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Exodus chapter 23, our focus 
will be verses 20 to 33, a parallel passage to this is Deuteronomy 
chapter 7. It's basically, in Deuteronomy 
7, it's the instruction to wage holy war on the Canaanites, And 
the same sort of emphasis is here, more details in chapter 
7 of Deuteronomy, but this is what the focus is here. It's 
the promise concerning the conquest. The conquest is that term that 
we use concerning the people of Israel going into the land 
of Canaan to conquer that land, to dispossess the Canaanites 
from the land and to take that land as the gift that God had 
given to them. So beginning in chapter 23 at 
verse 20, behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the 
way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 
Beware of him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will 
not pardon your transgressions. For my name is in him. But if 
you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will 
be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 
For my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites 
and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites 
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. 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. So you shall serve the Lord your 
God, and he will bless your bread and your water. And I will take 
sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage 
or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of 
your days. I will send my fear before you. 
I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, 
and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And 
I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, 
the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive 
them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate 
and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little 
by little I will drive them out from before you until you have 
increased and you inherit the land. And I will set your bounds 
from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert 
to the river. For I will deliver the inhabitants 
of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before 
you. You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 
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. Amen. Well, remember in 
chapter 20 you have the Ten Commandments, the general principles concerning 
or a revelation of God's moral law. And then chapters 21 and 
following are the applications of those general principles in 
civil society. So we get to this particular 
point, we wonder how this fits into the law code. Well, it fits 
into the law code because it's God's motivation to the children 
of Israel to keep the law in the land that the Lord was going 
to give them. And here as well, it foreshadows 
that conquest. It foreshadows what God is going 
to do in terms of dispossessing the land of the Canaanites. And 
so this is a fitting conclusion to this section in chapter 23. 
Chapter 24 is the ratification of the covenant. And then there's 
a major shift in terms of the narrative in chapter 25. So we 
have in chapters 1 to 19, essentially you have, or 1 to 18, you have 
deliverance. Chapters 19 to 24, you have demand. And then chapters 25 to 40, you 
have dwelling. And so the emphasis in 25 and 
following is on the tabernacle. They're given instructions concerning 
the building of the tabernacle, and then the actual construction 
of the tabernacle. and much of the book is taken 
up with that particular theme. I think Davis is right, the God 
of the bush is the God of the mountain and he is also the God 
of the tent. So the God revealed in Exodus 
chapter 3, the God revealed in Exodus chapter 19 at Sinai is 
the God revealed in that tabernacle, or that temple, or that dwelling 
place where he meets with his people. So that's sort of where 
we're going in the future. But tonight, as I said, we'll 
look at the promise of the conquest. There's three sections in this. 
First, the divine initiative in the conquest, verses 20 to 
24. Secondly, the divine promise 
concerning the conquest in verses 25 to 31. And then finally, the 
divine warning concerning the conquest in verses 32 and 33. There are warnings along the 
way, but I think that last section does parallel what we see later 
in Deuteronomy 7 in a bit more amplified situation. So we'll look at Deuteronomy 
7 later on. But notice in terms of the divine 
initiative, you have two things here, the mission of the angel 
of the Lord and then the caution concerning the idols in Canaan. 
And if you look at the particular language here, behold I send 
an angel. Now the New King James gives 
a capital A for this angel, interpreting it most likely as the second 
person of the Trinity. Often times when you see in the 
Old Testament an angel of the Lord, it's usually one of those 
sorts of beings that are less than God. They are creatures 
and they are messengers for God. When the New King James capitalizes 
it, it's an interpretative call that it's referring to deity. 
It's referring to the angel of the Lord. And as we move through 
verses 20 and 21, I think that's a very good identification. So in terms of divine initiative, 
notice that God sends the angel according to verse 20. Behold, 
I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring 
you into the place which I have prepared. So it's not the case 
that this is simply the task of Israel, unaided by their God, 
to go into the land and dispossess the land of the Canaanites. No, 
we see God is active. We see that God is proactive. 
