“Yet now, if you will forgive their sin: and if not blot me, I pray thee, out of your book which you have written.”
The text verse came at the culmination of the rebellion of the Israelites that God had delivered from Egypt. While Moses was on Mt. Horeb receiving orders from the Lord, especially the Ten Commandments, the Israelites thought that he had forsaken them. Because of this they had Aaron, Moses’ older brother, build them an idol of gold. Then they began to have a wild party with all that worship of idols entails. God told Moses that he would destroy these people and start over with him. This would mean that the covenant would no longer be with Abraham, but with Moses. Moses refused this honor. (You can read about it in Exodus 32:9-14.) Moses went down from Horeb or Sinai into the camp and dealt with the situation. It was after this that Moses made the statement in Exodus 32:32. What I see in this is that Moses really and truly loved these people in spite of their rebelliousness. I want to take a look at this love, and recommend that we learn from it. The first thing I noticed is that Moses loved these people in spite of their rebelliousness. This was not the first time that they had rebelled against Moses. They murmured and complained all along the way. One would think that this incident at Horeb would have been the last straw for Moses, but it wasn’t. Moses was called of God to lead these people to the Promised Land, and he intended to see it through to the end. The only conclusion that I can come to is that Moses loved and revered God enough to know that this whole thing was not about him but about what God was doing with His people. No matter how hard-headed and hard-hearted they were, Moses loved them anyway. Think about it: This is how Jesus loves us and how He wants us to love others. As The old saying goes: “It ain’t easy," but if it means carrying out God’s purpose for our lives, we should learn to love people in spite of themselves, even as Moses did. The second thing I noticed is that Moses' love for them did not mean that he wasn’t aggravated with them and that he would not discipline them. We call this "tough love" today. In verses 19-20, Moses burned the golden calf up, had it ground into powder, put it in the water and made the Israelites drink it. Love that is truly God’s kind of love does not just look at sin and think that it does not matter. It is not God’s kind of love if we just wink at sin – other's sins or our own--as if sin doesn’t matter. What Moses did might have seemed harsh, but I think that it was done out of love to make them realize the consequences of their actions. This is how God disciplines us. (If you think that was harsh, read verses 26-28.) We do not do ourselves, or others, any favor by ignoring that sin is a stench in the nostrils of God. Real love will try to remedy the situation, beginning with our own lives. The third thing that I noticed is that the Israelites must have known that all that Moses did was out of love, because they did not rebel against him in this matter. I mean they outnumbered Moses three million to one, but they sensed that Moses was chosen of God, and that he only had their best interests at heart. When we truly love people, they know that we love them, and they will respond to that love positively. I want you to get the point here: When we love people with God’s kind of love, we don’t have to compromise our biblical standards to make them love us. It is only when we deal with people out of hatred and bitterness that they will ignore us. Let’s commit ourselves to love people like Moses loved the Israelites. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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