The past several weeks, while working through the Book of the Covenant in Exodus, we've seen God set out his expectations for how his people will live toward him, and toward each other. Some of these expectations have been straightforward rules. God has specific do's and don'ts for how his people should live-- things like the ten commandments, in particular, are pretty straightforward.
Now, the straightforward nature of some of God's rules has led some people to think of everything we've read as "legalistic." You could get the impression that obeying God is like following a check list, or set of rules. But that's not what God is doing.
It's not just like there's simply a to-do list, and a not-to-do list. God's rules are designed to shape your spiritual and moral imaginations. They give you a perspective for how you should view possessions (Exodus 22:1-14), and people, and work, and land, and God, and other elohim (Exodus 22:20). They force you to rethink how you will treat the poor, and the rich, and your enemy. Really, you could say that the Book of the Covenant is designed to transform people's minds, so that they will be able to recognize right from wrong ("test and approve"), and live in a way that meets God's desire ("his will") for them (Romans 12:1-2).
And if God's people obey these laws, they will become a kingdom of priests, who truly love God and people from the heart. That's God's goal (Exodus 19:6). And when God's people fail in this-- and that's a "when," and not an "if," God's people make it right. If they steal, they repay. If they harm, they repay. God's people don't always get it right the first time, but when they fail, they fix it. In the end, they create "shalom" by restoring relationships, and making people whole.
In all of this, we've seen that what God is looking for is entirely logical, and reasonable. And his expectations are clear. God wants obedience, and undivided loyalty.
At this point, in Exodus 23:20, God transitions, mostly, to talking about his own role. Here, God describes his offer to his people. What does God promise his people, if they fully commit to him? We know what God wants FROM us. What will God do, FOR us?
Verse 20-22:
(20) LOOK! I am sending a messenger/angel before you
to guard/keep you on the road,
and to bring you to the place
that I have prepared.
(21) Guard yourself before him,
and heed his voice.
Don't rebel against him,
because he will not forgive your transgressions,
because my name [is] in him/his inner parts.
(22) but if you actually/surely heed his voice,
and you do all
that I have spoken,
(then) I will be an enemy to your enemies,
and I will oppress/cause trouble to your oppressors/troublers,
One of the things that God's people struggle with, at least today, in the West, is God's will for their life. They know that there are a million potential paths in their life. The world is open to them. Who should you marry? Where should you live? What job should you take? Who should you help, as you go through life? Who shouldn't you help?
Life is a series of choices. And you wonder, at least if you're a Western Christian, how much opinion God has on those choices. Does God care which path you take in life, or is He basically just concerned about how you love him and people, as you make your decisions?
I'm not sure that these verses answer those questions, but here, we see that God has a clear, straightforward path for his people Israel as a whole. There is a road that God wants them to take. There is a place-- the promised land-- where God wants them to end up. And God will make sure they stay on that path, and end up in the right place, by sending "a messenger," or "an angel," to guide them.
Now, this isn't the first time we've seen this shadowy angel of Yahweh in the book of Exodus. The angel plays a key role in Exodus 3, with the burning bush story. Let's flip back there, and refresh our memory:
(1) Now, Moses was a shepherd of the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law-- the priest of Midean--,
and he led the flock to the west of the wilderness,
and he came to the mountain of the Elohim/God, to Horeb,
(2) and the angel/messenger of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush,
So who is in the fire? "The angel of Yahweh."
and he (Moses) saw,
and LOOK! The bush [was] burning with fire,
and the bush wasn't being consumed,
(3) and Moses said,
"I must turn aside,
and I must see this great sight.
Why doesn't the bush burn up?",
(4) and Yahweh saw that he had turned aside to see,
and God/Elohim called to him from the midst of the bush,
So "Yahweh" sees that Moses has turned aside.
And who calls to Moses from the midst of the bush?
"God."
The angel of Yahweh is God. The story interchangeably talks about the angel, and about Yahweh.
and He said,
"Moses, Moses!,"
and he said, "Here I am.",
(5) and he said,
"Don't come closer here.
Remove your sandals from on your feet,
because the place that you are standing on it, holy ground it is ["holy ground" is focused],
and he said,
"I am the God of your father-- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,"
and Moses hid his face because he feared to look at the God/Elohim,
Who does the angel of Yahweh say he is? He is "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
The best explanation for this that I've read is that of Michael Heiser (The Unseen Realm). The OT teaches that there are two Yahwehs. There is the Yahweh in heaven, who is always unseen. And there is the visible Yahweh in human form, who sometimes reveals himself to people (Unseen Realm, 141). At the same time, there is still only one Yahweh. The angel IS Yahweh-- not a separate Yahweh. It's complicated, and confusing.
