Exodus 23:21

These verses close the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:33), the laws God gave through Moses straight after the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20. The chapter has just dealt with justice, the sabbath and the three yearly feasts (Exodus 23:1–19), and now God moves from statutes to promises and warnings. The covenant is confirmed in the very next chapter (Exodus 24), so these are the terms on which Israel will set out.

Israel is camped at the mountain (Exodus 19), a people newly freed from slavery who have watched God bring them through the sea (Exodus 14). Ahead of them lie a wilderness and then Canaan, a land held by established peoples in fortified cities (Numbers 13:29). Israel has little experience of war, and Amalek has already attacked them on the road (Exodus 17:8–16). To a people in that position God speaks about what he himself will do.

God opens with “Behold”, hinneh, a word that calls for attention, and what follows is his own act: “I send an Angel before thee.” The word for angel, malʼâk, means a messenger. It comes from a root meaning to despatch as a deputy, and Scripture uses it for angels and also for prophets, priests and teachers whom God sends.

This messenger has two tasks. The first is “to keep thee in the way”. The verb shâmar means to hedge about, as with thorns, and so to guard, protect and attend to. The Angel guards Israel on the road against enemies and the dangers of the desert, and he keeps them on the right road. The second task is to bring them “into the place which I have prepared”. The verb kûwn means to set up, establish, fix and make ready. Canaan was the land God promised to Abraham when he called him (Genesis 12:1–3, 12:7), the land flowing with milk and honey that he named to Moses at the bush (Exodus 3:8). Israel’s destination was settled before they took a step toward it.

Verse 23 says it again: “mine Angel shall go before thee.” The verb yâlak is the plain word for walking. The Angel walks ahead of Israel, as God had already gone ahead of them in the pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21–22). God gives the law and then goes with the people who have received it. He is the same God who promises to instruct and guide his people (Psalm 32:8) and to be with them in trouble (Isaiah 43:2).

Verse 22 turns the warning into a promise that begins with “if”. The Hebrew doubles the verb for obeying, a form called the infinitive absolute, which the KJV gives as “indeed obey”. Israel is to hear the Angel’s voice and “do all that I speak”, so the Angel’s voice and God’s speaking are one, and the obedience asked for is whole.

Then God binds himself: “I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” The word for enemy, ʼôyêb, is a participle of the verb “to be hostile” and is the usual word for a foe. The word behind adversary, tsârar, means to cramp or press into a tight place. The two lines say one thing twice, as Hebrew often does for weight. Whoever hates Israel will find God against him, and whoever hems Israel in will be hemmed in by God.

Israel had seen at the sea how God fights, when Moses told them that the LORD would fight for them (Exodus 14:14). Moses says it again before the conquest (Deuteronomy 3:22, Deuteronomy 20:4), the book of Joshua records that the LORD fought for Israel (Joshua 10:42), and the Psalms praise him as deliverer and shield (Psalm 18:1–3). The promise is tied to obedience, and that pattern runs through the whole covenant made at Sinai (Exodus 19–24). Moses later sets out its blessings and curses at length (Deuteronomy 28), and God tells Joshua that success in the land goes with keeping the law (Joshua 1:7–9).

Verse 24 names three things Israel must refuse. To bow down, shâchâh, is to prostrate oneself in homage. To serve, ʻâbad, means to work, to labour and to worship, so it covers what a person does for a god as well as what he feels toward it. “Nor do after their works” forbids taking up the customs that went with those gods. The peoples of Canaan worshipped Baal, Asherah, Molech and many local gods, and their worship included cultic prostitution, the sacrifice of children and divination of many kinds. Deuteronomy lists such practices and forbids them to Israel (Deuteronomy 18:9–12).

Refusing is half of the command. Israel is also to “utterly overthrow them”, where hâraç means to tear down or throw down and “them” are the altars and holy places of these gods. And Israel is to “quite break down their images”. The verb there is shâbar, to break or shatter, and the images are matstsêbâh, standing pillars or sacred stones set up for worship. Deuteronomy repeats the order to destroy the idols of the land (Deuteronomy 7:25–26).

This is the first commandment applied to a land full of altars. God had told Israel to have “no other gods before me” and had called himself a jealous God (Exodus 20:3–6). His jealousy is the love of one who guards what is his and wants his people’s whole devotion, for their good. Israel was a holy people chosen for himself (Deuteronomy 7:6), and they were entering a land that God himself cares for (Deuteronomy 11:11–12). Isaiah later shows at length how foolish it is to worship an idol (Isaiah 44:9–20).

Idols of wood and stone are rare where many of us live, and the New Testament names the ones that remain. Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5–6), people worship and serve the creature in place of the Creator (Romans 1:25), and Jesus warns against trying to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). So Paul says simply, flee from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14), and he calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Whatever takes God’s place in the heart is to be thrown down as thoroughly as Israel was to throw down the pillars of Canaan.

