Does Jesus appear in the Old Testament?

In Exodus 23:20-33, God promises to send "an Angel" before Israel to guard and guide them. Dr. Toby Holt makes the case that this Angel is the pre-incarnate Christ. God says of this Angel, "My name is in him" — a clue that this is no ordinary messenger but the Son of God before His birth in Bethlehem. Holt traces His appearances through Exodus — the burning bush, the Passover, the Red Sea. God promises to drive out Israel's enemies "little by little," growing their faith, and warns against covenants with the surrounding gods.

Questions this study answers:

1. Does Jesus appear in the Old Testament? Yes. Many believe the "Angel of the Lord" is the pre-incarnate Christ, appearing before His birth in Bethlehem.

2. How can we be sure it is Him? Because God says "My name is in him," and the Angel speaks and acts as God — marks of deity, not a mere messenger.

3. Why did God drive out Israel's enemies "little by little"? To grow their faith and avoid unintended harm. God often refines His people through gradual challenges. "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 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

Did you know that Jesus Christ shows up throughout the book of Exodus?

2

In today's study, we'll see that it was Jesus who is referred to as the angel of the Lord in chapter 23 and elsewhere.

3

You know, at some point in the future, probably in glory, but at some time in the future,

4

I'll bet that we have the opportunity to look back at our lives

5

and to see things that we're probably not seeing right now.

6

in other words at some point i'll bet you god grants us the opportunity to look back at our

7

lives and to see through retrospect something that we're missing right now and the main thing

8

the main thing i think we're missing is what you might call god's unseen hand in our lives doing

9

all manner of things that we have no recognition of in the moment he's doing it so many times we

10

face adversaries or hardships or illnesses or what have you and we know god is there we know

11

he can't affect things, but we think he's a satellite in orbit of us, and only now and again

12

does he track into the line of sight in order to assist us. Sometimes we default to that sort of

13

thinking. Sometimes we know God is there, but then something scary comes up on our radar, and honestly

14

we just disassociate the fact that God is there and God is powerful from our circumstances. Do you

15

remember the story of Elisha and his servant? They're in a place called Dothan. The Syrians are

16

coming against them. They wake up one morning. The Syrians are basically at the door of the city

17

looking for Elisha in order to kill him. But Elisha, he's not worried at all. Elisha does

18

the equivalent of getting up and gets his morning coffee and paper and goes out on the balcony and

19

he's not sweating it. But his servant, his servant was freaking out. He says, oh my stars, alas my

20

master, what shall we do? But Elisha was a cool customer. He says, God, show my young friend,

21

show my young ward here your unseen hand. Show him something that I can see through the eyes of

22

faith that he needs to see with his physical eyes. Show him that you got this. Show him that you're

23

here. Show him that your hand is invested in our circumstances in ways that he clearly doesn't

24

understand. In that moment, what happens? The servant is enabled to see around the valley and

25

to see the mountains. And what does he see there? He sees chariots of fire all around them. One

26

moment he was looking at Syrians and freaking out about them. But then he is enabled to see

27

the unseen hand of God and God's power and God's provision and God's protection all around him.

28

And that protection and that provision overwhelmed, outnumbered, outshone that of the poor

29

Syrians down below. He saw the chariots of fire. He saw that God was with him. I think at some point

30

you and I will have the benefit through retrospect, through spiritual eyes that we don't have right

31

now, to see that so many times in our Christian walk, maybe even today, God is with us and we

32

don't see how. We don't see his unseen hand. We don't see the chariots of fire. We don't see

33

these things. You know, back in the 70s and 80s, there's a poem that got inscribed in a lot of

34

Christian churches, and the poem is called Footprints. You ever remember this? Some of you

35

probably own plaques from the 70s or 80s that had this on. Footprints. The two footprints walking

36

through the sand. Now, the poem is written through the eyes of the poet herself, and it's an attempt

37

to look backward at one's life and to see that God was with me through the course of my steps,

38

through the course of my days. There was two sets of footprints through the sandy beach of my life.

