The Lord has passed by Moses and has proclaimed His name in his presence. Now Moses bows down before Him.
"Moses bowed at once to the ground and worshiped. 'Lord,' he said, 'if I have found favor in Your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.'" (Exodus 34:8-9) Moses has already told the Lord that if He doesn't go with Israel into the promised land, Moses doesn't want to go. Moses can't lead these people without the Lord. Even if he could, what an empty and unrewarding job it would be to inhabit the promised land without the presence of the Lord with them.
Even though Moses didn't indulge in any of the idolatry that went on in the camp, like the prophets will later do he identifies himself with those who forsook the Lord, saying, "Forgive our wickedness and our sin." Moses didn't forsake the Lord and neither did any of the prophets, but as intercessors they identified themselves with the people when they carried the people's sins to the Lord for absolution. Moses and the prophets weren't perfect and could rightly call themselves sinners, but they typically confessed huge national sins on a personal level like this, saying, "We have sinned. We have broken Your laws and commandments. Forgive us for all our faults and failures." Even Christ, who never sinned, took our sins upon Himself and interceded with God on our behalf. You and I can pray for our nation today in the same way. We ourselves may not have forsaken the Lord and turned away from His principles (though we aren't perfect), but many in our country have turned their backs on God, and we can pray like the great men of the Bible prayed, saying, "Lord, forgive us for our sins! We've made mistakes. We've forsaken godly living in favor of worldly living. We've broken Your laws and commandments. Please forgive us and heal our land and protect us from our enemies."
The Lord intends to go with the people. He's given them some time and some space in which to repent and most of them have responded appropriately. He never intended not to go with them because He always knew that at least a portion of them would remain faithful to Him and because He made a promise to Abraham that He will not break. He reassures Moses that He still wants Israel to be His covenant people. "Then the Lord said, 'I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.'" (Exodus 34:10)
As we move through the Old Testament we are going to see many miracles that God does on behalf of Israel. These miracles weren't only for their sake; they were also for the sake of the pagan nations that surrounded them. When observing these "wonders never before done", the inhabitants of those nations were presented with a choice. They could either turn away from useless idolatry and turn to the living God who does great things for those who love Him, or they could reject the one true God and never be able to claim they weren't given an opportunity to know Him. God is going to be showing mercy to other nations through Israel while He's doing great things for Israel. And if those other people don't choose to turn to Him for salvation, at the very least they'll think twice before attacking Israel whom God loves and protects with great power and might.
The Lord does wonders in your life and mine. He gives us strength and peace and courage in a world that sometimes seems as if it has gone mad. This is His mercy upon us and upon the unbelievers around us, for they can't help but see the way the Lord sustains us with His great power and might. Some of them will want what we have: a close, personal, fulfilling relationship with the Lord. Others will still reject Him, but they won't be able to say they never saw His love and power in action through us. Some of those who reject the Lord will think twice before making themselves our enemy. They may not want God to be their God, but they can see that He defends His children in great and mighty ways and they will be reluctant to tangle with Him.
The Lord is going to uproot the pagan inhabitants of the promised land in order to plant Israel there. It's important when moving into the land that the Israelites don't intermingle closely with these idolaters. If they start entering into partnerships with them they run the very real risk of becoming just like them. "Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:11-14)
As the Israelites begin to take over and inhabit the land they must remove the pagan altars from their territory. If they allow this evidence of idolatry to remain they will become comfortable with it. Then they may be tempted to dabble in idolatry or in the occult.
When God speaks of being jealous He isn't talking about the type of jealousy with which we're most familiar. When we think of jealousy we tend to think of being jealous of someone. We think of covetous jealousy, where one person wants what another person has. God is talking about the type of jealousy when we're jealous for someone. This is the type of jealousy a loving parent feels for his child, the type of jealousy where he wants the best for his child. God can say He is jealous because He wants the best for His children, and the best means worshiping only Him. There's nothing to be gained and there's a whole lot to lose by bowing to images and false deities. He wants more than that for Israel and this is why He states He feels a jealousy for them.
It's going to be very important how Israel interacts with unbelievers. "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same." (Exodus 34:15-16)
In this world we deal daily with believers and unbelievers both. Dealing with unbelievers can't be avoided. As the Apostle Paul said, in order to avoid dealing with unbelievers we would "have to leave this world". (1 Corinthians 5:10b) And if we never dealt with unbelievers how would we witness to them about the Lord by word and deed? The Lord isn't saying we can't work at a job where there are unbelievers or that we can't take care of customers who are unbelievers or that we can't shop at stores that are owned by unbelievers. He isn't even saying to us in our day that we can't have friends who are unbelievers. But in our dealings with unbelievers we must be very careful never to partake in anything ungodly and immoral. For example, maybe you have a friend who is an unbeliever who sometimes throws big parties at their house where heavy drinking takes place. You can be their friend without attending such parties. Or maybe you have an unbelieving co-worker with whom you get along really well at work, but he sometimes stops off at a strip club after work and invites you to go with him. You don't have to go. Or perhaps you have a friend who belongs to some other type of religion, one whose teachings contradict the Bible. If they invite you, you can say no to attending any services or festivals held by their religious order. If you have a friend who believes in fortune telling or astrology, you don't have to go with them to the psychic's house. And above all, believers are never to enter into a close partnership such as business or marriage with an unbeliever because then we will be "unequally yoked" together with them and the Bible forbids this. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
The Bible uses an agricultural example of being unequally yoked because any of us can clearly see why a farmer wouldn't put two unmatched animals in a yoke together to pull his plow. If one animal is bigger and stronger than the other, the plow is going to make crooked rows because the stronger animal will pull the plow in its direction. The smaller and weaker animal might even be injured if the other animal is pushing ahead too fast and pulling the smaller animal along with it. Or the bigger animal might become injured because he's doing most of the work and wearing himself out. Being unequally yoked just doesn't work, not in farming and not in business partnerships or marriage. If any of you who are believers is seeking a business partner or a marriage partner, don't even consider anyone who doesn't share your faith. The Lord provides this advice to us because He wants the best for us. Shunning His advice never leads to anything good.
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