I Will Send an Angel Before You

[The Lord said] “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared” (Exodus 23:20-33).

Angels were a constant feature in the history of Israel. However, when we read of the Angel of the Lord, a divine person is often being referred to (see Exodus 3:2-4), doubtless the Lord Jesus Himself in one of His pre-incarnation appearances.

Israel had known angelic help from the very first. In Egypt, “When we cried out to the LORD, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt” (Numbers 20:16). Then through the wilderness, “The Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them” (Exodus 14:19). The present promise to them was that the divine Angel would still go before them, as would a shepherd, “to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared” (verse 20). If He was revered and obeyed, “then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” (verse 22). In particular, He would “bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off” (verse 23), that is, the most prominent of their future enemies, apart from the Girgashites. The promise was later repeated to Moses, when the basis for leading the people on was, “Behold, My Angel shall go before you” (Exodus 32:34).

While they were warned, “You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars” (verse 24), they eventually settled down amongst them, and “took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods” (Judges 3:5-6). For this, and other reasons, they were expelled from the prepared land.

We too have been promised divine help for the journey to the prepared place. The Lord Jesus told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:2-3). We also know His help along the way, for He is the “great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20), ensuring that we are presented “faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).

Adapted and modified excerpts from Day by Day: Bible Promises
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.