This passage is steeped in symbolism and cultural significance. It’s very easy to miss what’s important here.
What we have covered here in these few chapters starting with the Ten Commandments is a summary of things they should have already known. This is before Moses climbed up the Mountain of God to spend forty days receiving a much larger body of revelation and clarification of ancient legends. The Covenant will get far more specific later, but this much was already a long standing body of custom and moral guidance.
Before Moses disappears, they are given a glimpse of where they are headed. They are going back to claim the homeland God promises to give them as descendants of Abraham. While the summary up to now were things Abraham would have been able to teach his household, this is something fresh. Here God sketches out for them how this covenant will work for them. This is the first fruits of divine blessings promised to those who are faithful to their divine Sovereign.
He first promises to grant a token of His divine Presence in the form of an angel. The word for angel is not that precise; it refers to a messenger from Heaven. But this messenger is the angel who carries the name of God — literally, the standard bearer, the one whose flag signals the title and authority of the Creator. This standard always stood outside the ruler’s tent, his royal court and his personal household. The primary manifestation of this standard bearer was the pillar of cloud and fire that went before the nation on the march.
The people had already shown the fear of coming too close to God’s divine Presence, so they were ordered to obey this angelic being as they would God’s own voice. His mission was relay communications, not to serve as a priest. Thus, he would offer no tolerance for insubordination. If they disputed anything he said, it would be counted as rebellion. They would then have to come back into the terrifying Presence to make amends.
The nation had already heard during their time back in Egypt who that nations were that lived in the Promised Land. These nations listed here were vassal kingdoms of Egypt. With all that God had done to destroy the Egyptian army and such, we can understand why these vassal kingdoms in Canaan sent so many letters back to Egypt whining about the invading Israelis, and there was no answer. God intended to lead His nation into that land and displace the current residents. Israel was to go in and kick everyone out, or destroy them if they wouldn’t leave, and begin to occupy the land.
God notes that it will be worse than a storm of wasps, as far as the resident nations were concerned. The cleansing would be quite thorough, given that all of these nations were devoted to all kinds of foreign idols. Israel generally wasn’t allowed to simply occupy the existing cities and towns, because they were defiled by that idolatry. Thus, they had to come in, wipe it all out, and start over from scratch. Given the monumental size of the task, God would insure that His people would conquer slowly, little by little. He wanted them to have time to really take full control.
If all the current residents up and left all at once, the cities and agricultural lands would go wild and become infested with dangerous animals. At that time, there were bears, lions, feral dogs like hyenas, not to mention poisonous snakes and a host of biting insects. The unproductive wild plants would fill the agricultural clearings, and the wells would collapse or become filled with dust. Thus, God wants them to prepare for the long haul. Be ready to push out the idolaters little by little. But God warns them to be sure they must do this job without fail. Otherwise, the pagan presence would serve as a compromising temptation. Jehovah would not tolerate any kind of adultery from His bride nation.
If they are faithful, then they could not fail to seize the entire Promised Land. God would become the Enemy of their enemies. Further, they would never run short of sustenance. They would be safe from plagues and threats. There would be no barren wombs and everyone could expect to live to a ripe old age. This is the standard summary of what shalom implies, the signs of peace with God.
This is a parable of how things work when people embrace Biblical Law. We must conquer the battleground of our own souls with righteous commitment. We drive out our demons little by little until we can occupy our lives with God’s glory and His peace.
