Exodus 32
epitomizes YHWH’s warning and blessing in the episode of the golden calf. As
Israel waits for Moses at the bottom of Mount Sinai, they become impatient at
his delay and urge Aaron to make gods for them to worship. Aaron creates a
golden calf from the jewelry that Israel brought to him, as the people declare,
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt”
(32:4). Aaron builds an altar and pronounces a cultic feast to be celebrated,
and the people worship the calf, celebrating it as their deliverer.
YHWH is furious
because Israel has broken the most foundational stipulation of the covenant:
exclusive worship of him alone (cf. 20:2). YHWH instructs Moses to go down from
Mount Sinai because the people have corrupted themselves by making a golden
calf, worshiping it, and offering sacrifices to it. YHWH says he will eradicate
the people in his anger because they are “a stiff-necked people” (32:9) (The
Hebrew word uses to speak of God’s anger is ḥārâ. For examples of this
word for God’s burning anger that are accompanied by judgment or the threat of
judgment, see Exod. 22:24; Num. 11:1, 10; 12:9; 22:22; 25:3; 32:10, 13; Deut.
7:4; 11:17; 29:27; 31:17; Josh. 7:1; 23:16; Jud. 2:14, 20; 3:8; 10:7; 2 Sam.
6:7; 2 Kings 13:3; 1 Chron. 13:10; 2 Chron. 25:15; Job 19:11; Ps. 106:40), and
he tells Moses to stop mediating for YHWH is so angry at Israel for breaking
the covenant that he is willing to destroy them and start over with Moses, his
faithful servant.
Moses
pleads with YHWH to show his people mercy, appealing to the covenant with
Abraham and his offering. Moses implores, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will
multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have
promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever’”
(32:13). YHWH hears Moses’s prayer and relents because of the covenant he made
with Abraham and his offspring. However, Israel’s covenantal relationship with
their deliver, YHWH, has changed because the stipulations by which they could maintain
their relationship have been shattered. Moses’s next actions symbolize this
point. . . . YHWH chooses not to completely destroy the people, instead
sending a plague of judgment for their disobedience of the first and most
important covenantal stipulation: worship the Lord your God alone. He commands
Moses and the people to continue their journey toward the land that he promised
to Abraham and his offspring, and he will send an angel before them to drive
out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan and give Israel the land. However,
YHWH says he will not go with them, because he might consume the “stiff-necked
people” with judgment along the way (33:3). YHWH judges his people by refusing
to dwell with them or to go before them.
The
people lament this news, and Moses again intercedes on behalf of the people,
urging YHWH to consider that Israel is “your people” (33:13). Moses pleads that
YHWH will let them go to the promised land unless his presence is with them. He
argues, “is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your
people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” This is a significant
statement about Israel’s relationship with YHWH and his people. . . . YHWH
assures Moses, however, that he has in fact found favor in his sign and that he
would again show mercy to him and the people. The mercy is envisaged by the
renewing of the covenant . . . YHWH answers Moses’s request and renews the
covenant, promising to do more miraculous deeds for Israel than their
emancipation from slavery [in Exo 34]. (Jarvis J. Williams, Redemptive
Kingdom Diversity: A Biblical Theology of the People of God [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 23, 24-25, comment in square bracket added for clarification)
