John Calvin Commentary Exodus 23:27

"I will send my terror before thee, and will discomfit all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee." — Exodus 23:27 (ASV)

I will send my fear before thee. It is very clear from these words that God’s fatherly love towards the people is magnified, to prepare their minds to submit themselves to the yoke of the Law. Therefore, their reward if they keep the Law is not so much set before them here, as shame is declared upon them if they are ungrateful to God their deliverer, who was soon to give them the enjoyment of the promised land.

Moreover, God is said to send forth His fear when by His secret inspiration He casts down men’s hearts. From this we gather that fear, as well as courage, is in His hand. Of this, clear examples exist in every history, if only God received His due rights among men.

It will often happen that the courage of brave men gives way to alarm, and on the other hand, that the timid and cowardly awaken to sudden bravery. When the cause is not discovered, the profane resort to the hidden dominion of fortune to account for it, or imagine that men’s minds have been stupefied by Pan or the Satyrs.²⁶⁹

Let us, however, learn that it is in God’s power to bend men’s hearts either way, so as both to cast down the courageous with terror and to animate the timid. From this passage, what we read in Psalm 44:2-3 is taken:

Thou didst drive out the heathen with thine hand, and plantedst them, (our fathers.) For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, etc.

Moreover, Rahab, who was both a harlot and belonged to an unbelieving nation, still acknowledged this when she said to the spies:

our hearts did melt; for the Lord your God is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath (Joshua 2:11).

She does not, indeed, express what we have here: that they were struck from heaven with internal fear, but only says that their terror came from a sense of God’s power. Still, she admits that it is no human cause which makes them tremble in this way.

Moses ascends higher, explaining that God puts to flight or routs their enemies not only by setting before them external objects of terror, but He also works inwardly in their hearts, so that they may flee in confusion and alarm; as it follows at the end of the verse, I will make them turn their backs, which is to say that He would cause them immediately to retreat and not even to endure the sight of the people.

²⁶⁹ “Les phantomes ou tritons.” — Fr. “De Panicis terroribus prudentissima doctrina proponitur: Natura enim rerum omnibus viventibus indidit metum, ac formidinem, vitro atque essentim suae conservatricem, ac mala ingruentia vitantem, et depellentem: veruntamen eadem natura modum tenere nescia est; sed timoribus salutaribus semper vanos, et inanes admiscet, adeo ut omnia (si intus conspici darentur) Panicis terroribus plenissima sint; praesertim humana, quae superstitione (quae vere nihil aliud, quam Panicus terror est) in immensum laborant: maxime temporibus duris, et trepidis, et adversis.” —“De Panicis terroribus prudentissima doctrina proponitur: Natura enim rerum omnibus viventibus indidit metum, ac formidinem, vitro atque essentim suae conservatricem, ac mala ingruentia vitantem, et depellentem: veruntamen eadem natura modum tenere nescia est; sed timoribus salutaribus semper vanos, et inanes admiscet, adeo ut omnia (si intus conspici darentur) Panicis terroribus plenissima sint; praesertim humana, quae superstitione (quae vere nihil aliud, quam Panicus terror est) in immensum laborant: maxime temporibus duris, et trepidis, et adversis.” — Bacon, de Sapientia Veterum.