In this final part of the Book of the Covenant, which concludes with 23:33, God gave the Israelites promises and precepts relating to their conquest of the Promised Land. Suzerainty treaties normally concluded with an explanation of the benefits that would come to the vassals if they obeyed the king's commands and the difficulties they would experience if they disobeyed. That is characteristic of this section of the covenant, though the emphasis is positive.
"Similar opening [20:22-26] and closing remarks are also found in the codes of Hammurabi and Lipit-Istar."405
"Following the text of the covenant code Yahweh assures His people of His ongoing commitment. He had not brought them out of Egypt and made covenant with them only to forget them in the wilderness. He had promised to give them land, so now He speaks of the process by which they would enter the land and the circumstances they would face there (Ex. 23:20-33)."406
23:20-23 God stressed the importance of obedience in these verses. The angel referred to was undoubtedly the Angel of the Lord (cf. Josh. 5:13-15).
23:24-26 Moses stressed the worship of the true God as opposed to the idols of Canaan again. Note the emphasis on obedience and worship again in verses 20-26.407
23:27-28 God promised His people various provisions if they would be obedient. We should probably understand the hornets (v. 28) figuratively. There is no reference in the text to God using real hornets to drive out the Canaanites, but He did use other hornet-like forces (cf. Josh. 24:12).
"Perhaps the hornet' is a symbol of Egypt, just as Isaiah 7:18 uses the fly' and the bee' as symbols of Egypt and Assyria, respectively."408
23:29-30 God told the Israelites that they would not drive out all their enemies the first year after they entered the land (v. 29). This is what happened. However, Israel was less successful than she might have been due to incomplete obedience.
"Little by little' does the work of God proceed through the individual soul. Little by little' do the conquests of the Cross win over the world. Little by little' is the unfolding purpose of Redemption made manifest to men and angels."409
23:31 God further promised a wide land area. It stretched from the Red Sea (probably the Gulf of Aqabah, the southeastern boundary) to the Mediterranean Sea (the western boundary). It also ran from the wilderness (probably the northeast border of the Sinai wilderness, the southwest boundary) to the Euphrates River (the northeastern boundary; cf. Gen. 15:18).410Israel did not occupy all of this territory due to her disobedience to God.
23:32-33 These verses contain a final warning. Israel was to make no covenants with the Canaanites or their gods because she already had a covenant with Yahweh. The Israelites failed here too (e.g., Josh 9:3-15).
"The Decalogue begins with the command that Israel have no god other than Yahweh. The Book of the Covenant begins (20:23) and ends (23:32-33) with that same command, and all that lies between that beginning and that ending is designed to assure its obedience."411
It is very important to observe that God conditioned obtaining all that He promised the Israelites as an inheritance on their obedience. They could only enter into it by obeying God. Their inheritance was something different from their salvation, which came to them only by faith in God (Gen. 15:6; Exod. 12:13; 14:31). The New Testament likewise teaches that justification comes solely by faith in God, but only obedient Christians will obtain the full inheritance that God has promised us (cf. Heb. 3:12-4:14).412