I say that, but passages like this are complicated, and confusing, on ground that's comfortable for Christians. We're used to talking about the Triune God. And when we read about the angel of Yahweh, we find ourselves reaching for Trinitarian kind of language. If the angel is in some sense Yahweh, and, at the same time, distinct from Yahweh, then who is the angel?
The angel must be Jesus. Yahweh's name is in Jesus' inner being. Jesus is distinct from Yahweh. But he is, at the same time, truly Yahweh.
And so the picture we get here, in the end, probably, is that God sends Jesus, his angel/messenger, to lead his people into the promised land.
Now, this might seem like guesswork. But if we cheat to the NT, we see that Jude proves we are on the right track. Let's turn to Jude 5 (there's a text-critical issue here, but I think most textual critics would say that Jude probably originally wrote "Jesus" here; I think this is the NRSV I'm using):
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, once and for all, that Jesus, who saved[f] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Who saved Israel from Egypt?
Jesus did.
Jude thinks that Jesus is the angel.
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Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 141:
In this chapter we’ll be introduced to another expression for Yahweh. Its use in several passages makes it clear that the biblical writers conceived of two Yahwehs—one invisible and always present in the spiritual realm (“the heavens”), the other brought forth to interact with humanity on earth, most typically as a man. That there must be two is indicated by their simultaneous presence in some familiar stories.
-----------------------------------------------------
So let's assume that Jude is right (and that the "Jesus" manuscripts are correct/original), and get back into Exodus 23. What does our passage tell us about God's angel/messenger, Jesus? [And this is in your outline]
(1) Verse 20: God's messenger is to be followed.
Verse 21: God's messenger is to be treated with respect.
God's messenger won't forgive transgression.
God's messenger works closely with God himself. God will fight with his messenger, for Israel.
God's messenger has the name of Yahweh, inside of him.
So Yahweh warns his people: Understand, when you are dealing with the messenger, that you aren't dealing with a simple envoy, or servant. [It's interesting how this compares with the Gospel of John, where the way Jesus is most commonly described, is as "The one whom God/the Father sent."] This angel is not the type of being you can ignore, or mistreat, or look down on. When you interact with the angel, you are interacting with Yahweh himself, and this messenger is like Yahweh-- He's not the type of person who forgives (Exodus 23:7).
So, obey the messenger, and he will guide you on the right path, and bring you into the land, and he and Yahweh will work together to be an enemy to your enemies, and an oppressor to your oppressors. Perhaps you could say it's a bit like WWE: Yahweh and his angel will tag team everyone who comes against you.
In verses 23-28, all of this gets unpacked, and expanded:
(23) When my messenger goes before you,
and he brings you to the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
I will annihilate them.
(24) You shall not bow down to their elohim/gods,
and you shall not serve them,
and you shall not do/act in accordance with their works,
but you shall surely/indeed demolish them,
and you shall surely/indeed smash their pillars/sacred memorial stones,
and you shall serve Yahweh your God/Elohim,
and He shall/will bless your bread and your water,
and I will remove/cause to turn aside sickness/disease from your midst/inward parts.
(26) There won't be a miscarriage or infertility in your land.
The number of your days I shall fill/fulfill.
(27) My terror I will/shall send you before you,
and I will throw into confusion all the people
who you come against (them),
and I will give the backs of the necks of your enemies to you. [or, van der Merwe glosses: "I will make all your enemies turn the backs of the necks to you." NOT SURE.],
(28) and I will send the hornet before you,
and it will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
What Yahweh is proposing here to his people-- and offering-- is a three way partnership. Yahweh, his angel, and his people will work together to clear the land of "the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites."
Now, modern Western Christians have spilled a lot of ink wrestling with this idea. What God is proposing here sounds suspiciously like genocide, and we are well aware that a number of people groups, especially over the past hundred years, have been systematically killed because of their ethnicity or religion. It's not just the Jews in the Holocaust. We've read about genocides in Sri Lanka, Darfur, Congo, China, and Yemen. We humans seems to deeply mistrust people who aren't like us-- people who serve other gods, or who look different, or speak a different language. So lots of Christians squirm, understandably, when they read this.
So let me just quickly say four things on this:
(1) There's some tension between God's language about "annihilating," in verse 23, and the "driving out" in verse 28. You should maybe highlight these two words in your Bibles, to help you see that tension, and remember it. There's a big difference between "driving people out" of their land, and "annihilating" all of them. When we were in our Joshua series, we saw how this idea play out over and over in Joshua. MOST people were driven away. The ones who stayed to fight, were committed to destroying God's people (because their leaders were from the competing Nephilim blood line). And they are the ones who got killed. [I unpack this in the Sons of God, and Joshua series.]
