FOURTH QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #5
NOVEMBER 1, 2025
"GOD FIGHTS FOR YOU".

 

“You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22).

"One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God [is] He who fights for you, as He promised you” (Joshua 23:10).

“Who is this who comes from Edom,

With dyed garments from Bozrah,

This One who is glorious in His apparel,

Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—

‘I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’” (Isaiah 63:1)

Notice the italicized emphasis in the title of this week’s lesson. God fights for you and me. In all our afflictions He is afflicted (Is. 63:9). It is essential to remember this as we ponder the “serious questions” that are “challenging” to us, as noted in the introduction of the lesson study this week. If some of the answers to these questions are mysterious to us, we should consider this:

The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore--humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!" 

The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father.”

It will be seen that He who is infinite in wisdom could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of His Son. The compensation for this sacrifice is the joy of peopling the earth with ransomed beings, holy, happy, and immortal. The result of the Saviour's conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity. And such is the value of the soul that the Father is satisfied with the price paid; and Christ Himself, beholding the fruits of His great sacrifice, is satisfied. —Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 651-2, emphasis supplied.

Because God is the loving Creator of all humanity, He is the rightful Judge of all, but his purpose is always to save, to bring ultimate peace, contingent on our belief and trust. In the process of resolving the great controversy He moves through a continuum of interventions, the ultimate of which is revealed in death, “even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8), that death that Jesus, the second Adam died for all, and as all—prefiguring the second death for the lost. If we accept the mystery of the cross, there is no room for dissembling or complaining about what we or anyone else might find mysterious in His dealings with the Canaanites, or with us.

When God (through Christ) called Israel out of Egypt, he was the Good Shepherd. He wanted Pharaoh and the Egyptians to be converted, to join His people, and some did. Those who fought against God were ultimately destroyed, but not before He revealed to them His power and love already present in the world by gradually demonstrating His rulership over nature. Each plague was progressively revealing in its severity, reflecting the progressive hardening of hearts. It got increasingly unpleasant, not only for the Egyptians, but for God Himself, because  He says, “As I live,…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). 

The symbol of God's Government, on the other hand, is the shepherd's staff. The king after God's heart is a shepherd, for God, the King of kings is a shepherd. The subjects of His kingdom are subjects indeed,-voluntarily subject to Him in thought as well as in action. God is of right King over all; but He will not by force compel anybody to be subject to Him; He cannot, because it would be subversive of His own Government, which is peace and love. He wins back rebellious men by love; but when men despise and resist love, He delivers them up to the sword, as those who will not that He shall reign over them; and pending their final destruction, He allows even ungodly men to be His ministers to execute wrath…. It is simply the only possible means of dealing with those who by their own choice stand outside of the kingdom of God. When His kingdom comes, and His will is done on earth as it is done in heaven, "He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire." God will use His saints as agents in the last Judgment, "to execute vengeance upon the heathen;” but there will be none destroyed who could by any possibility be saved, just as He did not allow the Israelites to cut off the heathen in the land of Canaan until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. So the true followers of God will never be partners in any act of force that cuts short the probation of sinners. —E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, p. 512, August 6, 1903.

I have a suspicion that the problems we have processing the progressive severity of God’s dealing with sin as seen in the Old Testament are linked to our own lack of understanding of the malignity of sin and the magnitude of the suffering it produces, as revealed in Christ the Sin Bearer in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. Until we completely surrender to the righteous Judge of the Cross, we are still like unfaithful Israelites in their unbelief—or perhaps even the Canaanites in fighting against Him—because deep down we still love and trust self rather than Him. 

Let us look at Jacob’s experience before and during his fearful meeting with Esau, and learn the lesson. God appears to be fighting against us, but only because we are fighting against Him. When we stop fighting and surrender, we can see that He has always been fighting for us. We need to fear sin itself, not Him who destroys sin, nor Satan who promotes it through deception.

"Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." But God is a kind and compassionate Father, as much more tender with His children than any earthly father is with his children as He is greater than man. Earthly fathers have love for their children, but "God is love." What a blessed position to be in, when the only thing in the universe to be afraid of is God, who is love. He loves men, even sinners, but hates sin. He is terrible to nothing but sin. When He is our fear, the result is the destruction of sin. The only dread we need to have, with respect to God, is the dread of displeasing Him; and when we fear to displease Him, so much that we will trust Him, and yield to His ways, He will give us the testimony that we please Him.—ibid., p. 86, January 26, 1899.

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." The kingdom is not to be gained by our efforts. It is to be given to them that "fear not." Let your mind dwell in prayerful meditation upon the infinite love of God toward you in Christ Jesus. Think of the exceeding great and precious promises, of the Holy Spirit, which dwells in you, of the holy angels that are encamped about you; think of all these blessings and "fear not." Fear not the want of temporal good. He who feeds the ravens, the sparrows, and the beasts, will feed you. "The Lord will provide," is a motto which you may write on every necessary want in life. Fear not the power of Satan. Greater is he that is for you than all that are against you. The mighty God fights our battles; then why should we fear? Fear not that the Lord will forsake you. His love is an everlasting love. He is married to you in Christ. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Having loved you, he will love you "to the end." —A. T. Jones, Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald,  p. 524, August 16, 1898.

Tuesday and Wednesday’s lessons each end with thought questions: 1. What elements in your own character and habits must be uprooted and annihilated? 2. What are the spiritual implications of the Canaanites’ defiance of God for our context today? That is, what are the consequences of our free choices for us personally?

How do we approach sin in our own experience? On one hand, when Jesus comes in, sin is dispossessed. Some aspects of our desires can be pushed out of our core motivations and have opportunity to be used in accordance with His will—repurposed and sanctified, if you will. This is a bit like the Canaanites, in mercy, having the opportunity to move out of the land promised to Israel and live on, potentially, like Ruth the Moabitess, to be later converted.

Christ’s dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit is a daily experience of surrender, because the “living sacrifice” keeps climbing off of the altar*—hence the need for more drastic action. Some sins, like the Canaanites’, are deeply embedded in fortified cities, and the walls must be overthrown and their basis completely annihilated. Here is A. T. Jones:

That is, when a man is converted, and is thus brought under the power of the Spirit of God, he is not so delivered from the flesh that he is actually separated from it, with its tendencies and desires, so that, by the flesh, he is no more tempted, and that with it he has no more contest. No; that same degenerate, sinful flesh is there, with its same tendencies and desires. But the individual is no longer subject to them. He is delivered from subjection to the flesh, with its tendencies and desires, and is now subject to the Spirit. He is now subject to a power that conquers, and brings under, crucifies, and keeps under, the flesh, sinful as it is, with all its affections and lusts. Therefore, it is written that "ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body." "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Col. 3:5. Note that all these things are there in the flesh and would live and reign if the flesh were to rule. But since the flesh itself is brought into subjection to the power of God, through the Spirit, all these evil things are killed at the root, and thus prevented from appearing in the life.

This contrast between the rule of the flesh and the rule of the Spirit, is clearly shown in Rom. 7:14-24 and in 1 Cor. 9:26, 27. In the seventh of Romans is pictured the man who is under the power of the flesh, "carnal, sold under sin," who longs to do good, and wills to do good, but is subject to a power in the flesh that will not let him do the good that he would. "For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." "I find them a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law IN MY MEMBERS, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That describes the man who is subject to the flesh, "to the law of sin" that is in the members. And when he would break away from the power of the flesh, and would do good, that power still brings him into captivity, and holds him under the dominion of the flesh, the law of sin, which is in his members.

But there is deliverance from that power. Therefore, when he cries out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" there is given instantly the answer: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." There is the way of deliverance; for Christ alone is the Deliverer.

