Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Mike Caton

Exodus 33:2, “I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”

I would imagine there is some concern among the Israelites as they plan on leaving this place and going to the land God had promised their ancestors. Think about where these folks came from, for 400 years they have been slaves in Egypt. Generation after generation they have been at the beck and call of the Egyptians; they had no rights, they made no decisions for themselves, they had nothing, they were treated like work animals. And then Moses shows up, tells them God has heard their cries and sent him to rescue them. And pharaoh didn’t just give them permission to leave when Moses appeared, there was a lengthy contest between the Egyptian ruler and God. They thought they were doomed at the Red Sea, they grumbled and complained about their situation on the trip already. Three thousand of them were killed by the Levites and then who knows how many by the plague that followed the golden calf incident. And now God is telling them to go ahead to a new place.

But God also promises he is sending his angel ahead of them and the angel will drive out the inhabitants of the land. That is an important thing for us to remember, keep that in mind. I, and probably the Israelites, have to wonder what that will look like. Will an angel appear with a sword in his hand? Will he work through plagues, wild animals, other enemies who come in and destroy them, some combination of those things? And will the Israelites simply be able to walk into the land with no trouble, with everything and everyone cleared out for them? We know that is not the case, they will eventually have to fight for the land, but their enemies will be driven out. Think about the walls of Jericho just tumbling down. The only explanation for that is that God is behind it. There are other miraculous victories as well, and it is clear the Lord has sent his angel to clear the way.

But think for a moment when Moses sends the spies into the land, to check things out. Do you remember the opinion of the 10 spies? We cannot take this land, the people are too numerous, too big and too fierce for us, in fact they said we look like grasshoppers compared to them. But two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb said, we can in fact take the land, with the Lord’s help. It seems the majority had forgotten the promise, the one I just told you to keep in mind.

And we need to keep that promise in our minds as well. God has not promised to run the inhabitants off of the land we want, but he has promised to be with us, to care for us, to provide for us, and to never forsake us. God has promised to fight the battles for us, as long as we are doing what is in his will and faithful to him. It seems that too often we forget things like that, we think we have to do everything ourselves. The truth is, we cannot. It is just that simple. But when we put ourselves into the Lord’s hands. When we trust him, when we are committed to him, there is nothing and no one who can oppose us.

Father, thank you for the promises to go before me. In Jesus’ name, amen,

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works as a full time AEMT with Hyde County EMS. Follow Mount Olive Church of Christ on Facebook for daily devotions.

READ ABOUT NEWS AND EVENTS HERE.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COASTLAND TIMES TODAY!