March 18, 2010
Exodus 32: 7 - 14
With that, the Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshipping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!' I see how stiffnecked this people is," continued the Lord to Moses. "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation."
But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, "Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom your brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth'? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"
So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Psalms 106: 19 - 23
They made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image; they exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bullock. They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea. Then he spoke of exterminating them, but Moses, his chosen one, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath.
John 5: 31 - 47
"If I witness on my own behalf, you cannot verify my testimony, but there is another who is testifying on my behalf, and the testimony he renders me I know can be verified. You have sent to John, who has testified to the truth. (Not that I myself accept such human testimony - I refer to these things only for your salvation.) He was the lamp, set aflame and burning bright, and for a while you exulted willingly in his light. Yet I have testimony greater than John's, namely, the works the Father has given me to accomplish. These works which I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself given testimony on my behalf. His voice you have never heard, his form your have never seen, neither do you have his word abiding in your hearts because you do not believe the One he has sent.
Search the Scriptures in which you think you have eternal life - they also testify on my behalf. Yet you are unwilling to come to me to possess that life."
"It is not that I accept human praise - it is simply that I know you and you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Fathers's name, yet you do not accept me. But let someone come in his own name, and him you will accept. How can people like you believe, when you accept praise from one another yet do not seek the glory that comes from the One [God]? Do not imagine that I will be your accuser before the Father; the one to accuse you is Moses on whom you have set your hopes. If you believed Moses you would then believe me, for it was about me that he wrote. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?"