Verse 25 uses the same verb, ʻâbad, that verse 24 used for serving the gods of Canaan. Israel will serve someone, and the LORD claims that service for himself. With the claim comes his care for ordinary life. He will bless their lechem, bread or food, and their mayim, water, the two things that together stand for all that keeps a people alive. Israel had already eaten his manna (Exodus 16) and drunk his water from the rock (Exodus 17).

He will also “take sickness away from the midst of thee”. Sickness is machăleh, disease or infirmity. The verb çûyr means to turn aside or remove, and qereb is the midst or inward part, so disease is removed from inside the community. For a people on the move, with food and water uncertain and disease able to sweep through a camp, these were promises about survival. The nations around them took health and plenty as signs of a god’s favour, and the LORD shows himself the true giver of both.

Verse 26 carries the blessing into the home and the fold. “Cast their young” translates shâkôl, to miscarry or to be bereaved of children, and “barren” is ʻâqâr, sterile, the word for a man or woman who cannot have a child. The promise covers Israel’s families and, since it speaks of everything in the land, their flocks and herds as well. “The number of thy days I will fulfil” uses mâlêʼ, to fill. God will fill up each life to its full measure, so that it ends in old age and peace.

Where the covenant’s blessings are set out at length, these same gifts of fertility, health and plenty appear (Deuteronomy 7:13–15, Deuteronomy 28:1–14), and the loss of them stands among the curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:18). The Psalms and Proverbs speak of long life as God’s gift to those who love him and keep his commands (Psalm 91:16, Proverbs 3:1–2), and a psalm blesses the LORD who forgives all iniquities and heals all diseases (Psalm 103:2–3). Jesus gives the same order of things when he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and trust the Father for the rest (Matthew 6:33).

From verse 27 God describes how the land will be won, and he puts himself at the front of it with one “I will” after another. “I will send my fear before thee.” The word ʼêymâh means dread or terror. God sends it ahead of Israel like an advance guard, so that the nations lose heart before a battle is joined. He promised the same thing in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:25), and it happened. Rahab told the spies that the terror of Israel had fallen on the land and that the hearts of its people had melted (Joshua 2:9–11).

“And will destroy all the people” uses hâmam, which means to put in commotion, to rout or discomfit, so the nations will be thrown into confusion. Then God will make the enemies “turn their backs”, in Hebrew nâthan ʻôreph, to give the neck. Nâthan is the common verb for giving and ʻôreph is the back of the neck, and an army that shows its neck is running away. Israel’s victories would be the LORD’s doing, and a psalm says of this conquest that God’s own right hand and arm won the land for them (Psalm 44:3).

Verse 23 names the peoples: Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, six in all, five of them among the peoples God listed when he promised the land to Abraham (Genesis 15:18–21). Of them God says, “I will cut them off.” The verb kâchad means to hide, and in its strong form to destroy. Moses and Joshua both repeat that God will drive these nations out before Israel (Deuteronomy 7:1–4, Joshua 3:10).

Verses 29 and 30 add something a reader might not expect. The God who can send terror and hornets says he will take his time: “I will not drive them out from before thee in one year.” He gives the reason himself. A land emptied all at once would “become desolate”, shᵉmâmâh, a waste. Fields would grow over and towns decay before Israel had people enough to work and fill them. And “the beast of the field” would “multiply against thee”, where rab is the adjective for many or great, so that the wild animals would become many. Lions lived in that country, as Samson and David each found, along with bears and wolves, and a thin population with flocks and crops would have been in danger from them.

So God will drive the nations out “by little and little”, in Hebrew mᵉʻaṭ mᵉʻaṭ, “a little, a little”, the word said twice. The verb is still gârash and the one who acts is still God, so the slowness is his choice and a mark of his care. The pace is set by Israel’s growth: “until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” The verb pârâh means to bear fruit and be fruitful. As Israel becomes fruitful the land opens to them, and so the blessing of children in verse 26 serves the promise of the land in verse 30. Moses repeats both the plan and its reason (Deuteronomy 7:22).

People ask whether this makes God’s promise depend on Israel’s growth. The gift of the land rests on God’s covenant with Abraham, and what is fitted to Israel’s growth is the pace at which they receive it. Their increase lets them occupy and tend what God is giving, and it earns them nothing. A psalm gives the fitting response to a God who works this way: rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him (Psalm 37:7).

God often works the same way now. Jesus pictures his kingdom as a mustard seed and as leaven that spread through the whole over time (Matthew 13:31–33). A person in Christ is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), and yet the fruit of the Spirit grows in that person season by season (Galatians 5:22–23). God, who began the good work, will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6).

In verse 31 God draws the map. “I will set thy bounds” uses shîyth, to put or place, and four markers are named. The “Red sea” is yam suph in Hebrew, yam being sea and suph a reed, and here it most likely means the Gulf of Aqaba, the northern arm of the Red Sea, at the south-east. The “sea of the Philistines” is the Mediterranean on the west. “The desert”, midbâr, is the wilderness south of Canaan, such as Zin or Paran. “The river”, nâhâr, is the Euphrates, far to the north and east.

