… 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”[a] 14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. (Exodus 32:7-14 NKJV)
What changed here; God or Moses?
The theologian and existentialist made these quotes, saying the same thing twice:
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
Soren Kierkegaard
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
Soren Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
Soren Kierkegaard
In the Old Testament we find these verses:
“For I am the Lord, I do not change;Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. (Malachi 3:6 NKJV)
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19 NKJV)
So what happened here? Let’s see the rest of the story of Exodus:
25 Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” 28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 Then Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.”
30 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
33 And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 34 Now therefore, 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 visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.”
35 So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. (32:25-35 NKJV)
If God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, then it follows that something changed in Moses. He goes up the mountain, but we do not know for how long. It must have been long enough for the followers to start to get frustrated and take action on their own. So Aaron did what they asked.
Moses interceded to God not to destroy the people. Did Moses go up to the mountain and get lost in God to the point that he forgot his duty to the people below? The prayer could not change God so the prayer must have changed Moses’ attitude or his leadership/actions to the point that we see in the next part of the story that Moses takes charge… he heads down the mountain and in his anger destroys the tablets, takes leadership, and commands action to the Levi to oppose their sons and brothers by the sword so that 3,000 men fell that day. Then, Moses intercedes again with God and asks that God blot him out of His book in sacrifice of himself for the people’s sin of idolatry. Moses is willing to sacrifice himself in the people’s place--- pretty noble and very humble. Was Moses not the leader he should have been until this set of prayers and actions took place? Was he responsible for the falling-out of the people below the mountain because he was lacking something in his leadership that would be necessary for the future of Israel and for the Son of God to come? This is a really fascinating riddle. Did God test Moses to see if he had the fortitude to correct the situation? If Moses had just prayed and then headed down the mountain and said… sorry, God is going to destroy you all for your sin… I prayed, but there was nothing more I could do; it was great working with everyone, but that is the breaks! What would have happened? Moses pleads with God not to kill the people and make the Egyptians ridicule Him for saving them only to kill them in the desert. Somewhere between the lines of scripture, a subtext, story within a story, is the answer. Or perhaps the riddle remains?
This is kind of fun to think about…
God is not on the timeline of our history or history, He does not wait for events. There is no before, now, soon to come for God… all of it is present and known to Him. He cannot err, because He knows in full detail the events that happened and will happen; it’s all one great motion picture that has finished with the end credits (just trying to swallow all this is really impossible for me). If the events had gone on as the people wished and the worship of the false god and frivolity had gone on, the effect of the cause (God's justice remembering that God is love) would have been destruction and a new order would have been put into being and that is the way the timeline would have gone. God's justice is always within the context of the ultimate love. Such a world that is devoid of good and the potential for good, always, could not exist because God is good. And it follows that without justice there can be no good or love either. So Moses intercedes with prayers and a change of himself to action and the timeline is back on course and moves forward as planned towards the good of all--- The Messiah, fully God and fully man!
“… the distinction between the past, the present, and the future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
--- Albert Einstein
1879-1955
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