O Israel, who is like unto thee?

Who can compare with Israel in the grandness of her salvation, the richness of her blessing, and the depth of her happiness? Who can compare with Israel in the greatness of her strength and in the certainty of her victory? Who can contend with Israel and overcome her? In all things she is more than conqueror! All strength, blessing, glory, and victory are hers. So who can sing and rejoice as Israel? There is none like her among all the peoples and kingdoms of the earth.

Such is the glory of Israel because she glories in her God. Her God is Jehovah, the eternal, incomparable, unchanging God of the covenant of grace. Jehovah is the incomparable God of grace and mercy by which he lifts Israel to incomparable glory.

Glorying in man is worthless. Glorying in man’s wisdom, understanding, and achievements is futile. Glorying in the arm of flesh and the sword of steel is vain. Whoever takes the sword shall perish with the sword. Jehovah breaks the arm of man, and the sword that is in his hand falls to the ground. Jehovah breaks the bow and arrow, cuts the spear in sunder, and burns the chariot. Which of the mighty kings and nations was able to stand before him? Man’s strength is weakness in God’s sight. Man’s wisdom is foolishness to God. Man has his solutions to the problems of man and of his world. Man has his carnal goals and his plans to achieve them. But this wisdom is from beneath. It is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and the bitter end of it is envy, strife, confusion, and every evil work. The very thinking of the flesh is enmity against God. There is no blessedness, no safety, and no salvation in the strength of the flesh or in the works of the flesh.

Israel glories in Jehovah her God. In him is all her blessedness, strength, and glory.

Who is a people like thee, O Israel?

A people saved by Jehovah.

What is Israel by nature? She is not the greatest, mightiest, or most desirable of all people. She is the least of all people. Historically, Israel was a slave people held in oppressive bondage to Pharaoh. Israel was subjected to hard bondage, a target of the biting whips of the Egyptians, oppressed by the cruel decree of Pharaoh that would cut her off from the earth. Israel lay bound in iron and in woe in the fiery furnace of slavery.

O Israel, who was so enslaved, oppressed, and miserable as you?

But Jehovah set his sovereign love on Israel eternally. She was always with him in his decree. He loved her not because she was mighty and numerous. There was nothing in Israel that was desirable or that commended her to Jehovah. In his fervent love and sovereign grace, he appointed her to salvation, and that in distinction from the people of his hatred, the people that he did not choose. Even among the nation of Israel, they are not all Israel that are of Israel. Elect Israel, loved of Jehovah.

Out of his love and according to his eternal purpose, Jehovah spoke to Israel an unconditional promise of salvation. He breathed forth a mighty word to save her from all her enemies and to make her unspeakably blessed in him, to take her from the misery of bondage and to cause her to know him as her gracious covenant God. It was a promise to be a God unto Israel and her children in her generations in an everlasting covenant of fellowship and friendship.

In his ardent desire to deliver her from misery and woe appalling, Jehovah stretched out his mighty arm to take her from the fiery furnace of bondage. He plagued Egypt and brought down that proud and mighty nation. In the midst of the plaguing of Egypt, he put a division between the Egyptians and his people so that no harm came to them. While there was darkness among all the Egyptians, Jehovah was a light unto his people. Because of the blood of the lamb upon their doors, he passed over their houses when the angel passed through Egypt to kill all the firstborn of man and beast among the Egyptians. He led them forth by the hand of his servant Moses. When Pharaoh came to avenge himself on the Israelites, Jehovah divided the sea before them and became a pillar of fire to them and a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians. He led Israel through the Red Sea. When Pharaoh dared to enter the sea in his hatred and pride against God, Jehovah overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the midst of the sea. Jehovah guided Israel to the inheritance that he had promised to give her.

O Israel, who is a people like unto thee, a people loved by Jehovah, elected by Jehovah, and saved by Jehovah?

And all that is a picture of Jehovah the savior of elect Israel chosen and gathered from all nations. Israel is his elect church from all nations. By nature she lay guilty in her sin, worthy of death and damnation in her sin. By nature she lay in the bondage of sin and guilt, a slave of the devil, a bondage that held her so tightly that no earthly power could deliver her. Her deliverance is impossible with the arm of flesh. Israel of old lay hopelessly enslaved; so Israel always lies hopelessly enslaved by nature. No hope in the arm of flesh!

Who is like thee, O Israel, a people saved by Jehovah?

He is the absolutely sovereign God. His counsel stands and he does all his pleasure. He is the God of unfailing love and ever fervent mercy. Jehovah is the ever faithful God of an unconditional promise. Not one word of his ever falls to the ground. He saved his beloved Israel, the apple of his eye, with the precious blood of his only begotten Son, and set us free by the work of his mighty hand and outstretched arm from the deepest bondage of sin and death; out of the fear of death into the liberty of the children of God; out of the darkness of sin and death into his marvelous light; out of the ignorance of him into the knowledge of him and his Son Jesus Christ; from friendship with the world and enmity against God into friendship with God and enmity with the world. From the depths of hell he has lifted Israel to the heights of heaven and wonders of his eternal kingdom.

It was not of you. It was not because you were greater, or more desirable, or you distinguished yourself. Therefore, there is no glory to you. Jehovah will not have anyone boast in his presence.

It was all of him. It was all of his sovereign and particular grace. It was only because of his sovereign and particular grace. It was all his work. Eternal, free, powerful grace moved him to save Israel.

Therefore, all glory is to him as a people saved by Jehovah. Therefore, all blessedness is to you, O Israel, a people saved by Jehovah.

Who is like thee, O Israel? A people saved by his grace. Therefore, Jehovah alone is Israel’s glory.