39

But the poet makes an observation, and that observation is this, that at certain points,

40

looking back at the footprints, at certain points, there was only one set. At certain points, there

41

was only one set. And what was odd about that was that that coincided with the times and the moments

42

when things were the worst, when things were terrible in the person's life, and they couldn't

43

figure it out. So the poet asked this question, God, the times it was the worst for me, there was

44

only one set of footprints. Why? Why did you leave me alone in those times? And of course, the poem

45

ends with this declaration on behalf of God to the poet. The declaration is this,

46

my precious child, I love you. I would never leave you during your times of trial and suffering. And

47

when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you. It was then that I carried

48

you. Now that's not a biblical quote, but I will tell you this, that concept, that idea, that poem

49

does reflect a biblical precept. God is not distant or aloof with what you're going through.

50

God is not remote in your times or hours of need or when you're facing dangerous obstacles or

51

situations. He's right with us, even carrying us, although you might not know it at the time.

52

God is carrying you even right now. The biggest theological problem I have with the poem Footprints

53

is this. There's no time in my own life where there was two sets of footprints. God carried me

54

the whole lot of it. There was one set and I was in his arms the entire time. My point is this,

55

as we look at today's text, if you could only see the unseen hand of God in your life, if you could

56

only see the things he's protected you from so far, if you only knew the sort of maladies that

57

would have taken you down, the amount of scar tissue that would have been laid upon your back,

58

the way you would have been devoured by a spiritual enemy, if you had any idea what would

59

have already happened to you if God had not protected you thus far. Dear heavens, if you

60

could see that unseen hand, how much more confidence would you have for the future or for what you're

61

going through today? God was consistently reminding the Israelites. He says, you people, you think I'm

62

going to leave you alone. I haven't left you alone. I was with you in Egypt. You prayed, I answered. I

63

was with you at the Red Sea. The Egyptians came, I drowned them. I was with you in the wilderness.

64

you were hungry, I fed you. And when you go across the Jordan River, when you go into the

65

promised land, I will be with you still, even though there are monsters there, even though

66

there are tall folks, there are tall walls, there are Jerichos. Down the road, there'll be Goliaths

67

and the like. I will be with you, and I'll be with you in the person of the angel of the Lord,

68

who is the focus of today's study.

69

Let's look at verses 20 through 22

70

and then just work our way through the balance.

71

Verse 20.

72

Behold, I send an angel before you

73

to keep you in the way and to bring you

74

into the place that I have prepared.

75

Beware of him, obey his voice, do not provoke him,

76

for he will not pardon your transgressions,

77

for my name is in him.

78

But if you indeed obey his voice,

79

do all that I speak, then I, I will be an enemy to your enemies. I will be an adversary

80

to your adversaries. All right. In verse 20, God is reminding the people of the covenant

81

that he made with who a long time ago. It starts with an A. Abraham. He says, you remember that guy?

82

I made him a promise. And that promise had multiple aspects, one of which was that he would

83

have more descendants than the stars in the sky and the sand of the beach. Another key component

84

was this, that in my time, I would bring his progeny, bring those ancestors into their own land,

85

into their own place. I would watch over them and protect them. So here, he's referring back to this

86

covenant, and he's saying, I've gone to prepare a place for you, and I will send, I will send my

87

angel to protect you. He will go ahead of you, and the enemies that you see in Canaan or elsewhere,

88

they will not stand before him. Now, when you think about it, God could have done differently.

89

He could have said, hey, guys, good to see you. Here's my laws. There's the promised land. Here's

90

a map and a canteen. Go for it. He, in effect, could have just sent them on their way like weary

91

travelers. Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad we have this time together. There you go. You have

92

good, safe travels and the like. He could have been just divine GPS telling them where to go,

93

But that's not the way God does things.

94

Instead of just sending them off the map in a farewell, God says,

95

Hey, hey, hey, as you go into this place and face the things you're going to face there,

96

I'm going to be with you in the person of this angel.

97

Now, as you might guess, this is no ordinary angel.

98

No ordinary angel.

99

If you don't get anything else out today, get that.

100

This is no ordinary angel.

101

Now, how do we know that?

102

A couple weeks ago, we studied Exodus chapter 3, and in Exodus chapter 3, we read about

103

Moses' encounter with the burning bush.

104

Moses encounters the burning bush.

105

Now, who did he meet in the burning bush?

106

Who did he meet?

107

You keep thinking I'm going to ask you trick questions or something.

108

Who did he meet?

109

He met God.

110

He met God in the burning bush.

111

Absolutely.

112

And we know he met God.

113

Why?

114

Because God says, hey, Moses, take off those shoes.

