The ominous
tone is then heightened by the use of the idiom “to gather to” (קהל על) to
describe the people’s assembling around Aaron, which in view of Num. 16:3 and
20:2 carries “threatening implications.” The people demand that Aaron make a
“god” (אלהים) to lead them in Moses’ absence. The striking thing about this
request is not the use of the plural form for the deity, since אלהים can be used
with singular or plural forms of the verbs to reference to YHWH. What is surprising
is the assumed role of Moses as the mediator of God’s guidance at this point in
the narrative. As 32:1b states explicitly, the problem for the people is not
the absence of God, but the unknown whereabouts of Moses. According to the flow
of the narrative at this juncture, the theophanic cloud into which Moses
disappeared in 24:15-18, and hence the glory of God itself, was still
apparently visible on the mountain (cf. 31:18). Thus, YHWH’s own presence is
certainly not absent from view while the calf is being made! The people’s
demand for a “god” to lead them should not be understood as a desire for an
idol to take the place of YHW himself as Israel’s God, but for an image representing
YHWH to replace Moses as “a rival means of mediating Yahweh’s presence to the
people” (32:1b)! The point is not that YHWH can or should be replaced as
Israel’s God, but that due to his prolonged absence on the mountain, Moses must
be replaced as the one to represent YHWH to the people. This is confirmed by
the parallel between the people’s interpretation of the golden calf as the god
“who brought you up from the land of Egypt” in verse 4 as a clear echo of
Exod. 20:2, and their prior declaration in verse 1 that Moses was the man who
delivered the (cf. 32:23). The interplay between YHWH and Moses as the
deliverers of Israel indicates that the golden calf is now to take the place of
Moses as a similar concrete and “real embodiment” of YHWH’s presence around
which the people can be gathered (cf. חג ליהוה, v. 5). (Scott J. Hafemann, Paul,
Moses, and the History of Israel: The Letter/Spirit Contrast and the Argument
from Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers,
1995], 196-97)