God and Moses

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, there is an amazing, fascinating, and yet chilling account of an interaction between God and Moses. The setting is when they’ve come to Mount Sinai and Moses had gone on the mountain to meet God. The people left behind got tired of waiting on Moses up on the mountain, and had Aaron make an image of gold to worship.
God tells Moses what is happening in the camp and Moses comes back down to straighten things out. It is during this time that Moses and God have a conversation that I think may be unmatched anywhere else in the Bible. Look at chapters 32 – 34.
When this thing first comes about, God says, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.” The emphasis is mine because I want you to see that God says that the people are no longer His, rather they now belong to Moses and that Moses was the one that brought them out of Egypt. God seems to be washing His hands (so to speak) of the whole affair and giving it over to Moses.
God is so angry with the people that He tells Moses to “Leave Me alone so that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them.” He then tells Moses that He will make a great nation from him.
Before Moses departed from God’s presence on the mountain, he interceded on behalf of the people. He asked God to turn from His anger and forgive them. However, if God chooses to not forgive them, Moses says to “blot me out of the book you have written.” That reminds me of Paul in the New Testament saying he would himself be accursed if it would result in the salvation of the Jews (Romans 9:1-5).
God continues to threaten punishment; then He tells Moses to “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt…” Again, God is telling Moses that these people are his, not God’s. But now God tells Moses that although He will not go with him, He will at least send an angel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan.
This conversation goes back and forth between Moses and God, with a few side tracks thrown in, for about three chapters. In the end, Moses convinces God to take His people back, go with them into the promised land, and make a covenant with them (since they had broken the last one by worshipping the golden calf). Moses also catches a glimpse of the backside of God and has an experience with God unlike (in my opinion) that of any other human.
God starts out by threatening to destroy the whole lot of Israel and make a great nation out of Moses. He ends up taking the people into the promised land just as Moses asked Him to do.
Can you imagine having such a conversation with God yourself? Can you imagine standing up to God and saying, in essence, “God, I don’t want you to do that. If you do, think of what other people will say about you.” Can you imagine knowing that you and God were on such good terms with each other that you were able to convince God to do or not do something that He originally had said He would do the opposite?
God ends up telling Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Is God pleased with you? Does He know you by name? Would you boldly ask God to do something and have the faith that He would hear you and act on your request?