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THE PRAYERFUL PLEA OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Any faithful believer will testify to the fact that prayer works. In unfaithfulness, God is faithful, but it is the prayers of the righteous that are accepted by God and are a stalwart part of his plan for his people. Exodus 32 offers the narrative of God’s people creating a golden calf, an idol, and worshiping it. God’s response was anger and seeming propensity to destroy his people who had turned from him. Moses, however, pleaded with God (prayed) causing God to relent. Did God, however, relent because of Moses’ plea, or was it already a part of his plan? A deeper look into the text confirms God’s sovereignty and plan to never abandon his people.
Exodus 32:7-14
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people,
whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of
the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf
and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O
Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And
the Lord said to Moses,
“I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now
therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them
and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of
you.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Sin Is Never Accepted by God (vv. 7-10)
The
notion that God accepts people as they are is a godless doctrine rooted in
godless and selfish thought, for truly, no one is accepted by God as they are;
rather, people are loved as they are and loved, in fact, too much for God to
allow them to remain where they are.[1] From the Exodus text, it
is apparent that sin is never accepted by God. If it were, the Israelites would
have been allowed to continue in their godless ways. Rather, God sees his
chosen people’s fault and commands Moses let his anger burn against them (v.
10). Here, there subsist three imperatives regarding the sin of people and
God’s response:
1)
people are prone to sin,
2)
God is not oblivious to sin, and
3)
sin is a serious matter to God.
Since
the Fall, humanity has existed as a perpetually and radically evil race. This
is known as the Stain of Adam (i.e., all people have inherited a sinful nature
where the issue is not only that people sin but that humans do nothing but sin
apart from Christ). The issue is not the sin but the disease that people carry
in their nature, which is still present even after conversion. It is a battle
between the flesh and the spirit (Gal 5:17). Paul says it well.
For I
do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do
the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the
law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that
dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in
my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to
carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells within me (Rom 7:15-20).[2]
A
battle wages within each person between good and evil, and without Christ, that
battle is futile and impossible. No person does good apart from Christ
including those who do not believe in his power (i.e., any good that is exuded
from anyone is of God, for God alone is good and everyone and everything else
evil). The falsity that people are good (or even mostly good) by nature is not
to be believed, for it is from the pit of hell. For repentance to occur in
people’s lives, there must be an acknowledgement of humanity’s radical evil and
dire need for Christ.
Moreover,
God is not oblivious to sin. In the instance of the golden calf, the Israelites
were impatient and began worshipping a false god while Moses was hidden on a
mountain with God. It is often when God is not seen that people believe they
are also not seen; yet, such a thought could not be more false. When it seems
God is not present, he is omnipresent; when it seems God does not know, he is
omniscient; when it seems sin is hidden, it is brought to light; and when it
seems sin is allowed, it is punished. God sees the sin of his chosen people
causing his anger to burn hot against them. God knows and sees everything, and
the sin of humanity is never hidden from God.
Additionally, sin is a serious matter to God. In this instance, God desires to destroy the Israelites because of their faithless ways. One may ponder how a people who have been redeemed and rescued by God would ever forget his mercy and goodness, but humanity has a short attention span, which often causes a cycle of comfort àrebellion àconsequence àrepentance and back again. God, however, remains faithful to his people and never abandons them. Even in the narrative of the golden calf, God is ultimately faithful to his people. It should never be thought that God is faithless. Humanity is the only faithless party in covenant with God; yet, he is faithful. Sin, however, is serious to God and must never go uncastigated.
God Does Not Forget the Covenant He
Made with His People (vv. 11-13)
As
the text continues, Moses implores God not to destroy his chosen people. The
key word here is chosen.[3] God is faithful to his
promise. Nonetheless, even in expressing his dissatisfaction of his own people,
God shows grace. This is a crucial aspect of the narrative “because this is one of the
passages people use to argue that sometimes God changes his mind. This is one
of the arguments of open theism—the dangerous new doctrine that God does not
know the future but is working things out as he goes along.”[4] Such a perspective may
seem logical and valid, but Scripture teaches that “the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he
is not a man, that he should have regret” (1 Sam 15:29). Moreover, “when we study Exodus 32
more carefully, we discover that God’s will is as settled here as it is
anywhere else in Scripture.”[5]
How then is one to
interpret the narrative of the golden calf? Phillip Graham Ryken says, “It was
never God’s purpose to destroy the Israelites, but only to save them. Even as
he threatened wrath, there were hints that he would show mercy.”[6]
It is not as though God forgets his covenant. Even in hearing the cries and
groans of his people (Exod 2), God remembers his covenant—not as in first
forgetting but rather responding in his time and his sovereignty to the laments
of his people whom he loves without hesitation.