115

Why?

116

Because the ground you're standing on is holy ground.

117

Furthermore, when he met with God in the burning bush,

118

God said something that only God can say.

119

He says, I am who I am.

120

Tell the Israelites, I am has sent me to you.

121

This was not just a bush.

122

With that said, there's something we might have missed

123

back when we studied Exodus chapter 3.

124

Let me reread just a small portion.

125

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law,

126

the priest of Midian,

127

and he led the flock to the back of the desert.

128

He came to Horeb, the mountain of God,

129

and the angel of the Lord appeared to him

130

in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. Exodus 3 refers to that which was within the bush

131

as the angel of the Lord. Now, how is that possible? Is this an angel or is this God?

132

Well, it's one of those times the right answer is both. You see, an angel, the term in scripture

133

refers to messenger. We think of an angel with regards to a noun. We think of it as an angel

134

the seraphim, the cherub, what have you. We think of an angel in that context. However, an angel

135

means a messenger, an emissary, an ambassador from this holy kingdom. And there in the bush,

136

Moses met the greatest ambassador the kingdom has to send. He met Jesus Christ in pre-incarnate

137

form in the bush. He met Jesus Christ in the bush. John Calvin, John Owens, Jonathan Edwards,

138

it doesn't matter who you pick. Every good theologian of all time has looked back at this

139

and said this is an encounter with christ edwards put it this way he said this redemption was by

140

christ as is evident from this that was wrought by him who appeared to moses in the bush for that

141

was the person there's three persons this is the person that was sent to moses to redeem the people

142

but that it was christ is evident because he is called the angel of the lord from the start of

143

exodus at the burning bush from the start the very beginning jesus was on the scene not just

144

an angel per se, but Jesus. Now, did Jesus show up anywhere else in Exodus? Yes. Honestly, do a study

145

of this and you'll find the second most frequent person to appear in the whole book of Exodus,

146

you have Moses and then you have Jesus. Let me briefly prove this. In Exodus 14, at the Red Sea,

147

so you had the burning bush, then God delivers the people through the plagues and the Passover.

148

Oh, and by the way, on the Passover night, who was this angel Lord? Who was this destroyer who

149

was sent through the land, it was Christ. Christ is he who cut down the heathen and protected the

150

children. And then when they came out through, through the Passover, when they ended up at the

151

Red Sea, what happened? In Exodus 14, it said that the angel of the Lord came and shielded,

152

shielded Israel from the Egyptians who were chasing them at that time. The angel of the Lord shows up

153

at this point. He shows up in the Passover. He shows up in the burning bush. He shows up in

154

Exodus 14. He shows up in today's passage in Exodus 23. If we were to go all the way to when

155

they finally get into the promised land. Even after Moses has died and Joshua leads them into

156

the promised land, do you know who the first guy they meet is? It's Jesus. Joshua 5 says this,

157

when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted his eyes and he looked, and behold, a man stood opposite

158

with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, are you for us or for our

159

adversaries? And he said, no. Which is an interesting answer. You're for them or for us?

160

No. No. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face

161

to the earth and he worshiped. And he said to him, what is the Lord, what does my Lord say to

162

his servant? And then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sand off your foot.

163

The place where you stand is holy ground. Just like in Exodus 3. You see, Jesus shows up at all

164

these different intervals. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the angel of the Lord that protected and preserved

165

and led and instructed every step of the way.

166

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, he knew this.

167

He recognized this.

168

He said this in 1 Corinthians 10.

169

He says, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware

170

that all of our fathers, when they're under the cloud

171

and pass through the sea, they're baptized into Moses

172

in the cloud and the sea.

173

They ate the same spiritual food.

174

They drank the same spiritual drink.

175

For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them.

176

And that rock was Christ.

177

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, protected, preserved.

178

He was the angel Lord in all the occurrences we see in Exodus.

179

And with those passages in mind,

180

let's listen again to what we see in today's text in verse 20 and 21.

181

Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way

182

and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.

183

Beware of him, obey his voice, do not provoke him,

184

for he will not pardon your transgressions,

185

for my name is in him.

186

The angel of the Lord is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

187

If you want a stone cold, take it to the bank, lock of the day, that's it.

188

The angel is Christ.

189

All right, let's see what Christ is going to do as we look at verse 23 and 24.

190

For my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Parasites

191

and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off.

