Exodus 23:20- 24:18

[Josh]

10/9/06:

The Angel Joshua/ Jesus:

I see another reference to Christ in the 'angel' sent ahead of the Israelites in Ex. 23:20.

The early Church fathers saw this passage as a direct reference to Joshua, who led the Israelites into the promised land, and who would instruct the Israelites. Joshua means the Lord saves, explaining the phrase in verse 21: "My Name is in him"

Joshua, in turn, is a direct type or foreshadowing of Christ in many ways, notwithstanding the fact that Jesus is Greek for Joshua (Hebrew).

In addition, notice how Jesus borrows words / ideas which were spoken about the 'angel of His presence' here in Exodus 23:

Exodus 23: 20 "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared."

John 14:2-3 "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

"My Name is in him" is important as well (v. 21).

[Josh]

10/9/06:

Exodus 23:23 "My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. "

Just had to get in a White Stripes reference.

[Josh]

10/06:

Exodus 23:25-26 "Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span."



I'll be honest. Passages like this in the Old Testament kinda bug me. I'm usually willing to accept hyperbole (and exaggeration to make a point) for what it's worth in Scripture, but this bothers me because I just keep thinking of the people in ancient Israel who were the exceptions to this ideal- those who did worship God but did get sick, or experience the pain of miscarriage, or have a family member die young.



My best understanding of these type of 'ideal promises' passages (and there are a lot- check out Proverbs and you'll see what I mean immediately) is that God is speaking general principles about life:



in general, if you do what is right, you will live a long, healthy, prosperous life



in general, if you do what is evil, you will experience suffering both physically and relationally



And I'd have to say that in general, one could make that case. I guess God here is using exaggeration to drive that point home to the Israelites. Maybe they had a hard time getting the point, or needed HOPE to actually live a righteous life. Maybe God is telling us His ideal will for things, which in His sovreignty and willingness to allow free will, does not always match up with events as they play out.



Just some stabs at what we might make of these passages. No special revelation in this case to 'solve the passage'.



One more thing, though. Philip Yancey, in several of his books, did help me understand the paradox or tension in Scripture between God's ideals and general principles one the one hand, and the exceptions to the rule on the other.



He points out that although there are several books in the Old Testament that emphasize that righteous living leads to health, wealth, and happiness, there are also several which discuss in a devastatingly honest way the exceptions to these principles. Just a few examples are Job, Ecclesiastes, and Habbakkuk, all of which feature God's perspective on the times when things like miscarriages and untimely deaths and bankruptcy befall the righteous (those who are trying to do the right thing).

Perhaps one more thing to glean from these kinds of passages is that is and always has been interested in our physical welfare.


Think for a moment about Chrsitian evangelism and missions: It's a travesty that we have in some cases focused so much on people's 'spiritual' well being that we have neglected their physical well-being. But the reality is that the Bible doesn't make the kind of clean break between "spiritual" and "physical" as we tend to in some Christian circles. God is intensely interesting in our holisitic well-being: physical and non-physical.

[Josh]

10/15/06:

Man, these verses have been haunting me all week. It's just one of those ones that no amount of jumping through loops seems to satisfy thoroughly.

Bad things happen to good people, certainly, as we all have seen.

I've been perusing Ecclesiastes tonight. Man, we need to read that book more often. There's an odd comfort I find in it's sobering truths.

[Josh]

10/9/06:

The scene in Exodus 24 is powerful. Only the leaders and the 70 elders are invited up on the mountain of God. I don't think we should look at this in terms of 'first class' seating versus 'coach'. I think the reason the mass of people aren't invited up on the mount is not that God wants to exclude them, but that they aren't ready to encounter His holiness. They would die in the face of it. They are stuck with the letter of the law (the stone tablets), but a few, like Moses enter into relationship with God (the cloud).

I love verse 11: "But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank."

Somehow they could endure just a glimpse of Him (elsewhere we are told that no human could behold the full glory of God and live to tell about it- even Moses- see Exodus 33). And we are told that they made a party out of it! They ate and drank with God! How sweet. Do you see how this is the beginning of the undoing of the Fall of Man? Adam and Eve had that kind of intimacy with God that is characterized by eating together. Now Israel had been chosen to be intimate with God.

Of course, this is a short-termed experience for the Israelites.

But guess what the Church gets to do every week! Eat and drink, seeing God is the elements of Christ's sacrifice, a foretaste of the feast that goes on for all eternity.

[rose]

10/06:

That does sound pretty awesome! I wonder if they realized just how awesome it was for them? If they did, I don't think it lasted too long.

[rose]

10/06:

Well, the first thing that struck me was that the angel that was sent to guard them would not forgive their rebellion, if they rebelled against him.


The next thing that struck me was that God was going to wipe out and demolish all of the "ites" in the surrounding area. Anyone who was an enemy to the Israelites, was an enemy to God.


Then verses 25 & 26 (of chapter 23) were interesting to me...God's almost making it sound like He's going to create another eden for them - if they worship Him.


Also, I found it interesting at the beginning of chapter 24, God has Moses and the elders come up to meet with Him, of course the elders were to be at a distance, while Moses spoke with God. However, in verses 10 & 11, it says they saw the God of Israel, but He did not raise his hand against them. Weren't they supposed to stay at a distance?

Then, of course, the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai for six days, and then on the seventh day He called to Moses. And they were on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. Both sets of numbers sound vaguely familiar!