Message 74
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 23:20-33
In the foregoing message we began to consider from 23:20-33 the matter of the Angel of Jehovah for His people to take possession of the promised land. We saw that the Angel of Jehovah was sent by Jehovah (v. 20), that Jehovah’s name is in Him (v. 21), and that He is actually Jehovah Himself (3:2, 4, 6, 14, 16). Furthermore, we pointed out that His voice was Jehovah’s speaking and that He went before the children of Israel to guard them in the way and to bring them into the good land (23:20, 23). We also considered the boundaries of the promised land: from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, the Mediterranean, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates. We also saw that there were frustraters in the land, the pagan tribes with their idols. Finally, in a very general way we shared a word about how to take possession of the land. In this message and in the message following, we need to pay attention to the details concerning the way to take possession of the land. No matter how much we may know about the Angel of Jehovah and about the good land, this knowledge may be vain if we do not see the way to take possession of the land.
Taking possession of the good land is the terminology found in the typology in the Old Testament. In the New Testament Paul speaks of gaining Christ, obtaining Christ, laying hold of Christ (Phil. 3:8). These expressions from Philippians 3 are the fulfillment of the type of possessing the promised land in the Old Testament. Today we need to experience the all-inclusive Christ typified by the good land. My burden in this message is related to the way to take possession of Christ, the way to experience Christ, win Christ, gain Christ, obtain Christ, take hold of Christ, and grasp Christ. As a help in this matter, we need to patiently consider Exodus 23:20-33 in detail, digging into these verses in order to see the riches they contain.
At this point I wish to say that we do not intend to allegorize the Old Testament according to a certain interpretation. On the contrary, what we are doing is fitting various portions of the Word together in order to see a complete picture. This is not to allegorize or to guess at the meaning of things. This is to fit different parts of the Word together in order to see a picture of spiritual things, which are otherwise invisible. The matters related to spiritual experience are real, but they are mysterious and invisible. For this reason, God has given us both the types in the Old Testament and statements of fact in the New Testament. The Old Testament types are pictures of the spiritual realities revealed in the New Testament. Just as children put together the pieces of a puzzle, so we need to fit together various parts of the Bible in order to see a picture.
It takes time and patience to assemble a puzzle of hundreds of pieces. First you need to try one piece and then another. Eventually, little by little a picture comes into view. Do you want to see a portrait of the wonderful, heavenly, spiritual, and divine things in the Word of God? If you do, then patiently and diligently you need to put the pieces of the “puzzle” of the Bible together. I repeat, to allegorize the Old Testament in a certain way is not my way. Rather, my way is to fit the pieces together until a picture comes into view. In this message I shall present another picture which I have seen through patient study of the Word and prayer over the Word.
We have seen that the ordinances in Exodus 21 through 23 are very rich in their implications, indications, and significances. It is indeed significant that these three chapters conclude with a word concerning the Angel of Jehovah bringing God’s people into the promised land. Christ as God’s sent One guards us in the way and brings us into Himself as the all-inclusive good land. Furthermore, 23:20-33 tells us in a detailed way not only how to enter into the land, but also how to take possession of this land for our enjoyment. Actually in these verses not a great deal is said either concerning the Angel of Jehovah or concerning the good land itself. But a good deal of attention is given to the frustraters, the pagan tribes that would keep God’s people from possessing the promised land. Yet the description of the way to take possession of the land is even more detailed than that of the frustraters. This indicates that if we would experience Christ we must, on the one hand, know the frustraters and, on the other hand, know the detailed way to take possession of Christ and gain Him experientially. Just as we need a detailed map to find our way around a city, so we need the details in 23:20-33 in order to know the way to possess the good land for our enjoyment. A general sketch is helpful, but it is not adequate. The driver of an automobile needs not only a bird’s eye view of the city, but also a detailed understanding of the streets. Then he will be able to find his way. In these fourteen verses we have a detailed “map” for our spiritual “driving” into the promised land, the all-inclusive Christ.
If we would take possession of the promised land, we must learn to obey the Angel of Jehovah, the One sent to us from God. This Angel, this sent One, is Jesus Christ. God sent Christ to us in a way that involves many steps: incarnation, human living, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, glorification, and enthronement. By means of all these steps, God has sent Christ, His Angel, to us. Now that He is with us, we must obey Him.
In order to take possession of Christ, we need to realize that we have Him with us, even within us, as a living Person. This means that we have the living Christ Himself, not a system of doctrines. This living Person is now in us (Col. 1:27). Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” If we do not have Christ in us, we do not belong to Him. Instead, we belong to the Devil, the demons, and the world. Praise the Lord that Jesus Christ is in us! We have Him as the sent One, the Angel of Jehovah, who has come to us through the wonderful process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, glorification, and enthronement. How marvelous that such a One has been sent to be with us!
Many Christians today do not realize that the living Person of Christ is with them and in them. They may care for biblical doctrines, but they may not pay attention to the living One. In an article entitled “The Waning Authority of Christ in the Churches” A. W. Tozer strongly points out that believers today neglect the living Christ and His lordship. Christians may care for their mission work, gospel preaching, or teaching of the Bible and theology, but may pay virtually no attention to the living Person of Jesus Christ.