192

You shall not bow down to their gods, nor shall you serve them, nor do according to their works,

193

but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.

194

You know, the theological concept that gives people just the most trouble

195

is what we call the doctrine of predestination, doctrine of election.

196

For centuries, people have the hardest time believing that God can choose

197

those who he wants to choose in order to love, to save.

198

people just they don't like that and i get why they don't like it there's times when none of us

199

have liked it it's a hard truth to accept that god acted this way but what do you see here we're not

200

going to talk at length here about predestination but i want to point is this god looks at israel

201

and says you're mine those other guys they're not i have chosen you for reasons i have nothing to do

202

with you dear heavens you can be as unlovable as they are and yet i made a covenant with abraham

203

to his descendants they would be mine and i keep my covenants and because that i'm going to be with

204

you when you face amorites and jebusites and hittites and canaanites and all the other ites

205

combined they are not mine their gods are not me their ways are not my ways and you remember that

206

when you go into their land, and you tear down every pillar that you find, and you do not, you do not

207

follow them in their ways, lest they corrupt you, and cause you to turn from me. That's what we see

208

in verses 23 and 24. Now, the people were not, as we said a moment ago, they were not so darn

209

lovable that God couldn't resist loving Israel. It really wasn't the case. Dear heavens, read the

210

Old Testament and tell me how lovable the Israelites were on any given day. They weren't so lovable that

211

God sat there and said, oh, I can't help myself. Oh, my heart just, I can't help you. You're just

212

so wonderful. No, dear heavens, they were just bad and naughty as some of the pagan nations at times.

213

Look back at our study of Ezekiel and you see that. And yet they were his. Yet he had a relationship

214

that was unique with them. And it caused him to respond and act in certain ways that he did not

215

act to the philistines to the jebusites amorites hittites or egyptians you know what the proof was

216

that god didn't love the egyptians but he did love israel he brought israel through the red sea he

217

drowned the egyptians in the midst of it god chooses god elects why i don't know it's above

218

my pay grade but he does what he does and we see it here in this text all right let's look at verses

219

25 and 26. Verse 25. So you shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your

220

water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one will suffer miscarriage or

221

be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. You know, if someone were to ask

222

you whether you want God to protect you or to provide for you, to protect you or provide for

223

you, and you had to choose, do you want God to protect you or provide for you? The right answer

224

is yes. We want both. Why? Because we need both. Sometimes we get so hooked up on a provision when

225

we're praying, but we need him to protect that which he provides and blesses us with. You know,

226

if Pastor Fish comes and gives you a million dollars, and I come and take the million dollars

227

away, what's the problem? Well, you suddenly have a problem with your pastor, but beyond that,

228

Beyond that, here's the point.

229

You don't just need the provision.

230

You also need the protection that it is yours

231

and that it will remain yours.

232

God says, I'm going to bless you

233

and I'm going to look out for you.

234

I'm going to grant you the food and the water

235

and the sustenance and provision you need

236

to live and to survive and even to thrive

237

as you go into this land.

238

But I'm also going to head you in

239

so that which I give you cannot be taken away,

240

cannot be removed.

241

And I will do it through supernatural means

242

and I'm not granting anyone else.

243

during this hard season this difficult season you're in a wilderness now you're going to be

244

facing these enemies then during this season i'm going to demonstrate my protection for you

245

in this sense your women shall not be barren they shall not miscarry sickness will be removed from

246

your your sandals won't even wear out off your feet this will be a sign to you because that's

247

unusual across history mankind that's not the way things work but god says this is gonna be a sign

248

to you that i'm with you even the mundane things i got this with your sandals not wearing out or

249

catching colds or what have you i am with you through this season however we see in verses 25

250

and 26 there's a caveat here verse 25 says you shall serve the lord and he will bless

251

the old covenant that really is founded there at son the old covenant had really two things

252

There was blessings, which we like, right?

253

We like a good blessing.

254

There was blessings, and then there was curses.

255

And God says, look, I've got such a grasp on your situation.

256

You see the quail and the manna and all the things I've been feeding you with?

257

Well, I'm going to keep doing that.

258

I'm also going to look over your health, your wives and your children.

259

I'm going to protect you, and I'm going to preserve you.

260

And as I'm doing all this, don't turn to the other gods.

261

Obey and listen to me.