We see that God provides the angel so that the angel can be 
the one who gives them guidance in terms of entering into the 
promised land. the angel will bring the Israelites 
into the land according to verse 20b. Notice, in the way and to 
bring you into the place which I have prepared. So again, in 
context, in terms of moving through this book of the covenant, this 
would surely motivate the people of Israel, it would surely encourage 
the people of Israel, and it would surely be a boon to them. 
They're in the midst of receiving law from God on how to conduct 
themselves in the land, but they need to be reminded or reflect 
upon the reality that they're being given a gift. By God's 
grace, promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is giving 
them the land of the Canaanites. They are not earners of it. And later in Deuteronomy 7, he 
says, it's not because you're more righteous. It's not because 
you're more numerous. But it's rather because God set 
his love upon Israel. They were, in fact, his covenant 
people. So this was a gift given by God to the children of Israel. And this would motivate them 
to do the work of the conquest. And then notice, as I said, we 
see this angel of the Lord described with divine predication. Notice in verse 21, beware of 
him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him for he will 
not pardon your transgressions. And then it says, for my name 
is in him. So he is the one who is to be 
obeyed. He has divine prerogatives. He 
has the ability to pardon sin. Here it's specified that he's 
not going to pardon sin because again the emphasis is upon their 
obedience. They're not supposed to engage 
in wickedness and lawlessness. And the one with the name of 
Yahweh in him. and then he is to be obeyed, 
notice in verse 22, if you indeed obey his voice and do all that 
I speak. So obeying the voice of the angel 
of the Lord is to heed the words that Yahweh himself speaks. Now, 
this only makes sense in terms of the Christian doctrine of 
the Trinity. There is but one only, the living and true God. 
And yet there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God, 
the same in substance, equal in power and glory. So oftentimes, 
when you see this reference to the angel of the Lord, it is 
typically the pre-incarnate Christ who is doing the bidding of Yahweh 
in terms of, in this case, leading the people of Israel into the 
land of Canaan. Matthew Poole interprets it this 
way, to wit, Christ, the angel of the covenant, as may be gathered 
both from the following words, because pardon of sin, which 
is God's prerogative, is here ascribed to him, and God's name 
is in him. and by comparing other scriptures. And then he mentions Exodus 32, 
34. You can turn there. Exodus chapter 32 and verse 34. Now therefore go, lead the people 
to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel 
shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when 
I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for 
their sin. And then there's other passages 
in the Old Testament that underscore this angel of the Lord, but turn 
to the New Testament, where you see a reference to this angel 
of the Lord in the presence of Christ in the Old Testament. 
So Acts chapter 7, Stephen's sermon concerning the Tabernacle 
Temple, In 737, this is that Moses who said to the children 
of Israel, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet 
like me from your brethren, him you shall hear. This is he who 
was in the congregation, the church in the wilderness, with 
the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, 
the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our 
fathers would not obey, but rejected, and in their hearts they turned 
back to Egypt. and then turn to 1 Corinthians 
chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 underscores the reality of 
Christ's presence in this Old Testament situation. 1 Corinthians 
chapter 10, specifically at verse 6, now these things became our 
examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things 
as they also lusted. and do not become idolaters as 
were some of them. As it is written, the people 
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit 
sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23,000 
fell. Nor let us tempt Christ as some 
of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain 
as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. 
Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they 
were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages 
have come. So verse 9, Nor let us tempt 
Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by 
serpents. So going back to our text, this 
angel that the Lord sends is identified with the Lord himself. And again, I think this is a 
reference to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Now going back 
to Exodus chapter 23, we see not only guidance provided by 
this angel, but we also see a divine warrior. Notice in verses 22 
and 23. If you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, 
then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your 
adversaries. What a blessed promise. Simply 
stated, it's similar to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8. 
If God is for us, then who can be against us? We certainly want 
the living and true God to be an enemy to our enemies. We want 
the living and true God to be an adversary to our adversaries. It's a blessed reality. And then 
in verse 23, he underscores that the angel will go before you 
and bring you into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites 
and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will 
cut them off. Turn for one sort of sample passage 
to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 
10 is the southern campaign when they go into the land, when they 
go to conquer it under God's guidance. We'll notice specifically 
in chapter 10 at verse 7. It says, So Joshua ascended from 
Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the 
mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, 
Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand. 
