Exodus 23:20 Behold, I send an Angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.… The angel, the way, the prepared place. It is the Divine key to the mystery of life. Life is emphatically a way. Not by the way of the sea — a prompt and easy path — but by the way of the wilderness, of old God led His pilgrims. The vision of the angel in the way lights up the wilderness. Consider the suggestion of the text as to — I. The pilgrim's CONDITION. God's children must be pilgrims, because this world is not good enough, not bright enough, not capable of being blessed enough, for the pilgrim in his home. For — 1. The instructed soul sees the touch of essential imperfection and the bounds of close limitation in everything here. 2. There is a constant aching of the heart through memory and hope. 3. Life is a pilgrimage because it is far away from the Friend whom we supremely love. II. The pilgrim's GUIDE. 1. God has sent His angel before us in the person of His Son. 2. He sends His angel with us in the person of the Holy Ghost. III. The pilgrim's WAY TO THE PILGRIM'S HOME. 1. It is a way of purposed toil and difficulty, of wilderness, peril, and night. Suffer we must in the wilderness; the one question is, Shall it be with or without the angel of the Lord? 2. It is a way of stern, uncompromising duty. God asks us now simply to do and to bear, and to wait to see the whole reason and reap the whole fruit on high. We must train ourselves to the habit of righteous action, and leave the results to God and eternity. 3. It is a way of death. God promises to none of us an immunity from death. The shadow hangs round life as a drear monitor to all of us. He only who can eye it steadily and fix its form will see that it is angelic and lustrous with the glory beyond. The grave is but the last step of the way by which the angel leads us to the place which He has prepared. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. |
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