It is in connection with this event that the character of Moses is shown in its most sublime aspect as the perfect intercessor. His zeal did not hesitate to apply the utmost rigor in punishing the offenders who would not rally to his call, but once the necessary punishment had been administered, his one thought is of his people, how they might still be enabled to fulfill the mission to which they had committed themselves on the day of the Revelation. God suggests destroying the people who had forfeited their claims to redemption and making of the descendants of Moses a chosen people, but Moses, the ideal leader, to whom his charge is dearer than himself, is not satisfied. Rather would he share in the punishment of his guilty people than enjoy a selfish salvation and glory from which they are to be excluded. (Exodus 32.32.) Then God yields to his plea and agrees to let the people return to the land of their fathers and to drive out their enemies from before them in accordance with the terms of the covenant He had made with Israel after the Revelation. There it is said (Exodus 23.20 to 22) "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Take heed of him and hearken unto his voice, be not rebellious against him; for he will not pardon your transgression, for My name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries." God's reply to Moses, therefore, is (Exodus 32. 33) "Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. And now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, Mine angel shall go before thee; nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them."... And the Lord spoke unto Moses: "Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt unto the land of which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: 'Unto thy seed will I give it', and I will send an angel before thee and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way." (Exodus 33. 1-3.)