262

Obey what I've told you to do, and things are going to go wonderful,

263

and the blessings that you receive in times past are just a foretaste of that,

264

which I will do for you in the future.

265

But, for the love of Pete, if you don't do that, what do you think is going to happen?

266

Well, things are going to go poorly.

267

If you put me, Jehovah, here, and you take Baal or Tammuz or any other god

268

and put him here, and you turn to this guy instead of me, what's going to happen? Things are going to

269

go poorly for you. Blessings and curses is what we see in these verses. All right, let's look at

270

the blessings. Let's look at verses 27 through 31 as he expands on the blessings, the provision,

271

the protection that he'll grant to his people, even as they face great and numerous enemies.

272

verse 27 i will send my fear before you i will cause confusion among all the people to whom you

273

come and i'll make your enemies turn their backs to you i will send hornets before you that will

274

drive out the hivite and the canaanite and the hittite from before you i will not drive them

275

out from before you in one year lest land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too

276

numerous for you but little by little i'll drive them out from before you until you have increased

277

and you inherit the land.

278

Now set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea,

279

Philistia from the desert to the river.

280

I will deliver you from the inhabitants of the land

281

into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

282

All right.

283

In your own life, you probably have obstacles

284

that don't include Philistines or Canaanites

285

or Jebusites or Amorites or what have you.

286

So we look at this and we say, well, amen and amen.

287

God was going to take care of those ites,

288

those guys here in scripture. But as we sit centuries later in Gulfport, Mississippi, we have

289

different ites. We have different obstacles. We have different things on our radar. So how does

290

something like this apply? Well, what we wish is probably the same thing that the Israelites kind

291

of wished. God, you say that that land is mine. You make me promises. Okay, snap your fingers.

292

Send me in. I'm ready. I'm ready to claim everything you've said. Just snap your fingers,

293

remove all the obstacles, bring me from A to B in the most linear path possible. That's sort of

294

what we want. That's sort of what they would have wanted. They don't want hardship. They don't want

295

to spend years, let alone decades in the wilderness before they got to that point. They want God just

296

to do it all at once. But even in this text, God says, no, no, no, no, no. He says there's the law

297

of unintended consequences. If I do it the way that you want me to do it, things are actually

298

going to be worse than if we do it my way. Let's do it my way, God says here. Now, why? Why in your

299

own life doesn't he just remove all the obstacles at once? Why doesn't he do what we would like him

300

to do? Well, again, in this text alone, we see two reasons. The first is the law of unintended

301

consequences. Here, if God had driven out the Canaanites, they were that which was most formidable

302

on the radar of the people at this time. If God drove them out right away, God tells them, hey,

303

you guys might want that, but, you know, there's some unintended consequences of that. While those

304

Canaanites are there and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Hittites and all those guys,

305

you know what they're doing? They're tending the land that's going to be yours. They're keeping

306

the soil. And not only are they keeping the soil for you that's going to be yours, but they're

307

also keeping the wild beasts at bay and they're driving them out and the like. It's actually

308

better that they stay where they're at. And I'll drive them out in my time, step by step. We'll

309

nudge them on out, knock them on out. We'll get rid of them. But for the time being, they serve

310

my purpose. You might think I should snap my fingers, but no, you don't have the picture that

311

I have. In our own lives, this is true. What we would think should be an A to B, a linear path

312

for God to choose, God has a better lay of the land. And he knows all the unintended consequences.

313

He knows the ways that we are going to be blessed through his path above and beyond what our path

314

might be. So that's one observation we see in this text. The second observation is this.

315

God knows this much, that our faith grows when we face, when we face obstacles.

316

The faith of God's people was going to be tried the minute they got into the promised land

317

when they faced a mighty people seated behind a mighty wall

318

in a place that we know as Jericho.

319

God knows that your faith needs Jerichos to grow.

320

God knows that our faith is cultivated by the existence of Jerichos.

321

by the existence of opposition,

322

that when he overcomes it in our full view,

323

has the net effect of strengthening our sense of who he is

324

and our willingness to worship him and turn to him.

325

And so God did this throughout the Old Testament

326

and into the New and into the Church Age and into your own life.

327

God appoints Jerichos for us.

328

In Israel's case, he appointed Jerichos, he appointed Goliaths,

329

he appointed Babylon, he appointed Assyria,

330

He appointed fiery furnaces.

