Interceding for Grace
Read Exodus 32:1–14. What role do we find Moses playing here?
After the people began worshiping the golden calf, God decided
they had gone too far and announced that He would destroy the people
and make Moses a great nation. But rather than taking up God’s offer,
Moses pleaded for God to show grace to His people, and God relented.
Exodus 32:1–14 raises two important issues. First, God’s offer to
destroy the rebellious people and bless Moses was a test for him. God
wanted Moses to demonstrate just how much compassion he felt for
these desperately disobedient people. And Moses passed the test. Like
Jesus, he pleaded for mercy for sinners. This reveals something very
interesting: sometimes God also may allow us to face opposition; He
might allow us to be in a crucible so that He, we, and the watching
universe can see how much compassion we have for those who are
wayward.
What reasons did Moses give for asking the Lord not to destroy Israel?
Second, this passage shows that opposition and disobedience is a
call to reveal grace. Grace is needed when people least deserve it.
But when they least deserve it also is the time that we feel the least
like offering it. But when Moses’ sister Miriam was criticizing him,
he cried out to the Lord to heal her from leprosy (Numbers 12).
When God was angry with Korah and his followers and threatened
to destroy them all, Moses fell on his face to plead for their lives.
The next day, when Israel grumbled against Moses for the death of
the rebels and God threatened to destroy them all again, Moses fell
facedown and urged Aaron quickly to make atonement for them all
(Numbers 16). In his own meekness, in his own selflessness in the
midst of this crucible, Moses sought grace on behalf of those who
certainly didn’t deserve it.
Think about the people around you who you think are the least
deserving of grace. How can you, with meekness and selfless
humility, be a revelation of God’s grace to them?
