All this involved, on Israel's part, a deliberate abandonment of their connection with Jehovah. They had given Him up; and, accordingly, we find Him, as it were, taking them on their own ground. "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.... I have seen this people, it is a stiff-necked people: now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of _thee_ a great nation.'" Here was an open door for Moses; and here he displays uncommon grace, and similarity of spirit to that Prophet whom the Lord was to raise up like unto him. He refuses to be or to have any thing without the people. He pleads with God on the ground of His own glory, and puts the people back upon Him in these touching words, "Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against _Thy people_, which _Thou_ hast brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against _Thy_ people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst unto them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'" This was powerful pleading. The glory of God, the vindication of His holy name, the accomplishment of His oath,--these are the grounds on which Moses entreats the Lord to turn from His fierce wrath. He could not find in Israel's conduct or character any plea or ground to go upon; he found it all in God Himself.
The Lord hath said unto Moses, "_Thy_ people which _thou_ broughtest up;" but Moses replies to the Lord, "_Thy_ people which _Thou_ hast brought up." They were the Lord's people notwithstanding all; and His name, His glory, His oath, were all involved in their destiny. The moment the Lord links Himself with a people, His character is involved, and faith will ever look at Him upon this solid ground. Moses loses sight of himself entirely His whole soul is engrossed with thoughts of the Lord's glory and the Lord's people. Blessed servant! How few like him! And yet when we contemplate him in all this scene, we perceive how infinitely he is below the blessed Master. He came down from the mount, and when he saw the calf and the dancing, his "anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and break them beneath the mount." The covenant was broken, and the memorials thereof shattered to pieces; and then, having executed judgment in righteous indignation, he "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.'"
How different is this from what we see in Christ! He came down from the bosom of the Father, not with the tables in His hands, but with the law in His heart. He came down, not to be made acquainted with the condition of the people, but with a perfect knowledge of what that condition was. Moreover, instead of destroying the memorials of the covenant and executing judgment, He magnified the law and made it honorable, and bore the judgment of His people, in His own blessed Person, on the cross; and, having done all, He went back to heaven, not with a "_peradventure_ I shall make an atonement for your sin," but to lay upon the throne of the Majesty in the highest the imperishable memorials of an atonement already accomplished. This makes a vast and truly glorious difference. Thank God, we need not anxiously gaze after our Mediator, to know if haply He shall accomplish redemption for us, and reconcile offended Justice. No; He has done it all. His presence on high declares that the whole work is finished. He could stand upon the confines of this world, ready to take His departure, and, in all the calmness of a conscious Victor (though He had yet to encounter the darkest scene of all), say, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." (John xvii.) Blessed Saviour! we may well adore Thee, and well exult in the place of dignity and glory in which eternal justice has set Thee. The highest place in heaven belongs to Thee; and Thy saints only wait for the time when "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." May that time speedily arrive!