Exodus: The Feast and the Failure · Day 6 of 21
Up Before
Down
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”Exodus 32:30 · BSB
This verse shows us the direction Moses instinctively moved whenever sin appeared among God's people. The people had committed a great sin, and his response was to go up to the LORD. Let's notice that this was actually his second trip up on their behalf. When God first told him about the calf, Moses was still on the mountain, and before he ever walked down to confront anyone, he stood right there and pleaded for the people until the LORD relented from destroying them (Exodus 32:11–14).
The order of his movements deserves a careful examination. Moses went up before he went down, and after he had gone down, he went up again. He settled matters with God about the people before he settled matters with the people about God. The confrontation at the bottom of the mountain was severe, yet it happened between two intercessions.
We usually reverse this order. When someone's failure lands in front of us, such as a family member who wounds us or a fellow believer who falls, our first movement is almost always downward and outward. We confront, correct, and even draft the hard text message. We vent to whoever will listen, often judging the one who fell. In our experience, prayer very often comes afterward, if it comes at all.
The order matters because of what each direction offers to us. Moses came down from that first intercession carrying what he had just heard, which was God's own willingness to relent. His severity below toward the people served as restoration because mercy above had already been secured. Oftentimes when we go down first, we carry only our own anger, and our words show it. But when we go up first, we come down carrying something of God's heart for the very person who failed.
There is one more word in this verse worth expounding: "perhaps." Moses did not know whether his trip up the mountain would succeed, but he went anyway. Intercession never requires certainty, only a willingness to stand between God and someone who needs mercy. Centuries later, our greater Mediator removed even the uncertainty. Where Moses said "perhaps I can make atonement," Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30).
Today's question is one of direction: when I notice someone failing this week, which way will I move first?
Today's practice
Before you correct anyone today, whether face to face or by text, stop with your thumb over the send button and go up first: "Lord, I bring this person to You before I bring my words to them. Give me Your heart for them, and then send me down."
Moses pleaded with God on the mountain before he confronted the people below.