Our passage today, I'm hoping, will expand your view of who you are, of how God works, and of what prayer can do. It's not going to start, by talking about any of those things. We will take a bit of a wandering path this morning. But that's where we are going to end up.
Let me start, with something that's going to sound like a rabbit trail:
One of the things I've wrestled with, as we've worked through Exodus, is understanding how this new covenant God makes with Israel, through Moses, relates to the covenant God made with Abraham. I'm pretty sure I've framed it a few different ways, because I haven't been completely settled on it.
Even at the very beginning of the book of Exodus, Israel is already Yahweh's-- God's-- people. And Yahweh has already committed to being Israel's God. Yahweh has made promises to them. He's been faithful to them, through multiple generations. And let's turn to Exodus 2:23-25 (NIV no reason):
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
It's really clear that Exodus doesn't mark the birth of God's people. It doesn't mark the birth of their relationship.
So what's the difference between the Mosaic covenant, and the Abrahamic covenants? Is God changing the covenant? Updating it? Altering it? Renewing it? In the end, what's different? [And does that difference point us in the right direction, toward understanding how our own covenant, established through Jesus' blood, is different?]
Last night, I read a commentator who helped me, and I'd like to share that with you (J. Gerald Janzen).
When we look at the Abrahamic covenant, and the Mosaic covenant, we see that the heart of these covenants is the same. Yahweh will be Israel's God. He will bless them, and multiply them. He will protect them. He will guide them. He will rescue them.
What's different about these covenants, from God's perspective, is his presence. In Genesis, God (or the Word of God) appears to the patriarchs from time to time. Once in a while, God reveals himself to them. And then He disappears. In contrast, in Exodus, God is planning to come live among his people. He will tabernacle with them, and dwell at their very center.
But how can a holy God live among his people?
The only way this is going to be possible, is if things change. The days of idols (Genesis 31:34) need to be done. The days of broken relationships between brothers (Genesis 4, 32) need to be done. The only way that God can live among his people, is if they live faithfully toward him, and toward each other.
That, in a nutshell, is Exodus 19-24. God is trying to create a people, who have their spiritual imaginations reworked, and who are loyal to Him.
The other thing that God is particular about, if He is going to live with his people, is the tabernacle itself. It takes God six chapters worth of space, to talk how He wants the tabernacle to be built. We maybe aren't sure why these chapters matter-- they don't seem very "useful" (2 Timothy 3:16). And we know that the day has come, when the important thing isn't where you worship, but that you worship God in the Spirit, and in the truth, in Christ.
We struggle.
But what we should realize, is that these chapters teach that God will not live just anywhere. God is particular about who He lives with (this fits really nicely with my sermon on Psalm 15), and what His home looks like (1 Corinthians 6:19).
As we've read through Exodus, we've seen Israel becoming what God wants it to be. This generation of Israel has seen how good Yahweh is to his people. They've seen his victory over the superpower Egypt. They've seen Him faithfully provide them with food and water. They've seen God draw them to himself (John 6:44)-- to his presence, at his holy mountain.
And the people, having seen all of this, respond by wanting the same thing God does. They want God to live among them. So in chapter 24, they accept this covenant. The elders celebrate with a meal, eating and drinking with God, in God's presence.
And it's here, where I really want to start today. Exodus 24:9:
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
So Moses disappears up the mountain, to be one on one with (the invisible) Yahweh. The people stay below, under the guidance and leadership of two people: Aaron, and Hur. 40 days pass. And this is what comes next, Exodus 32:1:
(1) and the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain,
and the people gathered/assembled before Aaron,
and they said to him,
"Rise up.
Make for us elohim/god/gods who shall walk/go before us [Hosea 14:4; Jeremiah 16:20],
because this Moses-- the man who brought us from the land of Egypt-- we don't know what has
happened to him,"
There's a lot of things going on here. But let me start by asking you a question. From Israel's perspective here, who brought the people out from the land of Egypt?
[Moses].
