Scripture Daily

Context No. 4019 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 32:27-35: in context

27He said to them, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” 28The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. About three thousand men fell of the people that day. 29Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, for every man was against his son and against his brother, that he may give you a blessing today.” 30On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.” 31Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. 32Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” 33The LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. 34Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35The LORD struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.

In the terrible aftermath of the golden calf, when judgment has fallen on the people, Moses goes back up to God to plead for them. And his intercession reaches an astonishing depth. He confesses their great sin plainly, and then offers himself: forgive their sin, he prays, but if not, please blot me out of the book you have written.

Moses is willing to be blotted out himself, to give up his own place with God, if only his people can be forgiven. Here is intercessory love at its height, a leader so bound to his people that he would rather share their ruin than be saved without them. Moses does not stand apart from the sinners, pleading down at them; he stands with them, willing to bear their fate if that is what it takes. And in this he foreshadows a greater Intercessor. What Moses offered but could not accomplish, Christ actually did: he was, in a sense, blotted out for us, bearing our sin and our judgment in himself, so that we might be forgiven. Moses' willingness to be blotted out for his people points to the One who truly was cut off for the sins of his people, that they might live.

Does the intercessory love of Moses, willing to be blotted out for his people, move me to pray for others with the same self-forgetting love, and to marvel at Christ, who truly was cut off so that I might be forgiven?

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