Father God Promises To Protect If We Will Listen To Him.
Author: Pat Aman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today a friend from church posted one verse of Exodus 23 on her FB page and it caught my spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think what really caught my eye was the part of the Bible verse that said, \u201cSee, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.\u201d Exodus 23:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went back in my old sermons Library file that I preached through the years and did some research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got my Matthew Henry Commentary down, and four different study Bibles. The verse really sent a strong message to the Israelites and it sends the same message to the world today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exodus 23: 20 -33
\u201cSee, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. \u201cI will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. \u201cI will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s look at what some of commentary\u2019s have to say about who this Angel might have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some say this angel was human angel or messenger, and the likely person is Joshua who led God\u2019s people into the Promised Land. Augustine saw that Joshua is another name for Jesus. So when it says in Exodus 23:21, \u201cMy Name is in him,\u201d it is prophetic of Jesus who leads us into the inheritance of the heavenly Promised Land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another said this angel was, well, an angel, a supernatural being. The psalmist said, \u201cHe will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways\u201d Psalm 91:11. Hebrews 1:14, \u201cAre not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?\u201d Those are wonderful promises for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s also a third possibility. This angel is so closely associated with Father God that we get the feeling he may be more than an angel. God\u2019s Name, which refers to the revelation and attributes of God, is in this angel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Christians have thought the angel is the pre-incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We may asked then who do you think this angel is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All I can say is from my studies whoever this Angel really was he points us to Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we look at the following verses, it shows in what ways is the Angel in Exodus 23:21-22 is like Jesus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 28:20, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John 14:2, My Father\u2019s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hebrews 1:3, The Son is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luke 9:35, A voice came from the cloud, saying, \u201cThis is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colossians 1:14, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I were making a lesson plan up like I did when I taught school, I would asked the students what lessons can we learn from this passage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Answer would be plain and simple, \u201cThe battle is the LORD\u2019s\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exodus 23:22 says, \u201cIf you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and I will oppose those who oppose you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obedience brings victory. We are in a spiritual battle. It\u2019s not a flesh and blood battle; it\u2019s a spiritual battle, \u201cagainst the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm\u201d Ephesians 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have two powerful weapons for this warfare, the Word of God and Prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many times when we feel the pressure of this spiritual battle, and sometimes we get disheartened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We would love to see more happening. But less can be more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was true for Jesus. He ministered to multitudes; he healed them; cast out demons; all exciting instant stuff. But it wasn\u2019t the multitudes who turned the world upside down. It was the twelve disciples. It was the twelve men Jesus spent his time with day in and day out, in the nitty-gritty hard work of Christian discipleship. And progress was slow; it was little by little; two steps forward and two steps backwards; then maybe one step forward. It was painfully slow progress; but it was a long term strategy, and he knew it would reap a harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I personally know at times we get disheartened by slow spiritual progress?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do these verses encourage you to keep going?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One important thing I can say is there\u2019s no room for compromise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exodus 23:32-33, Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many ways we can compromise in our personal lives. But there\u2019s no room for compromise with sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the statement we have heard many times written by
R. Zaccharias -.
\u201cSin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can compromise in our witness, and lose everything are we can live in Obedience which will brings victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Study Notes:
Pat Aman Sermons
Matthew Henry Commentary
Dake\u2019s Study Bible
Strong\u2019s Concordance
Spirit Filled Study Bible NKJV
Study Bibles Studies<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Devotion Written By: Pastor Pat Aman Book \u00a9 1996\/2022 \u201cCoffee With Pat Daily Devotionals\u201d \u201cCoffee With A Little Spice Of Life\u201d and Westbow Press a division of
\u00a9 Thomas Nelson and Library of Congress Control Number: 2018910976\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Father God Promises To Protect If We Will Listen To Him.Author: Pat Aman Today a friend from church posted one verse of Exodus 23 on her FB page and it caught my spirit. I think what really caught my eye was the part of the Bible verse that said, \u201cSee, I am sending an angel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","author-admin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2219,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coffeewithpat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}