In 23:21 and 22, God does not say, “I have given you teachings to follow.” No, here the Lord says of the Angel, “Take ye heed before him, and obey his voice...obey his voice, and do all that I speak” (lit.). Twice we are told to obey the voice of the Angel, for His voice is God’s speaking. This means that as the Angel, the sent One, Christ speaks for God. How crucial, then, that we obey His voice!
Today Christ speaks for God in a living way from within us. In John 10 there is strong emphasis on hearing the Lord’s voice. Speaking of Himself as the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus says, “The sheep hear his voice” (v. 3). In verse 16 the Lord goes on to say, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice.” In verse 27 He testifies clearly, “My sheep hear My voice.” I have the assurance that we all have the voice of the Lord within us. Even the young people, those who are still teenagers, have heard the voice of the living One in them. Because they hear the Lord’s voice, many times it is not necessary for their parents or anyone else to tell them what to do. Christ, the living One, is more subjective to them than their parents. The parents of a young person cannot go to school with him, whereas the indwelling Christ not only goes with him to school, but remains in him all the time. Because we have Christ, the sent One of God, within us, we must obey Him. In particular, we should obey His voice.
Exodus 23:21 says, “Take ye heed before him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions” (lit.). Here we have four details concerning our relationship to Christ as the Angel of Jehovah. These details are related to taking heed to Him, obeying Him, not provoking Him, and not being pardoned by Him of our transgressions. It is important that we listen to the Lord’s voice and not provoke Him. According to this verse, if we provoke the Lord, He will not forgive our transgressions. If we consider this carefully, we shall see that this verse corresponds to our experience.
In a very real sense, the indwelling Christ is a pleasant, gentle person. Nevertheless, it is rather easy for Him to be provoked by us. Even if we are disobedient in a small matter, we provoke Him. As a result, we sense that He is no longer smiling upon us. We realize deep within that He is not happy with us. Because the Lord within us is not happy, we cannot be happy either. Perhaps during our time with the Lord in the Word at morning watch we are happy in the Lord. We rejoice and are full of praise. However, later in the day we may provoke Him by our disobedience. Suddenly our joy is gone. The fact that we are no longer happy indicates that we have provoked the Lord and that He is displeased. He may not be angry with us, but He definitely is not happy. The indwelling Christ is very sensitive, and we must be careful not to provoke Him.
After charging us not to provoke the Angel of Jehovah, verse 21 says, “He will not pardon your transgressions.” From our experience we know that once we have provoked the Lord, He will not pardon us until we confess. He is strict and is troubled by even a slight act of disobedience. We should obey His voice and never argue with Him. We may provoke Him even by arguing with Him. Then His face no longer smiles on us, and we no longer have a rejoicing spirit. We may confess our wrongdoing and seek His forgiveness, but He may not pardon us immediately. It may take a few days before we sense that the Lord is once again happy with us and is smiling on us.
I am glad that verse 21 does not say that the Angel will not pardon our transgressions forever. No particular time is specified. Perhaps He will wait just a few minutes before forgiving us, perhaps several days, a week, or even longer. From our experience with Christ we know that sometimes He does not pardon us immediately. This causes us to be miserable. At such times we may try to shout, “Hallelujah, Christ is Victor!” Although we may shout and try to rejoice, the Lord is silent, still unhappy with us and continuing to withhold His pardon. Eventually, after a certain period of time, we suddenly realize that we are inwardly happy once more. We may even feel like singing, “Jesus is the Lord and He lives in me; now I’m as happy as I can be.” We are genuinely happy because the Lord who dwells within us is happy.
We need to realize that if we provoke the Lord by not obeying His voice, He may not pardon our transgression right away. In this matter we should not be careless, thinking that after we have disobeyed the Lord we can say, “Lord Jesus, I was wrong. Please forgive me.” You may think that after praying like this everything is all right, but this may not be the feeling of the Lord within you. He may not pardon you until later. This word about provoking the Lord and about not receiving His forgiveness immediately is not a mere doctrine. This is according to our spiritual experience. I can testify that my experience with the Lord corresponds to the details in verse 21.
According to the Old Testament, the Angel of Jehovah was always with the children of Israel. We know from the New Testament that Christ, God’s sent One, is with us all the time. In Matthew 28:20 the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I am with you all the days.” However, the fact that the Lord is always with us does not necessarily mean that everything is all right. Our relationship with the Lord is a two-way matter. There are two sides, the Lord’s side and our side. There is the need for us to cooperate with Him. Cooperating with the Lord may be illustrated by a three-legged race. The partners in such a race have one leg free and one leg bound together. They must run the race with good coordination. Both parties must cooperate. In principle, the same is true in our relationship with the Lord. On His side, He always does everything well; but we are extremely poor in cooperating with Him. Because of our lack, we need to consider further details in 23:20-33 about possessing the promised land.
