7/29/26- He Who is Forgiven Much

Hey, there! My wife and I have been slowly reading through the Bible together with our son for several months now, and I wanted to share an interesting thematic connection that we found. Do you remember the story of the golden calf? It takes place all the way back in Exodus 32, when Israel is being given the Law. (More specifically, while Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Law on two tablets of stone.) The whole incident began like this, in Exodus 32:1: “1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Now, this took place after Moses had been up on the mountain for 40 days, after the covenant had been made with the people in Exodus 24. It only took 40 days for the people of Israel to betray the very first tenet of this covenant, found in Exodus 20:1-6: “1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” 40 days. The consequence for this betrayal was immense; about 3,000 men were executed with the sword that day, and the Lord sent a plague upon them for this grave transgression. 

The shame that the survivors felt must have been immense.

The God who rescued them from slavery, who broke their chains, who chose them to be His own possession and representatives to the nations, was just traded in for a useless lump of metal that could neither speak, hear, see, or move. That same God was rightfully prepared to punish them according to the full weight of their heinous betrayal, and yet, He relented. He showed mercy. He did not destroy them. He did pass a judgment, certainly, and chastise them severely, but He did not blot them out. In chapter 34, God reiterates and elaborates on His character as described in chapter 20: “5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” However, in chapters 35 and 36, we see a beautiful event take place: God not only keeps Israel as His people, but He proceeds with guiding them through the construction of the Tabernacle. If you are unfamiliar, the Tabernacle was God’s physical dwelling place among His people (before either of the Temples were built), a place where they could draw near to Him and make their offerings to Him, and where His presence rested among them. It was where you came to stand before the King of Israel, God Himself.

The entire thing is nothing short of incredible. If you have ever wanted a clear, Old Testament picture of God’s mercy, this is one of the best there is: His people rejected and attempted to replace Him, and He chose to renew and continue upholding the covenant that they broke anyway. (This reminds me of 2 Timothy 2:13, where Paul writes: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”)

There are echoes of Christ and His intercessory role demonstrated here, as well; think about the flow of events: God gives instructions, the people disobey, God’s wrath is rightly kindled, and in steps a mediator (appointed by God) to intercede on the people’s behalf, through whom God mercifully relents from the righteous judgement He had pronounced.

The response of the people was also incredible: these people, who in chapter 32 had given gold for the construction of a calf-shaped abomination, began to give so abundantly for the construction of the Tabernacle that the workmen had to ask them to stop: “4 And all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was performing, 5 and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the LORD commanded us to perform.” 6 So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. 7 For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it.” These people, who had fallen so quickly from the covenantal standards that were issued to them and then were saved purely by the grace of God from their rightful destruction, were suddenly the most generous givers you’ve ever seen. More than that, I would suggest that they were grateful givers, and it was this gratitude that fueled their generosity.

This is repentance; it would be dishonest to say that repentance doesn’t come with any sort of sadness or sense of shame, but it would also be dishonest to pretend that true, Godly repentance doesn’t produce beautiful fruit. In this case, that repentant fruit looked like taking the Egyptian plunder and, rather than continuing to use it as the Egyptians would, dedicating it to the God who forgave, the God who spared them.

All of this reminded me of Luke 7, the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with perfume and washed His feet with her tears. The backdrop is this: while He was in the area of Capernaum, He performed a number of miracles; healing illnesses, raising the dead, and cleansing the unclean (Luke 7:1-23). During this time, a Pharisee named Simon saw Him and, intrigued by Jesus, invited Him to dine with Him. Everything is pretty straightforward until a woman–called a sinner in the passage–arrives at Simon's house and immediately approaches Jesus. Simon is repulsed, asking himself, “Doesn’t He know what sort of woman this is?” Here is how Jesus responded: “40 And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” 41“A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42“When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” 44 Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 “You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46 “You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.””

Do you see the thematic overlap with our passages in Exodus? I thought it was pretty neat; I really enjoy opening scripture and finding connections like that, things that, while not a direct typological connection, still evidence one another from opposite ends of the book, It is beautiful to me that God’s character is so consistent from beginning to end that the evidence of His mercy towards sinners is evident throughout His book and, really, throughout our lives. He is just, and He does and will punish sin–the book of Revelation attests to that, if nothing else does–but scripture also repeatedly reveals that His delight is in showing mercy (Micah 7:18), and the fruit of that mercy is an abundance of love. Jesus taught about Hell and damnation more explicitly than any other teacher in the Bible, yet at the same time He regularly told people that their sins were forgiven. That is a core aspect of the Gospel if you think about it; God owes none of us any mercy, but He chooses to give it anyway, and because of that, we can now love Him and love others. 1 John 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.” From the intercession of Moses to the giving of the materials for the Tabernacle, themes of the Gospel are woven all throughout the events of Exodus. 

For me, part of the beauty of this has been that, as I have grown over the last year, I have found that I better appreciate these things in scripture. The concept of being forgiven much and, in turn, loving much makes more sense to me now than it did ten years ago, because I have personally begun to come to grips with how significant my own need for forgiveness is. I hope you have found this little trip through the latter chapters of Exodus today to be edifying; like I said earlier, I love getting to discover thematic overlaps and connections all over the place. Finding them produces a deep appreciation for the architectural genius of God in inspiring His scriptures and telling intricate, millenia-spanning stories through the lives of His creatures, and it makes my heart and soul glad.