Naming the outer edges takes in all that lies between them, and it is the grant God made to Abraham: “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). Moses and Joshua both hear these borders again (Deuteronomy 11:24, Joshua 1:3–5).

The verse ends with both sides of the conquest. “I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand” uses nâthan, to give, the verb of verse 27. The inhabitants are those who yâshab, sit or dwell, in the land, and God gives them into Israel’s yâd, hand, which means into Israel’s power. Then, for the first time in the passage, Israel is the one who drives out: “thou shalt drive them out before thee.” The verb is gârash once more, and “before thee” is literally before your face, pânîym. God gives, and Israel acts on what he gives.

The passage ends where its danger lies. “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.” To make a covenant is literally to cut one. The verb kârath means to cut, and it became the term for covenant-making from the old rite of cutting an animal and passing between the pieces. A bᵉrîyth is a covenant, alliance, treaty or league. Among the nations a treaty was sworn by the gods of both parties and sealed with shared rites, so a treaty with the people was a treaty with their gods, and the verse names both. The word for gods is ʼĕlôhîym, plural in form, the word also used for the true God, and here it means the gods of the nations. Israel already stood in a covenant with the LORD, who had called them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5–6). A second covenant would be a rival to the first.

Verse 33 gives the reason in plain words. “They shall not dwell in thy land” uses yâshab, to sit down, remain and settle, the verb behind “inhabitants” in verse 31. The concern is settled life side by side, with shared customs and in time shared worship, “lest they make thee sin against me”. To sin, châṭâʼ, is to miss the mark, and the sin in view is turning from the LORD to other gods. “It will surely be a snare unto thee.” A môwqêsh is a trap or noose for catching animals, and the word is used for whatever brings a person to ruin. Idolatry catches and holds the one who walks into it.

The command is about worship, and its concern is Israel’s faithfulness to God, which is why a Canaanite like Rahab who turned to the LORD was received. Israel soon showed how quickly it could turn, with the golden calf (Exodus 32). Joshua repeats the warning (Joshua 23:7, Joshua 23:12–13), and the book of Judges records that Israel disobeyed it and what followed (Judges 2:2). The safeguard against every rival god is the love Moses commands, the love of the one LORD with all the heart (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).

The New Testament shows us in Jesus what Israel was given in the Angel. He is the Word who was God (John 1:1) and who was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9), he is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3), and all power in heaven and in earth is given to him as he sends his people to all nations (Matthew 28:18–20). God’s name is in him in the fullest sense, and his is the one name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

He leads as the Angel led. He is the good shepherd (John 10:11) whose sheep hear his voice and follow him (John 10:27–28). He is himself the way (John 14:6), and he has gone to prepare a place for his people in his Father’s house (John 14:2–3). The Comforter he sends (John 14:26) guides his people into all truth (John 16:13).

Israel was warned that the Angel would withhold pardon from rebels, and Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, together with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3–14). He is also the obedient one. The condition of verse 22 was kept in full by him, who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and whom God has highly exalted so that every tongue should confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:5–11). He came to do the will of him who sent him (John 6:38), and when he was tempted he answered that God alone is to be worshipped and served (Matthew 4:10).

His cross is the victory these verses promise. God has forgiven us our trespasses, and of the powers ranged against us Paul says that “he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:13–15). Through death Christ destroyed him that had the power of death and freed those held in bondage by the fear of it (Hebrews 2:14–15), and God has delivered us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13). As the true Joshua, Jesus brings his people into the rest that Canaan pictured (Hebrews 4:8–11). At the end the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15), and the one who overcomes inherits all things (Revelation 21:7).

The blessings of verses 25 and 26 are gathered up in him as well. He is the bread of life (John 6:35) and the giver of living water (John 4:10–14). He healed all manner of sickness among the people (Matthew 4:23–24), and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4–5, 1 Peter 2:24). He came so that his people might have life in abundance (John 10:10), whoever believes in him has everlasting life (John 3:16), and death itself will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

He gives all this under a new covenant, promised through Jeremiah and made in his blood (Jeremiah 31:31–34, Luke 22:20). His blood cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14), so that his people worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24) as a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9).

This passage shows us a God who goes first. Before Israel takes a step, the place is prepared, the Angel is appointed, and the fear of the LORD is already travelling toward Canaan. His people follow someone who has been over the ground, and that is still true for us, who follow a Lord who has gone ahead to prepare a place.

It shows us a God who cares about small and daily things. The same voice that sets the borders of a nation speaks about bread, water, sickness, a child carried safely to birth and the length of a person’s days. All of these are in his hand, and he is glad to give them.

It shows us a God who is patient on purpose. Israel would have chosen to have the land cleared in a year, and God chose the pace that would keep them safe and let them grow into what he was giving. When his work in a life or a church moves a little at a time, verse 30 tells us that slowness and faithfulness can be the same thing in him.

And it shows us a God who wants his people for himself. He asks for an undivided heart because he knows what a divided one costs, and he calls the rival gods a snare because he sees the trap before we do. The warning and the promises come from the same love, and both are kept for us in Christ, in whom God’s name dwells and through whom his people are brought home.