The book of Exodus, chapter 33, contains a fascinating back and forth conversation between Moses and God that takes place following the incident of the golden calf.
In the passage, Moses and God are discussing whether God will personally accompany the nation of Israel on its trip to the land of promise. Please open your Bible and read Exodus 33:1-3.
We see here that God has essentially passed all responsibility for the people onto Moses. They are no longer the people who God brought out of Egypt but are the people who Moses brought up. They are Moses’ people, not God’s people. Now, continue reading verses 12-17.
We must now look at the original Hebrew in verses 14 and 15 to fully understand what Moses is saying. In verse 14, God agrees to go only with Moses. The “you” in this verse is singular. In verse 15, the phrase “with me” is not in the original Hebrew. In that verse, the verb meaning “go” is stated in plural. Because of that plural verb, I think a better translation of the verse would be, “If your presence will not go with us, then do not bring us up from here.” Moses here includes himself with the people of Israel.
The argument Moses is making here depends on the favor that God has for him. Moses is asking God to extend the favor he enjoys to the entire people. In the end, for the sake of Moses, God agrees to fully pardon the sin of the people and accompany them once again. The result is grace for an undeserving nation based on the merit of one man. Does that concept sound familiar?
Messiah Jesus, the prophet like Moses, enjoyed God’s favor in his brief life on this earth as he walked among us as one of us – a human being. This Jesus, according to the writer of the book of Hebrews, “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses…” (Hebrews 3:3). Since Jesus identifies with us as Moses did with the people of Israel, we can share in the favor of God for his son. For the sake of Jesus, God pardons our sin and shares his presence with us.
You have probably heard grace defined as “undeserved pardon” or perhaps “unmerited favor.” My contention is that the grace we enjoy in Messiah Jesus is a completely merited pardon. Jesus, by living a perfect life, merited God’s favor. The favor that he deserves he passes on to us.
We serve an amazing God! God does all the heavy lifting so we can be his partners to make this world a better place.
Frank Fenton is a lifelong student of the Word of God. He attends the Church of the Messiah in Xenia where he shares teaching duties for the weekly Bible study class, as well as contributing to the congregational teaching.
