BRAGADAYJAH 261

So Moses purged somewhat the camp with the blood of those who were not on the Lord’s side; but the next day he again tuned his face towards the Lord to make intercession for the sins of the people.

            So Moses having told the people he would seek the Lord on their behalf, went before the Lord and pleaded their cause.  “This people have sinned a great sin,” Moses pleaded, as if God did not already know; “they have made themselves gods of gold; yet I am asking you, pleaded Moses to forgive their sins, or else punish me in their stead; if you can’t forgive them, then blot me out of your book.”

            From his father-in-law Jethro’s  house to the land of Egypt, and now in his wilderness journey via the red Sea, Moses had suffered a lot. To lose all those for which he had suffered and strove would seem to him an unbearable loss; so as evil as these people are, reasoned Moses, it would better for my own existence to be obliterated than to have all these people destroyed leaving me nothing to show for my efforts.

            But not so, said the Lord, whosoever sinned against me, they will I blot out of my books.  Therefore go now, and lead the people to that place of which I have spoken unto you. My angel shall go before you; however, on the day that I visit I will visit their sins upon them. And thereafter the Lord sent plagues among the people because of their sin of the golden calf.

            This response to Moses again shows that God is eternally consistent with himself.  Hundreds of years later we shall hear God declaring, in response to future generations of the children of Israel, that, “the soul that sins it shall die.” So it is completely consistent with who God is when he said, “No Moses, not you, but those who sinned, they are the ones I shall punish.”

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