Not a man of them shall stand before you. Joshua therefore 
came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. 
Now, God is the subject of the four verbs utilized in verse 
10. Notice, so the Lord routed them 
before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, 
chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck 
them down as far as Azekah and Makedah. So it's God who is fighting. God is the divine warrior. God 
is the one who goes before them to destroy and vanquish their 
enemies. He's not just giving them sort of a false promise 
in Exodus chapter 23 or Deuteronomy chapter 7. And then when you 
look at what goes on after this in chapter 10, you'll see this 
constant refrain concerning the various cities in this southern 
campaign. Look for instance at verse 30, 
the Lord also delivered it. Verse 32, the Lord delivered 
Lachish. Dropping down to verse 42, because 
the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. So again, not empty 
promises at Sinai, not empty promises at Moab, but promises 
of God's presence among his people, not only to guide, but to be 
their warrior. And I have a quote written from 
Dale Ralph Davis in my Bible, The Margin, here. And I think 
he's right on. You've heard me quote this in 
the pulpit before. He says, the popular image of 
Jesus is that he is not only kind and tender, but also soft 
and prissy, as though Jesus comes to us reeking of hand cream. 
Such a Jesus can hardly steal the soul that is daily assaulted 
by the enemy. We need to learn the catechism 
of Psalm 24. Question, who is the king of 
glory? Answer, Yahweh, strong and mighty. Yahweh, mighty in battle. We must catch the vision of the 
faithful and truth sitting on the white horse, the one who 
judges and makes war and righteousness. I'm sorry, no mild God or soft 
Jesus can give the people hope. It is only as we know the warrior 
of Israel who fights for us and sometimes with us, without us, 
that we have hope of triumphing in the muck of life. I think 
he's bang on there, and we lose sight of that reality, but they 
were not supposed to in this Old Covenant context. It would 
be God who would not only guide them into the land, but it would 
be God Most High who would deliver the enemies into their hand. 
And then notice that it's predicated in Exodus 23, 22 on their obedience. Verse 22, if you indeed obey 
His voice and do all that I speak. Stuart says, success requires 
obedience. The people could not hope to 
enjoy God's benefits, including His abiding protection, if they 
tried to make decisions on their own. We see that. Whenever they 
did that, whenever they tried to basically think for themselves 
or do for themselves, it always ended up in futility. Remember 
when our scripture reading, this was before Canaan to be sure, 
but symptomatic of life in Canaan would be that situation in Numbers 
13 and 14. They side with the 10 grumblers, 
they side with the 10 whiners, they side with the 10 complainers, 
and they want to kill Moses and Aaron. And then Moses tells them, 
don't go to battle. What do they do? They go to battle 
and they end up losing. And so whenever they didn't think 
God's thoughts after him, they would reap the consequences in 
terms of judgment from God. So that's the mission of the 
angel of the Lord, but then notice the caution concerning the idols 
in Canaan. Verse 24, 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. Now I think Stuart has a good 
answer as to why this prohibition is repeated over and over and 
over again. They not only had the first and second commandment, 
have no other gods before me, but even in this law code that 
we've been moving through over the last several weeks, we see 
this constant refrain on this prohibition against idolatry. 
And here it is again. The Lord, the angel of the Lord 
is going to guide you. The angel of the Lord is going 
to vanquish your enemies. Now when you get into that land, 
you shall not bow down to their gods. Now all of these instructions, 
they nevertheless went into the land and bowed down to their 
gods. So what was the draw? What was 
the allure? What was the enticement? What 
was it about those gods in Canaan that drew the hearts of these 
people away from Yahweh into the service of these false gods? 
