21
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
22
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
Awesome things by the Red Sea.
23
Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,
To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.
For me, this piece of scripture speaks of how after Israel had pushed God to the point of declaring that He would cut them off for forgetting everything He had done for them and turning to a God they made. Then the prayer and intersession of Moses turned away His wrath. There is much to think about with Moses in this instance, he is shown as a type and shadow of the true Advocate, Jesus Christ, who not only gave His life and bore the stripes we deserve, but intercedes for us every day. Jesus stands in the breach for you and I and speaks to the Father directly. It was by prayer that Moses interceded and that should not be lost on us. James speaks of the “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16) and this example of Moses fervently praying on behalf of Israel gives us an example of what we should do when we or the people we love are facing trials and troubles that need God……..Bill
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Charles Spurgeon
“They forgat God their savior.” Remembering the calf involved forgetting God. He had commanded them to make no image, and in daring to disobey they forgot his commands. Moreover, it is clear that they must altogether have forgotten the nature and character of Jehovah, or they could never have likened him to a grass eating animal. Some men hope to keep their sins and their God too—the fact being that he who sins is already so far departed from the Lord that he has actually forgotten him.
“Which had done great things in Egypt.” God in Egypt had overcome all the idols, and yet they so far forgot him as to liken him to them. Could an ox work miracles? Could a golden calf cast plagues upon Israel’s enemies? They were brutish to set up such a wretched mockery of deity, after having seen what the true God could really achieve.
“Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.” They saw several ranges of miracles, the Lord did not stint them as to the evidences of his eternal power and Godhead, and yet they could not rest content with worshipping him in his own appointed way, but must needs have a Directory of their own invention, an elaborate ritual after the old Egyptian fashion, and a manifest object of worship to assist them in adoring Jehovah. This was enough to provoke the Lord, and it did so; how much he is angered every day in our own land no tongue can tell.
“Therefore he said that he would destroy them.” The threatening of destruction came at last. For the first wilderness sin, he chastened them, sending leanness into their soul; for the second he weeded out the offenders, the flame burned up the wicked; for the third, he threatened to destroy them; for the fourth, he lifted up his hand and almost came to blows (Psa 106:26); for the fifth, he actually smote them, “and the plague brake in among them;” and so the punishment increased with their perseverance in sin. This is worth noting, and it should serve as a warning to the man who goeth on in his iniquities. God tries words before he comes to blows, “he said that he would destroy them:” but his words are not to be trifled with, for he means them, and has the power to make them good.
“Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach.” Like a bold warrior who defends the wall when there is an opening for the adversary and destruction is rushing in upon the city, Moses stopped the way of avenging justice with his prayers. Moses had great power with God. He was an eminent type of our Lord, who is called, as Moses here is styled, “mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.” As the Elect Redeemer interposed between the Lord and a sinful world, so did Moses stand between the Lord and his offending people. The story as told by Moses himself is full of interest and instruction and tends greatly to magnify the goodness of the Lord, who thus suffered himself to be turned from the fierceness of his anger.
With disinterested affection and generous renunciation of privileges offered to himself and his family, the great Lawgiver interceded with the Lord
“to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.” Behold the power of a righteous man’s intercession. Mighty as was the sin of Israel to provoke vengeance, prayer was mightier in turning it away. How diligently ought we to plead with the Lord for this guilty world, and especially for his own backsliding people! Who would not employ an agency so powerful for an end so gracious! The Lord still harkens to the voice of a man, shall not our voices be often exercised in supplicating for a guilty people?
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Enduring Word
They forgot God their Savior: Their sin was not only of idolatry and immorality but also of plain ingratitude. The God who did great things, wondrous works and awesome things in bringing them out of Egypt was ignored in their praise of the golden calf. (Guzik)
Therefore He said that He would destroy them: Exodus 32:9-10 records the remarkable words of God to Moses, explaining that He would destroy the rebellious people of Israel and build the nation again through Moses. (Guzik)
i. God told Moses, “Let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them” (Exodus 32:10). God did not ask for the opinion or participation of Moses in this matter. He simply told Moses, “Let Me alone so I can do this.” The clear impression was that if Moses did nothing, the plan would go ahead. (Guzik)
Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach: Moses did something, not nothing. He did not fatalistically say, “Well, whatever God will do, God will do.” Moses pleaded with the LORD, asking Him to turn away His wrath, because in a larger sense, he believed this to be God’s heart (Exodus 32:11-13). God answered the prayer of Moses, and Israel was spared. (Guzik)
i. In the breach: “The metaphor ‘stood in the breach’ derives from military language, signifying the bravery of a soldier who stands in the breach of the wall, willing to give his life in warding off the enemy (cf. Ezekiel 22:30). So Moses stood bravely in the presence of Almighty God on behalf of Israel.” (VanGemeren)
ii. “God had made a hedge or wall about them; but they had made a gap or breach in it by their sins, at which the Lord, who was now justly become their enemy, might enter to destroy them; which he had certainly done if Moses by his prevailing intercession had not hindered him.” (Poole)
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Barnes
Therefore he said that he would destroy them – See Exodus 32:10-14. He threatened to destroy them, and he would have done it if Moses had not interposed and pleaded for them. There was nothing strange or very unusual in this. Many a descending curse upon guilty people is turned away by prayer, and by human intervention. We are constantly endeavoring to turn aside evils which would come upon others – by our intervention – by labor or by prayer. Thus, when we toil to provide food for our children, or give it in charity to the poor, we are endeavoring to avert the evil of starvation which would otherwise come upon them; when we provide for them clothing, we turn away the evils of nakedness and cold; when we give them medicine we turn away the evil of long-continued disease or of death; when we rush through the flames if a house is on fire, or venture out in a rough sea in a boat, to save others from devouring flame or from a watery grave, we seek to turn aside evils which would otherwise come upon them. So when we pray for others we may turn away evils which would otherwise descend on the guilty. No one can estimate the number or the amount of evils which are thus turned away from the guilty and the suffering by intervention and intercession; no one can tell how many of the blessings of his own life he owes to the intercessions and the toils of others. “All the blessings that come upon sinners – “all” that is done to turn away deserved wrath from people – is owing to the fact that the one great Intercessor – greater than Moses – cast himself into the “breach,” and himself met and rolled back the woes which were coming upon a guilty world. “Had not Moses his chosen.” Chosen to lead and guide his people to the promised land.
