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Daily Devotions

Exodus

Exodus 
Day 
Day 306

"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth." Psalm 115:1

Text: Exodus 32 : 12-13

CONCERN FOR THE MIGHTY NAME OF GOD

Moses was deeply concerned about the fate of the children of Israel! God threatened wrath because of the problem of idolatry! But he was not just concerned about Israel, he was as deeply concerned about the name of the Lord.

“Why should the Egyptians speak, and say,
‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them
in the mountains, and to consume them from the face
of the earth?’
Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm
to Your people.”
EXODUS 32:12

1. “Why should the Egyptians speak…”

Moses knew the Egyptians well enough to offer this as a valid plea to the Lord in prayer. He knew that the Egyptian court would play this angle for political benefit. They would speak evil against the name of the Lord! They would deride God and make mention of Him as an irascible Deity who killed His devotees!

2. “Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent…”

God had remained silent thus far! He had not responded to any of the points Moses raised! Moses was not discouraged! Silence need not mean rejection! He must press on and come to the crunch of what he had been pleading for! Would not God turn from His wrath? Would He not relent from the harm that He intended to visit on the children of Israel- “His people”!

CONCERN ABOUT THE PROMISE MADE TO THE PATRIARCHS

When the LORD first revealed Himself to Moses, He introduced Himself as

“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
EXODUS 3:6

God went on to use this title again and again. Moses was to identify himself to Israel as a servant of the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Cf. Exodus 3:15; Cf. Exodus 4:5)!

Moses carefully and humbly sought to apply this knowledge of God in prayer.

“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants,
to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them,
‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven;
and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants,
and they shall inherit it forever.'”
EXODUS 32:13

The operative word in this plea is “remember”. This does not imply that God has forgotten and Moses needed to remind Him though!