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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 23:20 - 23:33
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Concerning the Continuation of the Journey
v. 20. Behold, I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. This special guiding and protecting Angel was the Son of God Himself, for in Him Jehovah was revealed; in Him, as the Angel of the face of God, the innermost essence of God was manifested. Under His almighty guidance their journey would prosper.
v. 21. Beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not, do not embitter Him; for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. The salvation of the children of Israel would depend upon their obedience, implicit, cheerful obedience.
v. 22. But if thou shalt indeed obey His voice, and do all that I speak, as the Lord's word and His word would be identical, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries; all those that bore or showed ill will to the children of Israel the Lord would requite in kind.
v. 23. For Mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off, destroy, annihilate, extirpate them.
v. 24. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works, in no manner become guilty of false worship, of idolatry; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, the destruction of the heathen tribes of Canaan being expressly commanded here, and quite break down their images, break in pieces, smash the carved pillars used for idolatrous purposes.
v. 25. And ye shall serve the Lord, your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. Bread and water are symbols of welfare, and well-being and health were to be the reward of faithfulness.
v. 26. There shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land; the population of men as well as of domestic animals was not to be diminished by epidemics of miscarriages and by barrenness. The number of thy days I will fulfill; for a long life, under the blessing of God, is a reward of His goodness and mercy.
v. 27. I will send My fear before thee, causing all the heathen to be filled with apprehension and dread, and I will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs upon thee, in flight, without having so much as begun a battle.
v. 28. And I will send hornets before thee, a figurative expression to denote the utmost terror, caused probably by some severe epidemic which the Lord sent to frighten the Canaanites, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.
v. 29. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, as the Lord could very easily have done, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee, their numbers as yet not being great enough to occupy the entire country. Cf Deu_7:22; Lev_26:22; Jos_13:1-7.
v. 30. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land; while the heathen nations as such would be destroyed, individuals would still be found throughout the country until such a time as the growing number of the Israelites would crowd them out.
v. 31. And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea, on the south, even unto the sea of the Philistines, the Mediterranean, on the west, and from the desert of Arabia, on the southeast, unto the river, the Euphrates, on the north, these being the ideal boundaries of the Promised Land; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
v. 32. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, be inveigled into forming an alliance with them, nor with their gods, the idols which they had made for themselves.
v. 33. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against Me; if they would remain in the land, their presence and their idolatrous customs would be a continual temptation to Israel, as the Lord well knew; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee. Even so, the intercourse of Christians with the children of this world all too often proves a snare to them, and they are lured into the idolatrous customs of the unbelievers. It is to our greatest advantage not to provoke the Lord at any time, lest He take His gracious presence from us. It is only by staying with Him that we are safe forever.