Pointing to Jesus (Exodus 23)

Summary:

Exodus 23 concludes the “Book of the Covenant” with a mixture of judicial, moral, cultic, and conquest instructions:

•  Strict commands for impartial justice: no false reports, no bribery, no favoring the poor or oppressing the rich out of partiality.

•  Practical mercy: help even your enemy’s stray animal; give land a sabbath rest every seventh year so the poor and wild animals can eat.

•  Three annual feasts are instituted (Unleavened Bread, Harvest/Firstfruits, Ingathering), and all males must appear before the Lord three times a year.

•  Worship regulations: no leaven with blood sacrifices, no boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk.

•  The chapter ends with God’s promise of the Angel (a divine figure) who will go before Israel, guard them, and bring them into the land. Israel must not bow to Canaanite gods; if they obey, God will bless their food, water, health, and victory over enemies.

Pointing to Jesus:

The most striking christological moment is Exodus 23:20–21:

“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 

Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice… for my name is in him.”

Theologians almost unanimously see this “Angel” as a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God.

John Owen writes:

“This Angel is no created angel… but the Angel of the covenant, the Messiah himself… In him the name of God is; that is, the divine nature and authority… Here is a plain revelation of the eternal deity of Jesus Christ, and of his sovereign authority over the church.” 

Thus the One who once went before Israel in the wilderness as the Angel bearing the name of Yahweh is the same One who now goes before His church as the incarnate Lord, guarding, guiding, and bringing us safely to the prepared place—eternal rest in the new creation.

Reflection:

Exodus 23 shows that true holiness is never merely private or ritualistic; it is radically social and forward-looking. 

The same God who demands perfect justice in courtrooms also demands that we lift a fallen donkey belonging to someone who hates us. 

The same God who will one day drive out the Canaanites is the God who feeds the poor from the sabbath fields.

For the Christian, this chapter is fulfilled and transformed in Christ: we no longer journey toward a strip of land on the eastern Mediterranean, but toward the city whose builder and maker is God. 

The Angel who bears the name of Yahweh now dwells in us by the Spirit. 

Therefore, we live with uncompromising justice, enemy-love, generous rest-giving, and joyful feasting—because the ultimate Sabbath rest has already entered history in the resurrection of Jesus, and the ultimate conquest was won at the cross. 

Our obedience is no longer the condition for entering the land; it is the fruit of already belonging to the One who has gone ahead of us and whose name is now written on our foreheads.