Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends as we begin another week together.
May I ask what comes to your mind when you hear words like JUSTICE, PARDON, and MERCY? Sadly in our world, too often wickedness seems out of control. Violence and moral decadence seem rampant. So may I ask you… what’s the problem? Where does all this wickedness come from? We know don’t we? The prophet Jeremiah wrote it this way: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jer. 17:9,10) We are all born with a sinful, selfish, deceitful heart and the older we get the harder that heart becomes UNLESS God has been invited to do His transforming work in that heart! And we will all stand accountable for our lives, won’t we?
This weekend I left you standing with Moses, at the base of Mount Sinai, aghast at what he was seeing and what he had heard from Aaron when Moses questioned him about the mayhem. While Moses had been up the mountain with God, the people turned away from God and their Covenant commitment to live as His holy people. And with Aaron’s help they made a golden calf idol calling it their god!
Now let’s remember all God had done for this people in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and bringing them safely to this mountain, and supplying them with food and water in the desert. Also, when God had audibly pronounced His 10 Commandments for the people He had begun with “You shall have no other god before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below…You shall not bow down to them or worship them… Do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold…” (Ex. 20:1-6, 23)
God had then been even more specific with Moses by giving these laws to Moses which he passed on to the people and they enthusiastically agreed to live by these laws:
* Ex. 22:20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed.“
* Ex. 22:31 “You are to be My holy people… do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.” (Ex. 23:2)
* Ex. 23: 13 “Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.”
And finally in God’s promise to lead His people from Sinai to His land of promise, God had warned them that the promised land had people living in it who worshipped idols. “Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish their idols and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the LORD your God and My blessing will be upon you…” (Ex. 23:23-26) Moses had then led the people in a blood Covenant with Almighty, Holy God for they had said “We will do everything the LORD has said, we will obey.” (Ex. 24:7)
But alas, the people had broken their covenant with God knowing full well such wickedness was punishable by death. In Exodus 32:26-29 we find a brief but bloody record of Moses leading some who rallied to his side in executing judgment on what I presume were some of the ringleaders of this moral insurrection. It says “The Levites did as Moses commanded and that day about 3000 of the people died…” (Ex. 32:28) While significant, 3000 out of 1 million people is a small number isn’t it? However it was a shocking, frightening experience for all the people, as they contemplated the seriousness of taking an oath with God and then violating that oath! Remember, these Hebrew slaves had fled Egypt to the sound of the death wail, now all across the Hebrew camp the death wail was heard, as Hebrew families buried their dead. That night tears flowed in the camp as the people came to a harsh understanding of what it means to be a people living in relationship with a HOLY God. Holiness cannot tolerate wickedness. Holiness cannot overlook evil. Holy Justice calls for righteous accountability.
When morning came I’m sure everyone in camp wondered. Would there be manna from heaven or would God cut off their food supply and simply starve them to death in the desert? Would the water sources they had at the mountain still flow or would they dry up? Would some terrible disease break out and spread through the camp like a pandemic or would God be merciful? As they opened the flaps of their tents, manna was on the ground as normal. The water springs flowed as normal. And the record says: “The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ So Moses went back [up Mount Sinai] to the LORD…” (Ex. 32:30,31) Look my friends, there he goes, hiking back up Sinai, for now the seventh time, but this time Moses is alone. This time Moses hikes up motivated by his broken heart, his shame for the people, not by any invitation from God. This time Moses wondered… what would it be like to meet with God in the cloud under these circumstances? Would God be angry? If so, what might God do or say in His anger, inside that cloud?
Moses disappeared into the cloud and wrote this as a record for us: “So Moses went back up to the LORD and said, ‘Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.‘” (Ex. 32:31,32) Do you hear the agony with which Moses pleads for the people before God? I must tell you friends that we have no clear explanation of what this ‘book of God’ is which Moses refers to here. Perhaps it was similar to that special book in Revelation 20:15. There will be a “Book of Life” at the judgement, at the end of time, and those whose names are written in that book are people whom God has considered righteous, either by their faith & trust in Jesus Christ and His atonement death or, as with Abraham in the Old Testament, (Gen. 15:6; Romans 4:18-25) those who put their faith in God alone, in the time of history before Jesus’ atonement death. The Revelation record says: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life…If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the lake of fire.”
Are you amazed that Moses would plead with God that God spare these people and if not that God also removed his name from God’s book? As you pray for your family or friends who are far from God, with what compassion do you pray?
Years later Moses wrote some further detail about what happened up there on Sinai while Moses prayed for the people, begging for God’s mercy: “Once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for 40 days and 40 nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in LORD’s sight and so provoking Him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me…” (Deut. 9:18-20, 25-29) Oh my what an experience that must have been for Moses. I imagine there were very long periods of time when neither he nor God said anything. Days and nights of silence, only tears of remorse and deep wondering what God’s justice would require when the covenant had been broken in such a blasphemous way?
Finally Moses records for us: “The LORD replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of and My angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for Me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.’ And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.” (Ex. 32:31-35)
Now if you know the full story of this people of Israel, you know not long after this they refused the opportunity to enter the promised land when God first brought them to Kadesh Barnea, and they sent in spies to investigate the land. Fear overtook them and Faith failed them. And thus God sentenced them to 40 years of wandering in the desert till ALL of these adults, who had been in this Sinai rebellion, died in the desert. Then their children were then given the opportunity, with Joshua, to enter the promised land. Do you see how that was one way of fulfilling God’s promise here that all who rebelled would be ‘blotted out of the book’? Perhaps this book was to be God’s record of those whom God rescued out of Egypt and God would then bring safely into the promised land? But alas, an entire faithless generation of covenant breaking people died in the desert.
Friends, we need to pause here. This painful story helps us see the seriousness of evil and wickedness. The great danger of mocking God by rejecting Him when He has done so much to give us life and then provide and protect and bless. This helps us to understand WHY Jesus had to come to earth and go to the cross to pay our sin death price so we could be forgiven and our names entered into the Book of Life, never to be erased! Is your name there my friends? Have you experienced the forgiveness of God for your sin as you repented of your sin and fully placed your trust in Jesus and HIS sacrificial death on your behalf? Have you grasped the awful, terrible, ugliness of sin and the remarkable price Jesus paid for you and me, so God could personalize the ‘Divine Exchange’ placing our sin on Jesus and His righteousness on us? (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Here’s a song of reflection to help us consider these great truths. Make this a moment of grateful worship my friends.
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 32:26-35.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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