Merciful Promise-Keeper – Exodus 32

A text – Exodus 32:7-14

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; ⁸ they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. ¹⁰ Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.”

¹¹ But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴ And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

A reflection:

The first paragraph is God’s speech to Moses, rightly naming the Israelites’ chatacter and behavior.

The second paragraph is Moses’s reply. He doesn’t defend the Israelites at all. He appeals not to any deserved-ness on their part. He simply reminds God of God’s own character and nature: generous in relationships, faithful to promises, and mighty enough for foreigners to appreciate.

I know this story. I’ve heard it read many times. But I never thought about how Moses argues with God to be merciful with the people just delivered from slavery and death. Moses relies on God’s character, not the Israelites’ character. Moses relies on God’s long-standing promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses believes God’s own goodness is infinitely greater than the wickedness of his fellow humans.

Jesus does it too, when he is dying. He asks for mercy for the wicked stupidity of human beings (Roman human beings as well as the Jewish church leaders) who insisted that Jesus die. He believes, even with his dying breath, that God’s own goodness is infinitely greater than the wickedness of his fellow humans.  God may shake a righteous finger at the stupidly wrong things we do, but in the end, if we return to our God, God rejoices that we are back. Our God is a merciful promise-keeper. We should thank God for that.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our Cretor who always keeps promises. Help us to be grateful for your forgiveness and steadfast love, even though we really do not deserve it. Help us to remember that. Amen.