Please Forgive Their Sin, but if not,
Blot Me Out of the Book You have Written
32: 30-35
Please forgive their sin, but if not, blot me out of the book you have written DIG: What is Moses’ role in setting things right again? In what sense is he an army general? A prophet? A priest? A sacrificial lamb? What exemplary qualities were evident in his plea-bargaining with God?
REFLECT: Have you ever paid the price for someone’s sin at your own expense? You did nothing wrong. But you made it right voluntarily. The cost would be high. The ones you love. Maybe everything you have in this world. Can you imagine yourself doing something like that? How would you feel? How much love would it take?
If there is any one thing that can destroy a marriage, it is adultery. In the TaNaKh, whenever Isra’el went after other gods, it was often referred to as adultery, spiritual adultery, such as in the first three chapters of Hosea. No matter how strong the marriage, any slip into adultery has dire consequences. Things are no different with ADONAI and His Bride Isra’el. Because of the golden calf incident (to see link click Gq – The Golden Calf Incident), Ha’Shem had no choice but to show Isra’el that there were consequences to their spiritual adultery. After all Exodus 20:5 says that ADONAI is a jealous God.
Note here that the husband/wife analogy breaks down somewhat. Bearing in mind that the Husband is also the judge of the universe, God’s just action was to take the lives of all who either participated in the sin or did not want to be for ADONAI (32:26). A human spouse obviously cannot and should not do that. Nevertheless, as a result of their spiritual adultery, about three thousand people were killed (see Gv – And All the Levites Rallied to Moses), and the rest were struck with a plague. Any marriage that suffers from adultery will also have various “plagues” to deal with!
The next day Moses announced his intention to go up on the mountain to make atonement for the sins of the people. So Moses went back to ADONAI and said: Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods out of gold. The Hebrew word for atonement is kafar. As the high priest would enter the Sanctuary and make atonement for the people, Moses, once again, climbed the mountain to make atonement for the Israelites.
There seems to be two levels of guilt in the making of the golden calf. The more guilty party, those directly involved, had been put to death by the Levites. The rest of the Israelites were apparently also guilty in some sense, otherwise atonement would not have been necessary, but they were not so guilty as to deserve death along with the three thousand. Perhaps the remaining Hebrews were guilty by virtue of the notion of collective guilt, so prevalent in the TaNaKh, or maybe because they engaged in the partying to a much lesser extent. However, it is hard to avoid the clear statement by Moses that those who remained after the Levites purge were guilty of having made gods out of gold.678
In his attempt to make atonement by pleading for the lives of his people, Moses’ argument essentially amounts to, take me instead. He said: But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written (32:30-32). The book he is referring to is the book of life, or the names of all those who were ever born (Psalm 69:28; Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27). If a person dies unsaved, his or her name is blotted out of the book of life. Those who are saved have their names retained in the book of life. What Moses is asking is that if God would not forgive the sins of the nation, would He blot Moses’ name out of the book of life, take away his salvation rather than Isra’el’s. The Lamb’s book of life contains all those who have been born again, and therefore, it is impossible to be blotted out in that book (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer). Paul’s similar readiness to be separated from God’s presence forever for the sake of his Israelite kinsman was perhaps inspired by Moses’ remarkably selfless statement.679
God replied to Moses by telling him that each sinner must die for his or her own sin. This became an emphasis with the later prophets who ministered during the final years of the southern Kingdom (Jeremiah 31:30; Ezeki’el 18:1-32). Moses was still God’s choice to lead the people to the Promised Land, although they continued to be stiff-necked and stubborn.680 To insure his success, God would send His Angel before him. This can only be Jesus Christ, or the Angel of ADONAI, who appeared to Moses at the burning bush (3:1-6). Whenever the phrase: the Angel of ADONAI is seen in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is always the Second Person of the Trinity, Yeshua Messiah.
However, the guilt of the people would not be swept under the rug. God told Moses, when the time comes for Me to punish, I will punish them for their sin (32:33). So a compromise of sorts was reached between God and His servant. Moses would continue to lead the people to the Promised Land with the Angel of ADONAI going before him, but God reserved the right to punish later on. And the means He used to punish the people later on was a plague. This was not due to any failure on the part of Moses, but rather because of the lack of repentance on the part of the people. And ADONAI struck the people with a plague (probably hoof-in-mouth disease) because of what they did with the golden calf Aaron had made (33:34-35). Therefore, in the final analysis, God held the people and Aaron mutually responsible for the golden calf incident.
Moses’ offer to exchange his life for the forgiveness of the sins of the Hebrews, and for the staying of God’s wrath from coming upon them, is rejected by ADONAI. His life simply could not serve as an atoning sacrifice for the Hebrews. Thus the Israelites needed to bear the punishment for their own sins. As believers, that ought to make us extremely thankful for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. As John says: This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (First John 4:10); he also states: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world (First John 2:1-2). The point is, that Jesus Christ was able to take His people’s sins upon Himself, and therefore, took the punishment for those sins by going to the cross and the tomb. Paul put it this way: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).681
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