(2) God's judgment on these people groups is justified because of how they lived. They worshipped other elohim. They did detestable practices. And so part of why God gave the land to Israel, is as an act of judgment on the local inhabitants (Read Deuteronomy 9:1-6?).
(3) God's judgment on these groups is motivated in part by his desire to wipe out Nephilim (so also Deuteronomy 9:2). The first group God mentions, in particular-- the Amorites-- are closely connected to the descendants of the Nephilim. And one of God's main goals in the conquest is to wipe out these people-- people like Agag, and Goliath.
(4) The same judgment God brings against these people, God will later threaten to bring against his own people if they rebel. God's expectations are clear-- He demands obedience, and loyalty. And if we read the OT as a whole, we see that there is no partiality with God. When God brought Assyria and Babylon against his own people, He treated his own people in the same way that the Hivites and Jebusites were treated (Jude 5).
If you've found yourself always struggling with the conquest, and feeling bad for the Canaanites, I hope all of that helps. We don't need to be nervous about it. And we for sure don't need to say that the OT reflects a lower, less-evolved, ethical framework.
At this point, let's try to drag our way back to the text. When we read verses 20-28, our passage up to this point, as a whole, what do we see?
What God is doing here, is making an offer to his people. If God's people do their part-- (1) if they obey God's angel, (2) if they treat him with respect, (3) if they refuse to worship and serve other gods, (4) if they cut down the sacred poles dedicated to other gods, (5) and if they refuse to make a covenant with the locals-- then God will bless them with the most important blessings in this life.
He will bless their food, and their water. He will remove all sickness from their midst. No one will be sick with pneumonia, or covid, or the flu. No one will have cancer. God will make every female in the land perfectly fertile. Women, and animals (h/t William Propp), will successfully get pregnant, successfully stay pregnant, and successfully give birth. God will give everyone long, full lives. And God will make sure that every battle they fight, is completely unfair in their benefit (Romans 16:20). God will turn their enemies, so that the back of their neck is exposed. He will send the hornet against their enemies, so that the majority simply leave.
When we view these promises as a whole, we see that God is offering to make his people conquerors. Winners. All the things that can be crushing defeats in life-- drought, and famine, and infertility, and sickness, and enemies-- all those things will be conquered. God's people will live victoriously.
Now, some of us read this, and we know that our own lives fall short of this. I've been sick for nearly a month straight, along with my family. Some of you have miscarried multiple times. Some of you are unable to have kids, apart from a true miracle from God. And if it's not you, it's family members. We've seen close friends and family struggle for decades to get pregnant. We've seen friends and family die very badly from cancer.
If your life doesn't match up to God's offer here, your natural reaction might be to draw away from it, or reject it. Maybe you'll find yourself thinking that God's people had it better in the OT than in the NT. Maybe the OT covenant is a better covenant, enacted on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).
I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers. But I know there are Christians who claim that they've gone 30 or 40 years without getting sick-- that God has protected them from everything. Everyone around them may have gotten sick, but not them (Psalm 91:6-7). I've heard stories of Christians who bravely laid hands on people dying during pandemics (Mark 16:18; for a scholarly defense on the legitimacy of the long ending, see Nicholas Lunn, The Original Ending of Mark: A New Case for the Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20), who God used to heal thousands of people. And those brave Christians say they never got sick doing that, and they never brought that sickness home to their families (John G. Lake-- although he spent a couple years much later in life constantly battling sickness). I believe them. And I'm willing to believe that there is a place of obedience, and trust, and claiming promises (again, Psalm 91:6-7), where Christians can be free from these things. I'm not there, obviously. I'm a mess. And this perhaps sounds comical, coming from me. But I'm not willing to say that it's not possible, or not real, just because I've fallen short. I can't use my experience to determine biblical truth.
We maybe struggle to accept God's words here, but just see, how much God promises his people if they truly commit to God, and obey Him. God's offer, includes food, and water, and fertility, and health, and victory. Everything you really need in this life, God will give his people, if they are loyal, and obey. That's God's offer.
Verse 29-33:
(29) I won't drive them out from before you in one year,
lest the land become desolation/wasteland,
and the wild animals multiply against you.
(30) Little by little I will drive them out from before you,
until you are fruitful,
and you take possession of the land,
(31) and I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds and up to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness up to The River.
When I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, you shall drive them out from before you.
(32) You shall not cut toward them and toward their gods/elohim a covenant.
