33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
The Lord is not indiscriminate in punishment. He is just. As we learned in yesterday’s text, the Israelites have sinned greatly against the Lord. At a most critical time, when the Lord is passing on the terms of commitment to the people through Moses, they are worshipping an idol they themselves just made. The Lord assures Moses that only those who sinned against Him would receive the worst punishment. He is the Judge. We don’t need to worry about justice in the ultimate sense. There may not be justice here on this earth, there almost never is, but by the time eternity rolls around, justice will happen. I want justice, but I don’t want justice. I know that in some instances I will come out better. In some instances I will lose. Notice that the sin involved in this verse results in the ultimate rejection by God. Their name gets removed from God’s attendance book of heaven. What a huge price to pay for a few days of “fun”. I don’t think there is any pleasure here on earth that is worth trading for the pleasures of an eternity in God’s presence in heaven. And yet we play with sin as though the consequences were trivial. Sin could cost us eternity. The price is so great! The temporary reward so small. So why do we risk losing so great a reward over such a small pleasure? We have a sinful nature that wars against our new spiritual nature, and we let the sinful nature win all too often. Why don’t we let the spiritual win today!
The Arnold Journey 