"Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 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. "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. "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,
Exodus 23:20-23
The Book of the Covenant which has occupied our attention from 20:22 up to this point, concludes with a series of promises. Conditional upon keeping the covenant, Israel will be assured of the guidance and protection of the Angel of God, they will have God's help against all their enemies, they will have the ultimate possession of the entire country between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on the one hand and from the desert to the Euphrates on the other, they will have a blessing on their flocks and herds, and a blessing upon themselves, escaping sickness and enjoying long life. The Angel in 20 must surely refer to the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Himself - of Whom else could it be said that God's Name is in him (21)? Nor should this cause difficulty in our minds, for a belief in the doctrine of the Trinity with its affirmation of the eternal Sonship of Christ commits us to the idea of His pre-incarnate activity in history. Leaving aside for the moment the implication of Israel's warfare in 22, 23, we may worthily take these verses as an illustration of spiritual work in the kingdom of God. As George Philip comments, 'It will be a way of war, for territory held by the enemy must be wrested from him. What a description of the work of God in the ministry of the Word unto the saving and healing of lives. But it is a particular kind of war with unseen powers at work. God is with His people against all who bar the way. Our part is to obey. We are the servants. He alone is the Master.'