While God was about to execute His judgment, Moses said, “In this shall you know that Jehovah has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own mind” (v. 28). Moses was a meek person. He explained why he had to do this. It was God who ordered him to do it. According to his own feeling, he would not judge anyone who rebelled against him. He did it because God wanted to do it. Moses continued to show himself to be a servant of God. He did not say that they had offended him. He only said that they had offended the Lord. We have to learn to touch the spirit of such a person. There was no feeling of judgment in Moses at all. He was a servant of God, and he only wanted to be obedient to God. He had no feeling of his own. The only feeling he had was that the assembly had offended God, the One who had sent him. Following this, he told them that God had sent him and that there would be evidence as proof of this. We must realize that Moses could not fail here. Had Moses failed, the Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt would have been a failure. Moses was sent by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, just as Christ was sent by God to impart eternal life to men. God had to establish Moses. The result of His judgment was the destruction of three families and the consuming of the 250 leaders by fire. God executed a large-scale judgment to establish His deputy authority. The way of the rebellious ones is the way to Hades; rebellion and death go hand in hand. Authority is established by God, and when a man offends God’s authority, he is despising God. Here we see how Moses acted as a deputy authority. He did not pass his own sentence or make his own proposals, and he did not have a spirit of judgment within him.
When all the Israelites saw that the earth opened its mouth, they were afraid and fled away (v. 34). But they were afraid of the judgment; they were not afraid of God. They still did not know Moses, and their hearts were not yet turned. Therefore, their fear did not do them any good. They thought it over for a night, and the next day they rebelled again. All the assembly of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of Jehovah” (v. 41). Indeed, if a man has not touched God’s grace, one cannot expect any change in him. God wanted to step forward and destroy the whole assembly immediately. Here we see how a deputy authority should react to opposition. Actually, Moses could have been very angry with the attack of the whole assembly of Israel. It was God’s doing. Why did the Israelites have to blame him? They did not confront God but turned and sharply dealt with the deputy authority. Verses 42 through 45 tell us that God’s reaction was faster than that of Moses or Aaron. The glory of the Lord appeared suddenly, and a cloud covered the tent of meeting. God was about to judge the whole assembly. He told Moses and Aaron to rise from the midst of the assembly. This order seemed to be saying to Moses and Aaron, “Your prayer yesterday was wrong, yet I answered it. Today I am going to destroy the whole assembly. What would you say?” God is never wrong, yet He is full of mercy. He answered the prayer the day before. Yet on this day, He would not tolerate their rebellion any longer.
For this, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces for the third time. Moses’ spiritual sense was keen. He knew that prayer alone would not solve the problem this time. The sin the day before was still somewhat hidden, but the sin this day was clearly an open one. He told Aaron to come to him immediately, and he took Aaron’s censer to the assembly and made propitiation for them (vv. 45-47). Moses was truly qualified to be a deputy authority. He knew the tragic end that the Israelites were going to face, and he realized that their loss would be God’s loss. He pleaded for God’s forgiving grace; his heart was full of compassion and mercy. This is the heart of one who knows God. Moses was not a priest; he could not offer up any sacrifice. But he knew that the situation was critical and there was no time to plead with God. He ordered Aaron to offer a sacrifice and to make propitiation for the people immediately. This is intercession plus propitiation. By then a plague had broken out. Aaron ran into the midst of the assembly and stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Fourteen thousand seven hundred died by the plague (vv. 48-49). Had Moses and Aaron reacted more slowly, more would have died.
Here we see the kind of person Moses was and how he acted as God’s deputy authority. His intention was for propitiation. His heart for propitiation was as gracious as that of the Lord. Moses’ heart was for propitiation and forgiveness. He had no pleasure in judgment. The kind of person who can serve as God’s deputy authority is one who represents God on the one hand and cares for and bears God’s children upon his shoulders on the other hand. God’s deputy authority must care for God’s people. He must bear not only the obedient ones on his shoulders but also the rebellious ones. If he cares only for himself, minding how others treat him, and if he constantly complains that he cannot stand this one or that one, he is not qualified to be a deputy authority. When God looks for deputy authority, He considers not only a person’s individual submission to Him but his reaction to others’ opposition in his service as a deputy authority. A person’s reaction to others’ rebellion and opposition exposes the kind of person he is. Many people care only for their own faces. They care very much about criticisms, words, misunderstandings, and oppositions. Their own mind is occupied with themselves. They consider themselves to be the most important persons. These ones can never be God’s deputy authority.
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