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Portion 55

Golden Text: Ex 23:20-33
Readings for the week:

Day 1: Ex 23:20-33

Day 2: Ps 95

Day 3: Rom 2:17-29

Day 4: Rom 15:7-21

Day 5: 1Cor 10:1-22

Day 6: Phil 1:12-30

I- Three details that help to understand this portion.

  1. The first thing is to define what an “angel” really is. In Spanish and popular culture, it suggests a kind of spiritual being created by God, who may assume human form at some point. However, the word “angel” itself is the desire to transliterate the Greek word angelos (ἄγγελος) which in turn is an attempt to translate the Hebrew word malakh (מלאך), which simply means “messenger.” While the word often refers to spiritual entities, its use is broader in Hebrew. It can refer to any person, whether human or not, who performs the work of a messenger or an envoy[1].
  2. Who is the angel who appears here? We must have some clear elements:
  • He is called God and the Angel who Redeems (Gen. 48:16).
  • God says that it was He Himself who brought them up out of Egypt (Jdg 2:1), which Judas corroborates in verse 5 of his letter[2].
  • The Angel calls Himself Wonderful (Jdg 13:18). Compare that with Isaiah 9:6.
  • The apostle John makes it clear that no one has ever seen God, so when it has happened that God has been seen, the one who has been seen of the deity is really Jesus (John 1:18), for He is the visible image of the invisible God (Col 1:15).
  1. God promised Israel that to enter the promised land would be to enter into their spiritual rest (menuchah).[3] This is what is narrated in Psalm 95 and is explained in Hebrews.

II- God always personally announces and guides his people.

In this portion God announces that His Angel would lead His people through the wilderness to the promised land (where they would have spiritual rest), but the rebellion in the wilderness thwarted and put this promise on hold. It is not that this surprised God, but that He announced it to him as a precedent for the true promise.

In the same way, Jesus is the one who has led us to the Father through his salvific work (where rest or spiritual menujah is found), and as the caretaker of that reality of ours he promised to be with us every day until the end of the world. The latter is the fulfillment of that promise to enter His eternal rest.

Notice the play on words in verse 22 to say that the people were to hear, not the voice of the Angel (which for this purpose they were to use the third person), but that of God Himself (for which he uses the first person). And how also instead of the Angel defending him (third person) it would be God himself who would do it (first person).

Looking at verse 21 literally, the people were to keep themselves in front of the Angel’s face, to be obedient to the power of his voice, and not to be bitter at commands they did not understand. And the reason is simple: “My name is in Him.”[4] So if the one they were seeing there was really God (Jesus), do you understand what happened to all those who stood before Him centuries later in Jerusalem to humiliate and destroy Him? So: No one killed Jesus, He gave His life![5].

III- Holy Laws for a Holy Nation.

The rest of the portion includes real-life laws. The people had to live with other peoples, because they would be light amid darkness. This destiny for Israel implied recommendations for when she was amid the Gentiles. They had to be careful not to do the same as the Gentiles did, for their cultures were the result of the dragging of social currents, human solutions, and sinful habits.

It is not that God was xenophobic or racist, because Israel also had much to change, but that the holy laws he was giving them would make them a holy nation with a priesthood for the rest of the nations. That merited not being contaminated with sinful Gentile customs.

Questions:

1.- What implications do you see in the fact that the Angel who led Israel in the wilderness could be Jesus?

2.- Read each commandment in this portion carefully and separate them from each other. How many have you found?

3.- Share with your group which of these commandments stood out to you the most and why.

4.- Do you think the church should take special care in its relationship with the world not to adopt Gentile culture? How do you suggest I should do it?

 

[1] For example, one envoy was the shaliach which is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word apostolos. He was sent to speak and even with the ability to make contracts for someone. In the Hebrew liturgy it is the person who conducts the synagogue service.

[2] Most versions record “Lord.” However, current studies of textual criticism suggest (based on the best and oldest manuscripts) that the original must have read “Jesus”, and that later copyists made the substitution for “Lord”.

[3] See Portion 46.

[4] To expand on this topic, we recommend the book Looking at the Invisible, by the author himself, KDP (ISBN: 978-1693271656).

[5] Jn 10:17-18.

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