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Exodus 23:20–33
“I will not drive [the Canaanites] out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land” (vv. 29–30).
Up until today’s passage, the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 21–23) has given many specific applications of the Ten Commandments, showing the ancient Israelites how to properly keep the law of God in their context (21:1–23:19). Today’s passage concludes the Book of the Covenant by giving them an incentive to keep the Lord’s statutes. If the Israelites obey God, He “will be an enemy to [their] enemies and an adversary to [their] adversaries” (Ex. 23:22).
Although this promise applies broadly to God’s people for all time, the immediate context is the conquest of Canaan, which is also promised in Exodus 23:20–33. The Lord redeemed Israel from Egypt not only to create a people for Himself but to give them a place. This promise of land, which we already saw in 3:8, 17; 13:5, goes all the way back to God’s original covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3; 15:17–21). Today’s passage indicates that the Lord will give the promised land to Israel by using them to drive out the inhabitants of the land (Ex. 23:28).
The idea that God will use Israel to remove the Canaanites is important. The Israelites will be a tool in the hand of the Lord, and God Himself will go before the people to blot out the inhabitants (vv. 20, 23, 28). He will execute Israel as His sword against His enemies, but He will also confuse and terrify the people before Israel even gets there (v. 27; see Josh. 2:1–14). The hearts and minds of human beings are ultimately under the sovereign control of God’s hand, and this is good news, for it means that He can defeat His and our enemies and embolden us when we are afraid. John Calvin comments, “It is in God’s power to bend men’s hearts either way, so as both to cast down the courageous with terror, as well as to animate the timid.”
Recalling the promise to Abraham that his descendants would be a fruitful people, God promises also that Israel will multiply greatly in the land if they obey Him (vv. 25–26; see Gen. 12:1–3; 15:1–6). In particular, the Israelites must not make a covenant to worship the gods of Canaan and must tear down their idols (Ex. 23:24, 32–33). The Lord understands that His people will be tempted to worship the Canaanite deities as a means of guaranteeing the fertility of the land, so He warns them against it. Of course, we know that Israel as a whole was unable to keep this command, and the old covenant people eventually went into exile because of it (2 Chron. 36:15–21). This set the stage for the coming of the true Israel, Jesus Christ our Lord, to obey God perfectly and defeat all His and our enemies.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If we are to see victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil, we must obey the Lord. Of course, only Jesus does that perfectly, and it is only as we are in Him by faith that we can even begin to serve God. Nevertheless, we are responsible to fight after the manner He has prescribed, which involves prayer, preaching the gospel, and seeking to mortify our sin and to live in holiness. As we do these things, we will see the Lord conquer all His and our enemies.
For Further Study
- Numbers 33:50–56
- Deuteronomy 20:10–18
- Judges 1–2
- Acts 7:44–45