Yesterday, I presented as food for thought a hypothetical situation whereby there was no Fall because Adam the Federal Head of humanity remained faithful and true to God. I believe I reasonably concluded from that kind of situation that God's love for Adam's progeny would have been bestowed upon them through the Man of Obedience since there are numerous explicit passages that tell us exactly who it is that God loves with a filial love, e.g. lovers of Him and his Son, the righteous, God-fearers, the just and faithful, covenant-keepers, commandment-keepers, etc. In this post I will continue this theme of Federal Headship and its extreme importance in theology, generally, and the Gospel even more specifically. So...without any further ado.... let's get down to it.
Ps 106:19-23
19 At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped an idol cast from metal.
20 They exchanged their Glory
for an image of a bull, which eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 miracles in the land of Ham
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23 So he said he would destroy them —
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
NIV
We can read the full account of this sad event in Ex 32:7-35. And we should not forget that Moses was a type of Christ who voluntarily stood in the gap as a mediator, between a thrice Holy God and incorrigible sinners who for the most part could not get their spiritual act together, so Moses was even willing to offer his own life in exchange for the lives of rebels. They were rebellious in Egypt, rebellious in the wilderness, rebellious in the Land -- and even rebellious in exile! It's no wonder at all the Lord characterized Israel as "treacherous" and "a rebel from birth" (Isa 48:8). So much so that God made it crystal clear in the same passage that he would delay his wrath and hold it back but not because of them! For his own name's sake and for his own glory he would show mercy (vv.9-11).
Of course, God did not take Moses up on his offer, but nonetheless he will still merciful to Israel, since only 3,000 perished by the sword of the Levities and eventually other idolaters died from a plague as their punishment.
So...once again we can see that God's mercy came through the mediator Moses. If Moses had not offered his own life in exchange for theirs, God would have utterly destroyed that entire generation of Israelites and started over from scratch with Moses.
In my next post, I'll wind this up with a few more passages -- one being a very overlooked or glossed over NT text that speaks volumes and is so profoundly rich in soteriological truth my finite mind cannot begin to plumb the depths of the passage.