" — only think of God fighting for people! Think of Jehovah as a Man of war? — "He shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and by a cloud by day.

Moses was not intimidated by the apparent power of the enemies, but rather encouraged Israel to be unafraid because the Lord had promised to go before them and fight for them. Since He had sustained and kept them trough the wilderness, would He be any less able to Strengthen them to face their enemies? (vs.29-31).

Hence, in the economy of grace, privilege becomes the basis of responsibility, and this is beautifully illustrated in the passage of Scripture which stands at the head of this paper. I shall quote it for my reader. “When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be, when ye are come nigh to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people and shall say to them, Hear, O Israel; ye approach this day to battle against your enemies; let not your hearts faint; fear not and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

Here we have Israel's privileges distinctly set forth. “The Lord thy God is with thee,” and that in the very character in which He had brought them out of the land of Egypt. He was with them in the power of that sovereign grace which had delivered them from the iron grasp of Pharaoh and the iron bondage of Egypt, which had conducted them through the sea and led them across “the great and terrible wilderness.” This made victory sure. No enemy could possibly stand before Jehovah acting in unqualified grace on behalf of His people.

Let my reader note carefully that there is not a single condition proposed by the priest in the above quotation. He states in the most absolute way, the relationship and consequent privilege of the Israel of God. He does not say, “The Lord thy God will be with you, if you do so and so.” This would not be the proper language of one who stood before the people of God as the exponent of those privileges which grace had conferred upon them. Grace proposes no conditions, raises no barriers, makes no stipulations. Its language is, “The Lord thy God is with thee … He goes with you … to fight for you … to save you.” When Jehovah fights for His people they are sure of victory. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Grant me but this, that God is with me, and I argue full victory over every spiritual foe.