013. Second Prayer Of Moses.
Second Prayer Of Moses.
We have seen Moses prevail with God in the mount, to forego “the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” His request being granted, he descends the mountain, and approaches the scene of mirth and idolatry. There stood the “molten calf,” the monument of folly and madness; and there was the festive dance of God’s chosen people around it; the evidence of impiety and rebellion.
It was a sight for which, meek as the man of God was, and apprised as he had been of what was transpiring in the camp of Israel, he was ill prepared. There was such an abuse of divine goodness; there was such an insult upon the divine majesty; such a stain cast upon the divine glory, that we may well imagine that a holy indignation fired the bosom of Moses. The sequel proves the supposition true. He had borne from the mount “the tables of the testimony;” the workmanship of God; “hewn,” as Jewish tradition would have it, “out of the sapphire of the throne of his glory;” these, so sacred, considering their origin, and still more sacred, viewed as containing the imperative law of Jehovah; these, Moses dashes like a potter’s vessel to the ground, in the sight of all Israel. It savored of rashness in appearance, but a divine impulse doubtless actuated him. It was a significant action, denoting that from the covenant, which his people had so sacrilegiously violated, God might justly consider himself released.
Hope, however, sprung to the bosom of Moses, and immediately he addresses himself to the emergency. The idol god is reduced to powder, which is mingled with water, and the people compelled to drink it. Aaron is summoned to account for the weak and guilty part he had taken in the transaction, which he attempts rather to explain, than to justify. The Levites are called to vindicate the divine honor, by putting to the sword neighbor, friend, relative; whosoever is found in open defiance in the camp. They enter upon the painful commission, and before night-fall three thousand pallid corpses upon the field proclaim how fearful it is to give an idol the place of the living God.
Thus the sullied honor of God is vindicated; the reproachful idolatry of his people condemned. But so deeply is the heart of Moses affected, that he must bewail before the Lord the wickedness and ingratitude of the people, and again lay before him the subject of their forgiveness. Accordingly he retires to prostrate himself before the mercy-seat. In tones of impassioned and pathetic eloquence he breaks forth: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin!” He knew it; he felt it in all its enormity, and his spirit is overwhelmed on account of it. The heart which is broken for sin, never attempts to conceal its sense of its guilt and demerit. It is ready to confess; it must confess. So the Psalmist:
While I keep silence, and conceal My heavy guilt, within my heart, What torments doth my conscience feel!
What agonies of inward smart!
Moses, standing in the place of his people, and feeling all their turpitude, cannot ask the divine forgiveness, until he has made ample confession of their sin. Hence the language employed: “they have sinned a great sin.” With this confession, he ventures to supplicate for their forgiveness. “If thou wilt forgive their sin;” he pauses; what would he say? He leaves the sentence unfinished, adding, “if thou wilt not forgive them, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book, which thou hast written;” if they must be destroyed, and that be thy determination, let me die with them, for I would not survive.
Through the grace of God, Moses is again successful. God replies by assuring him that, as a nation, the Israelites should not be destroyed; but that condign punishment should fall upon the guilty. And as a farther token of his being accepted, God promises that his “angel” shall go before them to the land whither they were bound; meaning that either the “pillar of cloud,” or his “special providence” shall accompany them, notwithstanding their recent Heaven-provoking revolt.
Thus we see the power of humble, yet importunate prayer. But what condescension in God, to listen to the voice of mortal man, in behalf of a people worshiping a senseless idol, while the glory of Jehovah was “as devouring fire” on the mount! What honor is put upon Moses himself! Happy the nation which has rulers who can throw themselves into the “breach,” when national sins are inviting the wrath of God. But for Moses, Israel would have been blotted out, and the blessings of the covenant transferred to others.
O may the sons of men record, The wondrous goodness of the Lord!
How great his works! how kind his ways!
Let ev’ry tongue pronounce his praise.
Yet the sequel may admonish those who are spared through the intercession of the righteous, that some of the consequences of their sins may remain, and still be suffered. From a condign and immediate punishment, the Israelites were exempted; but God assures them, that if he shall have occasion to visit them in judgment for future offences, he will remember this, and increase their punishment on account of it. Accordingly, a tradition exists among the Jews to this day, that whatever afflictions their nation has experienced, there has been mingled at least one ounce of the golden calf.
Happy is it if, when we have sinned, and have been forgiven, either through the supplications of our Christian friends, or at the instance of our own penitential cries, we do not again “turn to folly.” Let us remember, that, at length, we may so sin, that though “Moses and Samuel should stand before the Lord for us,” God would not hear them.—Jeremiah 15:1.