Fulfill Your Covenantal Responsibility – Exodus 23:20-33
23 (20) Listen; I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. (21) Pay attention to him and obey him*; do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgression, because my Name is in him. (22) But if you will obey him and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries, (23) for my angel will go ahead of you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. (24) You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them, nor shall you follow the practices of those people; rather, you shall demolish their idols and break their sacred pillars to pieces. (25) You shall serve Jehovah your God, and he will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. (26) None shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. (27) I will send my terror ahead of you and will throw into confusion all the people you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run from you. (28) I will send “the hornet” ahead of you to drive the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. (29) I will not drive them out of your way in a single year, so that the land does not become desolate and the wild animals multiply against you. (30) Little by little I will drive them out of your way, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. (31) I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out of your way. (32) You shall not make any covenant with them or with their gods. (33) You shall not permit them to live in your land, or else they will cause you to sin against me; for if you serve their gods, that will certainly be a snare to you.
*Literally, “listen to his voice”
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
