“Puh-leeeze” pleaded my two young daughters as they showed me the latest pool raft advertised in the paper. “Let me alone,” I ordered. “How many times have I said ‘no;’ you’ll use this for a week, then forget about it. Meantime I’d have to lug it to the pool and pump it with air.” Next day, a repeat conversation: “Puh-leeze…we promise we’ll use it all through the summer…puh-leeze let us get it.” Once again I held my ground: “let me alone.” They never ran out of their persistent pleas.
You already know the end of this story. Yes, I gave in and bought the raft, and, yes, after two or three days they lost interest, leaving me in the pool by myself holding on to an empty raft.
Do you think that God ever says, “Let me alone”? He said it to Moses (Exodus 32:7-14).
Israel had turned away from God and began to worship a golden calf made with their own hands. He was so angry he wanted to destroy them. “Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it…”
How interesting that God no longer called them “my people” but called them “your people.” Poor Moses. There he stood in front of the living God trying to plead a case for this unworthy people.
God was not going to give in to Moses’ plea. “I see how stiff-necked this people is. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make you a great nation.” God tried to shut down Moses, and even offered him an unbelievable deal—he would destroy the people and then start over with the faithful Moses and from him build a great nation.
Moses would not give up. He began to present a defense, even when there seemed to be no defense. First he appealed to God’s reputation. What would the Egyptians think if God destroyed the people? They would say, “With evil intent he (God) brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth.” He started to make headway.
Then he gave God a brief history lesson. “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and how you swore to them by your own self saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.” Surely God wouldn’t let down these three great men by violating his promise. God began to weaken.
Moses would not let God alone.
Finally, you guessed it, “the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.” They were “his people” once again.
When God told Moses to let him alone, do you think he really meant it? He knew how much Moses loved the people, and deep inside he did too. He was hoping Moses would stand in the breach and hold back His blazing anger.
Do you ever get the feeling that God is disgusted with this world of ours—even with many in the Church? Do you think he ever feels like pulling off another flood and keeping just a few Noahs for himself? Do you think he may be hoping, deep inside, that a Moses or two will stand up to him and plead with him? Do you think he is hoping that we won’t let him alone?
We are the Moses’ that God is looking for. He does not want us to give up even on a people who prefer many different idols to Him. He wants us to keep “puh-leezing” him each day. If we do not give up standing in the breach for our generation, he will relent. He loves to bypass his justice and pour out his mercy.
Maybe Moses will give us new incentive for making the best of the time that remains in this Lenten season. When we have spare minutes, we turn to intercessory prayer—the rosary if we don’t know how else to pray. Might as well get Jesus’ mother on our side. Even if we have been faithful to God, we want to stand in for those who have not been.
Lenten resolution: “I will not let God alone!”
“Then he spoke of exterminating them, but Moses, his chosen one, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath” (Ps 106:23)
