33:2 Moses recorded the Israelites’ journeys as God instructed him, providing a record of their spiritual as well as geographic progress. Have you made spiritual progress lately? Recording your thoughts about God and lessons you have learned over a period of time can be a valuable aid to spiritual growth. A record of your spiritual pilgrimage will let you check up on your progress and avoid repeating past mistakes.
33:4 God “executed judgments” on the gods of Egypt by sending the plagues. See the note on Exodus 10:22 for a further explanation.
33:50-53 God told Moses that before the Israelites settled in the Promised Land they should drive out the wicked inhabitants and destroy their idols. In Colossians 3, Paul encourages us to live as Christians in the same manner: throwing away our old way of living and moving ahead into our new life of obedience to God and faith in Jesus Christ. Like the Israelites moving into the Promised Land, we can destroy the wickedness in our lives, or we can settle down and live with it. To move in and possess the new life, we must drive out the sinful thoughts and practices to make room for the new.
33:50-56 Why were the Israelites told to destroy the people living in Canaan? God had several compelling reasons for giving this command: (1) God was stamping out the wickedness of an extremely sinful group of nations. The Canaanites brought on their own punishment. Idol worship expressed their deepest evil desires. It ultimately led to the worship of Satan and the total rejection of God. (2) God was using Moses and Israel to judge Canaan for its sins in fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 9:25. (3) God wanted to remove all trace of pagan beliefs and practices from the land. He did not want his people to mix or compromise with idolatry in any way. The Israelites did not fully understand God’s reasons, and they did not carry out his command. This eventually led them to compromise and corruption. In all areas of life, we should obey God’s Word without question because we know he is just, even if we cannot fully understand his overall purposes.
33:55 If you don’t do the job right the first time, it often becomes much more difficult to accomplish. God warned that if the Israelites did not drive the wicked inhabitants out of the Promised Land, later these people would become a source of great irritation. That is exactly what happened. Just as the Israelites were hesitant to clear out all the wicked people, we are sometimes hesitant to clear out all the sin in our lives, either because we are afraid of it (as the Israelites feared the giants), or because it seems harmless and attractive (as sexual sin seemed). But Hebrews 12:1 tells us to throw off those sins that “so easily beset us.” We all have “idols” we don’t want to let go of (a bad habit, an unhealthy relationship, a certain lifestyle). If we allow these idols to dominate us, they will cause serious problems later.
33:55, 56 God never goes back on his word, and this is one warning the Israelites should not have taken lightly. God made it perfectly clear: “If ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land . . . I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Yet for some reason the people did not obey. The Israelites did not drive all the wicked nations out, and soon they began to assimilate their evil religious beliefs and practices. After a while, an Israelite was no different from a Canaanite. God fulfilled his warning in these verses during the period of the judges, and in a fuller sense during the time of the kings when he sent the Assyrians (2 Kings 17) and the Babylonians (2 Kings 25) to destroy Israel and carry the people away captive. The Israelites learned that God’s words should be taken seriously.