The people give the credit here to Moses. Moses "brought them out of the land of Egypt."
But the people don't just call "Moses," "Moses." He's "this Moses."
Why call him that?
Calling him "this Moses" creates a division between the people and Moses. A gap, of sorts. It's like they hold him out away from themselves, a bit like you'd hold a dirty diaper away from yourself. If I had a disobedient or rebellious kid, I might refer to him/her as "this child." They've moved on from Moses, basically.
And since "this Moses" is apparently gone, the people decide they need someone else to walk "before them." But they aren't looking for a different human to lead them. They aren't replacing Moses with Aaron, or anyone else.
They want a god-- an "elohim"-- to take Moses' place. They want Aaron to make an "elohim" who will walk before them.
Now, this talk about an elohim-- a god-- should make us think about Yahweh. From Israel's perspective, where does Yahweh fit in, in all of this?
He doesn't.
The people want an elohim to replace-- not Yahweh, but Moses. Yahweh isn't even part of their thinking. It's like He doesn't exist. Instead, they seem to think a single man-- Moses-- freed them from Egypt, led them through the Sea of Reeds, fed them manna from heaven, and got them all the way here.
And now they want Aaron to make a god, to replace Moses. They need a replacement to walk/go before them.
All of this is shocking. And if we think about this at all, we can see a very obvious problem with Israel's plan.
Imagine that Aaron is a gifted craftsman-- that he is a skilled worker in wood, and metal. The people go to him, hoping he will build them a god, like you might go to Bezalel to build a tabernacle.
But nothing that Aaron can "make," is going to be able to walk. It's not going to be able to "go before" the people. Any god you can make, can't do anything. An idol can't carry you through the wilderness. You carry idols. [h/t William Propp, who says that the people are already fluent in the language of idolatry.]
And now let's flip back to Exodus 20:1-4 (NIV no reason):
20 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods [elohim] before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
So the people here completely reject the very first part of the ten commandments. Who brought them out of Egypt? [Yahweh did].
Can they have other elohim?
Can they "make" an image?
The people here act like they are just moving on from Moses, but I can't imagine that God views it that way. They are breaking their new covenant with God. And they act like God doesn't even exist.
Verse 2:
(2) and Aaron said to them,
"Take off the rings of gold
which [are] in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters,"
and bring [them] to me,
(3) and all the people took off the earrings of gold
that were in their ears,
and they brought [them] to Aaron,
(4) and he took from their hand(s),
and he cast/designed it with an engraving tool,
and he (singular) made a calf-- a cast metal image--,
and they (plural) said,
"These [is/are] your elohim, O Israel,
who brought you from the land of Egypt,"
Let me pause here, and say three things.
First, in verse 3 we should see that "all the people" are doing this. Everyone is participating.
Second, it's the people in verse 4 who speak, not Aaron.
Third (probably take this out), I just want you to see the awkward grammar (Nehemiah 9:18 cleans up the grammar, using a singular "this," helping show it is in fact truly awkward here; h/t William Propp). There is one golden calf (pretty sure the majority think it's a gold-plated wooden idol). But the people say "these" are your elohim. They use the plural.
I'm pretty sure this is really important. I'm just not sure why. Maybe, using the plural forces us to think about another elohim-- about Yahweh. Maybe, it shows that Yahweh can never really be replaced. You can't really ever exchange an idol for Yahweh. It's not like going to Kohl's, and exchanging one pair of pants for another. When you make an idol, what you're really doing, is adding gods. You're adding a competitor to Yahweh-- a challenger. But this competitor, again, can't carry you through the wilderness. You have to carry it. [Propp says something like this: "Elohim," grammatically, is a plural noun, whether it refers to the singular God or to multiple gods. When using this word "God," polytheists reflexively use the plural, while monotheists like Nehemiah reflexively use the singular, in defiance of grammar.]
So the people have done their very best to eliminate Yahweh from their history. They are rewriting the history books.
