<b>Behold, I sent an angel before thee (Exod. 23:20).</b> The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: I will send an angel before you but not before them. Whereupon Moses replied: If you send it before me alone, I do not desire it. Rather <i>Let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us</i> (Exod. 34:9). Observe the difference between the early generations and the later ones. When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Behold, I will send an angel before you, he replied: I desire no one but You, whereas, when Joshua the son of Nun beheld an angel, he prostrated himself on the ground, as it is said: <i>And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down. And he said to him: “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?”</i> (Josh. 5:13–14).
R. Isaac queried: What did the angel do when he heard the question: <i>Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?</i> He began to cry out from the nails of his feet (i.e., to weep uncontrollably), and he said to him: <i>Nay, I am captain of the hosts of the Lord; I am now come</i> (ibid.). Twice I have come to lead Israel, I am he who came in the days of Moses your master, and he rejected me because he did not wish me to accompany him, and now I have come once again. Forthwith Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said unto him: <i>What saith my lord unto his servant?</i> (ibid., v. 14). However, though Moses rejected him, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: <i>I send an angel before thee to keep thee by the way</i> (Exod. 23:20), and, as well, before everyone who observes the law.
R. Simeon the son of Lakish stated: It is written: <i>He will cover thee with His pinions, and under His wings shalt thou take refuge; His truth is a shield and a buckler</i> (Ps. 91:4). He said to him: We will make a shield for you and for all who observe the law, since His truth <i>is a shield and a buckler</i>. Therefore <i>to keep thee</i> indicates that He will guard you by means of the law.
<i>To keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared</i> (Exod. 23:20). This one verse from Scripture makes it evident that the earthly Temple corresponds to the heavenly Temple.
<i>Take heed of him, and hearken unto his voice</i> (ibid., v. 21). Why? Because you are not worthy to hear My voice. Listen to the voice of the angel even though he is unable to forgive your transgressions. Why is he not able to do so? He is of the class (of creatures) that do not sin. Thus it is written: <i>For he will not pardon your transgressions</i> (ibid.).
Another explanation of <i>He will not pardon your transgressions</i>. Why not? For he is only a messenger, and a messenger can only do what he is sent to do. I alone can lift up countenances (i.e., grant pardon), as it is said: <i>The Lord lift up His countenance unto thee</i> (Num. 6:26). David cried out: Master of the Universe, you trust us into the keeping of an angel who cannot pardon us, but if<i> Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who can stand?</i> (Ps. 130:3). If You should say: Forgiveness is not available to you, <i>For with Thee there is forgiveness that Thou mayest be feared</i> (ibid., 4), therefore do not place over us the angel who is guardian of the Inner Sanctum, since it is said: For he will not pardon your transgressions. Why? <i>For it is said My name is in him</i> (Exod. 23:21) (i.e., he is only my messenger). R. Simeon the son of Lakish said: The name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is coupled with every angel, as it is said: <i>For My name is in him</i>.
Moses declared: I do not wish an angel to accompany us, only You. If You will not accompany us, we shall not leave this place, as it is said: <i>For wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not in that Thou goest with us?</i> (ibid. 33:16). The Holy One, blessed be He, replied: Be assured that even if the angel does not accompany you, I shall send a hornet ahead of you.
How do we know this? Because the Amorites perished. R. Levi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, attached two hornets to each of the angels, and they went ahead and poured poison into the eyes of an Amorite. His eye would split open, and the man would fall to the ground and die. R. Aha the son of Rab stated: Their bodies trembled, and they became weak in the presence of the Israelites, who then slew them. Our sages stated: Their faces turned black as the soot of a burning furnace, and they became weak in the presence of the Israelites, who killed them.
R. Abba the son of Kahana maintained: The Holy One, blessed be He, bound them before the Israelites, and they attacked and killed them, as it is said: <i>So the Lord our God delivered into our hand Og</i> (Deut. 3:3). He delivered them into their hands just as a man binds his son’s enemy and places him before his son. You should not maintain that the Amorites were small of stature. Observe what is written about them: <i>Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath</i> (Amos 2:9). <i>I destroyed his fruits from above</i> refers to their guardian angel, and <i>his roots from beneath</i> alludes to the Amorites.
And so He would do in the future, He would punish their guardian angels and then the kings of the nations, as it is said: <i>And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will punish the host of the high heaven on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth</i> (Isa. 24:21). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: In this world I will send an angel to make the peoples of the world flee from you, but in the future I will lead you and I will send Elijah before you, as it is said: <i>Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord</i> (Mal. 3:24).