Exodus 23:20-22 (ESV)
“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Devotional Meditation
In concluding the covenant with his people, Yahweh brings them back full circle. How did the covenant begin? With God’s self-identification and exclusive claim to their loyalty.
“I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:2-3)
Now, here at the covenant’s conclusion, Yahweh returns to the same emphasis--but with a twist: he tells the people that he will send his angel (messenger) to lead and protect the people as they engage in the task of occupying the land. Yet, this angel is no mere middle-manager. The people are to obey his voice because Yahweh’s own name is in him. Where Yahweh’s name is, there Yahweh himself is. Yahweh’s name = Yahweh’s presence. This angel and Yahweh are one and the same. The people are to obey this angel, follow this angel, and listen to this angel as they would to Yahweh because he is Yahweh. He establishes his covenant and he reveals his presence through his name.
Of course, this covenant was not to last. His people broke this covenant by not following, not listening, not obeying the voice of Yahweh. They did not fear, love, and trust in Yahweh above all things. They despised his name. They fled from his presence. They went after other gods. And they paid the terrible price for their disloyalty.
But Yahweh did not abandon them to total destruction. He promised a new covenant. A better covenant. One that could never be broken, because Yahweh himself would bear the responsibility for keeping it. How? Through his angel--his messenger--who would bear his name and who would manifest his power and presence to a people who had become enslaved to sin and the power of darkness.
Over and over in the gospels, Jesus is revealed to be Yahweh’s name-bearer--his power and presence on earth. At his birth, at his baptism, at his transfiguration, we hear heaven itself proclaim his divine identity. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus himself says:
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (John 17:6)
“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me...”(17:11)
“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them...” (17:12)
Jesus is the presence and power of Yahweh. The initiator and keeper of a better covenant. The one that he instituted on the night when he was betrayed. The covenant that we still participate in to this very day. Bread and wine. His body and blood. The guarantee that this new covenant will never be broken because it was sealed with the sacrifice of the name-bearer himself. The power and presence of Yahweh. The name of Jesus. A name that now stands above all names.