Exodus 32:27-35: a reflection

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.

The aftermath of the golden calf is grave. A day of reckoning falls on the camp, and the following day Moses says to the people the sober truth: you have sinned a great sin. Then he does something extraordinary. He goes back up to the Lord to seek atonement, and he prays a prayer that stops the reader short: forgive their sin, and if not, blot me out of the book you have written. Moses offers to be erased himself if it would save his people.

This is intercession at its most costly. Moses does not distance himself from the guilty or ask to be spared while they perish. He so identifies with the people he loves that he would rather share their fate, or take it on himself, than see them lost. It is a love willing to be blotted out for the sake of others, and it points forward, dimly but truly, to a greater intercessor who would not merely offer to be blotted out but actually bear the judgment of the people he came to save.

Moses shows you what it means to truly pray for others: not from a safe distance, but with a love that binds your own well-being to theirs. And he points you to Christ, who did what Moses only offered, who was cut off for our sins so that we might be forgiven. Let Moses' example stretch your prayers for others into something more self-giving, and let it deepen your wonder at the Savior who was actually blotted out in your place.

Lord, Moses so loved his people that he offered to be blotted out to save them, and in that costly love I see a shadow of Christ, who was truly cut off for my sins. Deepen my wonder at such a Savior. And stretch my own prayers for others beyond a safe distance, into a love that binds my heart to theirs. Teach me to intercede as one who truly cares. Amen.