Implore חָלָה

We are in chapter thirty-two of Exodus with our word for today. חָלָה grow weak, tired, fall sick, be ill, feel pain, entreat the favor of, to ask for or request earnestly. It is used 74 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense to cause physical pain, suffering, or illness. Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart מַחֲלָה sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Our word is also used in the sense of seeking favor in prayer or asking earnestly. Psalm 119:58 חִלִּ֣יתִי I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 32:11-12 But Moses וַיְחַ֣ל implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. This word helps us understand that part of the asking earnestly involves allowing our self to feel the pain and then share that pain with God himself. This is what God wants us to do with all of our painful emotions by the way as we have seen with previous words. Sin causes pain to not only those directly involved but with God himself. The pain comes from realizing just how bad and destructive sin is to us and those around us and in our relationship with God. This leads us toward repentance and praying for others to repent which is what God is desiring from us. This is why Moses felt such pain because he knew how destructive it is. This is why he pleaded with God to forgive. This pain leads us to pray for repentance.

Notice Daniel’s reference to how one seeks God’s favor in prayer. Daniel 9:13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not חִלִּ֜ינוּ entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Did you see it? God’s favor comes when we turn from sin. We see this with the church in Corinth. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. God is able to forgive us because of Christ work on the cross. I’ll close with our word used in a messianic prophecy predicting that Jesus would die for our sins. Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has הֶֽחֱלִ֔י put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt.