Exodus 23:20-22 "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries."
The LORD is wonderfully kind to His people, and His eye is always upon us. He does not leave us to our own devices nor require of us things that we cannot do. He will always bring His purposes to pass. He also always expects our obedience.
Just as He did for Israel, the LORD has sent His Angel before us. In the Old Testament, His Angel was manifested in numerous ways. During the initial flight from Egypt, the Angel was seen as a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. When the time came for Joshua to take the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, the Angel appeared as the captain of the host (Joshua 5:14).
We know the Angel (Messenger) to be a manifestation of Jesus. We know that we are kept eternally in the Way. We are assured that He has reconciled us to God. We know that He will deliver us into glory, immortal and incorruptible. He will do this according to the word and will of God, and this will happen because the Father gave us to the Son. The Son promised the Father that He would not lose one that the Father had given Him (John 6:35-40).
What we sometimes fail to realize is that He is just as instrumental in bringing us into His kingdom here. We have the record of Jesus’ life and know that He was sent before us to be an example to us in how we should live. Through the Holy Spirit, He still to this day keeps us in the way we should walk while we live in these houses of clay. We have the church which He prepared for us that we might eat from His table and have fellowship with Him and with each other.
Christ’s obedience to the Father was necessary for our eternal salvation. Our obedience to Christ is necessary for us to have the joy of our salvation while we live here. We are to pay attention (beware) to Him and obey the things He has told us to do to live an abundant life. While He has forgiven our sins eternally, He will not look the other way (pardon) when we are disobedient here.
He will chasten those He loves as a Father does His children. He must do so because the Father is in Him. The very righteousness of God is fulfilled in Him in all things both here and in eternity. Paul’s words echo the sentiment of our last verse here: if God be for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31-37)?