(Ex. 34:9.)
By looking at the fact, that grace was manifested in Christ, and reigned through righteousness, we see that God cannot be known, or practically enjoyed, but in Him, who was the expression of His grace. Sin reigned through the law, and must be judged by the law. Grace cannot judge, but the righteous law of God did, as indeed Christ yet will another day. The moment Christ is now looked at, perfect grace is seen; the Father's name is revealed, and His love made known. God in Christ deals in grace. Moses, in his measure, understands this, the people did not. The law must impute sin; but Moses by faith, seeing the place Christ has, does not take one under the law, which could only distress, but exhibits the place of grace. Indeed, the people were never properly under law, for before it was given the golden calf had been made, and so there was an end to all standing on that ground. From chap. 32:9, they are looked at as a stiffnecked people all through. Moses now makes everything to depend on this principle of grace—the Lord's glory. On the ground of the law, all was over and wholly lost; but Moses takes the place of mediator, and intercedes on the plea of grace.
In the indignation of holy wrath he broke the tables of stone, when he saw the golden calf; for how could he put the righteous law of God beside a false God? Still he could say, “They are Thy people;” and the very same thing that makes him zealous for God, make him zealous for the people also—it was God's glory. When he pleads with God for the people, he says, “Why does thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?” What will the Egyptians say? Will not the enemy say, For mischief did he bring them out? “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.” With God Moses pleads his glory for the people, and with the people He pleads for the same glory.
In principle, Christians can take this place, the place of intercession. If we see a Christian sin, we can go to God and plead with Him that He is His child, and ask God, for his own glory's sake, to deliver him; for Christ's sake, knowing the grace that is in Him, that the enemy may not triumph. Then we can turn round and sharply reprove, saying, How can you sin against such perfect love, and grace and holiness? How can you grieve a heart of such unheard-of compassion and goodness, and be reckless of the mercy and glory of the God of all grace?
“Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up to the Lord; peradventure shall make an atonement for your sin.” (Ex. 32:30.) He had only a cheerless peradventure to leave with them. “Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have sinned, as great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sins” —then, in true zeal for God's glory and real self-sacrificing love for the people, he adds— “If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written.” But the Lord said to him, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” This is the principle of the law, and under that law God cannot clear the guilty nor let the wicked go unpunished. Everything hangs now upon mediation. But Moses, though taking the place of intercessor, was not perfect in the knowledge of grace he could only say to the people, “peradventure I shall make an atonement.” He could not put away sin. It was altogether a different thing with Christ. He could put away sin. He did make an atonement. There was no peradventure with Him. He bore the sin, and so to speak, made a transfer of what He Himself was to the poor sinner. God has to retire into His own sovereignty, which allows Him to act in goodness and mercy towards the wicked. In His sovereign grace He then could say, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” (Chap. xxxiii. 19.)
Moses now pleads with the people, just as he had been pleading with God for them. They counted on blessing, because they were Abraham's seed. So may Ishmael and Esau, then. This could not be. Yet Esau was just as much a child of Abraham as Jacob. Then hope must stand on the sovereignty of God, as we see in Rom. 9 If they take the ground of righteousness, they are no better off. The golden calf had broken the very first link of the chain that could have claimed help from the law; for they had made “another god.” Moses shows them that all claim and title and expectation was clean gone. Deliverance comes from the sovereign grace and mercy of God; for the law “cannot” clear the guilty, but visit iniquity to the third and fourth generation. Now, under grace, it becomes a question of God's righteousness in Christ. “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” (Rom. 3) We find that he who sins can only be spared on the ground of atonement, through the sovereign grace of God. Israel, as we have said, was never fully and strictly wider pure law; but a mixture of law and mercy came in. And this is just what the people of the present day delight in. They will have the law; and they talk of trying to keep it, and of looking to the mercy of (lid to pardon them when they break it. But the law must ever be the ministration of death and condemnation. (2 Cor. 3) The first time Moses came down from being on the mount with God, his face did not shine. He then brought solely the law, and that was the sure sentence of death—nothing, surely, to make his face shine. It was the mixture of mercy which produced the effect on Moses; but the law prevented the people looking upon the glory; for they could only see it in a legal way. The law had claims; and they were guilty. Israel could not behold the glory.