Stood before him – Presented himself before him.
In the breach – literally, “in the breaking.” The allusion is to a breach made in a wall 1 Kings 11:27; Isaiah 30:13; Amos 4:3; Job 30:14, and to the force with which an army rushes through a breach that is thus made. So God seemed to be about to come forth to destroy the nation.
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John Gill
They forgat God their Savior,…. Not only forgat the works of God, Psalm 106:13, but forgat God that did those mighty works; forgat that there was a God; or however forgat him that is the only true and living God when they said of the molten image, “these are thy gods, O Israel”; and what aggravated their crime was, they forgot that God that had saved them in so wonderful a manner out of the hand of their enemies, for his own name’s sake; and had led them safely through the Red sea as on dry land, and destroyed those that hated them.
To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them; Exodus 32:11 so the Targum, “unless Moses his chosen had rose up and strengthened, or prevailed in his prayer before him to turn away his wrath from destroying.” This shows the power and efficacy of prayer, and of what avail it is with God, especially the prayer of his elect; it was Moses, his chosen, that prayed, a choice servant of his; and whom he had chosen to everlasting life, as well as to be the deliverer, guide, and governor of Israel; see Luke 18:7. Herein he was an eminent type of Christ, as in other things; as Moses was a mediator between God and the people of Israel, so is Christ between God and his people. Sin is a transgression of God’s law, a breaking of his statutes, which he has set as a hedge, fence, or wall, about man; and this has made a breach between God and man; which lets in the wrath of God as a flood, and justice as an armed man: and terrible it is to consider there is no standing before him, and making up the breach; but Christ has interposed as a surety, made satisfaction to law and justice, and procured peace and reconciliation; and so, by his atonement and intercession, has made up the breach, appeased the wrath of God, and turned it away, and prevented the ruin and destruction of his people.
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Matthew Henry
They forgot God their Savior; that is, they forgot that he had been their Savior. Those that forget the works of God forget God himself, who makes himself known by his works. They forgot what was done but a few days before, which we may suppose they could not but talk of, even then, when, because they did not make good use of it, they are said to forget it: it was what God did for them in Egypt, in the land of Ham, and by the Red Sea, things which we at this distance cannot, or should not, be unmindful of. They are called great things (for, though the great God does nothing mean, yet he does some things that are in a special manner great), wondrous works, out of the common road of Providence, therefore observable, therefore memorable, and terrible things, awful to them, and dreadful to their enemies, and yet soon forgotten. Even miracles that were seen passed away with them as tales that are told.
For this God showed his displeasure by declaring the decree that he would cut them off from being a people, as they had, as far as lay in their power, in effect cut him off from being a God; he spoke of destroying them (v. 23), and certainly he would have done it if Moses, his chosen, had not stood before him in the breach (v. 23), if he had not seasonably interposed to deal with God as an advocate about the breach or ruin God was about to devote them to and wonderfully prevailed to turn away his wrath. See here the mercy of God, and how easily his anger is turned away, even from a provoking people. See the power of prayer, and the interest which God’s chosen have in heaven. See a type of Christ, God’s chosen, his elect, in whom his soul delights, who stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath from a provoking world, and ever lives, for this end, making intercession.
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Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown
23. he said–namely, to Moses (De 9:13). With God, saying is as certain as doing; but His purpose, while full of wrath against sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moses was the type (Ex 32:11-14; De 9:18, 19).
Moses his chosen–that is, to be His servant (compare Ps 105:26).
in the breach–as a warrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortress besieged, a perilous place (Eze 13:5; 22:30).
to turn away–or, “prevent”
his wrath— (Nu 25:11; Ps 78:38).
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KJV W/ STRONGS BIBLE – PSALMS 106
106:21 They forgat 7911 8804 God 410 their savior 3467 8688, which had done 6213 8802 great things 1419 in Egypt 4714;
106:22 Wondrous works 6381 8737 in the land 776 of Ham 2526, [and] terrible things 3372 8737 by the Red 5488 sea 3220.
106:23 Therefore he said 559 8799 that he would destroy 8045 8687 them, had not 3884 Moses 4872 his chosen 972 stood 5975 8804 before 6440 him in the breach 6556, to turn away 7725 8687 his wrath 2534, lest he should destroy 7843 8687 [them].
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 106:21-23
21 They forgate God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wonderous works in the land of Ham, and fearful things by the red Sea.
23 Therefore he minded to destroy them, had not l Mosés his chosen stand in the breach before him to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
l If Moses by his intercession had not obtained God’s favor against their rebellion.
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Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16
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