Recall the context: While Moses was up on a mountain, the Israelites had fashioned and were worshipping a golden calf. God was so incensed that He told Moses that He will utterly destroy the people (32:7-10). If there was a time that God made up His mind, it was this one!
Insight #1. Prayer relates us to God in human terms
Brother Andrew of “God’s Smuggler” fame wrote a book with the intriguing title: And God Changed His Mind. It challenged my notion that God is an inflexible and stubborn Deity, as if you have to twist His arm to get what you want.
Yet in the Exodus account, it seemed just that. God was going to wipe out Israel, but Moses talked Him out of it! He basically argued: “Look, God, what will happen to Your reputation? The Egyptians will say that You went through all this trouble to rescue us from Egypt, only to kill us in the middle of nowhere!” (vv 11-13).
And then we read this amazing passage: “Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (v 14).
Hold on! Wasn’t God sure of what He was going to do? Did Moses used shrewd negotiation? Do we imagine the Lord slapping His forehead and exclaiming, “Wow, Moses, that’s a great point! Why didn’t I see it that way? Okay, request granted”?
The answer is that Scripture shows God relating to people as if He Himself were human, that is, bound by linear time and literal space. Otherwise, no real relationship between a transcendental, infinite God and a temporal, finite man can be possible. In His omniscience, He already knew what Moses was going to say. He was never caught surprised. But He allowed this conversation to happen in linear time and literal space.
On closer analysis, God had have two options: judgment due to His holiness or forgiveness due to His mercy. The tension is held by a general principle that says: God renders judgment but may bestow mercy if one appeals to it. Each side is consistent with His character. Moses astutely knew this and prayed accordingly.
March 23, 2023
0 Comments