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The Story of Redemption
images of their worship, but utterly destroy them. Many of these
heathen deities were very costly, and of beautiful workmanship,
which might tempt those who had witnessed idol worship, so com-
mon in Egypt, to even regard these senseless objects with some
degree of reverence. The Lord would have His people know that it
was because of the idolatry of these nations, which had led them to
every degree of wickedness, that He would use the Israelites as His
instruments to punish them and destroy their gods.
“I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people
to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn
their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which
shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before
thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest
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the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against
thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until
thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds
from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the
desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land
into your hand: and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou
shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall
not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against Me: for if
thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”
Exodus
23:27-33
. These promises of God to His people were on condition
of their obedience. If they would serve the Lord fully, He would do
great things for them.
After Moses had received the judgments from the Lord, and
had written them for the people, also the promises, on condition of
obedience, the Lord said unto him, “Come up unto the Lord, thou,
and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel;
and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord:
but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and
all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and
said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.”
Exodus
24:1-3
.
Moses had written, not the Ten Commandments, but the judg-
ments which God would have them observe, and the promises on
condition that they would obey Him. He read this to the people, and