Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
God sends His Angel ahead of Israel to guard them on the journey and to bring them safely into the prepared place of Canaan. That Angel is Christ Himself, the Son of God, the Angel of God's presence and of the covenant. God's name and authority are in Him, so Israel must heed His voice, obey Him, and not provoke Him, for He will not pardon willful transgression. The promise belongs to the covenant made at Sinai and is conditional on obedient hearts keeping all God's commandments, and upon obedience God pledges to oppose their enemies, drive out the nations before them, and bless and heal them. The same Christ who invisibly led Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire, gave the law through Moses, and pleaded for them as Redeemer still guides and keeps His people today.
Angel's Identity and Authority
The Angel sent before Israel to keep them in the way and bring them into the prepared place is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the Angel of God's presence and of the covenant, the Messiah, the mighty Angel whose voice was to be obeyed because God's name was in Him. He was Israel's invisible leader, sent ahead of the people to guard them on the journey and bring them safely to the land God had prepared.
God's name and authority are in the Angel, so Israel was commanded to beware of Him, to heed His voice and obey Him, and not to provoke or rebel against Him. He will not pardon transgression, and rebellion against Him brings accountability under divine authority. The promised guidance, protection against enemies, and leading into the land depend on such obedience, on heeding His voice, keeping all God's commandments, and rejecting and destroying idolatry.
The Angel, not Moses, was the people's true guide and divine power leading them out of Egypt and directing their travels. He went at the head of their armies and guided them in the pillar of cloud and fire, giving commands to Moses and continuing His presence even while Moses was away. Moses was only their visible leader, receiving directions from Him, yet Israel repeatedly forgot God's leading and wrongly credited Moses with what only divine power could do.
Covenant Promise and Conditions
The promise belongs to the instruction given to Moses on the mount in Exodus 19-24, given by Christ Himself, needed now just as verily as in the days of Moses and to be studied and presented before the people. It was spoken as assurance after the law had been proclaimed from Sinai, when Moses was directed to explain it more fully so the people would have no excuse for disobedience. Its laws were written in a book to guard against doing injustice and to guide dealings one with another, requiring all contention to cease and brethren to love one another with softened and subdued hearts. It shows the truth, light and grace received at Sinai to be lived out before Israel in practice in obedience to the whole of the commandments, with God communicating with His people so they need not stumble along not knowing what they are about.
God pledges to send His Angel to keep Israel in the way and to bring them into the place He has prepared, which is Canaan, the promised land. The Angel guards their journey, leads them safely there, and brings them in to inherit the land and prosper them above all nations. He is the mighty Angel, not Moses, the people's true guide and the divine power leading them from Egypt and directing their travels. His voice is to be obeyed, for God's name is in Him.
The gift is God's part of the covenant made at Mount Sinai after Israel promised to do all He said and be obedient, publicly accepting the condition with voice and hands lifted to heaven. It is conditional on truly heeding and obeying the Angel's voice and doing all God speaks, agreeing with obedient hearts to keep His commandments and all the surrounding conditions of obedience. Those who obey become kings and priests unto God, a reward still given now. The pledge held true during the forty years of wilderness wandering, when those who obeyed received the promised blessings, and the covenant with its blessings is still in force so that obedience still brings heaven's richest blessings. Yet the condition was broken when temptation came in Moses' absence by making the calf, showing that God tests His people by His Word and that only continued obedience gives strength of character under every temptation and a firm hold upon God.
Upon obedience God pledges to be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries. The Angel leads against the Amorites and Hittites and Perizzites and Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites to cut them off, bringing protection from enemies, victory over the peoples of Canaan, and guidance into the land. Israel on its part must not bow to their gods nor serve them nor follow their works, but must utterly overthrow them and break down their images, rejecting and destroying idolatry and giving God required service. They must serve the Lord, who will bless their bread and water and take sickness away from among them, revealing His guardianship and care for Israel as His church in the wilderness in delivering them from Egypt and leading them.
