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Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations - Against the Romans, by means of the northern nations; who shall destroy the whole empire of this once mistress of the world. But this is an obscure place.
The Lord shall go forth and shall fight - Jerome: “Is to be taken like that in Habakkuk, ‹Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, for salvation with Thine Anointed” Habakkuk 3:13, and in Micah, ‹For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down and will tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft” Micah 1:3-4; and Isaiah also, “The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man; He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; He shall cry; He shall prevail over His enemies” Isaiah 42:13. “God is said to ‹go forth,‘ when by some wondrous deed He declares His Presence - His Deity is, as it were, laid up, so long as He holds Himself in, and does not by any token show His power. But He ‹goes forth,‘ and bursts forth, when He exercises some judgment, and worketh some new work, which striketh terror.” God then will “go forth out of His place,” when He is constrained to break through His quietness and gentleness and clemency, for the amendment of sinners. He who elsewhere speaketh through the prophet, ‹I, the Lord, change not‘ Malachi 3:6, and to whom it is said, ‹Thou art the same‘ Psalm 102:28, and in the Epistle of James, ‹With whom is no change‘ James 1:17, now ‹goeth forth‘ and fighteth ‹as in the day of battle,‘ when He overwhelmed Pharaoh in the Red sea; and ‹fought for Israel.‘” “The Lord shall fight for you,” became the watchword of Moses Exodus 14:14; Deuteronomy 1:30; 13:22; Deuteronomy 20:4 and the warrior Joshua in his old age (Joshua 23:10; compare Joshua 10:14, Joshua 10:42; Joshua 23:3), after his life‘s experience Joshua 10:14, Joshua 10:42; Joshua 23:3, and Nehemiah. “Be not afraid by reason of this great multitude” Nehemiah 4:20, said Jahaziel, son of Zachariah, when the “Spirit of the Lord came upon” him; “for the battle is not your‘s, but God‘s” 2 Chronicles 20:15.
As He fought in the day of battle - Osorius: “All wars are so disposed by the power of God, that every victory is to be referred to His counsel and will. But this is not seen so clearly, when people, elate and confident, try to transfer to themselves all or the greater part of the glory of war. Then may the war be eminently said to be the Lord‘s, when no one drew sword, as it is written, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” Exodus 14:14. Of all God‘s wars, in which human insolence could claim no part of the glory, none was more wondrous than that, in which Pharaoh and his army were sunk in the deep. “The Lord,” said Moses Exodus 15:3, “is a man of war: the Lord is His Name.” “That day of battle” was the image of one much greater. In that, Pharaoh‘s army was sunk in the deep; in this, the power of evil, in Hell: in that, what could in some measure be conquered by human strength, was subdued; in this, a tyranny unconquerable; in that, a short-lived liberty was set up; the liberty brought by Christ through subdual of the enemy, is eternal. As then the image yields to the truth, earthly goods to heavenly, things perishable to eternal, so the glory of that ancient victory sinks to nothing under the greatness of the latter.”
I then saw a lack of cleanliness among Sabbathkeepers. I saw that God was purifying unto Himself a peculiar people. He will have a clean and a holy people in whom He can delight. I saw that the camp must be cleansed, or God would pass by and see the uncleanness of Israel and would not go forth with their armies to battle. He would turn from them in displeasure, and our enemies would triumph over us and we be left weak, in shame and disgrace. 3SM 273.2
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