331

He appointed lions, dens.

332

Why?

333

Because that was the means by which the faith of his people was tried and refined.

334

And that means it's okay if you have a Jericho in your life today.

335

The question is not will you face hardships and doubts and anxieties.

336

Of course you will.

337

You know the way this world works.

338

But God tells you the same thing he tells his people here.

339

He says, I won't leave you alone as you face it.

340

But I am with you, and I'm capable of defending and protecting those that are my own.

341

Those who trust me and turn to me in these moments.

342

God allows these things to exist because they try and refine our faith.

343

Even those who face death, even facing death itself, tries and refines our faith.

344

Death is the one Jericho we all must face.

345

But we have the same promise that God's people had

346

at this hour in Scripture,

347

that he will see us through into the promised land intact.

348

When God promised the Israelites

349

that he'd get them to the promised land,

350

a place flowing with milk and honey,

351

that was a type of shadow someplace better.

352

What we see as death is the last Jericho that will fall

353

before God escorts us, carries us intact

354

into the promise that awaits.

355

We may not see that right now,

356

just as we do not see the unseen hand.

357

And yet it's true.

358

All right, let's wrap up with a look at our final verses,

359

verses 32 and 33.

360

Verse 32.

361

You shall make no covenant with them, with the ites.

362

You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

363

They shall not dwell in your land,

364

lest they make you sin against me.

365

For if you serve their gods,

366

it will surely, as the day follows the night, it will surely be a snare to you.

367

You know, when I was younger, I was probably only, I don't know, five or six or something like this.

368

I remember my mom dressed me up for church one time.

369

This is back when we did that.

370

My mom dressed me up for church one time.

371

We put on what they called the Sunday finest, and, you know, it was this fancy-looking suit.

372

And my mom knew this.

373

She knew I was a rambunctious five- or six-year-old kid.

374

and she says, all right, after church lets out, you don't join the other boys down the hill,

375

you know, playing the football or what have you. You don't go and do that. Well, why, mom? Because

376

you're going to ruin your suit. You're going to ruin your clothes. Of course, you know, in my

377

equation, the value proposition here really didn't add up so much, but my mom's premise was this,

378

that if I go and do what she knows I'm inclined to do, I'm going to get dirty and grimy and sweaty

379

as a result, and then ruin my suit to the point I won't look different from any other

380

kid out there in a sense god is telling his people here in verses 32 and 33 he was saying you you

381

i've called you out of this world i've made you holy i've made you distinct don't go rolling around

382

in the grime don't go rolling around to such a degree that that which you appear to be before

383

the world is no different than the world he says you shall make no covenant with the people whose

384

lands, I'm sending you, neither with their gods. They should not even dwell in your land unless

385

they make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods, it will be a snare to you. If God was

386

okay raising up pagans, he would have left the Israelites in Egypt. He would have left them in

387

Egypt because they had plenty of paganism there, but that's not what he wants, and it's not what

388

he wants for us either. Let me close with this exhortation. Here in these verses, here in this

389

text here in scripture, just as God met with his people at Sinai, he meets with us, he meets with

390

you through his word. There's not an ounce of truth in this that is less distinct and less

391

authoritative over you than that which was said on Sinai with a booming voice from heavens.

392

Today you've met with God. Did you recognize it? You met with God through this, through the reading

393

of his holy word.

394

In today's worship, God has met with us in his word

395

just as he met with the Israelites at Sinai.

396

In this morning's worship, he has pointed you

397

to the promised land just as he appointed Israelites

398

to the promised land at Sinai.

399

This morning's worship, he has reminded you

400

that he'll be with you just as he was with the Israelites

401

at Sinai, but he's also telling you to be on your guard.

402

Be on your guard in this fallen world

403

just as he warned the Israelites at Sinai.

404

I am the Lord thy God.

405

There shall have no other gods before me.

406

The biggest threat to the Israelites in this particular season

407

and the biggest threat to you and to your families

408

in the season in which you live right now,

409

the biggest threat is the same.

410

It's the idol factory that exists in our own hearts

411

and which inclines us to do that which God would not have us do.

412

This week, we're called to put our idols to death

413

and not to go bow down before them.

414

And this is a concept we're going to return to in a couple weeks

415

when we see that these same exact people

416

are going to bow down before the golden calf.

417

Let's pray.