He Did What Israel Could Not Do
The promise to Abraham in Genesis 12: "I will bless you and make your name great... All nations of the Earth will be blessed through you."
Centuries later, the children of Abraham are on the cusp of having their own land where they could live out the blessing of God on a particular people, so that other nations would see and hear of the goodness of God and turn to Him!
In Exodus 23, God is about to send them in... And He says:
Exodus 23:20–22 (ESV) “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...
Exodus 23:25–26 (ESV) You shall serve the LORD your God, and he 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...
Exodus 23:23–24 (ESV) “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....
Exodus 23:32–33 (ESV) 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.”
Centuries later, the children of Abraham are on the cusp of having their own land where they could live out the blessing of God on a particular people, so that other nations would see and hear of the goodness of God and turn to Him!
In Exodus 23, God is about to send them in... And He says:
Exodus 23:20–22 (ESV) “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...
Exodus 23:25–26 (ESV) You shall serve the LORD your God, and he 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...
Exodus 23:23–24 (ESV) “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....
Exodus 23:32–33 (ESV) 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.”
Oh that Israel could have lived up to that!
They will soon make a golden calf and seek to return to Egypt. They will soon practice lewd sins at the base of God's mountain. They will question Moses, rebel against him, doubt God's promise and reject the faith of those who trust Him! They will moan and complain. And even when their children finally achieve ownership of the land they will fail in every stipulation outlined in these words of the covenant!
The problem with reading the Bible as an instruction manual for life is that you eventually come to realize you CANNOT DO IT! If you read Exodus 23 and hope to make it your life passage, good luck! Israel saw God's glory on the mountain and failed miserably a few days later.
Then we watch their long and torrid history expose for the desperate human condition that seeks to run from God. Even those who have all the privileges and signs God could give them will not live to obey Him! The heart of man is desperately wicked.
If this passage does one thing for us it annihilates our ability to produce our own righteousness! And this passage leaves us longing for someone who will do it on our behalf!
There was One who did! There is one who paid careful attention to the voice of God. There is one who did all that God asked of Him. There is one who took sickness away and rejected all forms of idolatry. There is one who passed the test in the wilderness, resisted satan's offers, and humbly submitted to the conquest God laid out for Him on a brutal cross 2000 years ago. His name is Jesus and He did that because YOU could not.
That is the Gospel. And because of the imputation of His righteousness secured in His obedience and received by grace through faith, you have access to the blessings of God.
Sound too good to be true? Read the New Testament:
Ephesians 1:3–6 (ESV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Christian, your blessings are a gift from God through Jesus - the true Israel, seed of Abraham and Son of David who did what no one ever could. Receive it and be glad!
Amen!
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