Depart, depart, go out from there!
Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure,
you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
12 But you will not leave in haste
or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you,
the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
This, it appears, is what Ezra did: he stood on the promise of God. He said:
There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
There are echoes of the Exodus story here, but perhaps the contrasts are greater than the similarities. The great similarity is that God will be with them: He will go before and behind them.
Tom Hale makes the point that many of the Jewish exiles had become comfortable in Babylon. Now they were being called to return to Judah, and to a life of uncertainty and hardship. They were hesitant and fearful. He says, ‘It is the same for us when the Lord calls us to step out into new and uncertain ventures – into missions or into new ministries – let us not hold back. Let us remember that the Lord will go before us; we need not fear. We need only to obey.’ Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1054.
Derek Kidner writes: ”…behind the literal departure from Babylon, Rev.18:4 sees a greater movement, the withdrawal of the church from the embrace and judgment of the world, ‘so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues’.” New Bible Commentary, p.662. (See also Paul’s exhortation in 2 Cor.6:14-18).