He says, why would Israel be tempted to worship local Canaanite 
deities? The answer is that once settled 
in Canaan, they would surely desire agricultural success. 
which in the ancient world was generally attributed to proper 
involvement of the deities in the agricultural process through 
worship. In general, ancient peoples believed 
that the gods could do anything but feed themselves. Humans, 
therefore, had the job of raising food for the gods, which was 
then sent to them through the offerings humans gave in the 
presence of the gods' idols. What part did the gods have in 
this process? They caused the crops to grow 
and the flocks and herds to multiply. The ancient farmer thought that 
the gods were absolutely essential to the agricultural process and 
that the way to involve the goodwill of the gods on behalf of one's 
farming was to worship them. The essence of worship was providing 
food for them in the form of sacrifices. When Israel would 
arrive in the promised land, the temptation to plant as the 
Canaanites planted, to cultivate as they cultivated, to harvest 
as they harvested, and to worship as they worshipped would be almost 
irresistible since all these were thought to go together as 
part and parcel of farming in any given locality. That makes 
sense when they go into this land and they see the neighbors 
that they did not dispossess. See, this was a package deal. 
They were supposed to completely eradicate and decimate the Canaanites. They were supposed to eliminate 
them, get them out of the land. Why? Because if you don't, you're 
going to end up eating with them, you're going to end up worshiping 
with them, and you're going to end up abandoning Yahweh, the 
living and true God. In fact, turn to Deuteronomy 
7 at this particular point. Deuteronomy chapter 7, it's a 
bit expansive or amplified in terms of the blessings that they 
will receive. We'll see that in our passage 
in verses 25 and following. But notice in chapter 7 of Deuteronomy 
at verse 12. Then it shall come to pass, because 
you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the 
Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy 
which he swore to your fathers. And he will love you and bless 
you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit 
of your womb and the fruit of your land. your grain and your 
new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring 
of your flock in the land of which he swore to your fathers 
to give you." Same sort of emphasis that we'll find in chapter 23 
in Exodus. Why is that? Again, because all 
good and wonderful things come from Yahweh. They don't come 
from Baal. They don't come from Asherah. They don't come from 
Molech. These idols or these gods of 
the heathen were not true and living gods. They were fake. 
They were false. They were fraudulent. The psalmist 
mocks these gods in Psalm 115 and Psalm 135. They have eyes, 
but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't 
hear. They have mouths, but they don't talk. They have all these 
things, and yet, they are absolutely impotent, and they are deficient. 
And so God, over and over and over again, tells the children 
of Israel not to bow, not to serve, not to engage in this 
idolatry in the land of Canaan. And this isn't something confined 
to the Old Testament. I've always been intrigued how 
John the Apostle ends the first epistle that he wrote. My little 
children, keep yourselves from idols. My little children, keep 
yourselves from idols. Well, why that prohibition? We're 
New Covenant believers. We love Jesus. because we have 
big problems and we have remaining corruption and we usually or 
typically want to go find those things which satisfies the longing 
of our heart and so that prohibition is absolutely crucial for the 
new covenant as well as the old covenant people of God. So Israel 
is commanded to not only NOT worship their gods, but notice 
at the end of verse 24, "...but you shall utterly overthrow them, 
and completely break down their sacred pillars." Anything that 
they use to worship in the land of Canaan, you need to eradicate, 
you need to get rid of. I think of James 1, pure and 
undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, 
to visit widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself 
unspotted from the world. Why does he give us that prohibition? 
Because it's not usually the case that our spotlessness will 
positively impact the heathen around us, but it's more likely 
that the wretchedness of the heathen is going to pollute us. because we have that proneness 
to wander and that proneness to leave the God that we love. 
So get rid of all their sacred pillars, get rid of all their 
altars, get rid of their temples, get rid of their tabernacles, 
get rid of whatever it is, because you're not so holy that you won't 
be bowing down at those things alongside of those heathen if 
you don't decimate their holy articles. And then that brings 
us to the divine promise concerning the conquest, 25 to 31. Stuart 
says verses 25 to 30 function as a sort of short blessing list, 
something of an adumbration of the blessings portion of the 
sanctions that would follow in greater abundance at the conclusion 
of the Sinai covenant. So at the conclusion of the covenant, 
you have Leviticus 26, you've got Deuteronomy 28, well, 27 
and 28. And basically what you have in 
those sections of scripture is a long list of blessings for 
obedience, and then curses for disobedience. And when you look 
at this particular section, and you see what God promises positively, 
and then you move, say, to Judges and beyond, and you see that 
they're not getting those things, it's because they didn't obey. 
It was a works arrangement. It was a covenant of works. They say that in the ratification 
in chapter 24. If you notice specifically at 
verse 3, all the words which the Lord has said, we will do. 