In verse 5, we read Aaron's response:
(5) and Aaron saw,
and he built an altar before it,
and Aaron called/summoned,
and he said,
"A feast/festival [there shall be] to/for Yahweh tomorrow,"
I think Aaron here is trying to fix the situation. Aaron tries to steer the people back to Yahweh. He wants this golden calf to be considered an image of Yahweh. And so he invites the people to enter into a feast, or festival, to Yahweh on the next day.
But what Aaron ends up doing, is exchanging one terrible sin for another. There were two main sins Yahweh commanded Israel not to do. The first, is don't worship other gods. That's what the people did. The second, is don't make any images of Yahweh, to help you worship. Yahweh is not a golden calf, or a fish, or a bird. So you can't make an image, call it Yahweh, and worship the image. That's what Aaron did.
Aaron's sin maybe seems like a lesser sin. Maybe you could argue that he's pulling them in the right direction, and reminding them that it's Yahweh who brought them here. But from Yahweh's perspective, these two sins are right at the top of the list, of things you don't do.
Verse 6:
(6) and they rose early on the next day,
and they offered burnt offerings,
and they brought peace/fellowship offerings,
and the people sat/settled down to eat and to drink,
and they rose up to "indulge in physical sexual play" (DBL; cf. Genesis 26:8),
So the people are excited at the chance to worship this idol. They get up early. They offer the types of sacrifices that you are supposed to offer Yahweh. And then, somehow, it turns into an orgy.
What we see, throughout the OT and NT, is that idolatry and sexual sins, go hand in hand (I will probably have to cut this part out-- it's getting huge, and I think it works better in Romans than Exodus-- but I found thinking about this helpful). Let's turn to Romans 1:18 (NIV no reason):
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful ["sinful" isn't in the Greek, fwiw] desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
In verses 24, and 26, "God gave them over." When people turn to idols, God "gives them over to the sinful desires of their hearts."
The best way I can explain this, is by giving you two illustrations-- one about moms, and one about bowling. And you might or might not find this helpful. I'm honestly not sure.
All of us live in bodies of flesh. Our bodies are tents, that we live in. And these fleshly bodies have strong desires. They want food, and water. They want pleasure. They want to get their way. And our bodies are not very picky about how they fulfill those desires. [My friend helpfully said they are "susceptible."]
Imagine a mom, who has children who think they're starving, because it's been three hours since the last time she fed them. They're like baby birds, always squawking to their mom, asking her to find them something. Those kids have real physical desires. They want to eat. And they aren't picky about how those desires are met. But the mom, being a good mom, gives her children a well-balanced meal.
Now, an hour goes by, and that mom realizes she never actually ate anything herself. She feeds everyone, except herself. And she's hungry-- "hangry," really. Next thing you know, she's in her sort-of hiding place with her smart phone, and a bag of Doritos, and some chocolate. Her flesh was hungry, and not very picky about how that desire was fulfilled. And she eats until the hangry settles down. She fulfilled her desires, but not in a good way. But her "flesh" is satisfied.
What Romans teaches, I think, is that as long as people worship God as God, and don't worship idols or creation, God helps them by putting limits on how they fulfill their desires. God is like the good mom, who gives her kids a well-balanced meal. It's like He locks the cabinet, to keep you away from the Doritos. God helps make sure you fulfill those fleshly desires, in a good way. Worship an idol, and He hands you over to the Doritos.
Now let me add an example from bowling. And we will see how this goes.
Imagine that your legitimate desires in life, for food, and water, and pleasure, are like bowling pins. You chuck the ball down the lane, trying to fulfill those desires. But lots of people struggle with bowling, like they struggle in life. Sometimes you end up in the gutter-- in a place you'd rather not be.
What God does, normally, is turn bowling into bumper bowling. God helps make sure that people fulfill their desires appropriately. But when He's angry with people, because they've turned to idolatry, He removes the bumpers. He "hands them over" to their dishonorable desires. He lets people do what they want to do-- go straight for the gutter.
So what Romans teaches, is that when you see people living in the gutter, you are seeing God's wrath. God's wrath isn't usually revealed as brimstone and fire. It's usually revealed, as taking out the bumpers. Or as unlocking the Doritos.
And that's basically the U.S., right? As a nation, we no longer even give lip service to God. We refuse to glorify him, or give thanks to him, because it might be offensive to some groups of people. And so God hands people over to their weird sexual perversions, and you end up with rampant homosexuality, pedophillia, transgenderism, bestiality. You end up with drag queens grooming elementary school age children. It doesn't mean that these people are hopeless. It does mean you are seeing God's wrath.
So I think that's what we are seeing in Exodus. Israel refuses to give glory to God or thank him. They give Moses all the credit, and they turn to worship a golden calf. And so God "hands them over" to their desires, and it immediately leads to an orgy. Idolatry and sexual immorality go hand in hand.
Verse 7-8 (the repeated "and Yahweh said" in verse 9 marks that off as a distinct speech. I don't think I'd have seen that if I wasn't indenting speeches-- interesting):
(7) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go down!,"
(a) because they have behaved in a corrupt/debased/sinful way-- your people,
whom you brought up from the land of Egypt.
(b) (8) They have quickly turned aside from the way/road
that I have commanded them.
(c) They have made for themselves a calf-- a cast metal image--,
(d) and they bowed down to it,
(e) and they sacrificed to it,
(f) and they said,
"These [is/are] your elohim, O Israel,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt,"
Look at verse 7. Who does Israel belong to? Whose people are they? [Moses']
And who brought Israel up from the land of Egypt? [Moses]
If the people refuse to acknowledge Yahweh, and what He has done for them, then Yahweh will refuse to acknowledge Israel. Israel has chosen to become not-his-people (Hosea 1:9).
Now, in these verses, we see that from God's perspective, Israel hasn't committed one sin. They've committed six ("a"-"f" in the translation). Each of the six, by itself, is a terrible sin. We all know (hopefully) that some sins are worse than others. But these six are all really bad.
It's remarkable how quickly God's people can fall from such great spiritual heights. It's remarkable, when you see God's people throw everything away.
How will God respond? In verses 9-10, we get our answer:
(9) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"I have seen this people,
and LOOK! A people hard of neck, it [is], [like a horse that refuses to turn its neck, and go where you want; h/t J. Gerald Janzen]
(10) and so then, Give rest to me, [Luke 18:1-8?]
that my anger may burn against them,
and that I may consume them,
and that I may make you into a great people/nation,
In many relationships, there comes a time when people acknowledge that it's just not going to work out. It's not worth it. That's how dating often works. Someone seems like a great catch, and you're hopelessly infatuated with them. And then something happens, and you start to see their flaws, and their warts. You see them for what they actually are, and you wash your hands of them.
The Israelites have revealed who they truly are. They are a hard-necked people. The kind of people who are tough to have a relationship with. The kind of people who aren't worth it.
And so God, in verses 9-10, does what?
God starts, by inviting Moses to see the people from his perspective. He calls on Moses to stop, and look, and think about what you're seeing: a hard-necked people.
God then proposes a three part plan to Moses. God's "will"-- his desire-- is to (1) burn in anger against them, (2) consume them, and (3) start over with Moses. He will make Moses into a great nation.
But God doesn't simply do this, right? It's his "will." It's his plan. But it's not what God does. Instead, God invites Moses to see the people for who they are truly are.
And then, God tells Moses to "give him rest," and let him carry out his plan.
How exactly should we understand this?
We tend to think of heaven as empty. We think of God sitting on his throne, surrounded maybe by a sea of glass, in a crystal palace. We tend to think that God makes his decisions, and that He rules as king, all by himself.
But let's turn to 1 Kings 22:1-23. Here, God gives us a glimpse here of what his throne room actually looks like, and how God works (NIV no reason):
22 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?”
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?”
Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”
6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”
“Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?”
8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.
9 So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
10 Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. 11 Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”
12 All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”
14 But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.”
15 When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”
“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
16 The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”
17 Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”
18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”
19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’
“One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’
22 “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked.
“‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.
“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
23 “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”
Yahweh-- the LORD-- has a divine council. And in this circle, He invites participation. The "multitudes of heaven" (verse 19) have a voice. They help make decisions. They help decide what will happen next, and how it will happen. Look at verse 21. What we see in this verse, is God interacting with this spirit's plan. God acknowledges this spirit's wisdom. And God calls on this spirit, in the end, to carry out the spirit's plan.
I think this picture helps us understand Exodus 32.
What we are seeing in Exodus 32:9-10, is that Moses has a seat at the divine council. He's on earth (barely), obviously. Exodus doesn't say he was carried up into the heavens. But his seat, is up in the heavens, in God's throne room (Ephesians 2:6-- and this is a part of being seated with Christ that's usually not talked about among charismatics, as far as I can tell). God isn't going to do something so drastic as wipe out Israel, and start over with Moses, unless Moses thinks it's a good idea, and goes along with it (so also Genesis 18:17). So God tells Moses-- commands him, really-- to "give God rest," and let him carry out his plan.
So we know what God's will is here. We know what his plan is. How will Moses respond?
Moses starts by asking God two questions. Verse 11:
(11) and Moses sought the face/presence of Yahweh his Elohim/God,
and he said,
"Why, O Yahweh, does your anger burn against your people,
whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
Whose people is Israel? Who does Israel belong to? [God].
And who brought Israel out from Egypt with great power and a strong hand? [God]
The people gave credit to Moses. Aaron gave credit to the golden calf. God gave credit to Moses. But Moses knows that God did this.
So Israel maybe has moved on from Yahweh, and doesn't even acknowledge Him. God, seemingly, is trying to move on from Israel, and say that Israel is no longer his people.
But Moses' question assumes that there is still a tie between God and Israel. There's still a covenant relationship there. There's still hope.
So why should God be angry with his own people, whom He saved?
In verse 12, Moses asks a second question:
(12) Why should Egypt speak, saying,
"With evil/harmful [intent] He brought them out,
to kill them in the mountains,
and to wipe them out from upon the face of the land"?
Moses knows that God's plan is going to damage his reputation. The Egyptians are going to think that God is evil, and wicked. What kind of God brings his people out from Egypt, only to completely wipe them out? That's the kind of story you'd expect to read about in a Greek or Roman mythology, where the gods are fickle, and unreliable, and untrustworthy. Is that really the kind of God that Yahweh wants to be known as?
So Moses asks God these two questions, and then calls on God to do this:
Turn from your anger,
and relent/repent/change your mind concerning the evil/harm (same word as verse 12) toward your people.
(13) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,
whom you swore to them by yourself,
and you said to them,
"I shall multiply your seed,
as the stars of the heavens,
while [concerning] all of this land I hereby say, I will give to your seed,
and/that they shall inherit it forever,"
Here, Moses encourages God to turn from his anger, and be faithful to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and this ties in to my opening struggle-- how are the two covenants related?). God had made two promises to them. The first, was to multiply Abraham's seed, and make him as numerous as the stars. That promise doesn't fit very well with killing everyone off, and starting over with Moses. Right?
The second promise was to give all of this land to Abraham's seed, so that they would inherit it forever. You could argue, technically, that Moses is part of Abraham's seed. Maybe, God could wipe out everyone except Moses, and still not technically be breaking his promise. But that would be an awkward course correction.
So when we look at Moses' prayer/speech as a whole, what do we see? Moses doesn't simply accept God's plan. He doesn't "give God rest," and passively go along. Instead, Moses pushes back.
In verse 14, we get God's response. Does Moses' prayer change anything for God?:
(14) and Yahweh repented/relented/changed his mind concerning the evil/harm
that He spoke to do to his people,
Does Moses' prayer accomplish anything?
Yes.
