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