Additionally, the covenant promises of God cover the people of God now. As chosen people grafted into his adopted family, God has included Christians as a part of Abraham’s blessing and carried it through to redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection. God’s people now hold a matchless hope. Even in the midst of sinful nature, God redeems his people and imputes Christ’s righteousness to them so that although believers are not yet actually righteous, they are being made as such and, thus, counted as righteous, for the church subsists in the grip of Christ. God will never forget the covenant he has made with his people.
The Prayers of the Righteous Hold Great
Power (v. 14)
Scripture
teaches that the prayers of a righteous person hold great power (Jas 5:16), but
such a promise subsists in the context of confession (i.e., of sin). Scripture
also informs that there was none more humble than Moses (Num 12:3). The prayers
of Moses then held great power, for Moses consistently met with God (even in
his glory). Moses’ appeal to the Lord had a drastic impact, for God relented
from destroying his chosen people.
To
consider God’s shift in attitude, several foundations must be remembered. It
has already been concluded that God does not forget his promises. Additionally,
God is unchanging. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb
13:8), believers should be certain that the God of the Old Testament is the God
of the New Testament and the God of today and forever—it is a surety, which
means that the God who answered the prayers of the righteous in Scripture
certainly answers the prayers of the righteous still. The blessing of an
unchanging God should cause the hearts of humankind to turn toward him in
worship, not questioning.[7]
Second,
Christians must realize that God is patient. Although even God’s patience may
end, none is more patient that the ever-loving, faithful, and good God. As seen
here with the people of Israel, God remembers his covenant and relents, though
his own people forgot the covenant and went the way of wickedness. God,
however, does not forget his covenant and acts in patience rather than anger.
Third,
even in anger, God does not delight in destruction—even the destruction of the
wicked (Ezek 33:11). Unquestionably, God has destroyed people and even
commanded his own people to destroy entire peoples.[8] Nevertheless, God’s
intention is always grace and goodness, for he alone is good (Nah 1:7, Ps
145:9), and all goodness is derived from him. Sinful humanity deserves utter
and eternal destruction, but God offers mercy. In the rare cases that God
judges by destruction, he is not pleased. God is glorified but not pleased in
the destruction of people. God fully intends on offering grace and gives
humanity the utmost opportunity to receive it.
Fourth,
prayer works. Moses’ prayer might be viewed as an act, which thwarted God’s
plan and purpose, but in the Lord’s sovereignty, the prayer of Moses was
precisely the opposite (i.e., Moses’ prayer was a part of God’s plan, for his
plan was to relent and show grace to his people). The unchanging and
uncompromising God intended to give his people grace, though they deserved
death. Moses’ prayer, however, played a significant role in God’s plan.
Humankind is surely unaware of God’s specific plan, only his commands. Thus,
walking in obedience and righteousness surely holds incredible power when God’s
people pray. The chief concept, however, is righteousness.
The question of whether God hears everyone’s prayer has been offered on numerous occasions. While God certainly loves and is good to all people (Ps 145:9)—including those in hell—, he does not hear all prayers. Rather than a matter of audibly hearing the cries of the lost, what is meant is he does not respond, for it is only through the mediation of Christ that humanity comes to God in prayer. Therefore, only the prayers of the righteous hold such power, not as a method of persuasion but a part of carrying out God’s sovereign plan.
A Life of Worship Is a Life of Prayer
and a Life of Righteousness
It has been said that worship is prayer and prayer is worship. The text here reveals a righteous individual in Moses who pleads with God to save his chosen people. Astonishing to some, it worked. Nonetheless, God’s purpose was never to destroy his own people, for his covenant stands eternally. Even in his people’s sin, God is faithful and good. Sin must never be accepted, but God’s goodness stands forever. Christians should hate sin because God hates sin. To be true worshipers, God’s people should hate what God hates and love what God loves. Moses was a righteous man who pleaded with God as a part of his plan to relent. As worshipers of God, may his people continually pray, seek righteousness, and walk uprightly for his glory.
[1]
Certainly, God does not require one’s perfection before turning to him, for if
he did, there would be no need for repentance. God instead transforms believers
progressively to become like Christ. John points to obedience as the evidence
of love for God (John 14:15).
[2] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the English
Standard Bible.
[3]
Such a term references and points back to the place where God promises Abraham
that he would make a great nation of him and his descendants and make them to
be a chosen people for his own glory (Gen 12:2).
[4] Philip Graham Ryken and R.
Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 987.
[5] Ryken and Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory, 987.
[6] Ryken and Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory, 987.
[7]
Even the laments and questions of the Bible are framed in an unshakable
acknowledgement of God’s faithfulness.
[8]
Since humanity deserves eternal death, God’s allowance of living and offering
humankind mercy reveals his matchless love.
