God Comes to Kill
God Comes to Kill?
Brad Cole
There are a number of very challenging stories in the Old Testament where God superficially appears to have a short fuse and ready to kill at the drop of hat. One example of this is the interaction between God and Moses who were together on Mount Sinai when the people rebelled by choosing to worship a golden calf rather than the Creator of the Universe.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Hurry and go back down, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have sinned and rejected me. They have already left the way that I commanded them to follow; they have made a bull-calf out of melted gold and have worshiped it and offered sacrifices to it. They are saying that this is their god, who led them out of Egypt. I know how stubborn these people are. Now, don't try to stop me. I am angry with them, and I am going to destroy them. Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation.” (Exodus 32:7-10 – GN)
God certainly appears angry and ready to destroy this entire nation of “about 600,000 men, not counting women and children” (Exodus 12:37), completely out of existence. This nation, of whom he had promised great things and many descendants to Abraham. Was God caught off guard by this rebellion? It could appear superficially that God was surprised by their rebellion and lost control of his emotions, but does not God have a very detailed knowledge of the future? Did He now know the hearts and minds of His rebellious children? Was he surprised?
We read on of course about how Moses pled with God for these people, but did Moses in this instance have greater control over his emotions that God? Did a creature need to step in to talk down the Creator from his anger?
Well notice God’s emphasis to Moses in the passage above is that they are Moses’ people, not God’s. “…your people Moses, whom you led out of Egypt…and that he would make you and your descendants Moses into a great nation.”
But just 40 days earlier God had claimed them as his own in very tender language.
“The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests” (Exodus 19:5, 6).
That was just 40 days earlier!
Is this an opportunity for Moses to rid himself of these rebellious people and start up a proud country of his own children? What an honor, and after all who would dare argue with God? This conversation between God and Moses makes so much more sense, and I believe places God in a much better (and true) light, if it is seen with the on-looking angels, and all of us today who are reading this story and searching for the heart of God. Is God a destroying tyrant?
I believe that God spoke to his friend Moses in this way to reveal something very important to us. Notice what happens:
“But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, why should you be so angry with your people, whom you rescued from Egypt with great might and power? Why should the Egyptians be able to say that you led your people out of Egypt, planning to kill them in the mountains and destroy them completely? Stop being angry; change your mind and do not bring this disaster on your people.” (Exodus 32:11-12 – GN)
Moses turned God’s description completely around. He recognized that these are not his people as God suggested; they are God’s, and their success or failure rests solely on the trust that the people and Moses place in God. But there was something much more important that God wanted to reveal. Moses in this story, the one who spoke with God “face to face, just as someone speaks with a friend” (Exodus 33:11) – had more concern for others than self. Moses was more concerned about God’s reputation than any personal honor. Moses loved these people so much that he was even willing to say this to God – and these words are the climax of this story:
“Please forgive their sin; but if you won’t, then remove my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people.” (Exodus 32:32 – GN)
This is one of the high points in all of scripture. Moses revealed the ideal of love for others in his reply to God, and I believe that what God wants to say to you and I in this story is: “Did you all hear what Moses just said? Did you all hear what my friend Moses just said? That is it! That is what I am looking for – selfless love for others; love for others that exceeds love for self!”
You see, had God not come to Moses in the way he did, we would have only the record of a very rebellious people stumbling through the desert. But God said, “No, I will say something about the ideal of love through the one I speak face to face with as a friend.” God did not come to kill and He did not really change His mind. He rather came to reveal what was in the heart of His friend Moses.
In fact, this great ideal was not understood until thousands of years later when Jesus would die on the Cross with the same attitude: “there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.” God allowed Moses in this story to reveal the ideal of love for others. I believe that in story after story in the Old Testament, as we come closer to the reality of what actually happened, any picture of God as a short tempered, destroying, arbitrary, and vengeful tyrant slowly evaporates, and our picture of who God is becomes more and more like Jesus.
What's Related