Leading Israel in Wilderness
The church in the wilderness was governed not by human authority but by Christ Himself leading His people. God sent the mighty Angel ahead of Israel to guard them on the journey and bring them to the place He had prepared, and that Angel, not Moses, was their true guide and the divine power that led them out of Egypt and directed their travels. That Angel is the Son of God, with God's name and authority in Him, whom Israel was to beware of, heed, and obey without provoking or rebelling. Christ was their present leader throughout their wanderings, guiding them in the pillar of cloud and fire and giving commands to Moses, while Moses was only the visible leader receiving directions from Him, and the Angel was the channel through whom blessing came.
The Angel continually guarded, kept, and protected Israel on the way from dangers they did not recognize. He kept their path and preserved them from dangerous beasts and poisonous serpents, with the pillar of cloud veiling His presence as their invisible leader. The people lost sight of this continual care and failed to remember how many dangers God restrained for them.
Israel repeatedly forgot that God was leading them and wrongly credited Moses with acts only divine power could perform. They failed to value their Redeemer and Guide, and became discouraged and complaining when the way was difficult, showing failure to trust His care. Their repeated disobedience against this divine leader brought God's displeasure, shown in broken ranks and reduced numbers, yet they failed to learn from those judgments and obey faithfully.
God's promise to keep His people in the way and bring them to the place He had prepared was to be lived out in practice in obedience to the whole of the commandments, publicly accepted by Israel with voice and hands lifted to heaven. When temptation came in Moses' absence they broke that engagement by asking Aaron for other gods to lead them back to Egypt and making the calf, forgetting the promised Angel who continued present as Christ their invisible leader. God tests His people by His Word, and only continued obedience gives strength of character under every temptation and a firm hold upon God. In the crisis of Korah's rebellion Jesus as the Angel who went before the Hebrews intervened from heaven to save the people from destruction and called them to repent, yet although they fled in fear they were not truly repentant. He was grieved and provoked by their unbelief and perverse ways, their continual wrongdoing prevented God from working with them, and God permitted plagues upon them, including deaths by serpents.
Christ Giver of Law
The Angel sent to keep Israel in the way and bring them into the prepared place is Christ, who went before Moses and guided the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness. As that Angel He gave Moses the ceremonies and ordinances of the Jewish law to repeat to the people. He gave particular precepts that made the principles of morality and religion clearer by specifying the duty of man to God and to his fellow men. Those detailed requirements protected life and guarded the sacred moral law so that it would not be entirely forgotten in the midst of an apostate world. He spoke with Moses face to face and gave Israel God's statutes and laws, which were not to be altered even in the smallest detail, for those laws are as unchanging as God's throne.
His teachings, works and miracles were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law. They did not supplant the law, detract from its dignity, or lessen its claims. His keeping the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death on the cross proves that the charge that He disregarded the law of Moses has no foundation.
To be thus conducted by God's Son honored Israel and increased their responsibility. Rebellion against the law and authority of God therefore destroyed them and made their sin greater. Being led by Him increased their guilt when they rebelled.
Redeemer Advocate and Sacrifice
The Angel sent to keep Israel in the way is Christ Himself standing between sinful humanity and the Father as Advocate. In that office He claims erring Israel as the purchase of His own blood. The voice at Sinai that so terrified Israel that they begged Moses to speak with them instead was the voice of this same Angel. He had already conducted their travels from Egypt to Sinai, though they did not discern Him.
He kept them in the way and was willing to save them from destruction. His long-suffering and mercy gave the congregation time to repent. He showed Himself willing to forgive even grievous offenders who return to Him with repentance and humility. In the crisis of Korah's rebellion He intervened from heaven to protect and guide the Hebrews, to save the people from destruction and call them to repent, yet although they fled in fear they were not truly repentant.
This Angel is the Messiah, the great Offering for sin and the foundation of the entire typical sacrificial system. He invisibly led the armies of Israel in the wilderness, standing at their head. It was shown to Moses that the sacrificial offerings typifying the Messiah would cease, with type reaching antitype in this Angel. The Jews as a people did not discern that the Messiah whom they rejected was this same Angel who guided their fathers in their travels, and to this day the veil remains upon their hearts hiding salvation through the merits of a crucified Redeemer.
Guidance for Today
The same Christ who kept Israel in the way through the wilderness keeps and guides His people today, showing them where to labor and how to do the work, and that guiding and keeping power is to be received with thanks and with faith. Those joined to His work are to remember that they are children of God, to cut away hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, to live out truth in word and deed, to stand on guard to rebuke evildoing, and to be sanctified through the truth, since profession without obedience aids the enemy, deepens Satan's hold on minds, and emboldens the ungodly in evil.
