Exodus 23:21, commentary and pictures

The Angel sent before Israel to keep them in the way and bring them to the promised land is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, their true invisible leader. He is the Angel of God's presence and covenant in whom God's name dwells, speaking and acting with God's full authority as the people's only channel of blessing. The verse commands reverent, exact obedience to his voice and forbids provoking or rebelling against him, which means obeying all that God commands. He will not pardon willful transgression, so rejecting his guidance brings judgment without excuse and shows that God's service cannot be mixed with self. Obedience brings God's enmity against enemies, safe guidance, victory, and blessing on bread and water with sickness removed, but requires utterly rejecting idolatry and serving the Lord alone.

Angel's Identity and Mission

The Angel sent before Israel is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was their invisible leader, present to guide the people while Moses served as their visible leader. God's name was in Him, giving His voice divine authority, so Israel was to heed Him and not rebel against Him, for He would not pardon transgression.

He is the mighty Angel through whom God led and directed them. He is the Angel of God's presence, in whom God's name dwells, and the Angel of the covenant, Israel's invisible leader. Through Him God reveals Himself to humanity, and He bears Jehovah's name and divine authority.

His mission was to keep Israel in the way and guard them on the journey. He was to bring them to the place God had prepared and to go before them against their enemies. That work included cutting off the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites.

It was not Moses who brought Israel from Egypt. Moses was only the visible leader, receiving his directions from Christ, while Christ invisibly led and directed the people through their journeys. Israel's repeated failure to recognize God's leading through the Angel and to credit Moses instead showed distrust and disobedience.

He guided their wanderings in the pillar of cloud and fire, with His presence going before the people in the cloudy pillar. His care and guardianship were directed toward the church in the wilderness, leading Israel toward the place God had prepared. That care restrained dangerous animals and serpents and preserved the people from dangers they did not even realize they faced.

Command and Solemn Warning

The command is to beware of Him, to heed Him, and to obey His voice with reverence and exact obedience, and obeying His voice means obeying all that God commands. The same charge requires Israel not to provoke Him, not to rebel against Him, and not to defy His authority. His authority is divine because God's name is in Him, so He bears God's name and authority and speaks with God's authority. He is the people's only channel of blessing, through whom deliverance, guidance, protection and blessing come.

He will not pardon transgressions, so disobedience and rebellion against Him bring no pardon. The warning shows how serious it is to reject His commands, for being led by God's Son increased responsibility, and God's service must not be mixed with self. Obedience to His voice and to doing all that God speaks brings God's enmity against enemies and adversaries, with the Angel going before to cut off the Amorites and Hittites and Perizzites and Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites. It brings safe keeping on the way and guidance into the place God prepared, with victory and protection against enemies.

It brings blessing on bread and water and the removal of sickness from the midst for those who serve the Lord as ruler. It requires rejecting idolatry by not bowing down to their gods nor serving them nor following their works, but by utterly overthrowing them and breaking down their images. Obedience was laid before Israel as the condition of blessing, to be kept with the heart, with the promise that the obedient would be as kings and priests unto God and that God would communicate with them, and the same reward is given now for obedience.

Law Given Through Christ

The warning stands within the instruction given in the mount in Exodus 19-24, which men were required to obey. That instruction, written in a book, is a fuller explanation of God's law given as an expression of His goodness and mercy. It sets forth particular precepts specifying man's duty to God and to his fellow men. Those precepts were given to protect life and to guard the sacred law of God from being forgotten in the midst of an apostate world.

Christ Himself gave Moses the ceremonies and ordinances of the Jewish law to repeat to the people, speaking with him face to face and giving Israel God's statutes and laws. Those statutes and laws were not to be altered even in the smallest detail, because the laws of God's kingdom are as unchanging as His throne. The directions were given by Christ Jesus Himself, the same Teacher who afterward spoke in human flesh.

The terrible voice that spoke the law from Sinai and frightened Israel was His voice, yet Israel did not discern Him in it and in terror asked that Moses speak to them instead of God. He stands as Advocate between God and sinful man, claiming Israel as bought by His own blood. His later teachings and miracles were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law, and did not supplant the law, dishonor the law of Moses, detract from its dignity, or lessen its claims. As a Jew He observed what bound the Jews until His death, when type met antitype and the blood of beasts lost value through His one great offering of His own life, so the charge that He disregarded the law of Moses has no foundation. Being led by God's Son increased Israel's responsibility, so rebellion against His law and authority increased their sin and caused their destruction.

He was the foundation of the sacrificial system and the great offering for sin it foreshadowed, with its sacrifices pointing forward to His saving work. He is the Saviour of the ancient worthies as much as now, so Adam, Abraham, Moses, and all who have died in faith from righteous Abel onward are saved by faith in Him as the coming Saviour and Lamb of God who takes away sin. Moses himself was saved by the merits of Christ. Though He led and guarded Israel, He will not pardon transgression by Himself, so transgressors need His merits as Advocate.

Israel's Rebellion and Judgment

The Angel who went before Israel was the mighty Angel, the Son of God, Christ himself as their invisible leader while Moses was only their visible leader, and God's name and authority were in him as their Redeemer, Guide and Leader appointed to keep them on the way and bring them to the place God had prepared. Israel repeatedly failed to recognize that God was leading and directing them through him, crediting Moses instead with bringing them from Egypt, and this showed their distrust and their failure to appreciate his care. When Moses later took to himself glory that belonged to God, it only made clear that God alone had led them. Obedience to his voice and to the commandments from Sinai was laid before Israel as the vowed condition of blessing, with the promise that if they would keep them with the heart they would be as kings and priests to God and he would communicate with them.

When Moses was away they forgot God's promise and command, asked Aaron to make gods to lead them, and made the calf, thereby breaking the condition they had vowed with lifted voice and hands to heaven, and those who would not take a loyal position were lost. They provoked him by unbelief, perverse ways, murmurings, complaints and continual misdoings despite his guiding and guarding care, which restrained dangerous animals and serpents and preserved them from dangers they did not even realize. They spoke against God and Moses, asking why they had been brought from Egypt to die in the wilderness, and their susceptibility to rebellion and sin under Satan's influence brought them under God's wrath. Recognizing Christ as their guide would have helped them resist rebellion and unreasonable murmuring.

Their repeated offenses against the Angel brought God's displeasure, shown in broken ranks and missing people, in plagues permitted to come upon them, and in many stung to death by serpents, yet they failed to learn from these punishments and obey faithfully. Their unbelief and continual misdoings kept God from working with them, and he was greatly grieved and provoked by them. Rebellion against the leaders God appointed rejected the divine guidance given through them and risked destruction despite the evidence of God's power, for Moses received his directions from Christ whose presence went before the people in the cloudy pillar, so that rebellion against Moses, as in Korah's rebellion, also rejected Christ.

His intervention sought to save the people from destruction, and his long-suffering and mercy gave them opportunity to repent, with pardon remaining possible if they returned to him in repentance and humiliation. Escaping immediate judgment through fear did not cure their rebellion, for they returned to their tents terrified rather than repentant. Moses' own disobedience at the rock was especially serious in light of the warning that he will not pardon transgressions, so despite God's compassion for Moses and his great experience of God's presence he was not allowed to enter Canaan, showing that God requires exact obedience and that his service must not be mixed with self. The one in whom God's name dwells was later reviled when Caiaphas accused Christ of blasphemy, and by condemning Christ Caiaphas himself stood under God's condemnation, while Christ's death and the torn temple veil declared that the nation had rejected him, the antitype of its sacred symbols, and had separated itself from God.

Guidance for Today

The instruction given in the mount in Exodus 19-24 and written in a book is to be studied and presented before the people now just as verily as by the children of Israel in the days of Moses. Its laws guard against doing injustice and guide dealings with one another, calling for all contention to cease and for brotherly love with softened and subdued hearts. Obedience to His voice and to the commandments from Sinai was laid before Israel through Moses as the condition of blessing, to be studied and obeyed with the heart, and the same reward is given now for such obedience. If they would agree to keep His commandments they would be as kings and priests unto God, and God would communicate with them. The directions were given by Christ Jesus Himself, the same Teacher who afterward spoke in human flesh.

The same Christ who kept Israel in the way through the wilderness to bring them into the place He had prepared is guiding His people today, showing them where and how to work. That present guidance included giving the warning in Washington, the capital of the nation. Those connected with His work are to thank Him for His guidance, trust His keeping power, remember they are children of God, cut away all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and live out the principles of truth in word and deed. Those who profess to be children of God yet do what He forbids help the enemy more than those who make no profession, deepening Satan's impressions on minds and encouraging the ungodly to continue in evil, so God's people must be on guard to rebuke all evildoing.

The same provoking of Christ as Angel of the Covenant in the wilderness continues now. It is seen when those given line upon line cast aside the merciful warnings sent to correct them. They sow doubt about those warnings and war against Jesus Christ, who loves them and would save them from themselves.