The Lord hath said unto Moses, "_Thy_ people which _thou_ broughtest up;" but Moses replies to the Lord, "_Thy_ people which _Thou_ hast brought up." They were the Lord's people notwithstanding all; and His name, His glory, His oath, were all involved in their destiny. The moment the Lord links Himself with a people, His character is involved, and faith will ever look at Him upon this solid ground. Moses loses sight of himself entirely His whole soul is engrossed with thoughts of the Lord's glory and the Lord's people. Blessed servant! How few like him! And yet when we contemplate him in all this scene, we perceive how infinitely he is below the blessed Master. He came down from the mount, and when he saw the calf and the dancing, his "anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and break them beneath the mount." The covenant was broken, and the memorials thereof shattered to pieces; and then, having executed judgment in righteous indignation, he "said unto the people, 'Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; _peradventure_ I shall make an atonement for your sin.'" How different is this from what we see in Christ! He came down from the bosom of the Father, not with the tables in His hands, but with the law in His heart. He came down, not to be made acquainted with the condition of the people, but with a perfect knowledge of what that condition was. Moreover, instead of destroying the memorials of the covenant and executing judgment, He magnified the law and made it honorable, and bore the judgment of His people, in His own blessed Person, on the cross; and, having done all, He went back to heaven, not with a "_peradventure_ I shall make an atonement for your sin," but to lay upon the throne of the Majesty in the highest the imperishable memorials of an atonement already accomplished. This makes a vast and truly glorious difference. Thank God, we need not anxiously gaze after our Mediator, to know if haply He shall accomplish redemption for us, and reconcile offended Justice. No; He has done it all. His presence on high declares that the whole work is finished. He could stand upon the confines of this world, ready to take His departure, and, in all the calmness of a conscious Victor (though He had yet to encounter the darkest scene of all), say, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." (John xvii.) Blessed Saviour! we may well adore Thee, and well exult in the place of dignity and glory in which eternal justice has set Thee. The highest place in heaven belongs to Thee; and Thy saints only wait for the time when "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." May that time speedily arrive!