Exodus 32:29

The Bible says in Exodus 32:29-35, “For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.” Moses told the people to “consecrate” themselves to the Lord. The people had just recently sinned greatly against God, and Moses knew that they were in danger of great punishments. Therefore, the first thing that they needed to do was to consecrate themselves. “To consecrate” refers to making sure that your heart is fully dedicated to the Lord. They had departed from the Lord, and so they needed to come back to Him in their hearts. Christians need to do the same thing. If a Christian has sinned, that Christian needs to quickly repent, turn to the Lord again, and ask for forgiveness. That is what the scripture is talking about in First Corinthians 11:31-32, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” It also says in First John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If anyone does consecrate himself or herself to the Lord, notice what Exodus 32:29 says the result will be: God will “bestow upon you a blessing.” Moses knew that there needed to be an atonement for the people. God is holy and we are sinful. The word “atonement” means covering, and it presents the idea that our sins become covered and therefore God no longer sees them or considers them. In order to accomplish this atonement, Moses offered himself in Exodus 32:32 when Moses said, “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Of course, Moses was not qualified to be an atonement for the people. That is why Jesus Christ would come. We need someone to be a covering for our sins, but only Jesus is qualified because only He was without sin. The Bible says in Romans 5:11, “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” We can be rightly related to God, not because of ourselves, but because of Jesus and what He has done for us.

Even though Jesus gave His blood to be an atonement for us, each of us must still choose to receive Him as Savior. When we do receive Him, we are given eternal life. There are different ways that the Bible symbolizes eternal life. One way is found here in the book of Exodus: names written in a book. All of the citizens of heaven have their names written in a book. Only those whose names are in the book are allowed in heaven. God knows every person, and He knows our names. Blessed are those whose names are written in the book at the end of time when the books are opened, and everyone’s eternal destiny is revealed. Evidently the Lord is so interested in saving all of us, that He puts every person’s name in the book initially. He only takes a name out of the book when that person eventually rejects Jesus forever.

We can understand why the Lord puts everyone’s name in the book of life to start off. God loves everyone and He wants everyone to be saved. God is hoping that everyone will be saved. God gives everyone the opportunity to be saved and thus He desires for everyone to accept Christ and spend an eternity in heaven, and therefore at the start God puts everyone’s name in the book of life. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus also said in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

This book of life is mentioned in Revelation 20:11-15 that says, “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Is your name still in the book? You can make sure that your name stays in the book by coming to know Jesus personally as your Savior. Jesus spoke of the need to know Him in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” You must know Jesus personally to enter heaven.

It is interesting that at this point in Exodus God reminds Moses of where the people are going and why they are going there. Exodus 33:1, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it.” God is still going to take the people into the Promised Land, but not because of these people. They certainly did not deserve the blessings of the Promised Land. Instead of blessing, these people deserved punishment. Why did these children of Israel receive the blessing of the Promised Land: because of a promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God keeps His promises. This is exactly what takes place in the life of each person that is saved through faith in Christ. We are sinners. We have failed. God has every reason to not be pleased with us, and to punish us because He is the holy Judge of the whole earth. But God promised that everyone who trusts in Jesus will be allowed to enter heaven and to live there forever enjoying the blessings and the glory and the peace and the beauty. Jesus said in John 14:1-6, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” And it says in Titus 3:4-6, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

The Bible says in Exodus 33:2-6, “And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.” The reason that God is sending an angel to go before the people is because of how much these people failed, and therefore the holiness of God restrains Him from wanting to be near these people. That is why God said in Exodus 33:3, “for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.” That is one of the problems that we all have: God is holy, but we are sinful. We need a go-between, a mediator. That is one of the things that Jesus does for us. It says in First Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” God receives us because of Jesus and through Jesus. Our relationship with God we owe to Jesus. All of the mercy and grace and love that we receive from God is also because of Jesus. We can be thankful that we live in the age of grace instead of in the age of the law.

Twice in these verses in Exodus chapter thirty-three God states that the children of Israel were a “stiff-necked” people. The children of Israel had committed several sins including immorality and idolatry, but the sin that God mentioned twice was that of being “stiff-necked.” It was the stubbornness and the rebellion that was so very bad, and that put them in such danger in regards to their relationship with God. God can do nothing with a stiff-necked and self-willed person. Those who resist God do so to their own harm and even to their own destruction. Notice what God said to Saul in First Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”

God had a plan for the children of Israel and God was going to keep that plan and see that it was fulfilled because of the promises that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is still fulfilling those promises even today. The salvation that Jews and Gentiles can find through faith in Christ is a result of those promises to Abraham. The existence of the nation of Israel also appears to be a result of the fulfillment of those promises. As it says in Romans 11:1-12, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?” The fullness of the Israelites will come in at the return of Christ. They failed because of unbelief. We live in the time of the fullness of the Gentiles, but God always keeps His promises. God did not cast away the Jews during the time of Moses, God did not cast them away during the time of the Apostle Paul, and God has not cast them away today. Their time will come. Blessings will be for those who help the Jews and woe to those who oppose them. God keeps His promises.

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