(33) They shall not live in your land,
lest they cause you to sin against me.
when you serve their gods/elohim,
because they would be to you like a snare (Exodus 10:7).
Let me just point out four interconnected things in these verses, bullet pointed:
(1) The first thing I want you to see in these verses, is God's language again about "driving people out" of the land. What God pictures, isn't a total annihilation. Verse 29, "I won't drive them out in a year." Verse 30, "Little by little I will drive them out."
(2) The second thing I want you to see, is that God sets up the conquest to be a process. God will make sure that there is slow, but steady, progress.
Maybe, we can think about it like this: what God is giving Israel, at first, is like the family farm. And then, over time, as Israelites are fruitful (Genesis 1:29), and multiply, and develop that land, God will start to give them their neighbor's farms as well. And it'll go from there, one neighbor's farm after another, until the family farm reaches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates. God knows there's no point in giving the land any faster than this. You can only farm so much land at once. You can only care for so many fig trees, and grave vines. And so your neighbor might as well care for your future land, until you're ready for it.
(3) The third thing (related) I want you see, is the dimensions of the land God promises. Basically, what God offers here, from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, is far more than Israel ever received. This doesn't mean that God wasn't faithful, or that He didn't keep his promises. What this means, is that at some point, Israel stopped being faithful and obeying. And so God stopped giving their neighbor's farms to them.
(4) The fourth (related) thing, has to do with God's commands on how his people should live with their pagan neighbors. God will make the conquest a process. Israelites will find themselves bordering Canaanites-- people who worship different elohim, who practice detestable things. But some of those practices, even if God calls them detestable, Israelites will find appealing. There is something about those elohim they worship, that God's people will find attractive. And so God warns them, make sure you don't make covenants with those people. Don't set up permanent relationships, in business, or marriage, or anything else. The day will come, when their land, becomes your land. They won't live there forever-- unless you cut a covenant with them. [Talk about not marrying non-Christians here?]
So when we look at the passage as a whole, we see it basically comes down to this: God offers a broad-based prosperity to his people. He offers to bless their bread, and water, and bodies. He offers them health. He offers them a huge piece of land. He offers them victory in battle.
The two main, related things God insists on, in return, are these: (1) Loyalty, and (2) Obedience (Exodus 19:5). Everything hinges on God's people sticking to Yahweh, and not turning to other gods.
We've seen in the Book of the Covenant, that God's people won't always do the right thing the first time. Sometimes, they'll defraud one another. Sometimes, they'll steal. And part of God's expectations, is that God's people will get it right the second time. When you fail to resist temptation, and you take advantage of people, and use them, you make restitution. When you accidentally harm them, again, you make restitution. You seek forgiveness. You make people whole, after you wronged them. Relationships don't stay broken. Relationships get fixed.
But when it comes to which God/elohim you serve and worship, God is far less forgiving (Exodus 23:7, 21). God won't tolerate that kind of divided loyalty. When you covenant with God, it's an exclusive type of relationship, where you can't "see other gods." And when it comes to the "angel of Yahweh," Yahweh expects you to be really careful. You have to "guard yourself," and make sure you do exactly what the angel tells you to do. He says, "Go," you go. He says, "Stop," you stop. He says, "Attack here," then you make that the point of attack.
In Exodus, all of God's promises hinge on God's people being faithful to Yahweh, and to his angel.
We all see that? God's offer to bless, is connected to his people's faithfulness.
And the other thing we need to see, is that God's plan for his people will only work, if they are faithful. God wants his people to be a kingdom of priests, serving him, doing his will. But, again, God's people can only fulfill their calling, if they are whole-hearted in their commitment to God, and to his angel, Jesus.
If we view this passage as whole, thinking about God's plan, and his offer, and his demand, we see that the Christian life broadly works along the same lines. God has a mission for his kingdom-- for us. We, under King Jesus, are a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6), invading the earth, doing battle with God's enemies. Not with people-- but with demons, and Sin, and death. And not with a sword, but through our witness (we are the two witnesses; Revelation 11:1-6).
God's mission for us can be summed up in lots of different ways. We continue Jesus' ministry of destroying the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). God uses us to crush satan under OUR feet (Romans 16:20). In Christ, through the Spirit, we free people from Sin and death. We invite people into God's kingdom, offering them a seat at King Jesus' table.
However we try to sum up God's mission, we understand that it's a high calling. It's a big mission. If we only use ordinary, human methods, it will prove impossible. And God, knowing that, makes us an offer.
