Exodus 32:30-35 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Moses already interceded for the people in Exodus 32:11-14. But he prayed again for them because now he saw the sin with his own eyes and was struck with the depth of the people’s sin. Moses also learned on Mount Sinai that God’s penalty for idolatry was death. He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed (Exodus 22:20). He was more aware than ever of the distance between the people and God and sensed the urgency to intercede. Moses did not minimize the sin of the people or put it in soft terms. They were guilty of worshipping a god of gold. Moses knew the enormity of the people’s sin, yet he still asked for forgiveness. This was an appeal to the mercy and grace of God.
Moses felt that Israel had sinned so terribly that the blood of a goat or an ox couldn’t cover it; it had to be a man who suffered in their place. Therefore, he offered to be blotted out of God’s book if it could somehow rescue the people. God said “no” to the request of Moses; yet we can say that God looked ahead to the sacrifice of One greater than Moses who would give Himself for the people, bringing full and complete atonement. God agreed to spare the nation as a whole, but He definitely reserved the right to judge individual sinners. That entire generation of adult Israelites would never enter the promised land. That specific judgment had yet to be pronounced, but God knew it would happen. (Guzik)
No distinct reply seems to have been given to the previous intercession of Moses (vers. 11-13). He only knew that the people were not as yet consumed, and therefore that God’s wrath was at any rate held in suspense. It might be that the punishment inflicted on the 3000 had appeased God’s wrath: or something more might be needed. In the latter case, Moses was ready to sacrifice himself for his nation (ver. 32). Like St. Paul, he elects to be “accursed from God, for his brethren, his kinsfolk after the flesh” (Romans 9:3). But God will not have this sacrifice. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). He declares, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:33). Moses shall not make himself a victim. Without any such sacrifice, God will so far spare them, that they shall still go on their way towards the promised land, with Moses as their earthly, and an Angel as their heavenly leader. Only, their sin shall still be visited in God’s own good time and in his own way. How, is left in obscurity; but the decree is issued – “In the day that I visit, I will visit their sin upon them” (ver. 34). And, writing long years after the event, the author observes – “And God did plague the people because they made the calf which Aaron made” (Unknown)
After Moses had thus avenged the honour of the Lord upon the sinful nation, he returned the next day to Jehovah as a mediator, who is not a mediator of one (Galatians 3:20), that by the force of his intercession he might turn the divine wrath, which threatened destruction, into sparing grace and compassion, and that he might expiate the sin of the nation. The book of life contains the list of the righteous (Psalm 69:29), and ensures to those whose names are written there, life before God, first in the earthly kingdom of God, and then eternal life. To blot out of Jehovah’s book, therefore, is to cut off from fellowship with the living God, or from the kingdom of those who live before God, and to deliver over to death. Hence, although Jehovah puts back the wish and prayer of Moses with the words, “Whoever has sinned, him will I blot out of My book,” He yields to the entreaty that He will ensure to Moses the continuance of the nation under His guidance, and under the protection of His angel, which shall go before it, and defer the punishment of their sin until the day of His visitation. (Kiel)
When I think about today and how easily people deny and reject God and things of God, and being blotted out of God’s Book of Life because of it, and how, when our life ought to be lived out in worship, honor, and glory for God it is filled with neglect and complacency, what is it that consumes our hearts and minds and so easily robs God His due? What does this life this side of eternity have to offer in place of serving, honoring, following, obeying, glorifying, and worshiping the Almighty Creator of all there is? Are our eyes so blind and ears so deaf that we cannot discern the worldly from the heavenly, right from wrong, good from bad? If our lives are not lived with every thought, act, and word being taken captive to know that it is either honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ, then we are no different from those who fumble around in the dark to things of God. Easily will it be for us to fall into following after the crowd and culture we live in? If you find yourself somewhere in this fog, confess, repent, and turn away from it and intentionally choose to live each day for His honor and glory in new and more meaningful ways.