Beginning of the End: Moses’ Christlike Love for Israel

 

As the people began to see how great their guilt was, they feared that every offender was to be cut off. Moses promised to plead with God for them once more.

“You have committed a great sin,” he said. “So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” In his confession before God he said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”

The prayer of Moses directs our minds to the heavenly records in which the names of everyone are inscribed, and their deeds, good or evil, are written. The book of life contains the names of all who have entered the service of God. If by stubborn persistence in sin any of these become finally hardened against His Holy Spirit, in the judgment their names will be blotted from the book of life.

If the people of Israel were to be rejected by the Lord, Moses wanted his name to be blotted out with theirs; he could not bear to see the judgments of God fall on those who had been graciously delivered. Moses’ intercession on behalf of Israel illustrates Christ’s mediation for sinners. But the Lord did not permit Moses to bear the guilt of the transgressor, as Christ did. “Whoever has sinned against Me,” He said, “I will blot him out of My book.”

In deep sadness the people buried their dead. Three thousand had been killed by the sword; soon after, a plague had broken out in the camp; and now the message came to them that the divine Presence would no longer go with them in their journey: “I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” And God commanded, “Take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.” In penitence and humiliation, “the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.”

By divine command, the tent that had served as a temporary place of worship was taken “far from the camp.” This was further evidence that God had withdrawn His presence from them. The people felt the rebuke keenly, and to the conscience-stricken multitudes it seemed to predict greater calamity.

But they were not left without hope. The tent was pitched outside the camp, but Moses called it “the tabernacle of meeting.” All who were truly repentant and wanted to return to the Lord were told to go there to confess their sins and seek His mercy. When they returned to their tents, Moses entered the tabernacle. The people watched for some sign that his intercessions for them were accepted. When the cloudy pillar came down and stood at the entrance of the tabernacle, the people wept for joy, and they “rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.”