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. (Exod 23:20-22)God was seemingly fulfilling half of his promise. Finally, after all those years the Hebrew people were being safely delivered to "Paradise". The promised land was to become the Kingdom of David in a few years. As the navel of the world, it was to be in its center, the medi-terranean (center of the earth; midst of the world). At the same time, God fulfilled the second reward: a return to Paradise!
Scripture points toward the earth being Eden and Israel its Garden. Israel is eastward in the world, and Jerusalem in the midst of the Kingdom of David. (His Kingdom went from the sea to the Euphrates and from Egypt to what is now Turkey. That will all be God's Kingdom on earth someday as it was before!)
At that time (of the verses above), the Hebrews were entering what would become the Kingdom of David. Guess who went before them? "An Angel". It is capitalized for a reason; it was God Himself going before them manifested as a Messenger. God's Messenger is what John called "the Word" who was Jesus (John 1:1-14). Never forget that God manifested to mankind is always Jesus! According to the Plan of God, Jesus was delivering them to their salvation. (Jesus means "Yahweh delivers").
It seemed that they were being led to a land of nourishment and safety. That was what the Garden of Eden was like. The Angel went before them to "keep thee in the way". Guess what Jesus's identity is: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). We know the Way; it is to follow Jesus and trust Him for salvation. That's what the Hebrews must do to enter into "paradise".
Remember, the gate to the Garden was guarded by cherubim? They served a great purpose:
So he drove out the man (Adam and Eve); and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Gen 3:24)Look at what the cherubim were doing: guarding re-entry to the Garden - the one and only Gate for entry. It was by "the Way of the Tree of Life". God is the Tree of Life (Rev 2:7) and Jesus is the Way to eat of that Tree! In order to eat of its fruit everyone who does must be peculiar people:
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Rev 22:14)The Hebrews, the chosen people, were blessed that day and unbeknownst to them, God was speaking of a later event as well. He was referring to the 144,000 Jews who would be saved in the end (Rev 7). Those were God's chosen people who were sealed by the Abrahamic Covenant. God will keep His promise to the Jews in time. Moses knew that! The prophets knew that. The Hebrews didn't but trusted the Lord to deliver them to safety wherever safety was! Exodus 23 is Hebrew salvation, and like it or not, Gentiles are included in the Abrahamic Covenant as well. When the Hebrews returned to Paradise back thousands of years ago, they were making the Way for the world to be saved as progenitors of Jesus.
Note what the Angel was doing: bringing them to a place which God had prepared for them. God had prepared Israel. It is the Kingdom of God, and in the midst of His Kingdom was the Tree of Life. Well, Jesus provided passage to the heavenly kingdom as he died on his "tree" (the cross). God's Name - Jesus - was the password to the cherubim who guarded the Way. The Hebrew people re-entered Paradise by God's Name. At the end of days, it will be by the same Name with which they enter into the heavenly Paradise! According to God's Plan, Jerusalem, after it is purified, will return to the earthly Jerusalem is now the harlot Babylon!
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Rev 21:1-3)God was preparing for the Hebrews a "place". That "place" is described in Revelation. It was indeed the Kingdom of David, but also the Kingdom of God; it was two promises filled in one!
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. (John 14:2-4)Israel and Heaven are the same place! God didn't promise to prepare two different places. He's God; both places are the same place. Jerusalem, means "foundation of peace". That locale is the place where the Garden once was! Jerusalem, after purification, will be brought back to its foundation!
Well then, who and where were the cherubim guarding the way?
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Num 13:32-33)If you remember, the "giants" were the sons of God who married the daughters of men back in the days of Noah:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Gen 6:4)What am I implying? That the hybrid cherubim-mankind were guarding the gate preventing the Hebrews from re-entering paradise! Only the Angel (Jesus) leading the Way to re-entry could they return to paradise. Just as God provided, Jesus was the password for re-entry. You see, for Scripture to make sense, the Kingdom of David must be the garden of Eden! I like to know that because that's where I will be spending eternity. I have a warm place in my heart for Jerusalem, the present city of Babylon, because the harlot will be destroyed just as in the days of Noah, and a new earth will be fashioned once again.
God told of the Way in Exodus 23 which I repeat: "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." That is another way of saying the Third Commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
Examine that last passage: God's Name is Jesus for that is what He is called. Jesus is the Way; therefore his purpose is salvation because by no other Name can anyone be saved (Acts 4:12). Everyone must believe in Jesus's purpose to be saved, and not take God's sacrfice of His only Son frivolously. Look at the penalty: they shall be guilty! Guilty Hebrews did not enter into Canaan, dying in the wilderness, and neither can they enter into Heaven!
God was giving the Hebrew people the gospel message. Moses and Joshua knew that but I bet that you didn't! Whenever God spoke to the Jews as the Word, He was speaking to the Gentiles as well through His Word Jesus. What applied to them, applies to us.
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