Yesterday’s post, Diminishing God’s Law, considered the connection of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 with the following chapters that begin expanding what each commandment means.  If you missed it, I recommend it as well as the first couple comments that further reveal exactly what I was seeing.

As I read and pondered, I saw something else that is very important in this Torah Portion, #mishpatim.

About a month ago we were pondering Yeshua as the Lawgiver, the One who met the people and Moshe, the Redeemer who saved Israel, and the Covenant Maker.  That again was revealed in Exodus 23:20-23 in a prophecy/promise.  Let’s read the verses then make some connections,

“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. ²² But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ²³ For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.  Exodus 23:20-23

We can easily blow through this passage and think little of it when we read ‘an angel,’ but if we read carefully, we quickly figure out that this isn’t just any old ordinary angel (if there is such a thing… 😉 ).  Notice a few characteristics of this #angel,

• He speaks with authority.  “obey His voice”
• One can rebel against Him.  “do not be rebellious toward Him”
• He can pardon sin!! (THE biggie!)  “He will not pardon your transgression”
• The Name of Yahweh is ‘in Him.’
• Reiterated, ‘obey His voice and DO all I say…’

This is enough to confirm our thought, but let’s take a few minutes to consider some other verses. First, the fulfillment of the promise in Joshua 5:13ff;

¹³ Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” ¹⁴ He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” ¹⁵ The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

6 Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. ² The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.

• Here, before Joshua, is a ‘man’ who is ‘captain of the hosts of Yahweh!’
• The ‘man’ accepts worship… (Joshua bows down)
• The man says the same thing the ‘Angel of Yahweh’ says to Moshe, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy,’ meant to connect the dots to the Burning Bush (previously linked and discussed).
• Then, explicitly we are told that ‘Yahweh said to Joshua…’

Consider the ‘man’ who wrestles with Ya’acov in Genesis 32:24ff.

Probably, as Bro Dean pointed out to me, the same ‘man’ (some translations, ‘a certain man’) who we see in Genesis 37:15 giving directions to Joseph.  (No clear look in this passage, however, the question asked is similar to other ‘Angel of the Lord’ instances and is clearly prophetic…)

We also need to take into consideration the previously linked posts about the Angel of the Lord and the incredible prophetic imagery of the Joshua event and #Yeshua leading US into the land!

Many of those events connect the NAME with the Angel of Yahweh in some way.

“My name is in him.”  Ex. 23:21

“Please tell me your name?” Genesis 32:29

“Why do you ask My name, seeing it is ‘wonderful?'”  Judges 13:18

Isaiah 9:6-7…

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will ^[a]rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

And, Isaiah 7:14,

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a ^[a]virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^[b]Immanuel.  (God with us!)  

Philipians 2:9-11,

⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Yeshua every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Messiah Yeshua is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Clearly, this prophesied One in Exodus 23:20-23 is Yeshua!

Notice, this ‘Angel,’ or more precisely, ‘Messenger’ will ‘speak what Yahweh says!

“If you truly obey HIS voice and do all I say…”

Deuteronomy 18:18, in a clear passage prophesying the Prophet, we read,

¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their ^[a]countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

This understanding, connecting the ‘Voice’ in this passage with the Voice through out Scripture that we are to obey, should help us understand that we are accountable to the unchanging God, the unchanging Voice, and the unchanging Torah.  (We could really run with this one, but let’s see one other thing and close…  You can study out ‘My voice’ as it is connected to ‘My instructions,’ ‘My Torah,’ etc…)

Exodus 21:21 says,

 Be on your guard before Him,….

That phrase caught my eye.  Just eight verses earlier we read,

Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.

Are we ‘on our guard’ to be obedient?  Or, do we take for granted the grace we have received through faith?

Let us ‘be on our guard!’  We are witnesses.  Messengers who are being made in the image of the Messenger, Messiah Yeshua!  Our obedience, out of love should reveal Him and His expectations/Torah to the world around us!

Shalom!