Did God REALLY want to destroy the people of Israel?

Whether or not God wanted to destroy Israel may be overstating the case. He may have felt he had to, in order to maintain his justness. My answer here would be the same answer in this case.

The fact that Moses "reminds" God of God's own nature is keeping with the tradition of Abraham interceding for Sodom. God understands that he is compelled to show justice. But, if those for whom he must be just intercede to request mercy, God may be less obligated to do so.

This was to teach mankind James Madison's Law: No leader is an angel. A great Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights was made from this ancient precept.

God, in surprising essence, played the role of "Holy Fool" (look it up in Wikipedia, the Russian Orthodox faith knows about such people!) and reversed roles with Moses.

God said He would do what was in Moses' heart, hidden heart! He made Moses see that even he, yes, Moses... was subject to Lord Acton's saying: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Mankind would later figure all this out. In other words, you can have good kings, but when the bad kings come along, the unholy terror they bring negates all the good king stuff.

America's Founding Fathers learned to pit evil against evil, so that three branches of government could shoot down any one branch that takes too much power and renders itself corrupt and obnoxious. (Later, in modern America... the three branches learned to simply shoot down all power of states and individuals.... the answer will be a states convention to amend the Constitution back unto its limited power-box.)

So, NO! God would not have killed the Hebrews. He was teaching how leaders wish to do so, and thereby save mankind from itself by creating limited government to protect maximum liberty. Maximum liberty is necessary so that Christ-in-You can come quickly at maximum percentages.

See www.inthatdayteachings.com

God is all knowing, He knew all that the Israelites would do even before he created the universe. God knew that Moses would intercede as he did, God chose Moses, He knew Moses' heart, so no God would not have destroyed the Israelites completely or God would have chose a prophet whom would not interceded for the Israelites as Moses did.

Its also worth mentioning that God did fulfill that word and create a line of Kings from Moses' loins according to the ancient Israelite historian Josephus whom stated that in the midst of war between Egypt and Ethiopia Moses was a great military leader and Moses married the Queen of Ethiopia and she bore a son by Moses (prior to exodus) , Her and Moses' son became king of Ethiopia creating a line of Ethiopian kings of Moses' bloodline whom the Queen of Sheba was a descendant of ( the Queen who was acquinted with King Solomon).

(Josephus, Antiquities ||, x)

If God had destroyed the Israelites then he still would have been merciful and just in Christ because God knew that they would have a chance to recieve salvation in the future when Christ descends into the Earth and proclaims the Good news to the past generations who were in the Earth and as many as recieved the Son were saved. (thats if you believe that Christ descended into the Earth after dieing on the cross before he ascended).

Ephesians 4:9, acts 2:24, 1 Peter 3:19

God wanted Moses to pray for his people.By doing so,Moses was showing love for them.On verse 7(Genesis 32.7),God himself tells Moses what is going on.God knew it,it was no surprise to him , but for sure it would be a great surprise and disappointment to Moses if God had not prepared him for what was about to come.God knew Moses,He knew Moses would probably grow weary.God was not lying,as some may think,but he was coaching Moses,more than that he was leading him,teaching him at a level of understanding which Moses could graspIf that conversation had not happened ,Moses himself might have destroyed everyone and given up on his mission at his moment of fury.

-We learn quite a bit about God's mercy from Paul in Romans 9. Here we actually see that God does not feel at all obligated to dole out mercy, but instead simply does so as it suits Him. If you do not read Romans 9 and finish it a little disconcerted, then you probably didn't read it right. Paul anticipates that you will not like what he is trying to teach you about God, so maybe we all are afraid to accept Paul's doctrine? -(read it yet?) The mistake Christian scholarship makes is to look at God through human "lenses." Perhaps the passage means what it appears to mean and God was really considering destroying all of Israel except Moses. He sure didn't hesitate to flood the earth and start over w/ Noah... I don't believe this passage is telling us that Moses changed God's mind. Rather, we see that, as the one God preferred to lead his "chosen people," he deferred to Moses' wish to do so though the lives at the bottom of the mountain rather than God's consideration of doing so through a new Mosaic bloodline.