Word of Encouragement (08/24/2022)
But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” (Ex. 31:11-13)
You know the setting. While Moses was receiving the instruction for building the tabernacle along with the two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed, the Israelites demanded Aaron to make them gods, who would go before them (Ex. 32:1). This was right after God gave them the Ten Commandments, which began with forbidding idolatry (the First Commandment, Ex. 20:3) and making of graven images to bow down and worship (the Second Commandment, Ex. 20:4-6). At the ratification ceremony, they swore by the blood of the covenant, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Ex. 24:3, 7). How quickly they had forgotten!
Knowing what they had done, the LORD told Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you” (Ex. 32:9-10). Today’s passage is Moses’ response to these words of God.
Moses’ (intercessory) prayer consists of two why-questions and two pleas. The first question is, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand” (v. 11)? Moses was not challenging God’s authority to punish the people of Israel for their sin of idolatry. He could not have been so ignorant of God’s holiness that he thought that this sin didn’t matter to God. What Moses was asking was why God would want to wipe them out from the face of the earth. It could be that he didn’t know how bad it was down in Israel’s camp. When he came down from Mount Sinai and saw what was happening, he was overcome with rage and threw down the tablets of stone, shattering them to pieces.
But the basis of Moses’ question had little to do with the seriousness of Israel’s sin. With this rhetorical question, he was reminding(?) God that the people of Israel, as bad as they were, were His people, whom He took pains to deliver out of Egypt. The omniscient God could not have been ignorant of the depth of Israel’s sinfulness, could He? Surely, as bad as this sin was, He must have known what He was getting into when He entered this covenant relationship with Israel!
Why, then, did God say this to Moses? There might have been three reasons. The first was to show what Israel’s sin deserved. For their sin of idolatry, they deserved to be consumed by the wrath of God to be no more. Moses had to be reminded of this and Israel had to be reminded of this, especially as they were about to build the tabernacle and initiate the Levitical sacrificial system. Through it, God would provide a means of granting forgiveness to His people. But they had to understand the gravity of sin, which could not be done away with simply by offering animal sacrifices.
The second reason was to test Moses as the leader of Israel, as the mediator between God and Israel. Did he love the people he was called to lead, as troublesome as they were? And did he understand God’s purpose for His covenant with Israel? Israel would cause so many more problems in the coming days and years. Moses would need deep love for the people of Israel and a good understanding of God’s purpose to lead them well through their tumultuous journey through the wilderness.
The last reason was to confirm Moses as Israel’s intercessor. This was, of course, to set him up as a type of Jesus Christ, the true Intercessor for the people of God. Christ is the true Intercessor not just because He intercedes for us sincerely and faithfully but because His intercession is made efficacious through His sacrificial suffering and death for our sins. Unlike Moses’ or any other person’s intercession, His intercession is based on His merit. And it is His merit that makes the believer’s intercession for others (including Moses’) effective. This is the assurance we have when we intercede for others in the name of Jesus Christ.
Let us be grateful for our faithful and efficacious Intercessor, who intercedes for us without ceasing at the right hand of God. As we grow deeper in our appreciation for Christ, may the Lord increase our love and intercession for others!