According to verse 23, the Angel of Jehovah would go before the people and bring them into the land occupied by the pagan tribes. Concerning these tribes, the Lord promised, “I will cut them off” (v. 23). In verse 27 the Lord says, “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come; and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.” Here we see that the Lord promised to cut off all the pagan tribes from the promised land. I prefer the word pagan rather than the word heathen. The heathen may denote the Gentiles, whereas pagan indicates something demonic, devilish, and idolatrous. All the tribes which were frustraters to the children of Israel were pagan.
It is clear from verses 23 and 27 through 31 that God promised to defeat the pagan tribes. He even promised to send hornets before His people to drive out these tribes (v. 28). Furthermore, the Lord promised, “I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee” (v. 31).
Although God promised to drive out the pagan tribes, He said, “I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land” (vv. 29-30). Here we see that God would drive out the frustraters according to the increase, the growth, of Israel. This indicates that the degree of God’s driving out of the inhabitants of the land is measured by the increase of His people. If their growth was slow, God would drive out the tribes slowly.
In Philippians 2:13 we find a word which corresponds to God’s promise in the Old Testament to drive out the pagan tribes little by little. In this verse Paul says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” God is working, operating, in us to cut off our natural life. Our natural life is fallen, sinful, devilish, and demonic. Whether the natural life appears to be good or bad, simply because it is natural it has these four extremely negative characteristics. Our natural life frustrates us from experiencing Christ and enjoying Him. If we check our experience, we shall see that it is not others who keep us from experiencing Christ, not our husband or wife or any member of our family; it is our own natural life. Sometimes we sense that our natural life is fallen, and at other times, that it is sinful. On some occasions we become conscious of the fact that our natural life is even devilish and demonic. Perhaps you are wondering how I can say that the natural life is demonic, that it behaves as if it were a demon. I would ask you this question: Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror when you were losing your temper? At such a time your facial expression is not that of a gentleman, much less that of a son of God; it is the expression of a demon. Many years ago I saw the faces of some who were gambling. How demonic were those expressions!
The natural life has many different aspects. Certain aspects may seem to be quite good. But in fact these aspects are masks; they are not genuine. Even if they are regarded as true in the sight of men, they are not genuine in the sight of God.
The pagan tribes which occupied the promised land signify the different aspects of the natural life. According to the Bible, there were seven tribes in the land. But we may have many more “tribes” in us. Our fallen life is corrupted and polluted. This is true of young and old alike. A young sister may seem to be pleasant and nice. Nevertheless, the fallen, sinful, devilish, demonic element of the natural life is in her. I say again, the natural life with all its characteristics frustrates us from experiencing Christ. But God has promised to cut off all the pagan tribes, all the aspects of our natural life. He will cut them off and drive them out.
However, it is important for us to realize that God’s driving out of the natural life depends on two matters. First, it depends on our growth, on our increase, reproduction, and multiplication. The more we grow, the more God drives away the natural life. Second, God’s driving out the pagan tribes depends on our taking the initiative to drive out these tribes. In verse 29 God indicates that He will drive out the tribes, but in verse 31 He says, “Thou shalt drive them out before thee.” Yes, God promises to drive them out, but we must take the initiative.
In our seeking after the Lord we may pray, “O Lord, I hate myself. I hate my lust and my natural life. Lord, I ask You to drive these things out of me.” But the more fervently we pray in this way, the less the Lord seems to respond. In fact, there seems to be no answer at all. We pray that the Lord will clear away all the aspects of our natural life so that we may be spiritual people, but He does not answer us.
At this point the type, the picture, in these verses is clear and helpful. According to the type, the Lord will drive out the pagan tribes, the natural life, but the extent of His driving out of the tribes is determined by the pace of our growth. If we do not grow, the Lord will not drive out the tribes. Some Christians, hating the natural life, pray to be free from it. But then they are attacked by “beasts.” In the words of verse 29, the beasts of the field multiply against them. These beasts are even worse than the pagan tribes, for the beasts signify demons. The natural life is terrible, but demons, evil spirits, are even worse. This underscores the danger of being vacant in our inner being. The cutting off of the natural life must correspond to our growth in Christ. The more we grow in the Lord and increase in Him, the more He will replace our natural life. This is the spiritual significance of God’s driving out the pagan tribes according to the increase of Israel. The more God’s people increased in the land numerically, the greater would be the number of pagans God would cut off and drive out of the land. This indicates that the more Christ increases in us, the more He will replace our natural life. The degree of the growth of Christ in us determines the measure of how much the natural life can be cut off.
Without spiritual experience it is not possible to understand that the driving out of the natural life is in proportion to the increase of Christ within us. We know from experience that in our Christian life we must have the increase of Christ. This increase is what replaces the natural life. We should not expect God immediately to drive out every element of the natural life. God’s driving out of the pagan tribes from within us depends on our growth in life, on the increase of Christ in us. If God were to drive out the natural life without a corresponding increase of Christ, we would become vacant. Then something worse — the beasts, the demons — would enter in to take possession of us. Therefore, God’s way is to terminate the natural life according to the increase of Christ within us.
