Exodus 32:30-3530And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. 31And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. 33And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. 34Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. 35And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. (Exodus 32:30‑35)
THE FOLLOWING day Moses charged the people with their sin saying to them, “Ye have sinned a great sin.” But his great love for them was expressed in his next words: “Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.”
Moses meant well, but to make atonement for their sin he could never do. God’s Word tells us, “None... can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” Psa. 49:77None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (Psalm 49:7). There was One and only One who could go into God’s presence and make atonement for sin, to put it all away completely and forever. And that was His own beloved Son, our precious Saviour. He came down from heaven to do His Father’s will, and instead of destroying the tables of the law, the demands of which man was unable to meet, He kept that holy law perfectly; then He went on to bear the penalty of death that man brought on himself for breaking the law. Having completed this glorious work of atonement on the cross, He went back to God, who has glorified Him at His own right hand. There was no “peradventure” with Him as to whether His Person and His work were acceptable to God.
“And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.” Moses loved the people and having confessed their sin, he pleaded with God for their forgiveness, saying, “now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin —; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” So fully did he identify himself with the people, he says as it were, If they are not to be forgiven, then let me perish with them.
It is beautiful to see Moses putting himself in the people’s place before God in this way. However, God could not go along with this request and so He puts the people back under their own individual responsibility, sang, “Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.” v. 33.
Apart from that great work of redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus, every sinner’s name must be blotted out of God’s book, and this would mean eternal judgment to one and all, “for all have sinned.” Rom. 3:2020Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20). No man, no matter how great he might be, could make atonement for himself or anyone else. The Lord Jesus Christ alone—the sinless, spotless One—could take up so great a work, and praise His blessed name He has done it. Moses was refused, but the blessed Son of God has met all the claims of God against sin once and forever.
God then told Moses, “therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, Mine angel shall go before thee.” And here we have a change, for it is not the Lord dwelling in their midst, but He would send an angel to go before them.
“Nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.” We learn elsewhere that because of His great mercy and Moses’ prayer, Aaron was spared.
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