Dropping down to verse 7, all that the Lord has said, we will 
do and be obedient. Well, they didn't do that. They 
reneged. They were unfaithful. It's not that God was unfaithful. 
God was faithful. God said, here, do this, and 
blessings will ensue. Do this, in terms of lawlessness, 
and curses will ensue. But even in that, you see the 
long suffering of God. You see a lot of patience. You see a lot of forbearance. 
You see a long period of time where he did put up with the 
children of Israel even though they were disobedient and they 
were rebellious against him. So there are blessings associated 
with obedience. Notice in 25a. So you shall serve 
the Lord your God, and then again here come the blessings. It's 
going to be amplified in Leviticus 26, it's going to be amplified 
in Deuteronomy 28, but here specifically there's a few things mentioned. 
He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness 
away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage 
or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of 
your days." So it was a very rich covenant in terms of the 
blessings provided by God for obedience in the land. Turn back 
for just a moment to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15, there's 
a foreshadow of that blessing in terms of not getting disease, 
the diseases associated with, say, Egypt or later on in Canaan. So in Exodus 15, 26, and he said, 
if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what 
is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments and keep 
all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which 
I have brought on the Egyptians. Excuse me. for I am the Lord 
who heals you." And then over in Deuteronomy chapter 7, Deuteronomy 
chapter 7, specifically at verse 15. And the Lord will take away 
from you all sickness, excuse me, and will afflict you with 
none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, 
but will lay them on all those who hate you. And I think this, 
I've got the note in my Bible We've gone through Deuteronomy 
many years ago in our Wednesday night study, so I'm a little 
bit more familiar with some of these sections. Elephantiasis, 
dysentery, and ophthalmia, some sort of an eye disease, were 
things that were characteristic in Egypt. And so back to this 
list of blessings and promises. He says that he'll provide food 
and bread and water. He'll provide health and he'll 
provide healthy wombs so that the children of Israel can procreate 
and fill that land and multiply and be a blessing in terms of 
succession. And then with reference to the 
promise, notice that he highlights his power. So it's not only the 
blessings that he gives them in verses 25 and 26, but he rehearses 
his power. Notice in verses 27 and 28. So 
again, this is part of the promise package relative to the conquest. Verse 27, I will send my fear 
before you. Just like he said in verse 20, 
behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and 
to bring you into the place which I have prepared. God is the forerunner. 
God is the one who initiates. God goes before, and I will send 
my fear before you. I will cause confusion among 
all the people to whom you come. You see that again in the book 
of Joshua. You see it in the book of Judges. 
Now Judges is intriguing because Joshua is a very positive sort 
of representation of the conquest. Judges, not so positive. Judges, 
we know there are repetitive cycles in there. Sin, the people 
sin against God. They break covenant against God. 
God raises up a foreign oppressor. brings them under judgment, they 
cry out, not in repentance typically, they cry out because of pain 
and distress, and nevertheless God in his goodness and kindness 
breaks the back of the oppressor using one of the judges that 
he raises up. So Joshua is a very favorable 
portrayal of the conquest. Judges, not so much. Judges shows 
that the people of Israel, instead of dispossessing the land of 
all the Canaanites, not only left a lot of them, but became 
like them. Started to gradually become like 
the Canaanites and the land. That's why later in redemptive 
history, subsequent to that, you see them, the Northern Kingdom, 
cut off, and you see the Southern Kingdom cut off. Sometimes people 
say God is arbitrary, or God is capricious, or God just commanded 
this genocide of these poor, innocent Canaanites. They were 
not poor, innocent Canaanites. They were wretched, lawless, 
godless lawbreakers, those who had rejected the living and the 
true God. So God uses not-too-righteous Israel to cast them out of the 
land. But when not-too-righteous Israel 
devolves and degenerates and becomes like the Canaanites, 
then God deals with them according to the same standard of justice. 
