(Read Exodus 32:30-35, 33:1-23, 34:1-9, 27-35.)
THIS is an intensely interesting scene. Israel had put themselves upon the ground of responsibility before God, and declared, with the utmost folly possible, that they would do all that the Lord commanded them. The very first word of the law was, that they were not to make any graven image, and the first thing that meets the eye of Moses, when he comes down from the mount, is a golden calf, and Israel dancing round about it, and saying, “These be thy gods, O Israel.”
The ruin was absolute. The breach was complete. The ordered relation between Israel and God was absolutely broken by this open idolatry. I can quite understand how deeply Moses was affected when he brake the tables of stone. What must God have done if he had carried them down? He must have brought in immediate judgment upon the lawbreakers. Moses met the difficulty in this way, so to speak, saying, If I do not carry them down, there will be an opportunity for God to bring out His resource, if there be any resource. God is holy, they are guilty, and if the law be bound on them He must judge them. So he brake the tables of stones, and God did not chide him for so doing.
Next Moses turns to the people and charges their sin on them. In verses 11-13 he had been zealous for the people before God. Here he is zealous for God before the people, and says, “Ye have sinned a great sin” (32:30). It is a great thing to know that you have sinned. I have sinned; so have you. Their sin was idolatry. It was breaking the known commandment of God. For that sin, Scripture tells us, they got all their future punishment. There was the root that brought forth such bitter fruit in Israel’s history in days to come, because idolatry was in the heart. Now I do not say that your sin and my sin have been exactly the same; but you have sinned a great sin. What is it? That is not the point. I am not going to unfold what your sin is. But this I know, you are a sinner, and sin is a serious thing. Sin God will not pass over. He could not. If He did, He would not be God.
Now we think, that when sin comes out, then is the time for God to judge. Ah, that is man. But you see God is not like that. What comes out in this scene at Sinai is, that when everything was ruined and gone, and Israel’s case absolutely hopeless, then it was that God retired into the blessedness of His own being, and the absolute goodness of His own nature. When grace had been abused, mercy came out, and God said, I will be sovereign, I will do what I like, and I will bless them, spite of their sin.
But first Moses charges their sin upon them, “Ye have sinned a great sin.” Do you not hear the Holy Ghost saying to you, “You have sinned a great sin”? The greatest sin you have committed is this, you have never believed the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not a converted person you have never bowed to God’s Son, and that is the greatest sin that any sinner can commit. And by-and-by, if you die in your sins, even though there may be ten thousand sins laid at your door, the damning sin of all will be this, you have heard of Jesus, and yet never believed in Him. That is the great sin of every unconverted person. And, if you feel it, all the better for you.
Then Moses says, “And now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin” (vs. 30). Mark the word “peradventure.” He is not sure that he can effect what he sees necessary, the making atonement for their sin. And you say to me, Is that all the comfort you have for me? By no means, listen. There is a Man gone up to God with no “peradventure” on His lips. There is a Man at God’s right hand who was once on the cross, and there, bearing the sins of sinners, went down into death tinder the judgment of God. But mark, he has risen from the dead and gone up to God, a victor. He has gone up as the One who has made atonement―gone up as the One who, in death, has met all the claims of God, and having finished the work which God gave Him to do, has taken His seat on the very throne, the judgment of which He bore at Calvary. Blessed Victim, glorious Victor!
Do you know what a legacy is? It is a gift that comes to you from one that is dead. And I rejoice to tell you that you have been left a wondrous legacy. What is it? Ere that Saviour died on Calvary’s tree, He said, “It is finished.” There is His legacy to every anxious, laboring soul―a finished work. Moses must say, “Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.” Not so the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I would fain turn you to. He has gone up with no “perhaps” on His lips. Note what the Holy Ghost says of Him: Who “when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:33Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3)). It was when atonement was fully effected, when every claim of God had been met, when He had crushed Satan’s power, and borne man’s sins, that He annulled death, and, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that He went on high.
Resurrection is the evidence and witness of the satisfaction of God in that which Christ has accomplished, and if you see a living Christ at God’s right hand, you will get peace in your soul. You will not get peace by only knowing that Jesus died. There is no dead Christ now. I take you to His grave. There is no buried Christ. Where is He? He is risen I “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” No, my friend, look up. I want you to now look up and see at God’s right hand that blessed, adorable, holy Man, the Lord Jesus, God’s only Son, who was once in death for us. Nothing is left for you or me to do, nothing except to appropriate and enjoy the benefit of the blessing that flows to every believer in Him who died and rose again.
The law did not give life, power, or an object. The gospel gives the believer in Jesus Christ all three. It gives you life, eternal life, the gift of God, in Christ Jesus; it gives you power, because consequently on receiving the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, the Holy Ghost falls on you, and you have power. And what is the next thing? You get an object for your heart in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the gospel brings you.
When Moses went up, he said to God: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin.” He felt it almost impossible. He does not say, “You will do it,” because he did not know the heart of God well enough to say that. So he only says, “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin: and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written” (vs. 32). In this instance Moses is like Christ. He is prepared to lose everything if only the people might be blessed. He was not called upon to do it, but there is where his love and the love of Christ came out. Jesus absolutely gave himself up to God, and He gave Himself for our sins. The discovery that He has loved you and given Himself for you will bring blessing to your soul immediately.
