Once upon a time there was another man who learned that same lesson from Jesus— being willing to say “Goodbye!” forever. And what made him do it was love, the same real kind. And he made God very happy.
This man’s name was Moses.
He had led the people of Israel out of their Egyptian slavery, on the way to their Promised Land. They stopped at Mount Sinai to hear God promise to be with them forever, and to give them their own land forever, and of course the eternal life to go with it.
But in a few days they had broken all their promises. They had made a golden calf to worship, and bowed down before it like pagans. Then they had a wild party and forgot all about God and His promises. Of course God was very sorry.
Then God gave Moses a test.
God was seeking to deepen Moses’ understanding of why Jesus gave Himself for us. God told him, “Don’t try to stop Me. I am angry with [these people], and I am going to destroy them. Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation.”
But Moses did try to stop Him. “Moses then returned to the Lord and said, ‘These people have committed a terrible sin. ... Please forgive their sin; but if You won’t, then remove my name from the book in which you have written the names of Your people’” (Exodus 32:10, 31, 32). In other words, Lord, if You can’t forgive these people, blot my name out of Your Book of Life, and let me die the second death with these people! I love them. If they must die, then I must die with them.
That was love!
God had not really meant to destroy them. He was testing Moses to see if Moses had the same kind of love in his heart that God has in His heart. And Moses stood the test. He had found a new reason for being faithful to God—not to get a reward for himself, not so he could go to heaven, not so he could avoid hell, but because he understood God’s love, and that love was now in his heart.
In these last days God is preparing many people all around the world who are learning like Moses learned—to understand the love of Christ which moves them to follow Him. It’s a new reason for following Jesus—not fear of being lost, but well, a better reason: l-o-v-e.
And among those people, there are many children. They are as important as any grown- ups. You are one, aren’t you?