So there's no capriciousness, it's not arbitrary. If you act 
like a Canaanite, you're going to be judged like the Canaanite, 
and that's precisely what happens in Israel's history. So God has 
told them that he will bring confusion among all the people 
to whom you come. And again, you see evidences 
of that in Joshua and in Judges. And will make all your enemies 
turn their backs to you. What does that mean? It means 
they're retreating. It means they're running. It 
means that they are fleeing because your power under God most high 
is a terror to them and so they are fleeing as a result of that, 
the retreat of their enemies. retreat of their enemies and 
then this reference to the sending of the hornet in verse 28 I will 
send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivite, the 
Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you this is repeated in 
Deuteronomy chapter 7 at verse 20 and then again in Joshua chapter 
24 and verse 12 And a fellow that comments on the book of 
Deuteronomy, a fellow by the name of Alan Harmon, says, the 
hornet has been often interpreted metaphorically. For example, 
older Jewish exegetes explained it as leprosy, while other modern 
scholars have thought of it as a reference to the pharaoh of 
Egypt or as the spirit of despondency in the people. In view of the 
fact that the great confusion of verse 23 seems to indicate 
a literal happening, it is best to take hornet here as literal 
also. A general plague of stinging 
insects may well have been intended. And if you've read through the 
book of Exodus up to this point, it makes perfect sense. How does 
God free the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt? It is through these kinds of 
plagues, it is through frogs, it is through lice, it is through 
boils, it is through these things that under God that are used 
to bring this sort of pain and punishment to the enemies of 
God Almighty. So we see not only His power 
but then the protection of God in verses 29 to 31. Verse 29, 
I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest 
the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become 
too numerous for you. If this conquest happens overnight, 
and if the children of Israel aren't populous enough, though 
they are quite populous at this point, but if they aren't not 
enough to take the whole land or subdue the whole land, well 
then beasts will come. They'll be the primitive conditions 
where beasts sort of roam around and are a threat to those who 
are in that body politic. So I will not drive them out 
from before you in one year lest the land become desolate and 
the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little 
by little I will drive them out from before you until you have 
increased and you inherit the land. So God's protection is 
seen in this gradual pace. It's not going to happen overnight. 
It's going to be gradual such that you don't have now no Canaanites 
to deal with, but you got lions and tigers and bears. Thinking of Wizard of Oz here, 
lions and tigers and bears, whatever menaces in the land that would 
menace them, this is not going to be the case. Now again, this 
is optimal conditions. This is predicated on obedience. 
We know when they actually get into the land, it doesn't all 
work out. And that doesn't reflect upon 
God, the covenant maker. It reflects upon Israel, the 
covenant keepers, or the lack thereof. And then the boundaries 
of the promised land are specified in verse 31 that actually only 
be realized at the time of David and Solomon. So again, this is 
a programmatic view of what God will do for the nation of Israel, 
but this won't be realized ultimately until David goes out and conquers 
the enemies around Israel, ushers in a period of peace so that 
Solomon then can build the temple and see those boundaries extended 
the way that God had prescribed. And then the section ends with 
a warning concerning the conquest. Notice in verse 32, you shall 
make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. No covenant 
with them. Turn over to Deuteronomy 7, just 
to see the various aspects of this prohibition. Again, I think 
it's a bit more amplified in Deuteronomy 7. Let's just pick 
up at verse 1 and we'll read to verse 5. When the Lord your 
God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and 
has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, 
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, 
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 
and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer 
them and utterly destroy them. Again, this wasn't the case where, 
you know, just go ahead and inhabit the land with them, just dwell 
equally and, you know, tolerance is the key here. No, you're supposed 
to conquer them and utterly destroy them. Now notice, there's to 
be no political alliance or political covenant with them at the end 
of verse 2. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show 
mercy to them. So this is dispossess them, conquer 
them, destroy them, make no political alliance. But also you're not 
to make social alliances according to verses three and four. Nor 
shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your 
daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 
For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve 
other gods. So the prohibition is obvious 
in verse three when the rationale is provided in verse four. You 
marry that sweet little Canaanite girl, you're gonna be bowing 
down to her idol with her. You marry that Canaanite fellow 
and you're gonna be bowing down to the idol that he bows down 
to. It's not that God is prescribing 
something that runs along racial lines. He is prescribing in terms 
of covenant. He's prescribing in terms of 
religion. for they will turn your sons 
away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the 
Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 
So no political alliance, no social alliance, and of course, 
verse five, no religious alliance. The verses 2 to 4, political 
and social, would lead to an infraction of the religious. 