And Jehovah is Israel’s shield and sword. He himself strengthens her for the fight and is her strength in the fight. His spear confronts the enemy. He himself fights for her and through her. He himself is a refuge in the thick of the hottest fight for all who put their trust in him. Jehovah is Israel’s shield and sword. Jehovah alone is Israel’s shield and sword. Jehovah is always Israel’s shield and sword. 

The sword of Israel’s excellency. Israel has a sword and shield in her excellency.

So it is in the world. Kings and princes need an armed bodyguard. Paupers and beggars do not need a sword. They have no standing and no place to go but up. Those who have ascended to the heights of glory need a sharp sword and stout protection against those who would cut them down from their excellency.

So it is for Israel. She is the people of Jehovah. She is the beloved of Jehovah. She has been saved by him. She walks in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. She sits now in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, her life is hid with Christ in heaven, and her walk is already in heaven before the face of God. His love is in their hearts, his light in their minds, his commandments their will and delight, and his name on their lips. As the children of light, they are all prophets who speak his word and sing and boast of his perfections, priests who offer themselves living sacrifices of thanksgiving to him, and kings who fight the good fight of faith and go forward in his victory by the power of his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ—the prophet, priest, and king.

Israel is saved by and glories in Jehovah. There is no higher and more glorious position for a people. In such a position she stands above all peoples in the world. Israel stands excellent in the earth as the people of the Lord.

Who is a people like unto thee, O Israel?

So Israel has need of a sword and shield. Israel stands in such excellence as the people of the Lord in the middle of a world of enemies. Many enemies. On all sides. At all times. She is from God and of God and stands for the cause of God in the world, so the world hates her. She stands brightly in the light as the representative of the living God in the midst of the world of sin, death, and darkness. She bears a testimony of the glory of God in the midst of a world that hates that testimony. She speaks only of God and the glory of God in all things in the midst of a world that speaks only of man and the glory of man in all things. She is of God in a world full of enmity against God.

Therefore, the world would cut her down and rob her of her glorious position as the people of the Lord, the people who are saved and glorified by his grace. The world tempts and persecutes, allures and savages, and beckons and threatens the church of God with the goal to destroy her.

The world is powerful in her warfare against the church. The church in herself is weak in that warfare. In that warfare she stands as helpless as the people of Israel stood on the shores of the Red Sea against the enraged army of Pharaoh bearing down on her. The church stands against the devil, the whole host of hell, sin, and death. All the while she exists as the people of God in the flesh, which is a willing ally of the devils and the world of sin and darkness.

Jehovah, who saved Israel, is also the shield of Israel’s help and the sword of Israel’s excellency. The very God of heaven and earth, who so holds devils and ungodly men in his power that they cannot so much as move without his will, is her sword and shield. Jehovah, who sits in the heavens and does all his pleasure, is her sword and shield. He speaks and it is. He commands and it stands fast. Before him all must bow. He is faithful. He is unchanging in himself and in his promise. He never gives up the fight. The battle is always the Lord’s.

O Israel, who has such a sword and such a shield as you? Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah mighty in battle.

Because he is Israel’s shield and sword, because he fights for Israel, and because he fights his own warfare through Israel, there is no one equal to Israel in the fight. The fiery darts of the enemy may fly thickly. The enemy may rage and seek to devour the people of God. The gates of hell may open up against the church of God. But the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Can sword, or nakedness, or peril, or famine, or pestilence, or things present, or things to come—can anything—overcome the people of God? In all we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. She is mighty in battle and impervious to damage because Jehovah is her shield and sword.

Who is like thee, O Israel?

With Jehovah the shield of your help, Israel is safe in the midst of the hottest part of the battle.

With Jehovah the sword of your excellency, Israel is invincible against the strongest foes. 

Who is like Israel in her blessedness? Blessed eternally. Blessed now. Blessed always. Blessed in all things. Israel alone is blessed. 

Who is like Israel in the glory of her salvation? Lifted up to the heights of heaven.

Who is like Israel in the certainty of her victory and in the completeness of her triumph? Your enemies will be found liars unto thee; and you shall tread upon their high places because Jehovah is your God, your mighty sword and your impenetrable shield.

It does not appear so.

For God’s sake we are killed all the day long. We are led as sheep to the slaughter and regarded as the offscouring of the earth. Those who kill us suppose that they do God a great service. So the enemy lies against the church in her fight. Frequently, the enemy impugns the motives of the church of God. The world accuses the church in her fight of being moved by the same earthly reasons and devilish wisdom with which the world is moved and for which she fights. Lying, the enemy pretends to do the Lord’s work in your removal. The enemies arm themselves with a well-worn playbook of slanders and lies against you to harass and intimidate you. When the church partakes of the persecutions of the prophets, the world shouts that she has the victory. Which of the prophets did they not kill? The prophets had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn asunder, were tempted, slain with the sword. They wandered about as fugitives and vagabonds in the world and lived in the caves and dens of the earth. And when you are so chased and harried and lose your name, position, and standing in the world, the world screams that she has the victory. But in all that, the world lies. 

The battle is never over when the world triumphs. They appeared to triumph at the cross. They bruised Jesus’ heel, but he crushed their head. He arose from the dead. The battle is not yours, but God’s. Though the world builds lofty strongholds against the church, Israel will triumph over every one.

Who is like thee, O Israel? The Almighty God is your sword and shield. No one can be harmed among you. Your victory is absolutely certain and unspeakably glorious.

Glory in Jehovah. Never glory in the flesh or make the arm of flesh your stay. That would be certain defeat. Only in the Lord do we do valiantly. He it is that treads down our enemies. 

O Israel, who is like thee?

With Jehovah your sword and shield!