But to return to the scene into which Moses had come from the presence of Jehovah. After making the children of Israel to drink down their own sin, Moses turns to Aaron and asks him— “What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?” In Aaron we find a representation of the fatal principle of expediency, or of man's attempt to manage the things of God. His excuse is, that he thought it best to humor the petulance of the people. He had no intention to make them gods. “Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.”
And have not the greatest corruptions in the church originated from the effort of good men to try to consecrate a popular feeling, little thinking what they were really sanctioning? For image-worship itself was just “the calf which came out” of the homage which was rendered to the memory of saints, and which good men tried to turn to good account—but which is idolatry in the sight of God. Human expediency in the things of God speedily turns to discomfort and weakness. Aaron had listened to the people's cry instead of resenting it, and by listening he had made them “naked to their shame among their enemies.” And is it not always so? In every case where the will of man has worked, and worked successfully, it has produced weakness; the desire may be gratified but leanness enters into the soul.
But here it is not the discomfiture of enemies; the Lord uses another rod, the most painful and humbling for those who are disciplined by it. The watchword is, “Who is on the Lord's side?” and brother is armed against brother. The commission is, “Slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” He whose name is “Jealous” is a jealous God; and well indeed is it for us to have a godly jealousy, especially in a day when lukewarmness as to the honor of Christ so generally prevails.
Moses has now but little heart for intercession; when on the mount he breathed the very atmosphere of grace; but now he is in the actual scene of sin, and sees it as the Lord had seen it on the mount, when Moses had interceded with Him for the people. But now nothing but the sin of the people is before Moses. “Ye have sinned a great sin:” he must needs get out of the scene of sin, in order to get into the place of intercession. Blessed instruction for us: such a High-priest became us, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”! Ever able to estimate sin as it must be in the sight of Him Who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and at the same time to throw the glory of His own person, and the value of His own work, into His own prevailing intercession. “And now I will go up unto the Lord: peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.” Surely Moses the servant of the Lord goes up to the mount dispirited and dismayed. He had not personally sinned the sin; but for that very reason he felt it the deeper. “And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me I pray thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.”
There was the truthful consciousness in Moses that he could find no plea in himself or in the people to present before the Lord; his only alternative was either to find forgiveness in the Lord's own grace, or that he himself might be blotted out, so as not to witness the shame of His people. How strongly does this consciousness of worthlessness in Moses bring into relief the dignified consciousness of worth in Jesus— “I have prayed for thee!” But the Lord has His own ways: when corporate failure has come in, He can deal with individuals in the midst of it according to His own righteous judgment. “Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.” At the same time it is clearly announced, that the corporate sin would in due time be punished corporately; “nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” These are principles of God of deep and solemn importance.
God is pleased to commit to man's responsibility certain corporate blessings. Such blessings become speedily forfeited through the failure of man. God still hears on in protracted long-suffering, dealing with individuals according to His own grace, but at length the time comes for corporately visiting the failing body. “And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made.” Aaron laid the blame on the people; but it is regarded by God “as with the priest, so with the people.” God knows the amount of guilt attached to the several parties, and where they may lay it the one on the other, God charges both alike.
(Continued from page 131.)