And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 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.’” And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Comment: Does God get angry or was this all play acting? God accuses Moses’ people of being stiff-necked. God says that Moses has brought his (Moses’) people up from Egypt. And that in a sense was true! But it was God who did all the miracles and God who did all the providing for their journey! After all they were God’s chosen people! The next sentence is startling! God had promised Abraham enormous things. Was He backing out on His promises?? If God had raised a nation through Moses the nation would still have been from Abraham’s seed. So was God trying to get Moses to face the facts of what was going on? God is perfect, Moses wasn’t – great but not perfect! But Moses’ answer to God here is spot on. I think God got the response from Moses that He wanted all along. So although not ‘play-acting’ I think that God ‘managed’ the situation in order to get Moses to ‘stand tall’. God was angry; He is holy; and the people would surely ‘cop it’ in a very meaningful way – as we will see tomorrow!
Prayer: Help me to remember that You are a Just as well as a Loving God.
As I read it! 