And now this man, though he is thus delivered, is not delivered from A CONTEST: he is not put into a condition where he has no fighting to do with the flesh. There is a fight still to be carried on; and it is not a make-believe fight; it is not the fighting of a phantom. Here is the man of 1 Cor. 9:26, 27: "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air." What does he fight? What does he beat? Read: "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Thus, in the battle that the Christian fights, is his body, is the flesh, with its affections and lusts. The body is to be, by the Christian, kept under, and brought into subjection, by the new power of the Spirit of God, to which he is now subject, and to which he became subject when delivered from the power of the flesh and the law of sin.—ibid., p. 600.

Because the Canaanites were completely given over to demonic influence in their wickedness, exhibited in gross immorality, sexual perversion, and child sacrifice, the battle for the Israelites was really against the forces of evil more so than “flesh and blood.” They could only succeed in this battle by the Lord fighting for them. So it is with us, as we clearly face the same issues today.

No such battle was ever fought, and no such courage ever required as in the Christian warfare, which is waged "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, again spiritual wickedness in high places." The strength for this battle is given of God, and with it the courage of God. It is strength and courage every hour for the conflict with sin. One who fights this battle, and allows the Lord to lead him as He pleases, will not be engaged in fighting against the flesh of others. There will be no time when he can draw off his forces to combat somebody else.

The man who yields most fully to the gentle life of the Lord will be firmest in standing for that which is right and truth. With Christ he can say, "The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." The lack of firmness and strength, and the timidity, is not because of humility and meekness, but is an evidence that we have not learned to distrust ourselves and put our trust in God. Christ said, "I will put My trust in Him" (Heb. ii. 13), and to us is given "the faith of Jesus," the same trust, that like Him our faces may be set like a flint, and that like Him also there may be nothing of hardness in the disposition, but only gentleness, meekness, love.—E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK,p. 149, March 8, 1894.

The Lord reproached His people of old because "they limited the Holy One of Israel." If we would cease to limit Him with our unbelief, and our disposition to sit down and go no further whenever we receive a blessing, He would speedily make bare His holy arm in the sight of the nations, and all the ends of the earth would see the salvation of God. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." Hosea vi. 3.—ibid., p. 531. August 25, 1898.

Regarding the Concept of Participation in a Just or Holy War Today

"The Christian Warfare" in The American Sentinel, vol.12, No. 30, July 29, 1897, by A. T. Jones

FOR what does the Christian soldier fight? A Roman Catholic journal, The Pilot (Boston), answers the question thus:—

"The Christian soldier fights for his country, sustained not by the hope of subsequent political rewards, nor even by the nobler expectation of the gratitude of posterity, but simply for the love of his country, and his conviction that it is his duty before God to lay down his life for her at need.”

And this is about the idea which many Protestants hold on the same point. But it is not Bible doctrine. The very first thing Christianity requires of any person, under all circumstances, is that he lay down his life. He must be "dead," and his life "hid with Christ in God." Col. 3:3. "Subsequent political rewards" and the "gratitude of posterity" are ruled out altogether. And God never calls an individual to lay down his life for the sake of his country. He must lay it down because it is full of sin, and take in its place the life of Christ, which is all righteousness. "Whosoever will save his life," said Jesus, "the same shall lose it." The truly Christian soldier lets Christ live in him (Gal. 2:20), and by that life wages ceaseless warfare against all sin.

From E. J. Waggoner:

A Wise Answer.-When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, the soldiers came to him among others, and asked him, "What shall we do?" His answer was, "Do violence to no man." A man with less of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, might have said, "Leave the army at once," and thus have got them into trouble, and got himself branded as a mover of sedition. But John did not presume to take upon himself the responsibility of telling them how they should act, but gave them a simple Gospel precept, throwing the responsibility upon them. Soldiers who "do violence to no man," will soon find a place outside the ranks. The Christian soldier is the man who never fights with carnal weapons, and whose only sword is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."—E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, p. 256, April 19, 1894.

 

~ Todd Guthrie

*attributed to Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth