This is a glorious lesson for us, to show us how God will conquer our great enemy, Satan, and will bring us safely through, if we trust Him.
When the Children of Israel came to Horeb, God called Moses up on the Mountain to receive His Commandments, and to listen to all that God wished him to do; but the people began to get restless and disobedient.
Moses had been on the Mountain for forty days, and they said to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was the High Priest, "Up! Make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses we know not what is become of him!"
Then Aaron made a Golden Calf for them to worship!
When Moses came down from talking with God, and found what had happened, he threw the slabs of stone on which God had written His law, over the edge of a precipice, and they were broken in pieces beneath the mountain.
The Lord was very grieved and angry at the disobedience of the people. And Moses besought the Lord to forgive them; and he even asked God to blot his name out of the Book where He had written it, sooner than that the whole Congregation should perish.
And God heard his prayer for the forgiveness of the people, and told Moses to go forward and lead them to the Land. And God said, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest."
Now Moses loved God very much, and he answered the Lord, "If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, for wherein shall it be known here, that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us?"
And the Lord said unto Moses, "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken."
And then Moses, emboldened by God's wonderful kindness in answering his prayer, made a yet further request. "I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!" he said.