Moses gets very bold as, filled with the sense of what Israel’s sin is on the one hand, and equally with the sense of the goodness of God on the other, he says, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory” (vs. 18). The answer of the Lord is beautiful: “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.” If the glory of the Lord had then shone, Moses must have been withered up. Only in Him, who is God’s Son, can that glory and majesty be revealed without man being overwhelmed. But He who Himself was God, left that glory, the glory which he had with the Father, came down here, became a man, and passed through this scene as the revealer of God. That perfect Man closed His life in death for the man who had no link with God. Then God “raised him up from the dead and gave him glory: that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)). Get into his presence and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
“I will make all my goodness pass before thee,” is God’s response to Moses’ wish to see His glory, and then He lets out what I may call the secret thought of His heart, as He retires into the absoluteness of His being in goodness, in order to spare a guilty people. He, so to speak, says to Moses, The case is very bad, and if I let law have its way, I must cut the people off to a man. And then adds, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (vs. 19). Had righteousness had its sway at the moment Israel must all have been cut off. But He says, Although they have abused my grace, and broken the law, there is one resource I have left―mercy. “I will show mercy” is divine prerogative and divinely charming.
It is a wonderful thing when the soul has the sense of the mercy of God. In the words “I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” He, so to speak, says, I will do what I like. I am absolute. Beloved reader, do not set your face against God. Do not oppose God. You leave God alone to exercise what I may call the prerogative of His love, and what will He do? “I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” is His way of meeting the guiltiest sinner that ever trod the earth.
When Israel had utterly ruined themselves because of their sin, then it was that God retired into the infinite goodness of His own being, and mercy rejoiced against judgment. How beautiful it is to read, “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Ps. 103:11). Do you want to know the measure of God’s mercy? Try to measure the distance to heaven. You would have some difficulty to do that. You cannot measure it. And then the Psalm goes a little further: “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children” (vs. 17). That is what God is in His own being. He delights in mercy.
Observe the lovely expressions regarding mercy in the Gospels, where the Lord speaks. It is a blessed theme for a troubled soul to dwell upon, and for all our souls to dwell upon. “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” It is not whole folk that need a doctor, but people who are sick, Then He says,” But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” There is the keynote to all God’s ways. Did you think God wanted something from you to put things right?” Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:10-1310And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:10‑13)). That again is what comes from God.
Mercy once more is seen in the twelfth chapter, where Jesus was blessing and healing on the Sabbath day. “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (vs. 7). Observe, they were condemning Him for blessing a man on the Sabbath day. What is His answer? “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.”
That God delights in mercy has perpetual testimony in His Word; and a lovely instance of it is found in the Book of Micah. There you get the character of God, and the attitude of God towards a troubled people, beautifully expressed. Well may they exult in God’s mercy and faithfulness, saying: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou halt sworn unto, our fathers from the days of old” (Mic. 7:18-2018Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:18‑20)). What a thrill of joy goes through the heart to find that a holy God so delights in mercy. And if you are at this moment a wretched, good-for-nothing, undone sinner, understand that the Lord delights to meet you, and He will gladly show you mercy, pardon all your sins, and give you the knowledge of His forgiveness.
Do not delay to taste God’s mercy. If you owed me a ten-pound note, and you came to me and said that you were hard up and could not pay it, I might say, “Oh, well, it can be paid later on.” “But I shall never have it,” you reply. “Then I shall just have to score off your debt,” is my remark, and you go away and say, “He did not do it with very good grace.” Well, that would be like me. But when God forgives a man his debt, his sins, He delights in it. He is rejoiced to meet a man trembling in his sins. His very nature thrills with joy in giving you the sense of His love, and He receives and blesses you on the ground of righteousness. God has immense joy in blessing a man like me, on the ground of what His own dear Son has effected. “I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” reveals the depth of the goodness of God’s heart.
Some people stumble at the sovereignty of God. They think His ways are arbitrary. I do not. Did not God say, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated”? (Rom. 9:1313As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)). Yes, but God did not say it when the two lads were born. You find this statement in the last book of the Old Testament (Mal. 1:2, 32I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:2‑3)). He said it long after they were gone off the scene. With all his crookedness Jacob was a believer, and God loves faith, and always blesses the believer. But Esau was a real man of the world. He sold his birthright for a mess of pottage―a little bit of enjoyment in this world. And what about his posterity. Why, they were always fighting against God and God’s people, Israel.
What is the next thing we read of in Romans 9? This, “He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (vs. 15). Do you not see, beloved reader, that God is sovereign? But His sovereignty He retired into, in the scene before us, that He might exercise the most blessed attribute of His nature, mercy. Have you tasted it, man? God is rich in mercy. May you taste it this day, and go on your way and say, “I have tasted God’s mercy.” If God had dealt with Israel as they deserved, they would have been cut off to a man in their sin. Instead of that He had mercy on them. If God had dealt with you and me as we deserved, do you know what would have happened? I can speak for myself, and surely for you too. He would have cast us both headlong into hell for eternity. But He has saved me with an everlasting salvation, and I hope He has saved you. I have tasted His mercy. Have you?
If not, may you taste it today?
W. T. P. W.