His Mercy Is More: God’s Mercy Outweighs His Anger (Exodus 32:7-14)
“Our sins, they are many; His mercy is more.” – Matt Boswell & Matt Papa ⚖
Dear serial sinner,
You’re trying not to do it again, aren’t you? What you know
is wrong, that you do. You’re not alone; everyone’s like that, too. Even Paul
the apostle said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do (Romans 7:15 NIV).”
Welcome to Earth, my friend! Here, it’s like sin has no end.
Fear not, wrongdoer; we have a Savior, a Redeemer!
Let’s see how God’s mercy works through this story.
Exodus 32:7-14 (NASB)
7 Then the
Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up
from the land of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. 8 They have quickly
turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves
a cast metal calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said,
‘This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” 9
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an
obstinate people. 10 So now leave Me alone, that My anger may burn
against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great
nation.”
11 Then
Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, why does Your anger burn
against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great
power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians talk,
saying, ‘With evil motives He brought them out, to kill them on the mountains
and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger
and relent of doing harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I
will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land
of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit
it forever.’” 14 So the Lord relented of the harm which He said He
would do to His people.
Chapter 32 is the account of the golden calf. Moses was on
Mt. Sinai for 40 days where God gave him the commandments on stone tablets and
instructions, which are recorded on chapters 25-31. The Israelites couldn’t
wait for him any longer, so they asked Aaron to make a god for them. He made a
golden calf, built an altar for it, and held a feast where they engaged in lewd
behavior.
 |
| Israelites worshipping the golden calf led by Aaron (created in Animal Crossing: New Horizons) |
My focus for this story is God’s reactions. There are three
of them in this passage.
First, we see God’s disappointment with His people. Notice
in verse 7 that He calls them “your people” (Moses’) showing He doesn’t want to
associate Himself with them. He didn’t even claim that He was the One who
brought them out of Egypt. It displeased Him that they worshipped another god
after He specifically commanded them not to have other gods nor make an image
to bow down to.
In verse 10, we read of how intense God’s second reaction
was. This was His wrath: He wanted to be left alone that He may destroy the
people. When I hear someone tell me to leave him in his anger, I would think he
doesn’t want me to see what terrible thing he could do while he’s angry, like
he might want to punch the nearest person who’s unfortunately me. I won’t just
see it then if that’s the case.
Moses had to say something for God to show the last
reaction, His mercy. According to Oxford’s online dictionary, mercy is “compassion
or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or
harm
God was planning to destroy the Israelites and start a new
nation with Moses, but because Moses interceded, God’s anger was softened. If
you continue reading, though, or if you know what happens after, the next
person who got angry was Moses. Once he saw for himself how people were dancing
for the calf, he got so furious that he threw the tablets, which shattered to
pieces.
Moses let those who were for the Lord come to him, and those
who didn’t were to be killed with the sword. 3000 men died. That’s small
compared to God’s plan to end them all. How many were they all exactly? Only
God knows. According to popular view, they’re either over 2 million or about 30 thousand
Only 3000 died, and they are those who didn’t choose God.
That’s how it is with our souls. We get to live forever if we make Jesus the
Lord of our life. He's the One who mediates us to the Father. He's why we're forgiven. If we reject Him, we’ll burn in hell. That’s a hard truth to
tell, but it’s part of the gospel. What is salvation for if there’s nothing
we’re saved from?
The song I chose for this entry’s title is “His Mercy Is More” by Matt Boswell & Matt Papa. It’s hard to fathom how above the times we disobey God, above the times we don’t do what He tells us, above the times He gets angry with our wickedness, His mercy is more. We’ve got to believe that Christ’s death and resurrection is more than enough.
The Lord hates evil, and so must we. Let’s not follow our
will, but His only. We’ll fail, but He forgives. All hail the Christ who lives…
within us, so we’ll live. That’s Jesus whose life He gives… away for all
sinners. Hooray for all believers!
With love,
Celina <3
References
Got Questions Ministries. (2021, April 26). How
many Israelites left Egypt in the exodus? Retrieved from GotQuestions.org:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Israelites-exodus.html
Oxford University Press. (n.d.). MERCY English
Definition and Meaning. Retrieved from Lexico.com:
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mercy
Relent Definition & Meaning. (n.d.). Retrieved from Dictionary.com: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/relent
Next: He Lives: God’s Dwelling Place (Exodus 40:1-15)
Previous: I Will Follow: How Christians Must Obey the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17)
Comments
Post a Comment