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Exodus 23 Bible study: An angel before you
The law that says "You shall not favor a poor man in his cause" (23:3) also says "You shall not deny justice to your poor people" (23:6), and it tells Israel to bring back an enemy's straying ox (23:4). The promise "Behold, I send an angel before you" (23:20) is close to the words Jesus said of John: "Behold, I send my messenger before your face" (Matthew 11:10).
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“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“The law says, "You shall not favor a poor man in his cause."”
Is that in Exodus 23, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Justice that leans neither way
These laws are still part of "the ordinances which you shall set before them" (21:1). Most of the first nine verses are about what happens in court. "You shall not spread a false report" (23:1). "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice" (23:2). Then two laws that pull in opposite directions: "You shall not favor a poor man in his cause" (23:3), and "You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits" (23:6). Justice isn't to lean toward the crowd, toward the poor, or away from them. "You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous" (23:8). Behind it all is the LORD himself: "I will not justify the wicked" (23:7).
Where it leads to Jesus
"Behold, I send my messenger before your face"
Exodus 23:20leads toMatthew 11:10
The LORD says, "Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way" (23:20). Malachi has the LORD say, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me!" (Malachi 3:1), with the same Hebrew verb and noun. Jesus says of John the Baptizer, "this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you’" (Matthew 11:10; Luke 7:27), and Mark introduces the same words with "As it is written in the prophets" (Mark 1:2). Jesus doesn't name the book he is quoting. "Prepare your way" is Malachi's wording, and "before your face" is closer to Exodus 23:20's "before you" than to Malachi's "before me", so this link is a reading: many hear both passages in Jesus' words, others hear Malachi alone. In the New Testament the messenger is John, sent ahead of Jesus.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Exodus 23
That was a taste
The rest of Exodus 23 is waiting in Favor
- Rest that reaches others
- Three feasts, three times a year
- An angel who carries the LORD's name
- "Behold, I send my messenger"
- The same three feasts by other names
- Jesus at the feasts
- 16 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Exodus 23 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
מַלְאָךְmal'akhsay mal-AKH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "messenger"; Strong's: "a messenger; specifically, of God, i.e. an angel". The same word means a human messenger or an angel; the WEB chooses "angel" here. "Behold, I send an angel before you" (23:20), and "my angel shall go before you" (23:23). Exodus uses the word six times, always of God's angel: at the bush (3:2), at the sea (14:19), twice here, and twice after the golden calf (32:34; 33:2). Malachi uses it for "my messenger" in "Behold, I send my messenger" (Malachi 3:1).
For your group
Exodus 23 Bible study questions
- 1"You shall not follow a crowd to do evil" (23:2). Where do you feel the pull of a crowd, and what would it take to stand apart from it?
- 2The law told Israel to help even the donkey "of him who hates you" (23:5). What would it look like for you to help someone who doesn't like you this week?
- 3"You know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt" (23:9). How has something hard you went through helped you understand someone else?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 23 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home