Scripture Daily

Context No. 1279 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 32:6-10: in context

6They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7The LORD spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! 8They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” 9The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 10Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

While Moses is on the mountain receiving the law, the people below grow impatient, make a golden calf, and worship it, saying, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt. They hold a feast, eating, drinking, and reveling before the idol. God tells Moses to go down, because your people have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly. He calls them a stiff-necked people, and then says something striking to Moses: now let me alone, that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.

Two things are worth catching. First, the speed of the fall. God says they have turned aside quickly, so soon after the mountain shook and the covenant was given, before Moses had even come down; the same people who had just sworn to obey were already dancing before a golden calf. It is a sobering picture of how fast the human heart drifts, how the vows made in a moment of devotion can dissolve within weeks into idolatry, especially when God seems delayed and we grow impatient. Second, and more mysterious, God's words to Moses: now let me alone. It is a strange thing for God to say, and the old readers noticed it. In telling Moses to let him alone so his wrath can burn, God is, in a sense, leaving the door open for Moses not to let him alone, inviting the intercession that follows. It is as if God is handing Moses the opportunity to stand in the gap, almost provoking him to plead. And Moses does not let him alone; he intercedes, and God relents. There is a deep mystery in that about the place of intercession, that God, in his sovereignty, makes real room for the prayers of his people to matter, even seeming to invite them by the very words let me alone.

Do I see how quickly the heart can turn aside to its own golden calves when God seems delayed, and do I hear in God's let me alone an invitation to intercede, to stand in the gap rather than stand aside?

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