What Would You Do?

He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger. Psalm 106:23

There’s a catch in helping someone.

In ABC’s “What Would You Do?”, they had this featured experiment episode where a waiter drops, on the floor, the food he is about to serve to a certain nice couple. The people sitting near the couple, who saw what happened, informed the couple even before the waiter has gone back to the kitchen or to whatever he is about to do. These people are really helpful.

One twist is, how about when the partners are not nice but are mean customers to the waiter? The couple would belittle the waiter as he is getting  their orders. They would shout at him, even mock his job. They would call him unacceptable names. The people around the couple had mixed reactions when they saw the waiter dropped the food and served the food on the couple’s table. One woman informed the couple about it. But with an angry tone. She pointed out their abusive conduct towards the poor waiter and defended the food server. They repeated the experiment and no nearby person helped out in informing the mean couple about the dropped food.

So, its good to help good people but its not good to help bad people.

Moses did not see it this way.

As the Israelites turned their worship from God to a fashioned molten calf, God was about to destroy the former slaves. Psalm 106:20-22 exposes their actions, “They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull. They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt, Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.” Before this, they were complaining about their situation in the desert and even compared it when they were Pharaoh’s slaves. Surely, these are bad people. Moses would have told God, “Lord, you are right, anyway these are bad people. They turned away from you. These are spoiled brats. Go ahead with your plan.”

However, Moses helped them. Moses prayed for them. He pleaded for God’s mercy on their behalf. And God listened to his intercession, “So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. “ Exodus 32:14.

You can be like Moses. May you look the way Moses looked. May you help the people who may not deserve to be helped. May you pray to God in behalf of the people who may be mean to you or to others. May you concretely practice concern for people who in one way or another have hurt you or are hurting someone.

Helping people is being blind. You don’t see who they are or they are not, you just help them.