Exodus 23:20 – 23 “Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him. But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.
There are many amazing and encouraging promises in the Old Testament, and this is definitely one of them! Think about it: the Israelites are wandering around in a wilderness without any idea where they are going. God is continuing to lead them using a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But these people have just escaped slavery in Egypt; while they probably are very strong because of the hard work they have been doing, they are not trained and experienced warriors. At night, the normal noises of the wilderness probably frighten the Israelites, as they wonder if enemies are surrounding them to attack them.
Now God is promising to send a strong warrior angel to guide and protect the Israelites, but this protection comes with conditions:
1. The Israelites must pay attention to the angel and listen to his voice. Presumably, God is speaking through Moses, so the Israelites should pay close attention to every word that God gives Moses.
2. The Israelites are not to defy the angel, “for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.” God has no illusions about the Israelites. This is the same bunch of people who have already whined about lack of water and have demanded meat, even though God was already feeding them miraculously with manna. Defiance comes naturally to the Israelites; that’s why God is giving them a stern warning now! The Israelites are to listen closely to God’s instructions, keeping in mind that rebellion in this matter is an unforgivable sin.
3. If the Israelites will obey the angel and follow all of God’s commands, God promises that He will be “an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.” WOW! This means that as long as the Israelites will obey God, God will fight for them. But the Israelites MUST be obedient. God is not about to fight on behalf of the Israelites if they refuse to obey Him.
4. God promises to lead the Israelites back into the land He previously promised to Abraham in Genesis 15. “For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.” The use of the term “annihilate” here raises questions that Dennis Prager addresses:
First, “Annihilate does not mean kill every one of these tribes.” Later, God promises to drive out the tribes gradually.
Second, God is speaking about a one – time situation in which He will fight on behalf of the Israelites. There is no notion in the Torah of God promising to always do so. God makes no pledge to always fight against the Jews’ enemies.
Third, here it is God doing the fighting – just as in Egypt, where the Torah made clear the angel, not the Israelites, killed the Egyptian firstborn.
Fourth, it has already been established God does not protect the Jews if they cease living by His laws. In ancient religions, the gods’ protection was nation-based, not morality – based.” The Canaanites weren’t worried about offending Baal. All they had to do was to make the right sacrifices, and surely Baal would help them. The same thing went for the Philistines and Dagon; they could behave as immorally as they wished, if they only went through the correct rituals. Here God is making it crystal clear that if the Jews disobey, He will NOT fight on their behalf.
APPLICATION: Reading these promises is painful because we know what happened later. Israel did NOT obey the Lord, and the relationship of God to His chosen people was anything but smooth. But let’s look at ourselves.
Do we expect God to help us and to protect us while we are going our own ways? Do we offer our prayers with the idea that God will just rubber stamp them and fulfill them, even though we might have gross sin in our lives?
How many of us abuse food or the internet or social media? How many of us refuse to take care of our bodies and then demand that God should heal us when we are suffering the results of our poor behavior? Obesity has become one of the major underlying causes for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and even for COVID.
How many of us play violent video games or watch violent movies and TV programs? How many of us continue to take God’s Name in vain as we text “OMG” repeatedly? May God help us and show us that we are little different from the ancient Israelites!
PRAYER: Father God, help us to examine ourselves and to confess those things in our lives that are preventing you from helping us and protecting us. Help us to desire your holiness more than anything else. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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