If we fully commit to Jesus, and his kingdom, above all else, God will make sure to take care of our needs. We will find that we can focus on the kingdom, and not worry about food, and water, and clothing. We will have enough (Matthew 6:33).
And if we fully commit to Jesus, and his kingdom, above all else, God offers the same type of partnership with us. Let's turn to 1 John 3:21-24 (NIV no reason):
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives [=abides] in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives [=abides] in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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I think there is a huge difference between saying God "lives" in us, and "abides" in us. Maybe use the NRSV instead, to make this easier.
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If we keep God's commands, we will abide in God, and God will abide in us. God's Spirit will fill us. We can go through life, in constant awareness that God's Spirit is our companion, who partners with us (2 Corinthians 13:14). We will find ourselves living in a place of total confidence before God, where we know that God will say "yes." At that point, it's not a question of whether or not God will listen, and hear our prayer. It's just a question, of how big you'll ask (Ephesians 3:20).
And how will we know, if this is true for us? How do we know, if we abide in God, and God abides in us, like this? How do we know if we have this type of relationship-- this type of partnership?
Look at verse 24. This isn't something we "know" as a theological truth, through simply trusting the Bible. Each of you will know whether or not this is your reality through the Spirit. The Spirit will make himself known to you, and testify to you that this is your reality. This is something known by experience.
So consider that God's offer. I assume that all of you are already Christians. You already have a relationship with God, and with his Spirit (although for some, it's perhaps more of a relationship with the Bible, than with God).
But there is a way to live, as Christians, where you can do far more for God. Or maybe, better, where God can do far more through you. There is a place of divine favor, and of real partnership. That place can only be reached at a cost-- whole-hearted loyalty, and faithfulness, and obedience. But that is the place of success, and victory, and power. That's the place, that gets stuff done. That's the place, where we successfully tag-team the world, joining forces with the Father, and with Jesus.
So just think about how much you want to accomplish. Think about how important God, his kingdom, and his righteousness is. Think about whether or not his plan is everything to you. Think about how badly you want God to bless you. And then make your decision.
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My original application of this passage centered around Jude's application of Exodus 23. What happens if people turn to gross immorality, and idolatry, and aren't careful to "guard themselves" around God's angel Jesus? Jude 5 says that Jesus destroys them, and it kind of goes from there (NRSV Updated)
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, once and for all, that Jesus, who saved[f] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
But the Exodus passage isn't nearly so dark; the warning against unfaithfulness is left undeveloped. It's more of an invitation, than a warning, and I tried to mirror that. I'm guessing in Exodus 32, some of that will come out.
[And this is a good passage for showing that "believing" often means something like "giving allegiance/loyalty/faithfulness." It's not that Israel suddenly developed bad theology. They stopped being faithful, so Jesus killed them.]
-------------------------------------------
Translation:
(20) LOOK! I am sending a messenger/angel before you
to guard/keep you on the road,
and to bring you to the place
that I have prepared.
(21) Guard yourself before him,
and heed his voice.
Don't rebel against him,
because he will not forgive your transgressions,
because my name [is] in him/his inner parts.
(22) but if you actually/surely heed his voice,
and you do all
that I have spoken,
(then) I will be an enemy to your enemies,
and I will oppress/cause trouble to your oppressors/troublers,
(23) When my messenger goes before you,
and he brings you to the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
I will annihilate them.
(24) You shall not bow down to their elohim/gods,
and you shall not serve them,
and you shall not do/act in accordance with their works,
but you shall surely/indeed demolish them,
and you shall surely/indeed smash their pillars/sacred memorial stones,
and you shall serve Yahweh your God/Elohim,
and He shall/will bless your bread and your water,
and I will remove/cause to turn aside sickness/disease from your midst/inward parts.
(26) There won't be a miscarriage or infertility in your land.
The number of your days I shall fill/fulfill.
(27) My terror I will/shall send you before you,
and I will throw into confusion all the people
who you come against (them),
and I will give the backs of the necks of your enemies to you. [or, van der Merwe glosses: "I will make all your enemies turn the backs of the necks to you." NOT SURE.],
(28) and I will send the hornet before you,
and it will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
(29) I won't drive them out from before you in one year,
lest the land become desolation/wasteland,
and the wild animals multiply against you.
(30) Little by little I will drive them out from before you,
until you are fruitful,
and you take possession of the land,
(31) and I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds and up to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness up to The River.
When I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, you shall drive them out from before you.
(32) You shall not cut toward them and toward their gods/elohim a covenant.
(33) They shall not live in your land,
lest they cause you to sin against me.
when you serve their gods/elohim,
because they would be to you like a snare (Exodus 10:7).
