⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry up and go down! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, are ruining everything! ⁸ They’ve already abandoned the path that I commanded. They have made a metal bull calf for themselves. They’ve bowed down to it and offered sacrifices to it and declared, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I’ve been watching these people, and I’ve seen how stubborn they are. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone! Let my fury burn and devour them. Then I’ll make a great nation out of you.”

¹¹ But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, “Lord, why does your fury burn against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and amazing force? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He had an evil plan to take the people out and kill them in the mountains and so wipe them off the earth’? Calm down your fierce anger. Change your mind about doing terrible things to your own people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you yourself promised, ‘I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. And I’ve promised to give your descendants this whole land to possess for all time.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord changed his mind about the terrible things he said he would do to his people.

³⁰ I can’t do anything by myself. Whatever I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just. I don’t seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

Witnesses to Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony isn’t true. ³² There is someone else who testifies about me, and I know his testimony about me is true. ³³ You sent a delegation to John, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴ Although I don’t accept human testimony, I say these things so that you can be saved. ³⁵ John was a burning and shining lamp, and, at least for a while, you were willing to celebrate in his light.

³⁶ “I have a witness greater than John’s testimony. The Father has given me works to do so that I might complete them. These works I do testify about me that the Father sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me testifies about me. You have never even heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸ and you don’t have his word dwelling with you because you don’t believe the one whom he has sent. ³⁹ Examine the scriptures, since you think that in them you have eternal life. They also testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you don’t want to come to me so that you can have life.

⁴¹ “I don’t accept praise from people, ⁴² but I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If others come in their own name, you receive them. ⁴⁴ How can you believe when you receive praise from each other but don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, the one in whom your hope rests. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me. ⁴⁷ If you don’t believe the writings of Moses, how will you believe my words?”