The earth shook, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. Psalm 68: 7 – 8
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:8
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice John 10:4 It is very interesting what difference one word makes to the meaning of a sentence. If we change the word before with behind in those two verses from Psalm 68, the meaning is quite different. When Israel went into battle the Lord went before them. Time and again the battle was the Lord’s and as they trusted him and did as he said, they had victory upon victory over their enemies. When they tried to fight the battles in their own way and in their own strength, they lost.
God does not push us from behind, forcing us where we may not want to go, he goes before us. I am sure that you know that in the Middle East a shepherd went before his sheep, they followed him. In other nations a shepherd drives the sheep in front of him. This creates a very different relationship between sheep and shepherd. If a sheep is driven, they have no choice about where they go. If they follow their shepherd, there is huge element of trust about where they are going. The sheep have a relationship with the shepherd and have to know his voice. They have to choose to follow. Jesus always goes before us. He never pushes us from behind. We choose to follow out of relationship with him because we trust and love him. As we learn to know his voice better we learn to walk more closely with him.
God’s way really is best and following him will result in victory in our lives. This does not mean that the path will always be easy but we can be assured that God has gone before and is with us all the way. God will never push us but he will lead us, calling us to follow him.
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