20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and he1 will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets2 before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,3 for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Section Overview
Having given Moses specific stipulations for the Israelites (21:1–23:19), the Lord now warns them against disobedience and describes the blessings of obedience, both on the way to the Promised Land and within it. On the way to the Promised Land the Israelites must obey the guidance the Lord gives them through his angel (23:20–22). Failure to do so will result in judgment, but obedience will result in the Lord’s fighting on their behalf. Once they arrive in the Promised Land they must be sure to destroy any false worship objects they find and not make any covenants of peace with the land’s inhabitants, lest the objects or inhabitants lead them astray (vv. 23–24, 32–33). Instead they must serve the Lord alone, who will pour abundant blessings on his faithful servants (vv. 25–31).
To find such warnings and blessings here is no surprise. Ancient Near Eastern treaty documents from the second millennium often ended in similar ways. Like this passage, they also list blessings for the obedient. Unlike our passage, they list formal curses for the disobedient, though the warning of judgment for disobedience in verse 21 ought to have a similar effect. In short, while later biblical passages hold more exact parallels to the blessings and curses of second-millennium treaties (cf. Lev. 26:3–39; Deut. 27:9–28:68), this passage is a close cousin and a natural conclusion to the preceding covenant stipulations.
Section Outline
V. Israel at Sinai: the Lord gives his covenant to Israel; the covenant is ratified (20:1–24:11) . . .
E. Warnings against disobedience, and the blessings of obedience, on the way to the Promised Land and once within it, spoken to Moses for the people (23:20–33)
1. Warnings against disobedience, and the blessings of obedience, on the way to the Promised Land (23:20–22)
2. Warnings against disobedience, and the blessings of obedience, once in the Promised Land (23:23–33)
a. Command not to worship the nations’ gods (23:23–24)
b. The blessings the Lord will give his faithful servants (23:25–31)
c. Command not to let the nations remain and tempt Israel to worship their gods (23:32–33)
Response
What Are the Two Aspects of Obedience?
Obedience is a two-sided coin: following after on the one side and running away from on the other. First and foremost, obedience means following after the Lord, walking with him in his ways. To “carefully obey” and “do all” he says (Ex. 23:22) means that his word is our command; where he leads, we will follow. Jesus does not tell us simply to believe theoretical truths about him; he tells us, “Follow me” (Matt. 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; 16:24).
But following after the Lord also means running away from sin and temptation—not walking away but running away. As Paul’s stresses, “Flee from sexual immorality. . . . Flee from idolatry. . . . Flee youthful passions!” (1 Cor. 6:18; 10:14; 2 Tim. 2:22). Sin and temptation are not harmless rubber snakes; they are living, coiled vipers ready to strike and destroy those who get too close. We are to avoid them at all costs. The Lord emphasizes the same in our passage. Israel is not simply to put false gods into storage; she is to “utterly overthrow them” (Ex. 23:24), leaving no trace behind. As noted above, one of the surest ways to resist sin is to remove whatever might lead to it. Jesus teaches, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. . . . And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matt. 5:29–30). The language is clearly hyperbole; a one-handed person can still commit sin with his remaining hand. But hyperbole is used to emphasize a point, which in this case is clear: sin has the power to drag us into hell. And Jesus loves us too much for that. His warning is that of a parent who drills into his child the need to avoid running into the street. Jesus knows that sin wants to turn us into roadkill.
This leads naturally to a second question.
What Are the Results of Disobedience?
Sin leads naturally to judgment—supernatural judgment. It is true that sin has natural negative consequences. For example, if we are known for lying, people stop believing us. If we are known for gossip, people stop sharing with us. But this passage emphasizes the supernatural element of judgment that comes to those who rebel against the Lord. The warning that the angel “will not pardon your transgression” means not that forgiveness is impossible for the penitent but that judgment is sure for the rebellious (cf. comment on Ex. 23:20–22).
The context matters. The Lord is speaking to Israelites, those who claim to be his followers. The Bible certainly speaks of final judgment for anyone who rejects the Lord, even if that person never claimed to be his follower, but it also speaks of the ways in which the Lord brings judgments into the lives of those who claim to be his followers. Leviticus 26 is instructive here. It lists a long series of curses—such as defeat in war, famine, or sickness—that will come on the Israelites if they are faithless to the Lord (Lev. 26:14–39). But throughout the passage the Lord emphasizes these judgments are to “discipline” his people so they might “listen” to the Lord and “turn” back to him (Lev. 26:18, 23, 27–28). It is not their destruction he desires but their salvation. As with a good father, his discipline, even if painful, is meant as a warning that brings his people back to the path of obedience, where they might flourish.
Such disciplining judgments are not simply an OT phenomenon. Paul speaks of those in the Corinthian church who have become sick and even died for partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27, 30). And he explains this in the same kinds of terms as those used in Leviticus 26: “When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32). As the Father’s children, Christians should expect discipline to come if they wander from his ways. He wants something far better for them. And this leads to the final question.
What Are the Results of Obedience?
The strongest focus of this passage is that those who follow and serve the Lord enter a realm of blessing (Ex. 23:2b–31). It cannot be otherwise. Just as good parents seek to bless their children with love and protection, so does the Lord with his own children. Just as a good king seeks to bless his servants with love and protection, so does the Lord with his own servants. The Israelites must choose whether to enter such service; if they do, they can be assured their King will surround them with his love and care. (Cf. comment on 15:22–26 for the relationship between obedience and blessing.)
In the Bible blessings take on many forms. Leviticus 26 is again instructive. It begins with a list of physical and material blessings for the faithful that overlap with those in our passage (Lev. 26:3–10). The list then reaches an apex by describing the blessing of intimate relationship with the Lord (Lev. 26:11–12). That it saves what might be called spiritual blessings for last—as the highest and best of the blessings!—rescues us from the error and theological poverty of the prosperity gospel, which teaches that the ultimate goal in life is to be rich and healthy. The Bible disagrees. As the psalmist prays, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (Ps. 16:2). It is only in the yoke of Jesus that our weary souls find rest (Matt. 11:28–30; cf. note 440 within the Response section on 20:22–26, “How Does God Respond to Proper Worship?”).
At the same time, Leviticus 26, similarly to our passage, also lists physical and material blessings necessary for physical flourishing (cf. Ex. 23:25–31). This rescues us from overspiritualizing life and downplaying the reality of living as a physical creature in God’s physical world. This is something the Bible does not do. The Israelites were to gather regularly to feast and celebrate the harvest (Lev. 23:39–41). The psalmist rejoices in the Lord’s good gifts of food, drink, and provision for both people and beasts (Pss. 104:14–15; 145:15–16). Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, taught us to pray for our physical needs, and promised that our heavenly Father would provide for his disciples (Matt. 6:11, 25–34; cf. Phil. 4:19). And Paul condemns those who “require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving. . . . For everything created by God is good” (1 Tim. 4:3–4).
How should these truths impact our lives? First, we should rejoice in the Lord’s good gifts of material blessings. In avoiding the tragic error of the prosperity gospel we must make sure not to make the opposite error of disregarding the goodness of God’s material blessings. Second, we are to have confidence that the Lord will meet our material needs (Matt. 6:11, 25–34; Phil. 4:19). Third, if the Lord has blessed us materially or physically, we should seek to imitate him by sharing such blessings with those in need. The Lord delights to meet our needs and to give us the privilege of being his agents in meeting the needs of others (cf. 2 Cor. 8:8–15).Exodus 23:20–33