Exodus 32:31-35
31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.
32 But now, if you will forgive their sin–but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
33 But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Chapter 32 starts off real bad.
The children of Israel directed Aaron to take over, to cast a golden calf to worship.
As an aside, for them to build a calf is such a sad commentary on their commitment to religion, for as they had left the country of Egypt, they left behind the worship of Apsis, a sacred bull worshipped by the Egyptians. They built a calf!
The Israel people sinned a great sin in constructing this calf, and then committed even greater sin in the worship of the calf. But in all their efforts to sin against God in the casting of the calf, its apparent their idol was simply a reduced version of the idol of the people they were escaping from. Even in their sin here, they showed their hearts were held by their abusers! Amazing.
The Israeli people sought Aaron to lead them in the idolatrous worship of this calf, in direct disobedience to the very first of the commandments given to the nation by God.
Exodus 20
3 You shall have no other gods before me.
4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God…
The very day of the giving of the commandments, in the midst of the thunder and peals of lightning, with the mountain smoking, the people admittedly confessed their fear. And rightly so, since the mountain was smoking!
Moses informed the people that this display was to instill fear in their hearts, that they may not sin!
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
Then to ensure the people understood the importance of this first commandment, God repeats Himself.
23 You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
So what do the Israeli people do? They go right ahead and make for themselves gods of gold.
Ok – after that background information, we have some context for our Exodus 32 passage. Verse 33 is the focus of our text for the purpose of our topic today.
32:33 But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
Now there are a number of ways to understand “my book”, and I keep promising myself that I am going to do a series on this topic. But for now, my understanding is that individual Israelites are being addressed, they currently are in the book of God, and due to sin, God will blot them out.
Is this referring to eternal salvation? National citizenship? Physical life? Too many questions to address in this post, but the principal is put before us.
How may I describe my understanding? Each person in a relationship with God has the opportunity (freedom) to loose this relationship.
One thought that I hope I have developed is that the sin that causing this loss is not some errant thought, or accidental falling into sin, but a deliberate (and constant?) refusal to follow the clear and obvious will of God.
That will of God in this day and time, is to follow after the One who has delivered us from the curse, that has provided us strength to obey, who is patient and loving towards us, and that has become our sacrifice. No longer are we to bow to the idols of this world’s culture, or the idols of the religious devotees surrounding us, but only to follow after the Crucified One.
Will you follow?
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4 responses to “Conditional Security – Exodus 32:31-35”
Hi ,
( Exodus 32 : 33) states : ‘And the LORD said unto Moses,” Who soever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of my book.”
The verse is propounded nicely in this article
This is one way of explanation about Christians loosing their salvation.
To blot out the name from the divine record of Book of life, means loosing the salvation.
These are the other consistent verses #########
! ) (Revelation 3 : 5) :‘He who overcome s will thus be clothed in white garments & I will not erase his name from the book of life.’
!!) (Psalm. 69 : 27-28):‘lniquity to their iniquity,& may they not come into Your righteousness.May they be blotted out of the book of life & may they not be recorded with the righteous.’
The following verses denote 6 other reasons ;of the person losing his salvation _:
Reason 1 :^^^^^^^^^^^^Due to dead body.
( Romans 8 : 10 ) states : ‘And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.’
(Ezekiel 18:24-26) states:‘ When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness & committeth iniquity & doeth according to all the abominatio ns that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed & in his sin that he hath sinned, inthem shall he die.’
These are the iniquities a righteous may commit due to his dead body.
:Anything such as :’ Sensuality, passions, drunkedness, orgies,drinking parties, & lawless idolatry.’(1 Peter 4:3 )
’ Care of this world & the deceitful ness of riches.‘(Matthew 13 :22)
’ Filthy dreamers, Murmurs, complains, hard & sensual speeches. ‘( Jude 8,19 )
’ Friendship with this world, covetousness, & adultery. ‘( James 4: 4)
’ Bitter envying, strife & jealousy.’(James 3: 14)
Confusion, selfish ambition & every evil work.(James . 3:16)
‘Desires of the flesh & of the mind.’ (Ephesians.2 :3)
‘Divisions’ (1Corinthians 3 : 3)
‘Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.’ (1John 2: 16)
‘ Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, witchcraft,hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, seditions or, heresies.Galatians .5 :19, 20 )
So, not to loose salvation, the person has to deny & submit himself to The Holy Spirit, daily.
(Luke 9:23 ) says :’Jesus said to all,“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily & follow me.’
Reason 2 :^^^^^^^^^^^^lf he remains in the pollution of this world.
(2 Peter 2:20-22) states: ‘For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, & over come, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteous ness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.’
Reason 3 :^^^^^^^^^^^^If he did not remain in the good ness of God.
( Romans 11: 22) says:‘Behold there fore the goodness & severity of God: on them which fell severity; but toward thee, good ness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.’
Reason 4 :^^^^^^^^^^^^If he takes away from the words of the book.
(Rev. 22 :19) states :‘lf any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life. ‘
Reason 5 :^^^^^^^^^^^^lf he does not remain in faith till end.
(Matthew 24 :13) says,‘ But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.’
Reason 6 :^^^^^^^^^^^^lf he goes after false Christs & false prophets.
( Matthew. 24 : 24) states : ‘False Christs & false prophets shalldeceive the very elect’.
Thus, when the person lives carnally, the Holy Spirit doesn’t stay in him.
(Rom. 8 : 6, 8,13) states : ‘To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal min is enmity against God ’13.,lf you live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’
These are 3 examples of The Holy Spirit living the person :
!) Samson(Judges16 : 20) says, ‘She said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.& he awoke out of his sleep, & said, I will go out as at other times before, & shake myself. & he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.’
!!) (lsaiah 63 :10)states:‘But they rebelled,& vexed His holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, & he fought against them.’
!!!) king Saul
(1 Samuel 16 :14) says,‘The Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul & an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.’
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Wow. Those are great passages. Some I have not considered. As I am blogging, would you mind me using some of the passages from this list?
Thanks so much, may the Lord bless you and keep you
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Hi,
Thanks for the mail. I liked that you have interest in the Word of God.
You can use those verses anywhere. Afterall those are God’s, not mine.
Usha Borde
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Thanks Usha. Have a great day.
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