Moses speaks of times he interceded in prayer for Israel and he begins with the golden calf incident. Yesterday he talked about how the Lord told him on the mountain that the people had made an image. Coming down from the mountain and finding that this was so, he threw the tablets of the covenant to the ground and broke them. Afterwards he did this: "Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and so arousing His anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me." (Deuteronomy 9:18-19)
Did Moses' prayer change the Lord's mind? I think yes and no, at the same time. I don't believe the Lord wanted to destroy Israel but His wrath was strong enough to do it and the sin was grievous enough to justify it. What the Lord wanted for Israel, and for all human beings, is that they would make Him the Lord and Savior and King of their lives. His wrath was great and it was justified but His love was greater. He knew that Moses, the mediator of the first covenant, would intercede for the people and He knew He would accept Moses' prayer on their behalf because His heart's desire was to accept prayer on their behalf. Human beings need someone to mediate a covenant between them and God. Human beings need someone to intercede for them with the Lord in prayer. Moses had such a loving heart for Israel---much like the Lord's heart---that the Lord specifically chose him because he would do everything humanly possible to help Israel. The Lord knew Israel would need intercession and He chose a man who would do it with all his heart. So although the Lord could have and perhaps would have destroyed Israel after the golden calf incident, at the same time He knew He wouldn't take this step because He had chosen a mediator and intercessor whose prayers were so loving and sincere on behalf of Israel that He would hear them and honor them.
Moses had to intercede for his brother Aaron following the golden calf incident in addition to praying for the nation as a whole. "And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too." (Deuteronomy 9:20) The Lord's wrath burned hotly against Moses' brother Aaron, the man who would become the first high priest of Israel, because he had given in to the people's request to, "Make us a god who will go before us." (Exodus 32:1b)
When we studied Exodus 32 we talked about why Aaron gave in to their request and we concluded it was most likely out of fear. The Bible tells us all the people "gathered around Aaron" and in the original text the word used for "gathered" indicates an assembly for the purpose of political matters, for the purpose of waging war, for the purpose of passing judgment, or for the purpose of religious matters. I think the people gathered for all these purposes combined, for Moses had left Aaron in charge during his absence so Aaron was acting as both political leader and spiritual leader at that time. I think the people were capable of demoting him from his position (or worse) if he rejected their request, so we could also say that this meeting had the potential to turn violent---that the people could have passed judgment upon him or waged war against him, doing him bodily harm or even killing him. You'll recall there was at least one incident we've already studied in which we were plainly told they wanted to stone Aaron and Moses to death. There were other times when the anger against Moses and Aaron was so fierce that the desire to inflict bodily harm on them is implied by the text. When the people requested his help in fashioning an image, I think Aaron recognized the potential for the situation to turn violent and I think out of fear for his life he gave in. Not only that, but perhaps he too was struggling with doubts and fears just as they were when they said, "As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." (Exodus 32:1c)
The Lord did not destroy the nation or Aaron. What did get destroyed? The idol. Moses says, "Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain." (Deuteronomy 9:21)
If we do not destroy our idols they will cause our destruction. Anything or anyone we put in place of God is an idol. We were created for fellowship with the Lord and our relationship with Him is intended to be the deepest, most important relationship of all. When we do not place Him at the center of our lives, there is going to be an empty space inside our souls that nothing else can satisfy. That space was designed for God and there isn't anyone or anything else that can fill it. An idol does nothing but separate us from God and cause us to drift farther and farther away from Him as time goes on. An idol has the potential not only to ruin our lives on earth but also to prevent us from enjoying the presence of the Lord forever after this life on earth is over. Idols place our earthly lives and our eternal lives in jeopardy. In the Bible the Lord refers to idols as a lie, as a shame, as worthless things, as a snare, as detestable objects, and as useless things incapable of hearing or speaking or doing anything whatsoever to help anyone who trusts in them. In contrast, fellowship with the Lord provides us with the truth, with honor, with a deep satisfaction in the soul, with abiding peace, with comfort, with help in time of need, and with the assurance that when this life is over we will forever be in the presence of our Creator.
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