013. Prayer Of Moses When The People Made The Golden Calf.

Prayer Of Moses When The People Made The Golden Calf. The Prayer as recorded.—Exodus 32:31-32. The Answer.—Exodus 32:33-34. The prophet still continues his intercession for his people Israel, after he has descended from the mount, where his last recorded prayer was made. The sound of revelry had struck the ear of the prophet on his way, and as he approached the scene of his people’s wickedness, and beheld the golden calf, his heart was filled with a just anger—a holy indignation. Surely, he says within himself, the Lord will not hear me on behalf of so great sin; my people merit the wrath of Jehovah—but I know the value of intercession. Moses begins his petition with, great tenderness; his “Oh, this people,” shows us what was lying near his heart.

“One stream of light came to him from above, And that was what he saw by, light of God.”

It guided him to the throne again; it led him to Jehovah. The broken sentence in this petition brings before us the full heart of the prophet; he remembers the oft-repeated sins of his people; he bears them in his heart to that God, who is, he knows, a God of justice as well as mercy; he obtains a reprieve for the rebellious, but feels that iniquity will not go unpunished.

It has been supposed by some that Moses was willing to renounce his own hope of salvation for what seemed to be to him the greater glory of God. In the language of another we would explain what we conceive to be the prophet’s meaning: “Lord, if thy decree against this people may not be reversed, if justice demand their utter extermination, let mine eyes be just closed in peace, subject me not to the mortification of surviving all my nation, and of enduring the scorn of our enemies; rather take me out of the world, where I should lead a life of sorrow heavier than death itself.”