Servants doing God's work in Christ's way need angelic help, for holy angels go before them to guard and guide them, to prepare the way to the appointed place, and to prepare hearts to receive the message, while accompanying and instructing the workers. Human and divine workers act in sympathy and union, and angels are the sufficiency of God's workers in assemblies to impress hearts. This leading is real and certain when workers travel to carry the work to new places and to the cities with the Bible and present truth, and angels go before even when unfaithful persons enter the ranks. Christ and His angels go before gospel workers in new fields and stay with them, and ground where He has gone before is hallowed and to be treated with respect, giving experience that enables endurance as seeing Him who is invisible.
The promise gives courage to enter places where the truth is not known and to continue despite fear, illness, weakness, and apparent inability, with assurance that God goes with travelers and sustains them in their work. So it sustained a journey to Michigan in illness and weakness, and it sustains every journey undertaken in trust in the Lord. God's help makes the work possible and opens the way for the message.
The promise directs the warning work in Washington, the capital of the nation. It prepares the way in New Zealand, where believers are to trust God's leading while relying on Him alone to make the work effective, and it sends a worker to Australasia. It goes before workers in New South Wales and in other parts of the field, is with those building the sanitarium and opening the health work in Sydney, and will reward long faithful labor and investment of means. It leads workers carrying the work to new places and to the cities, preparing the path before them even when unfaithful persons enter the ranks.
It is fulfilled for those who earnestly and gratefully share books containing the instruction God wants the world to receive, trusting the Lord for help under divine guidance. It keeps in the way the one who buckles on the armor and fights the good fight of faith instead of expecting freedom from trial, so that his work succeeds and souls are benefited and receive the truth. Those who trust God alone and do their appointed work with the talent He gave receive victory after victory because angels go before them. The reality of angels going before was signified by two clouds white as snow, alone in the heavens, coming together then separating and watched all day from morning until they could no longer be discerned, bringing evidence of what might be done for God and is not done.
God sends His Angel ahead of Israel to guard them on the journey and to bring them safely into the prepared place of Canaan. That Angel is Christ Himself, the Son of God, the Angel of God's presence and of the covenant. God's name and authority are in Him, so Israel must heed His voice, obey Him, and not provoke Him, for He will not pardon willful transgression. The promise belongs to the covenant made at Sinai and is conditional on obedient hearts keeping all God's commandments, and upon obedience God pledges to oppose their enemies, drive out the nations before them, and bless and heal them. The same Christ who invisibly led Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire, gave the law through Moses, and pleaded for them as Redeemer still guides and keeps His people today.
Angel's Identity and Authority
The Angel sent before Israel to keep them in the way and bring them into the prepared place is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the Angel of God's presence and of the covenant, the Messiah, the mighty Angel whose voice was to be obeyed because God's name was in Him. He was Israel's invisible leader, sent ahead of the people to guard them on the journey and bring them safely to the land God had prepared.
God's name and authority are in the Angel, so Israel was commanded to beware of Him, to heed His voice and obey Him, and not to provoke or rebel against Him. He will not pardon transgression, and rebellion against Him brings accountability under divine authority. The promised guidance, protection against enemies, and leading into the land depend on such obedience, on heeding His voice, keeping all God's commandments, and rejecting and destroying idolatry.
The Angel, not Moses, was the people's true guide and divine power leading them out of Egypt and directing their travels. He went at the head of their armies and guided them in the pillar of cloud and fire, giving commands to Moses and continuing His presence even while Moses was away. Moses was only their visible leader, receiving directions from Him, yet Israel repeatedly forgot God's leading and wrongly credited Moses with what only divine power could do.
Covenant Promise and Conditions
The promise belongs to the instruction given to Moses on the mount in Exodus 19-24, given by Christ Himself, needed now just as verily as in the days of Moses and to be studied and presented before the people. It was spoken as assurance after the law had been proclaimed from Sinai, when Moses was directed to explain it more fully so the people would have no excuse for disobedience. Its laws were written in a book to guard against doing injustice and to guide dealings one with another, requiring all contention to cease and brethren to love one another with softened and subdued hearts. It shows the truth, light and grace received at Sinai to be lived out before Israel in practice in obedience to the whole of the commandments, with God communicating with His people so they need not stumble along not knowing what they are about.
God pledges to send His Angel to keep Israel in the way and to bring them into the place He has prepared, which is Canaan, the promised land. The Angel guards their journey, leads them safely there, and brings them in to inherit the land and prosper them above all nations. He is the mighty Angel, not Moses, the people's true guide and the divine power leading them from Egypt and directing their travels. His voice is to be obeyed, for God's name is in Him.
The gift is God's part of the covenant made at Mount Sinai after Israel promised to do all He said and be obedient, publicly accepting the condition with voice and hands lifted to heaven. It is conditional on truly heeding and obeying the Angel's voice and doing all God speaks, agreeing with obedient hearts to keep His commandments and all the surrounding conditions of obedience. Those who obey become kings and priests unto God, a reward still given now. The pledge held true during the forty years of wilderness wandering, when those who obeyed received the promised blessings, and the covenant with its blessings is still in force so that obedience still brings heaven's richest blessings. Yet the condition was broken when temptation came in Moses' absence by making the calf, showing that God tests His people by His Word and that only continued obedience gives strength of character under every temptation and a firm hold upon God.
Upon obedience God pledges to be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries. The Angel leads against the Amorites and Hittites and Perizzites and Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites to cut them off, bringing protection from enemies, victory over the peoples of Canaan, and guidance into the land. Israel on its part must not bow to their gods nor serve them nor follow their works, but must utterly overthrow them and break down their images, rejecting and destroying idolatry and giving God required service. They must serve the Lord, who will bless their bread and water and take sickness away from among them, revealing His guardianship and care for Israel as His church in the wilderness in delivering them from Egypt and leading them.
Leading Israel in Wilderness
The church in the wilderness was governed not by human authority but by Christ Himself leading His people. God sent the mighty Angel ahead of Israel to guard them on the journey and bring them to the place He had prepared, and that Angel, not Moses, was their true guide and the divine power that led them out of Egypt and directed their travels. That Angel is the Son of God, with God's name and authority in Him, whom Israel was to beware of, heed, and obey without provoking or rebelling. Christ was their present leader throughout their wanderings, guiding them in the pillar of cloud and fire and giving commands to Moses, while Moses was only the visible leader receiving directions from Him, and the Angel was the channel through whom blessing came.
The Angel continually guarded, kept, and protected Israel on the way from dangers they did not recognize. He kept their path and preserved them from dangerous beasts and poisonous serpents, with the pillar of cloud veiling His presence as their invisible leader. The people lost sight of this continual care and failed to remember how many dangers God restrained for them.
Israel repeatedly forgot that God was leading them and wrongly credited Moses with acts only divine power could perform. They failed to value their Redeemer and Guide, and became discouraged and complaining when the way was difficult, showing failure to trust His care. Their repeated disobedience against this divine leader brought God's displeasure, shown in broken ranks and reduced numbers, yet they failed to learn from those judgments and obey faithfully.
God's promise to keep His people in the way and bring them to the place He had prepared was to be lived out in practice in obedience to the whole of the commandments, publicly accepted by Israel with voice and hands lifted to heaven. When temptation came in Moses' absence they broke that engagement by asking Aaron for other gods to lead them back to Egypt and making the calf, forgetting the promised Angel who continued present as Christ their invisible leader. God tests His people by His Word, and only continued obedience gives strength of character under every temptation and a firm hold upon God. In the crisis of Korah's rebellion Jesus as the Angel who went before the Hebrews intervened from heaven to save the people from destruction and called them to repent, yet although they fled in fear they were not truly repentant. He was grieved and provoked by their unbelief and perverse ways, their continual wrongdoing prevented God from working with them, and God permitted plagues upon them, including deaths by serpents.
Christ Giver of Law
The Angel sent to keep Israel in the way and bring them into the prepared place is Christ, who went before Moses and guided the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness. As that Angel He gave Moses the ceremonies and ordinances of the Jewish law to repeat to the people. He gave particular precepts that made the principles of morality and religion clearer by specifying the duty of man to God and to his fellow men. Those detailed requirements protected life and guarded the sacred moral law so that it would not be entirely forgotten in the midst of an apostate world. He spoke with Moses face to face and gave Israel God's statutes and laws, which were not to be altered even in the smallest detail, for those laws are as unchanging as God's throne.
His teachings, works and miracles were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law. They did not supplant the law, detract from its dignity, or lessen its claims. His keeping the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death on the cross proves that the charge that He disregarded the law of Moses has no foundation.
To be thus conducted by God's Son honored Israel and increased their responsibility. Rebellion against the law and authority of God therefore destroyed them and made their sin greater. Being led by Him increased their guilt when they rebelled.
Redeemer Advocate and Sacrifice
The Angel sent to keep Israel in the way is Christ Himself standing between sinful humanity and the Father as Advocate. In that office He claims erring Israel as the purchase of His own blood. The voice at Sinai that so terrified Israel that they begged Moses to speak with them instead was the voice of this same Angel. He had already conducted their travels from Egypt to Sinai, though they did not discern Him.
He kept them in the way and was willing to save them from destruction. His long-suffering and mercy gave the congregation time to repent. He showed Himself willing to forgive even grievous offenders who return to Him with repentance and humility. In the crisis of Korah's rebellion He intervened from heaven to protect and guide the Hebrews, to save the people from destruction and call them to repent, yet although they fled in fear they were not truly repentant.
This Angel is the Messiah, the great Offering for sin and the foundation of the entire typical sacrificial system. He invisibly led the armies of Israel in the wilderness, standing at their head. It was shown to Moses that the sacrificial offerings typifying the Messiah would cease, with type reaching antitype in this Angel. The Jews as a people did not discern that the Messiah whom they rejected was this same Angel who guided their fathers in their travels, and to this day the veil remains upon their hearts hiding salvation through the merits of a crucified Redeemer.
Guidance for Today
The same Christ who kept Israel in the way through the wilderness keeps and guides His people today, showing them where to labor and how to do the work, and that guiding and keeping power is to be received with thanks and with faith. Those joined to His work are to remember that they are children of God, to cut away hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, to live out truth in word and deed, to stand on guard to rebuke evildoing, and to be sanctified through the truth, since profession without obedience aids the enemy, deepens Satan's hold on minds, and emboldens the ungodly in evil.
Servants doing God's work in Christ's way need angelic help, for holy angels go before them to guard and guide them, to prepare the way to the appointed place, and to prepare hearts to receive the message, while accompanying and instructing the workers. Human and divine workers act in sympathy and union, and angels are the sufficiency of God's workers in assemblies to impress hearts. This leading is real and certain when workers travel to carry the work to new places and to the cities with the Bible and present truth, and angels go before even when unfaithful persons enter the ranks. Christ and His angels go before gospel workers in new fields and stay with them, and ground where He has gone before is hallowed and to be treated with respect, giving experience that enables endurance as seeing Him who is invisible.
The promise gives courage to enter places where the truth is not known and to continue despite fear, illness, weakness, and apparent inability, with assurance that God goes with travelers and sustains them in their work. So it sustained a journey to Michigan in illness and weakness, and it sustains every journey undertaken in trust in the Lord. God's help makes the work possible and opens the way for the message.
The promise directs the warning work in Washington, the capital of the nation. It prepares the way in New Zealand, where believers are to trust God's leading while relying on Him alone to make the work effective, and it sends a worker to Australasia. It goes before workers in New South Wales and in other parts of the field, is with those building the sanitarium and opening the health work in Sydney, and will reward long faithful labor and investment of means. It leads workers carrying the work to new places and to the cities, preparing the path before them even when unfaithful persons enter the ranks.
It is fulfilled for those who earnestly and gratefully share books containing the instruction God wants the world to receive, trusting the Lord for help under divine guidance. It keeps in the way the one who buckles on the armor and fights the good fight of faith instead of expecting freedom from trial, so that his work succeeds and souls are benefited and receive the truth. Those who trust God alone and do their appointed work with the talent He gave receive victory after victory because angels go before them. The reality of angels going before was signified by two clouds white as snow, alone in the heavens, coming together then separating and watched all day from morning until they could no longer be discerned, bringing evidence of what might be done for God and is not done.