But just in case you didn't get that, I want you to make sure 
you know, according to verse 5, but thus you shall deal with 
them. You shall destroy their altars, break down their sacred 
pillars, cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved 
images with fire. So it's not the case that they 
would be so holy and pure that they would always avoid those 
temptations in the land. They wouldn't be that holy and 
pure. The commandment dictated that they rid the land of all 
those things that might cause them to wander, it might cause 
them to go after those other gods. When you go to Deuteronomy 
chapter 12, for instance, there's an emphasis on a central sanctuary. The children of Israel were to 
gather at, at that time, Tabernacle and eventually at the Temple. 
Why was that? It was preventative maintenance. 
If the children of Israel just broke out in worship whenever 
they had a hankering, more often than not, it wouldn't be to the 
true and living God. And so the central sanctuary 
was provided as a means of preventative maintenance so that they would 
not go a-whoring from God, but they would remain faithful to 
God. So back to Exodus chapter 23 at verse 32. You shall make 
no covenant with them nor with their gods. Don't do that. You 
covenant with God Most High, the living and true God, and 
that is to be an expression of allegiance and fidelity to Him 
and to Him alone. And then notice the necessity 
to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. Verse 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. So 
over and over and over again, built into this covenant arrangement 
is the reality that man is prone to wander and man is prone to 
leave the God that we love. 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. So when we conclude, 
or as we conclude this, we see the promise that God has given 
them. They will go into the land of 
Canaan, be led by the angel of Yahweh, and they will see a degree 
of conquest. It will never be fully realized 
because of their own sin and their waywardness. But we also 
see the plan. So in this context, at the foot 
of Sinai, they're given this instruction. We're going to see 
in the book of Leviticus a lot more ceremonial law that details 
the way that they engage in worship, Numbers, as you know, deals with 
them traveling, it deals with laws, and ultimately the destruction 
of that wilderness generation. And then by the time we get to 
the book of Deuteronomy, it's the people of that second generation, 
they're on the plains of Moab, and they're poised to go into 
the promised land. to take the land for God. So 
this is all part of his program for Old Covenant Israel. As I 
said, Joshua sees the conquest positively, and in Judges we 
see the negative, and we see the decline from then on. The 
period of the Judges leads into the period of monarchy, and then 
the monarchy was certainly, you know, affected by a great deal 
of sin as well. You've got the division of the 
kingdom in 1 Kings chapter 12, and then you never have a good 
king in the north. You have a few good kings in 
the south, but none of them are that model. And so the old covenant 
continues to point the people of Israel forward to the son 
of David that would be the king that would sit upon the throne 
of Yahweh and his kingdom would have no end. So there's this 
sort of old covenant Reality that there's really no hero in 
Israel. There's really I mean, there's 
great men and there's heroic men But there's only really one 
hero in all of Scripture and it's the Lord Jesus Christ And 
so you see that tension often in the Old Covenant So God promises 
God gives the plan and God makes prohibitions to the children 
of Israel with the specific intent that if the children of Israel 
are Exposed or exposed themselves to these false gods More likely 
than not, they are going to go astray from God. And the book 
of the various prophets show that in sharp detail over and 
over and over again. You've got the prophet Isaiah 
mocking the southern kingdom or engaged in exposing their 
folly with the man who takes the wood and he makes some, you 
know, he takes some of the wood and he lights a fire and he warms 
himself and he cooks his meat and then with some of that wood 
he makes an idol and he bows down to it. You've got Isaiah 
actually mocking idolaters in much of his prophecy. You've 
got Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, lamenting over the state and 
condition of Judah. I mean, these are not confined 
to one little place here or there, but it shows the wretchedness 
of man apart from God's enabling grace. And again, this is a covenant 
of works. They swore fidelity. When they 
break that covenant, they reap the consequences associated with 
infidelity. We bless God that we have a covenant 
of grace that our blessed Savior undertook on our behalf, that 
he lived, that he died, that he was raised again, so that 
we might receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places 
in Christ Jesus. Well, I'll close in prayer, and 
if