Replies

From: Exodus 23:20-23a
(Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-2 from the Proper of Seasons may be used.)

Warnings and promises

[20] “Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring
you to the place which I have prepared. [21] Give heed to him and hearken to his
voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my
name is in him.

[22] But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be
an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

[23] “When my angel goes before you, and brings you in to the Amorites, and
the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebu-
sites, and I [will] blot them out.

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Commentary:

23:20-33. As an appendix and conclusion to the Code of the Covenant, the sa-
cred writer put together these various warnings or promises. Strictly speaking,
this is not a formal epilogue of the type usually attached to the end of codes of
laws (cf. Lev 26 for the Code of the Holiness, and Deut 28 for the Deuteronomic
Code) because it contains no blessings or curses, and makes no specific refer-
ence to the preceding laws. It is more a collection of instructions based on the
fact that God is close to his people; it is designed to fortify Israel’s hope and en-
courage it to be faithful.

“I send an angel before you” (v. 20). The word “angel”, according to St Augus-
tine, refers to his office, not his nature. “If you enquire as to his nature, I will tell
you that he is a spirit; if you ask what it is he does, I will tell you that he is an
angel” (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 103, 1, 15). The expression “angel of the Lord”
is equivalent to the presence of God himself or his direct intervention (cf. 3:2; 14:
19 and also Gen 16:7; 22:11, 14). However, when Scripture speaks of an “angel”
or “my angel” (cf. Ex 33:2; Num 20:16) it seems to refer rather to those spiritual
beings who are attentive to the Lord’s commands and are faithful doers of his
word (cf. Ps 103:20). The role assigned to them is that of guarding the people
in the name of the Lord, just as they protected Lot (cf. Gen 19) or Hagar and her
son (cf. Gal 21:17). On the basis of this biblical teaching, the Church holds that
angels continue to lend men the same mysterious and powerful help. “Each
member of the faithful has at his side an angel as a protector and shepherd to
lead him towards life” (St Basil, Adversus Eunomium, 3,1; cf. Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 334-336).

Whereas he sends an angel to the Israelites, he sends two scourges against
their enemies — terror (v. 27) and a plague of hornets (v. 28). As usual when the
Bible tells us this, it does not mean that God is wicked, but rather that, since he
is the only Supreme Being, all blessings and all misfortunes are attributable to
him. Furthermore, it is very much in the style of Semitic literature to make a play
of contrasts — the misfortunes of enemies are a way of showing how well one is
being treated oneself.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.