God ends up abandoning his proposed course of action. He won't wipe Israel out, after all. He won't start over with Moses, after all.
Now, there are people who really struggle with verses like this, and maybe that's you. Some read this story as a whole, and they want to say something like this:
"God was never actually going to wipe out Israel, and start over with Moses. His plan, all along, was to make things work with his hard-necked people. It would be a mistake to take God at his word here."
So why did God say all of that to Moses?
You're forced to say something like this: "God said He was going to do those things, because He wanted Moses to pray. God wanted Moses to grow in faith, and grow in relationship with God. God wanted Moses to think that his prayers mattered. He wanted Moses to think he had a seat in the divine council. But the reality is that God is sovereign, and makes his decisions alone, and that all of this was already set in stone."
People who argue this way view themselves as defenders of God's sovereignty. They're trying to protect God. [And they are trying to protect the passage from open theism-- a flawed view with its own set of struggles]. If that's you, I respect your heart. I understand what you're trying to do.
But let's turn to Psalm 106:19-23 (ESV no reason). This psalm is largely a retelling of Israel's story, and these verses retell the story of the golden calf:
At Horeb they [Israel] made a calf
and worshiped an idol cast from metal.
20 They exchanged their glorious God
for an image of a bull, which eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 miracles in the land of Ham
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23 So he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
According to Psalm 106, God was genuinely angry with his people. He was genuinely planning to destroy Israel. And the only reason He didn't, verse 23, is because Moses stood in the breach before "his face" (in the Hebrew).
If you want to disagree with the psalmist here, and say he has bad theology, I have no desire to argue with you. If you want to say Exodus 32:14 is a bit flawed, and needs to be taken in context (whatever that means), that's okay.
For myself, I'm willing to take God, and his words, at face value. I'm willing to believe that God is flexible, that He changed his course of action, and that He really heeded the voice of Moses. I'm willing to believe that God and Moses had a genuine relationship, with give and take. I think God values Moses' voice, and opinion. I think God gives Moses a seat in the divine council. I think Moses kept God's wrath from destroying Israel [Nahum Sarna, Exodus, 206, helpfully points to Ps. 106:23; cf. Num. 11:2; 14:20; 21:7. And it's interesting that Sarna, a Jewish scholar, seemingly has no problems with any of this at all].
And I think that what's true for Moses, is true for us.
I think that we matter to God. I think that God values us, and our relationship, and our input.
I think that we have a seat in God's divine council. I think that we can persuade God, sometimes, to act.
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I feel like I made today's passage a lot more complicated than it needed to be. Hopefully, you've found bits and pieces of it helpful. But I'd like to close, by making all of this really simple, and say three things:
(1) God can be angry with his people. With us. How can this happen? Based on just this passage, there are two ways to make God angry:
(A) By rewriting your own history, in a way that doesn't acknowledge God, or give him credit, or give him thanks. When you look back on your life, you should be able to see God's hand. You should be able to give God credit, and glory, for his faithfulness. So give God the credit He deserves.
(B) By turning to some other god-- in the U.S., that's maybe money, or power, or pleasure. In other countries, it might the gods of your ancestors.
(2) God invites you to consider yourself part of his divine council. When you pray, view yourself as someone seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6). You pray, in Christ, from a position of favor and privilege. You pray as God's sons and daughters. You pray from a high place.
(3) When you see your brothers and sister in Christ stumble, and fall, ask God to show them mercy. One time, a friend of mine prayed desperately-- we both prayed-- for a dying man-- a husband, a father-- to be healed. That man showed marked improvement. There was hope. And then, almost overnight, everything fell apart, and he died. After that, my friend said some tough things about God. If she'd directed them to God, those things would've been okay. God is tough, and God can handle it. But she was furious with God, and turned away from him. It was scary. And she made herself really vulnerable to Satan. She got super sick, and wanted nothing to do with me, or with God. I couldn't help her.
But I prayed. I asked God to show her mercy, and forgive her. I asked God to heal her. And God answered every prayer for her, and she found her way back to God. Let's turn to 1 John 5:16 (NIV no reason):
16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life.
That's what I did, and God gave her life.
Most of us grew up in churches (theological traditions) where this wasn't taught. Our perspective on forgiveness, and intercessory prayer, isn't broad enough. It's not biblical enough.
There will come a time when your brother or sister in Christ will sin in some way, and you'll be scared for them. It's a bad, dark path they start down. When this happens, there is something you can do. Pray for them, and God will give them life. Be Moses.
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John Goldingay, Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone, Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2010), 115–116:
"At the same time, this exchange [between God and Moses] suggests something significant about prayer. In prayer we are like children begging our parents to do what we want. Sometimes children fail in such attempts, but sometimes they succeed. Significantly, however, Moses is not praying for himself but for the people, and he is praying about God’s own honor. Significantly, he is not praying that the God who is inclined to be merciful should be tough but that the God who is inclined to be tough should be merciful. Is prayer about conforming our will to God’s will? Moses thinks prayer is about conforming God’s will to our will; or rather, Moses knows that God’s will is not always inexorably fixed, that God has to wrestle with conflicting obligations, and that God makes the decision about which obligation has priority only on a 51 to 49 basis. It might be easy to push the figures the other way. When God announces a determination to bless us, there is no way you can get God to have a change of mind about that, as Balaam points out to Balak in Numbers 23. But when God announces a determination to punish, it is always worth a try, as Abraham assumed about Sodom, and as prophets such as Amos and Jeremiah will assume."
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Translation:
(1) and the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain,
and the people gathered/assembled before Aaron,
and they said to him,
"Rise up.
Make for us elohim who shall walk/go before us,
because this Moses-- the man who brought us from the land of Egypt-- we don't know what has happened to him,"
(2) and Aaron said to them,
"Take off the rings of gold
which [are] in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters,"
and bring [them] to me,
(3) and all the people took off the earrings of gold
that were in their ears,
and they brought [them] to Aaron,
(4) and he took from their hand(s),
and he cast/designed it with an engraving tool,
and he (singular) made a calf-- a cast metal image--,
and they (plural) said,
"These [are] your elohim, O Israel,
who brought you from the land of Egypt,"
(5) and Aaron saw,
and he built an altar before it,
and Aaron called/summoned,
and he said,
"A feast/festival [there shall be] to/for Yahweh tomorrow,"
(6) and they rose early on the next day,
and they offered burnt offerings,
and they brought peace/fellowship offerings,
and the people sat/settled down to eat and to drink,
and they rose up to "indulge in physical sexual play" (DBL; cf. Genesis 26:8),
(7) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go down!,"
because they have behaved in a corrupt/debased/sinful way-- your people,
whom you brought up from the land of Egypt.
(8) They have quickly turned aside from the way/road
that I have commanded them.
They have made for themselves a calf-- a cast metal image--,
and they bowed down to it,
and they sacrificed to it,
and they said,
"These [are] your elohim, O Israel,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt,"
(9) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"I have seen this people,
and LOOK! A people hard of neck, it [is],
(10) and so then, Give rest to me,
that my anger may burn against them,
and that I may consume them,
and that I may make you into a great people/nation,
(11) and Moses sought the face/presence of Yahweh his Elohim/God,
and he said,
"Why, O Yahweh, does your anger burn against your people,
whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
(12) Why should Egypt speak, saying,
"With evil/harmful [intent] He brought them out,
to kill them in the mountains,
and to wipe them out from upon the face of the land"?
Turn from your anger,
and relent/repent/change your mind concerning the evil/harm (same word as verse 12) toward your people.
(13) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,
whom you swore to them by yourself,
and you said to them,
"I shall multiply your seed,
as the stars of the heavens,
while [concerning] all of this land I hereby say, I will give to your seed,
and/that they shall inherit it forever,"
(14) and Yahweh repented/relented/changed his mind concerning the evil/harm
that He spoke to do to his people,
