Joel M Bradshaw

20“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.21Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. 22“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.–Exodus 23

Was this merely an angel? The word also means ‘messenger.’

1. God’s Name is literally with this messenger.
2. Israel was to follow him completely.
3. The messenger had the ability to pardon transgression or rebellion in God’s Name.
4. Careful obedience to the messenger would receive a favorable response from God.

And now a couple of verses for your further study.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? (Hebrews 1:5)

(speaking of the people in Moses’ day)  We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents…(1 Corinthians 10:9)

This wasn’t literally the Jesus of the Gospels in Moses’ day, for that baby had not yet been born in the manger. If you are one to claim this is a theophany or even a Christophany, then the best you theologically could do would be to say that God the Son took a physical form. This of course is what occurred in John 1:14 as the Word became flesh and in Philippians 2:7 where Paul spoke of God emptying Himself to take the form of a man, a humble servant.

Regardless, God expected careful obedience from His people. They were not to sway to the left or to the right, but were to follow Him completely. Does this describe you? Are you instead caught up in the society and politics of your day that you rationalize or make excuses for God’s clear teaching for your life?–JMB