John Calvin Commentary Exodus 23:31

"And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand: and thou shalt drive them out before thee." — Exodus 23:31 (ASV)

And I will set thy bounds. There is no question that He confirms here the covenant which He had made with Abraham in somewhat different words. It had been said more briefly to Abraham,

Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).

Here the four cardinal points of the compass are enumerated, and, instead of the Nile, the other sea is mentioned, which is opposite to the sea of Tarshish.²⁷¹ Nor is it anything new that the Israelites are commanded to expect; instead, they are reminded of what they had heard by tradition even from the time of Abraham.

From this, what I have already said is more clearly perceived: namely, that the ancient covenant is set before them so that they may respond to God’s gratuitous favor and, on their part, honor and worship Him, who had already anticipated them with His mercy.

Furthermore, when they had robbed themselves of this blessing, God applied a remedy to their iniquity by bringing about a new situation under David, to whom this promise is repeated, as is seen in Psalm 72.

Therefore, although even up to that time their inheritance was somewhat incomplete (truncata),²⁷² yet, under this renovated condition, they reached its full and solid enjoyment.

But that prosperity and extension of the kingdom was not lasting. After Solomon’s death, it began to fail, and finally its dignity was destroyed. Therefore, Zechariah uses the same words in declaring its ultimate and perfect restoration (Zechariah 9:10).

From this we gather that by the coming of Christ this prophecy finally achieved its perfect accomplishment; not that the descendants of Abraham then began to rule within the bounds laid down here, but because Christ embraced the four quarters of the globe under His dominion, from the east to the west, and from the north to the south.

Meanwhile, the power of David was the prototype of this boundless reign, when he acquired the sovereignty of the promised land.

We should not think it unreasonable that the ancient people were kept out of some portion of that inheritance which they were to expect in accordance with the covenant. Rather, God’s incredible goodness displays itself in this: when they had completely disinherited themselves, He still combated their iniquity and did not fail to show His faithfulness in practice.

We may see the same thing in the calling of the Gentiles. For, if the Jews had continued faithful, the Gentiles would have been joined with them, as it had been said,

In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew (Zechariah 8:23).

But their rebellion brought it about that God gathered only the first-fruits of His Church from among them, and afterwards the Gentiles were substituted in the place they had left empty. In this way, this people neither retained their right of primogeniture, nor did God’s truth cease to stand firm, as Paul explains more fully in Romans 11.

²⁷¹ Corn. a Lapide thus explains these boundaries, — “God here gives the boundaries of the promised land with respect to the cardinal points; for it has the Red Sea as its southern limit; on the west, the sea of the Palestini, or the Mediterranean, whose shores are inhabited by the Philistines; (whence Scripture often speaks of ‘the Sea’ to express the west; ) on the east, it has the Arabian Desert, lying between it and Egypt; and, finally, to the north it has the River Euphrates, which is called par excellence (autonomasian) the River.”(autonomasian) the River.”

²⁷² “Quand Dieu a establi son Eglise;” when God established His (Church. — Fr..