Daily Thought

In the general rebellion against God in the making of the golden calf the sons of Levi had no part. To them now falls the execution of discipline as Moses sends them out to slay the people. A total of 3, 000 are slain - a tragedy, yet a demonstration of the mercy of God in that not all Israel perished, as they deserved. However, all would yet suffer loss.

The next day, after mature reflection, Moses announces that he will seek to make atonement for the sins of the people. He approaches God in confession, ‘this people have sinned a great sin’, and he proceeds to lay the matter out before God in some detail, they ‘have made them gods of gold’. He first appeals to God to forgive - some action has already been taken, 3, 000 have died, but is that sufficient to appease an angry God? Moses adds, ‘and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written’.

Here, again, we see the selflessness of the man of God. He would prefer punishment for himself, indeed, even to perish, rather than for God’s people to miss out on entering into and enjoying the blessings of the Promised Land. God, however, reiterates that sinners must bear their own punishment and be blotted out of His book. He gives Moses renewed instructions, ‘Go unto the place of which I have spoken mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them’.

Here we may learn lessons from the actions of Moses. First, we must bring discipline into our own lives and into the assembly of God’s people. In addition to discipline taken by men, God will also visit in discipline Himself. Discipline now does not cancel out loss in the future. In this sad case the entire generation was not allowed to enter the Promised Land as a result of their sin.

We need to remember that sin and unfaithfulness is offensive to God. We need to identify ourselves with the sin and the punishment. Sin causes heartache for everyone touched by it and destroys lives and debilitates service for the Lord. We must judge it first in ourselves and only then in others. All this is best achieved on our knees in prayer, and in humility. We must not be smug when others fall, for perhaps, but for the grace of God there go we.