How different our position! There is no longer a veil needed nor allowed: it is rent. We can look at the glory in the face of Jesus Christ, in the fullest certainty of forgiveness; for we know, by and in the gospel, He could not be in heaven if sin was not put away. Moses said, “peradventure” —the atoning work not being done. But there is no peradventure with Christ. As long as the law had a claim, He could not go up; for God had “laid upon him the iniquity of us all and by his stripes we are healed.” When I see Christ at God's right hand, I ought to know there is not one speck of sin imputed to me. He has put it all away; and the dealings of God with me now are upon the ground of an accepted atonement. Law and mercy will not do for the Christian; for had not the failure been met in Christ, the law would still have claims on him. “We are not under law, but under grace.” God's government in another thing: He does put his people under that, and He will exercise it over them; for he is the moral Governor of His redeemed.
Let us look at the place Moses takes. It is wonderful what he can ask from God in grace on behalf of the people. How blessed the consciousness of His dealing with them on the ground of mercy! In chap. 33:1, God says to Moses, “Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, and I will send an angel before thee. Say to the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff, necked people. 1 will come up in the midst of thee, in a moment and consume thee; therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do to thee.” Now we can understand this thing in ft human way. Suppose my child has been thoroughly disorderly, rebellious, and disobedient; I can say to him, Stand by, my indignation is great, humble yourself. The people are obedient; they strip themselves of their ornaments; they how to God. Everything now depends on the Mediator. Moses takes the tabernacle outside the camp, and pitches it far off. The living God and a strange god could not dwell together. Things now are well reversed. The Lord speaks to Moses face to face, as a man does to his friend; and Moses returned into the camp as God's witness; But Joshua, the spiritual leader of the people, does not go out of the tabernacle. The people had seen the cloudy presence of God stand outside the tabernacle door, and they worship. The people have but one character—they are stiffnecked. God said so, and Moses did the same. But he says to the Lord, “Thou sayest, Bring up this people; but thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me,” &c. Moses recognizes what God had told him, and takes the place of mediator. He does not dare to entertain a thought of going up alone. He desires to know whom God will send with him. He had found grace in God's sight, and this place of grace makes him bold to ask. It is wonderful what requests he can make. “Show me now thy way.” — “and consider that this nation is THY people.” It is God’s Way: not merely a way, but the way. The Lord would have him go the way that would be well-pleasing in His sight. This will be the desire of every soul that understands the love of God's heart. It will not satisfy to find a way which my conscience will be at ease in—a way where there is no great evil; but “Show me thy way” —the right way, in which I can glorify God—His way who was meek and lowly of heart—that good and acceptable way of Christ. If I am in the enjoyment of his love and grace, my own way will not do: it must be His way. Moses, as we have said, knows it is useless to attempt to save the people, unless he has the Lord's presence with him. “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” When grace is seen, the very reason that God gives wily he should not go with them (because they were a stiffnecked people, lest He consume them) becomes the ground on which Moses pleads that He should go with them. “If I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; FOR it is a stiff-necked people.” It is beautiful to see how grace comes in, and pleads that as a reason for God's presence in mercy, which, under the law, would have consumed them.
Do you think Moses would ever have got the rebellious, stubborn, stiffnecked Israelites through the wilderness, where there was difficulty at every step and danger in every turn, if God had not been with them? This is exactly our position. Our only standing is in grace, through the mercy of God, on the ground of atonement. This is the righteousness of God. We are a forgiven people, but in that we are stiffnecked and continually erring; and this is just the very reason why we so much need God's presence with us. Do you think we should ever get “up hence” with our evil, treacherous hearts; with our stubborn, wayward, unsubdued wills, if God was not with us? If there was the slightest question of the imputation of sin, then, of all things, we should most dread God's presence. But sin has been imputed to Christ, and cannot be imputed to us who believe. He was the propitiation for our sins. We are pardoned through His blood, and sealed by His Spirit until the day of redemption. We are God's people, though stiffnecked and rebellious;, and on the ground of grace, we, like Moses, can plead this as a cause why we cannot go up hence without Him. While walking through the wilderness let its hold fast grace. But we must not forget that God is the governor as well as the guard and protector of His people. He will deal with them according to the principles of His own government, and we shall get from His hand according to our ways. Do you think He is more indifferent as to the walk of His child than His servant Do you suppose He will act towards the obedient and the froward alike? No! If you are not so walking. as to he guided by His eye, He will draw you in with bit and bridle. For He not only bends and bows the will but He must break it, that we may walk according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.