012. Prayer Of Moses For Israel.
Prayer Of Moses For Israel.
Exodus 32:9-14. In their journey towards Canaan, the Israelites, having reached the neighborhood of Mount Sinai, encamp by divine direction at its base. Here God proposes to enter into covenant with them, and to deliver to them his law. Preparations are made for the sublime and august ceremony. The morning of the appointed day is ushered in with the visible descent of a dense, dark cloud, which rests on the summit of Sinai, and from which issue thundering and lightning, spreading a solemn awe throughout all the camp of Israel. In the midst of this terrific display of divine power, to which are added earthquake, fire, and the presence of the ministering angels, the covenant is proposed, and the law delivered. With one voice the people respond: “All the words, which the Lord hath said, we will do, and be obedient.”
Following this “sight,” which was so “terrible,” that even Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake,” (Hebrews 12:21.) he receives the divine command to ascend the mount. “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel.” Towards this cloud of glory Moses proceeds—he enters it, and there, for nearly forty days and forty nights, divinely sustained, he holds communion with God, and receives instructions in regard to the Tabernacle; its construction and furniture; and in regard to the worship of God, its ministers and ceremonies.
While thus employed, and just as he was on the eve of returning, an event transpired in the camp of Israel, which, as an exhibition of depravity, had never been paralleled. Daily fed by manna from heaven; daily refreshed by water from the smitten rock; surrounded by miracles of might and benignity, wrought daily for their comfort and support; who could have anticipated that, in defiance of the command, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me; thou shalt make no graven image,” to which they had so lately and so solemnly promised obedience; they should so soon demand the fabrication of a molten image, “thus changing the glory of God into the likeness of an ox, that eateth grass?”
Yet such was the scene transpiring in the camp of Israel, when the interview between God and his servant Moses was about to terminate. Impatient at the delay of the latter, and pretending that they knew not what had become of him, but in reality “disrelishing a purely spiritual worship,” the Israelites prefer their request to Aaron, “to make them gods who should go before them,” and even clamorously demand of him a compliance with their wishes. And to a demand, so unnatural and Heaven-daring, what does the associate of Moses reply? Does he remonstrate? Filled with grief and dismay, does he chide? Does he denounce the judgment of Heaven upon them? Perhaps so, in the first instance, although the sacred narrative accords to him no such extenuating merit. But, if so, at length, he yields; the minister of religion becomes an accessory to gross and insulting idolatry; and he, who should have guarded the divine honor at the sacrifice of his life, himself fashions a molten calf, and superintends the sacrifice offered unto the dumb and senseless idol.
Thus, in the very sight of the most awful and sublime manifestations of the divine power and glory; Sinai’s summit still invested with the symbols of the divine presence, and Moses still with God on the mount, this people, whom God had rescued from a bondage of centuries, and cruel as it had been long; whom he had conducted through the channels of the sea; whom he had fed, and was still feeding with bread from heaven; whose thirst he was slaking with water, which rolled by their side as they journeyed; this people, thus rescued, fed, clothed, preserved by a constant miracle, are bowing down to a senseless idol! Who could have thought it?
God’s eye is upon them, and it kindles with holy indignation. “Go, get thee down,” says he to Moses, “for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.” God speaks as if this people had forfeited all right longer to be considered his people, and as if he was about to cast them off. And why should he longer bear with them? Why not now, in view of this strange and wanton violation of their covenant, write upon them, “Lo-Ammi, Thou art not my people!”
Moses is ready to descend, to interpose and prevent, if possible, the continuance of this infatuated and monstrous idolatry; when God again addresses him. “This is a stiff-necked people; now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.” Does God then forbid his servant to pray for them? May he not intercede? Moses had attempted no mediation; had offered no supplication. But it is apparent that God feels that if he should cry, as he might cry, he would prevail. “The words which seem to forbid, are really intended,” says a commentator, “to encourage Moses in his suit. They are not, indeed, a positive command to him to pray in behalf of Israel; but they indicate what it was that would stay the divine hand; and were equivalent to saying, “If you intercede for them, my hands are tied, and I cannot execute the deserved vengeance.” Blessed power of prayer! “Able, after a sort,” as Trapp says, “to transfuse a palsy into the hand of Omnipotence.” But the proposal of God to Moses—will he surmount that? “I will make of thee a great nation.” Oh, thou man of God, what a trial of thy spirit! What an appeal to the ambition, which may be latent in thy heart! Thou offered the occupation of the high and exalted station of Abraham! Thou to become the father of the faithful! Canaan thine inheritance, and thine the blessings of that covenant, which in future years, will give through the line of thy posterity a Savior to the world! Will Moses, in view of such personal interest; such promised honors; will he pray?
What a delightful exhibition does he give of the magnanimity and benevolence of his heart! Pray!—he not pray? See how he seizes the first favorable moment to throw himself, in all the ardor of earnest and importunate entreaty, into the breach. “Why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people,” &c.
“The prayer of Moses on this occasion contains a threefold plea;
(1.) That God would not reflect upon his own wisdom, by so soon destroying what he had employed so much power to preserve.
(2.) That He would not give advantage to the Egyptians to glory over the ruin of a race whom they so much hated.
(3.) That he would remember his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The second of these arguments he prosecutes in the passage before us, and in doing so shows that he had the glory of God quite as much at heart as the welfare of Israel. Aware that the eyes and the tongues of Egypt, and the surrounding nations, were intent on finding matter of malicious triumph over a people so signally delivered from bondage, so miraculously sustained, so wondrously conducted, he would at all hazards preclude every ground and occasion upon which the divine glory could be blemished in the estimate of his enemies. Should the chosen people now, after such illustrious displays of divine power in their behalf, perish under the stroke of deserved wrath, what would be more natural than that fickleness or impotence should be imputed to their covenant God, and thus his holy name be blasphemed on every side? All that had been thus far done would go for nothing, and to human appearance the Most High would ‘disgrace the throne of his glory.’ But this was a consequence which the pious heart of Moses could not endure to contemplate, and therefore is he so emphatic in urging the question, ‘what will the Egyptians say?’” But the great argument of all is the promise made to the fathers. “To the fulfillment of this promise the veracity of God would have been pledged, had it been given simply in the form of a plain declaration; but there was more than this; it was a promise confirmed by an oath, and an oath sworn by himself, than whom he could swear by no greater. Consequently nothing could be conceived more binding by which the honor of divine truth could be engaged to the performance of its stipulations. It is as if he had said, ‘Lord, if thy people be now destroyed, shall not thy promise fail for evermore? And shall their unbelief be allowed to make thy truth of none effect? God forbid.’”
If there was ever a case in which prayer might have failed, was it not this? Who could expect the Lord to be propitiated towards a people so ungrateful; so insulting; so rebellious! Yet Moses prevails. And we have the divine attestation to the prevalence of his prayer; for the Psalmist declares, “he would have destroyed them, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach.”—Psalms 106:23.
Wonderful the efficacy of prayer! And wonderful the forbearance and condescension of God!