Passage: Exodus 32:11-14
The Big Idea
When Israel sinned with the golden calf, Moses stood between God’s wrath and the guilty people and pleaded for them. He didn’t plead their goodness. He pleaded God’s grace, God’s glory and God’s faithfulness. It’s a beautiful picture of Jesus, our Advocate with the Father.
Lawyers
John writes to his little children so they won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).
Lawyers don’t always have the best reputation. A lawyer woke up from surgery and asked, “Why are all the blinds closed?” The nurse said, “There’s a fire across the street, and we didn’t want you to think you’d died.”
Some lawyers seem not to care much about their clients. How do they get away with it? Because people need someone to represent them when they’re in trouble. They’d rather have someone who doesn’t care than face trouble alone.
What qualities would you want in the perfect lawyer? Someone who knows the law, who’s never lost a case, who genuinely cares about you, who’d do anything for you? Hold that thought.
Catching Up
The people had broken God’s law. They’d worshiped an idol they made with their own hands. They couldn’t wait for God. They needed to see something, so they turned to what their hands could make and their minds could understand instead of waiting for the living, invisible God. They tried to fill the void with more of themselves.
“Let Me Alone” (Exodus 32:10)
God told Moses to leave Him alone so His wrath could burn against the people and consume them, and He would make a great nation from Moses (Exodus 32:10).
“Let Me alone.” Get out of the way. Moses had placed himself between God and the sinning people.
If this doesn’t show us the heart of Jesus, what would?
- Moses saw God’s anger up close, more than anyone. And still he stood between God’s wrath and the people who deserved it.
- Only Moses stood between the guilty people and God’s wrath.
- Only Jesus stands between guilty people and God’s wrath.
Moses was always doing this: crying to the Lord at the Red Sea, at the bitter waters of Marah, at Rephidim when there was no water, during the battle with Amalek. But this was the most serious of all. And Moses wouldn’t fail them.
Even when God offered to make a brand new nation from Moses, to make him the father of it all, Moses chose to stand up for the people instead of himself. He used his position to bless a group of ungrateful sinners.
That was the whole point of his life. By faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing to suffer with God’s people rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:24-26). Every time Moses trusted God, he pictured Jesus.
Jesus made Himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8).
“Your People”
Why did God send Moses down from the mountain, telling him that his people, whom he brought out of Egypt, had corrupted themselves (Exodus 32:7)? Just to show him what they were doing?
No. God knew Moses would intercede. God sent Moses to be the mediator, just as God sent Jesus to be our Mediator. Not to sit back and watch us be destroyed.
And notice: God gives the people to Moses, “your people,” placing them in his hands. Jesus prayed for those the Father had given Him, because they belong to the Father (John 17:9).
Then Moses gives them right back: “Your people” (Exodus 32:11). Just like Jesus: “for they are Yours.”
That’s the work Jesus does for us: He takes us, cleans us, restores us, and presents us back to God. Which is what God wanted all along. Us.
How Moses Pleads (Exodus 32:11-13)
Moses pleads three things. Nothing about the people. Only God:
- His grace.
- His glory.
- His faithfulness.
1. His grace
Moses asks why God’s wrath should burn against His own people, whom He brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand (Exodus 32:11).
How did they become His people? God did it. They never earned it. By grace they were saved, through faith, and it was God’s gift, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9). He chose them and brought them out of Egypt, kicking and screaming.
Ungrateful, unworthy, unholy, and still God’s people, because of the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.
Moses pleads God’s grace. If God delivered them before, He can do it again. If they didn’t earn it before, they won’t earn it now either.
2. His glory
Why should the Egyptians get to say God rescued them only to destroy them in the mountains? (Exodus 32:12).
This is an irresistible plea. God’s glory is so great that whoever asks Him to act for His own glory will never be refused.
God is glorified by saving unworthy people. When we’re unworthy, we qualify to bring Him glory. Again and again God said He acted for the sake of His name, so it wouldn’t be dishonored before the nations (Ezekiel 20:9, 14, 22). He leads us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake (Psalm 23:3).
When we rest and receive His free gift of grace and righteousness, He’s glorified. God is most glorified when we let Him be the Savior. Jesus prayed for the Father to glorify the Son, so the Son could glorify the Father (John 17:1).
3. His faithfulness
Moses reminds God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and the promise He swore by His own name: to multiply their descendants like the stars and give them the land forever (Exodus 32:13).
God had made promises, and God can’t lie (Hebrews 6:18). He loves it when we remind Him of His promises. Not because He forgets, but because it teaches us He always keeps His word and we can depend on Him completely.
Moses didn’t make the people promise anything. He focused on the promises God had already made.
How to intercede
This may be the best example in the whole Bible of how to pray for someone:
- Plead God’s grace.
- Plead God’s glory.
- Plead God’s faithfulness.
Not what they deserve or do, but who God is and what He does. That’s how to pray for anyone lost or struggling. Intercede like Moses, like Jesus. It gets things done, because God is the one who does them.
The Result (Exodus 32:14)
And the Lord relented from the disaster He had spoken of bringing on His people (Exodus 32:14).
This was the plan all along. Through the faithfulness of the mediator, God showed mercy and grace to sinning people.
When We Sin
Sin is evil. When we choose it, we choose evil. And we’ll always struggle with temptation. We’ll make an idol out of almost anything. So when we fail, what will we do?
Try to fix it? Make up for it? Give God our best now and hope He forgets? Punish ourselves? Perform some religious ritual?
Those are the wrong questions. The real question is: what is God going to do about it?
- God will judge sin as sin. It must be punished and removed. Holy wrath must fall on all sin, or God would cease to be holy and just.
- Jesus chooses to be our Advocate. He stands between God’s righteous judgment and us. He proves God’s love and mercy by letting us go free while He bears the guilt we deserved.
That’s what God will do.
So what do we do when we sin? We can’t do anything to fix it. But we can relate to Him, with two relational realities:
- Humility: confess our sin. He sees it already. Remember the tax collector who beat his chest and prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and went home justified (Luke 18:13-14).
- Faith: put our hope in Jesus as our Mediator and Advocate. Trust His love to save us, even though we could never deserve it or earn it.
He won’t fail. Jesus can’t deny who He is. He can’t ignore God’s holy anger at sin, so He dealt with it and took it. And He can’t deny God’s perfect desire to forgive and restore His people, so He secured that relationship for us.
Grace Takeaway
You have the perfect Lawyer. He knows the law perfectly, has never lost a case, and loves you enough to take the penalty Himself. He doesn’t plead your goodness; He pleads His blood, His Father’s glory and His Father’s promises. Let Him take your case. Then let’s love Him, surrender all to Him, turn from every idol, and walk humbly dependent on Jesus for everything.
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