W. Robert Godfrey

Nobody believes that.

It was the kind of story children tell to justify things that are clearly wrong, and the justification is clearly untrue.

But this horror, Moses holds up again here.

And he says, this is why it is so important that you be careful, that you be thoughtful, that you do not allow these things to happen again.

He rehearses this for the people, how the Lord wanted to destroy them for this sin, and Moses had to offer his own life, his own spiritual eternity in their place.

The Lord didn't demand that of him, but he was willing to do that as the mediator, the intercessor for this people.

And here is a beautiful picture of intercession and mediation, one offering his life for another.

But this is how terrible this moment was in the history of Israel and how Moses had to plead for the people and beg for them to be spared.

And then it's interesting, isn't it, how

When he comes down, it's not enough for the image to be destroyed.

It has to be ground into fine powder and scattered.

Maybe think a little bit about the trial of the Nazi leaders at Nuremberg after the Second World War.

Almost all of them were condemned to death and they were hanged.

And then the Allies had to decide what to do with the bodies.

because if you bury the bodies, you run the risk of establishing a shrine where there may be pilgrimage.

And so the bodies were burned and the ashes were scattered at sea, so there could never be any resting place found.

for these monsters, and that's what happens here in a sense.

Not a particle of this image is allowed to remain to be a snare to the people, but it all must be destroyed so that the Lord will

Bless them.

The Lord will ensure they remember who they were.