And now go, lead the people whither I have told thee behold, my Angel shall go before thee; but in the day of my visiting I will visit their sin upon them.
Israel has just made the golden calf, and Moses has pleaded for the people. God answers here. He sends them on, but warns that the account is not closed.
The verse shows God as ruler, not God as Saviour. One writer marks the difference by watching what gets blotted out.
At the close of this chapter Jehovah asserts His rights in moral government: "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book… Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them." This is God in government, not God in the gospel. Here He speaks of blotting out the sinner; in the gospel He is seen blotting out sin. A wide difference!
God does not destroy the nation, so readers often hear the gospel here. One writer says this is a mistake, and names what Israel did receive.
He reveals His mercy in government, as "forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." This is sometimes called the gospel, which it is not at all. God did indeed bear with Israel in patience. But still He adds, "In the day when I visit, I will visit their sins upon them." It was not forgiveness as we know it now. He forgave them in not cutting them off, and putting Moses and his seed in their place, as He had threatened.
An angel now goes ahead of them. That marks a change in how close God comes.
Up to now He had been among them, and His presence had been with them by night and by day. Now He says, "I will send my Angel." He withdraws… Grace is one thing, and government quite another. You see both principles in God's ways with Israel. He brought them out of Egypt in pure sovereign grace. They put themselves under law, and under that God's government must come in. If you and I do wrong, the wheels of government will roll on although God forgives us.
The place God spoke of is still theirs after the calf. The reason is not their record under the law.
The land was to be theirs. They had not earned it under the law. It was theirs because of the unconditional covenant God gave to Abraham at the start. God would still act for them, driving out the nations before them and bringing them in. But the Angel would do it.
God answers Moses on two levels at once — the individual in verse 33, the nation in verse 34.
The Lord has His own ways. When the whole nation has failed, He can still deal with people inside it according to His own righteous judgment. "Whoever has sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book." At the same time He announces plainly that the whole nation would in time be punished together for its sin. These are principles of God of deep and solemn importance.
Moses' pleading won something real. The "Nevertheless" of this verse marks where it stopped.
So Moses' mediation worked for forgiveness as regards government. It put them under a government whose principles we shall see later. But it was useless for any atonement. Such an atonement would have shielded them from the final effect of their sin — its effect on their eternal relationship with God — and taken them out from under the judgment of the law.
Another writer sets the same scene beside Christ, who went back up with no "perhaps" at all.
He came down, not to learn the condition of the people, but with perfect knowledge of what that condition was… and having done all, He went back to heaven. He did not go with a "perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin." He went to lay upon the throne of the Majesty on high the lasting memorials of an atonement already accomplished.
Verse 35 shows the visitation starting almost at once. One commentator warns against reading eternal ruin into it.
He recalled His threat when Moses pleaded His promises, and sent His angel to guide them, but declared, "Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made." But their falling in the wilderness had nothing to do with the saving of their souls. Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness too, and we know they were saints of the Lord.
- Spared — Moses' plea saved the nation from destruction. But that was forgiveness in government, not the forgiveness the gospel gives.
- Sent — an angel now leads where God Himself had walked among them. He steps back, and grace gives way to government.
- Secured — they still reach the promised land. It rests on God's covenant with Abraham, not on their record under law.
- Summoned — each person answers for his own sin. The nation also answers together, in the day God visits.
- Settled — Moses could only say "perhaps." Christ finished the work. God's government still rolls on over forgiven people, but it never touches the safety of the soul.
And Jehovah smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron had made.
The golden calf story ends with God's own hand falling on the camp. Moses' pleading had saved the people from destruction. So why does a plague still come, and why does the verse tie the calf to Aaron?
The nation was not wiped out. Yet the chapter ends with a blow. One distinction holds those two facts together.
It was the same with Israel and with Aaron. Moses' intercession spared both from the governmental consequences of their sin, but the guilt of the sin toward God remained. Keep this distinction clearly in mind. Without it, the judgment that came afterwards might seem to contradict the words "the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people." Under God's government on the basis of the law of Sinai, the nation would have been destroyed if Moses had not interceded. Delivered from that consequence, God was still free to deal with them — as we find at the close of the chapter.
Just before the plague, God says He will blot out of His book whoever has sinned against Him. Read as the terms of salvation, that sounds crushing. But it is not gospel language.
At the close of this chapter the LORD asserts His rights in moral government, in these words: "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. … Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them." This is God in government, not God in the gospel. Here He speaks of blotting out the sinner; in the gospel He is seen blotting out sin. A wide difference!
Moses had pleaded for the people, and God did not grant his request. God's reason shows how a plague could still fall after such love, and what Israel was left with.
God did not grant what His servant asked. Moses had no finished atonement to stand on, and nothing with which to make atonement. That is the only basis on which a holy God could forgive His people and remain righteous. But his intercession did win this much: it secured the people from the governmental consequences of their sin — their destruction as the penalty of their transgression. Now it is not the LORD dwelling among them, but an angel going before them, and the people still under just judgment because of their sin.
The verse could have stopped at the people's sin. Instead it names Aaron, who had shifted the blame onto them.
God is pleased to entrust certain shared blessings to man's responsibility. Man's failure soon forfeits them. God still bears with them in long patience, dealing with individual people according to His own grace. But at length the time comes to visit the failing body as a whole. Aaron laid the blame on the people; but God regards it as "with the priest, so with the people." God knows how much guilt belongs to each party. However they may lay it on one another, God charges both alike.
Does a plague from God on His own people mean they were lost for ever? One writer answers by pointing to who else died in the desert.
So in Exodus: God threatened to destroy all the people. He withdrew that threat when Moses pleaded His promises, and He sent His angel to guide them. But He declared that in the day when He visited, He would visit their sin on them — "and the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made" (Exodus 32:34-35). Yet their falling in the wilderness had nothing to do with the saving of their souls. Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness too, and we know they were saints of the LORD.
The two lines running through this chapter — grace and government — still run through a believer's life.
Grace is one thing, and government quite another, and you have both principles illustrated in God's ways with Israel. He brought them out of Egypt in pure sovereign grace. They put themselves under law, and under that God's government must come in. If you and I do wrong, the wheels of government will roll on although God forgives us. "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).
- Spared — Moses' pleading saved the nation from destruction. But the guilt of the sin toward God remained, so He was still free to deal with them.
- Visited — the plague is God's government, not His gospel. Here He speaks of blotting out the sinner; in the gospel He blots out sin.
- Refused — God would not take Moses as a substitute. Moses had no finished atonement to stand on, and that is the only ground on which a holy God forgives.
- Shared — Aaron blamed the people and the people had pressed Aaron, but God charges both alike: "like people, like priest."
- Reaped — their falling in the desert did not touch the saving of their souls. Yet the wheels of government roll on, and a person still reaps what he sows.