Exodus 32:32

“But now, if You will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”

Moses was a great leader. He was the standard for the Jewish people. One of the things that makes Him such a great leader is His patience. Moses was a man who had to be constantly frustrated by his brethren. They had all seen the miracles of God bring them out of Egypt single-handedly to the point that they basically plundered the Egyptians. And yet what do we see the people saying to Moses over and over again? “Why did you bring us from Egypt? We would have been better off there than dead in the wilderness,” the said. It does not quite have the same ring as “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Every small thing that either went wrong or was not quite good enough for them, they came and complained to Moses. And yet Moses still has great love for Him. Here they have built the image of the calf in order to worship it. God is obviously infuriated, and wants to destroy this people. Amazingly enough, Moses intervenes. He goes before God, and asks God to hold back His wrath. We might expect that his natural reaction would have been to say, “Good riddance!” and move on. Instead he interceded for them.

What else is amazing is the lengths that he went to intercede. He even asked the Lord to blot out his name from the book of life for their sake. Now that shows great love. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: When facing similar circumstances, do we show the same attitude? Or are we ready to cast aside our fellow brethern at the most convenient opportunity. We need to follow Moses example, and exhibit great patience to those around us.

“But now, if You will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”