Exodus 23:20a "Behold, I send an Angel..."
Now, that is capitalized! So Who is the Angel when it is capitalized? It’s God the Son again! It’s the Lord, Yehovah, or in our New Testament Yeshua-Messiah. The Angel that redeemed me is the way Jacob puts it and there is only one Redeemer in scripture. So, it has to be God the Son! Here is another good example. Who is speaking? God the Son! Who is He going to send? God the Son! We have to remember that all through Scripture, God the Son can speak to God the Father but what are they? They are one and the same so far as all practical purposes are concerned.
The only difference that we have is in Christ’s earthly ministry when He speaks from the flesh and now He addresses or prays to the Father, what makes the difference? Well, now He is speaking from His humanity and indeed He can address God the Father as His Father. But, when He speaks from His position as Deity, then we think it was Martin Luther who came to the tremendous conclusion that it was God speaking to whom? To God!! So, don’t let that throw you - sometimes God the Son speaks concerning Himself.
So, here is another good one. Exodus 23 where God the Son is speaking to Moses and He says I send an Angel:
Exodus 23:20b "...before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared." What’s He talking about? Canaan! The Promised Land! How long has He been preparing it? Four hundred and thirty years! How do we know this? Because that’s what He told Abraham when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He said, "in 430 years I am going to bring you back to this land." He couldn’t do it any sooner. He couldn’t do it in 300 years or 200 years, He had to wait the whole 400 years for what purpose? The iniquity of the Canaanites had to be filled full. Then after that 400-year hiatus, the Canaanites had gotten so filthy, rotten, wicked that God could just push them out and let Israel enjoy the works of their 400 years of getting the land ready. We hope all will understand that.
It’s the Canaanites who had those grapevines that could grow those clusters of grapes that took two men to hold! The Canaanites did all of that. They had everything ready. We imagine they had some beautiful vineyards. They had some beautiful homes, beautiful pastures and places for cattle. They had it all! But now God is going to take it away from them because of their wickedness. Their iniquity had now hit the full mark. Let’s read on in Exodus.
Exodus 23:21 "Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." In other words, it is speaking of how they were to respect the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Verse 22.
Exodus 23:22 "But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries."
The Hebrews are God’s earthly chosen or called out people! They enjoyed what kind of blessings? Earthly! Here’s a good example. God’s earthly people are being told that their earthly enemies would be driven away and that they could have everything for their own good. How’s God going to do it?
Exodus 23:23 "For my Angel (He’s speaking of Himself) shall go before you, and bring you in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off." God says, I will destroy them! I will move them out! Verse 24 is giving them warning. When you get there, they are going to leave some of their idols behind and some of their high places so He said:
Exodus 23:24 "You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but you shall utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images." Verse 25.
Exodus 23:25 "And you shall serve the LORD (your MASTER) your God, and he shall bless your bread, and your water; (What does that speak of? Material blessings! He’s not promising them eternal blessings in the heavenlies, like we are. They are being told that if they are obedient, they will immediately have material blessings. This is what we have to understand. All the material blessings that were common to the Hebrews have no validity for us because we are not an earthly people. We are a heavenly people! We are the heavenly Israel of God the apple of His eye and why? Because we trust in His faith to move mountains, to give New Life to a dead person, to cause those things that be not as though they are now, done. How are they now done by Grace, His working, not ours. We wish we could get that through people’s heads!) and we will take sickness away from the midst of you." Now, what is that? That’s material blessing! But in the spiritual its being reunited to Him, this gives us wholeness and oneness with Him.(Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24)
Exodus 23:26 "There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in they land; the number of they days I will fulfill."
Hebrews 3:7-12a "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost said, Today if you will hear His voice. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers (now remember, Paul is writing to Hebrews so he’s referring all the way back to the forefathers of Israel) tempted (or tested is a better word) me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) (Now we have to take the next verse to pick up God’s number one controversy with the human race as well as the Hebrews, as we've pointed out before) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,…" Now he doesn’t mention any of the other sins of the flesh, but rather unbelief! Oh that’s what God hates more than anything, is a lack of trust. So looking at that last verse again:
No comments:
Post a Comment