Exodus 32.7-14.
| 32.7 וידבר יהוה אל משה | Yahweh tells Moshe: |
|---|---|
| לך רד כי שחת עמך | “Go down, for your people are corrupt, |
| אשר העלית מארץ מצרים׃ | (those) whom you bring from Egypt’s land. |
| 32.8סרו מהר מן הדרך אשר צויתם | They quickly turn from the path where I directed them. |
| עשו להם עגל מסכה | They make themselves a molten calf; |
| וישתחוו לו ויזבחו לו ויאמרו | they worship it and sacrifice to it and say, |
| אלה אלהיך ישראל | ‘Israel: This is God,α |
| אשר העלוך מארץ מצרים׃ | who carries you out of Egypt’s land!’β—” |
| 32.9 ויאמר יהוה אל משה | Yahweh tells Moshe: |
| ראיתי את העם הזה והנה עם קשה ערף הוא׃ | “I see this people. Look, they’re a people of stiff necks. |
| 32.10 ועתה הניחה לי ויחר אפי בהם | Now leave me alone. My nose burnsγ against them. |
| ואכלם ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול׃ | I destroy them, and make you into a great nation.” |
| 32.11 ויחל משה את פני יהוה אלהיו ויאמר | Moses rubs the faceδ of Yahweh his God, and says: |
| למה יהוה יחרה אפך בעמך | “Why, Yahweh, does Your nose burn against Your people, |
| אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים | whom You carry out of Egypt’s land |
| בכח גדול וביד חזקה׃ | with great force and with a strong hand? |
| 32.12 למה יאמרו מצרים לאמר | Why should the Egyptians say this saying: |
| ברעה הוציאם | ‘He carries them to devour them, |
| להרג אתם בהרים | to slaughter them in the mountains, |
| ולכלתם מעל פני האדמה | and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? |
| שוב מחרון אפך | Repent of Your burning nose. |
| והנחם על הרעה לעמך׃ | Breathe stronglyε to devour Your people. |
| 32.13 זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך | Mark your slaves Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, |
| אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אלהם | whom You swore to, by Yourself, saying to them, |
| ארבה את זרעכם ככוכבי השמים | ‘I will increase your descendants like stars in the sky. |
| וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם | All this earth which I promised, I will give your descendants. |
| ונחלו לעלם׃ | They will occupy it forever.’ ” |
| 32.14 וינחם יהוה על הרעה | Yahweh breathed strongly about the destruction |
| אשר דבר לעשות לעמו׃ | which He said He’d make on His people. |
Sometimes I argue with God. I don’t win, though. Whatever the argument is about, it turns out my position is based on pure selfishness, and God has to lead me to recognize this. So we argue, I learn, and He wins.
When I tell people I argue with God, often they’re surprised. Who would dare to argue with God? What kind of arrogant sinner would have the chutzpah to stand up to the Almighty? (Though “stand up to the Almighty” is hardly the sort of experience I have; it’s more like begging Him to get out of whatever He’s ordering me to do.)
Most of the time, the relations between humans and God is described as the relations between slaves and their master. This is a valid idea; the apostles thought of themselves as Christ’s slaves, and Jesus’s example of how we’re to serve one another resembles slavery. But Americans have been corrupted by the American idea of what slavery consists of. When slavery existed in the United States, slaves had no rights and were treated solely as property. In the Roman Empire, and in the Hebrew culture, slaves had many rights. Technically they were subjects, with their master as their lord. Slaves could petition their masters, and try to change their minds. So can we.
Thus the popular American teaching, “When God says ‘Jump,’ you don’t argue; you ask ‘How high?’ ” is not biblical. Often God tells us what to do, or what He’s gonna do, not because He wants us to obey, but because He wants us to react. We’re getting a little test. When I do it, I call it “messing with you.” I do it to students because I want to make sure they were paying attention to me before. I’m pretty sure God does this for the same reason.
When He told Ezekiel to cook over his own crap, Ezekiel reacted and God relented. (Ek 4.11-15) When He told Peter to eat unclean animals, Peter reacted and God relented. (Ac 10.11-16) When He told Abraham He was going to smite Sodom, Abraham negotiated with Him. (Ge 18.16-33) When Jesus called the Gentile woman a dog, she begged Him anyway. (Mk 7.24-29) And here, when God says He’s going to smite Israel, Moses talks Him down.
My friend Brian likes to point out this passage because God, who up to this point was calling the Hebrews “My people,” is so offended by their sin that He now tells Moses they’re “your people.” God had just proclaimed the Second Commandment to them in fire, thunder, and smoke. It was a month and a half later, the mountain was still smoking, and the Hebrews were breaking both that command and the others. Knowing about God’s infinite patience, it frequently shocks us when we read God’s reaction: He wants to kill them. All of them: men, women, and children, innocent and guilty. (Jesus’s ancestors among them.) Then, once they’re dead, Moses will be the new Israel, and the nation will be descended from him. Sure, Moses is in his eighties; but Abraham was a hundred. It’s totally doable.
This idea would certainly appeal to Moses’s pride; but the more often we stand before God, the more humble we become. Moses likely recognized he was no better than the sinning Hebrews in the camp. So, with a good bit of logic and an old Egyptian saying, Moses reminded God that there was originally a point to all this... and he calls the Hebrews “Your people” as he reminds God of His own promises towards them. When God ever starts to act inconsistent with what He’s said before, that’s the time we have to remind Him of what He said; He’s giving us an oral exam. Moses fortunately had been paying attention.
Makes you wonder what God would have done if Moses hadn’t passed. Would there be a nation of Moses today instead of a nation of Israel? Would God have followed through with His plan to smite the Hebrews? Or would God have said, “...Nah, never mind, back with the original plan” before He had to get to smiting? I don’t know; maybe God wouldn’t have said anything if He knew Moses wouldn’t pass such a test. But then again, maybe He would... ’cause maybe He does, and all those so-called prophets that are announcing doom and gloom upon our nation are blowing it when they pronounce God’s wrath instead of turning back to Him and saying, “But what about Your grace?”
Anyway, those aren’t the sort of arguments I have with God. And I probably shouldn’t win any arguments with Him for a while yet; my ego has more shrinking to do.
α. Usu. “These are your gods,” like the Septuagint. The Septuagint translators didn’t want to say that the Hebrews considered the calf to be God; they wanted to say the Hebrews chose polytheistic paganism over the worship of the One True God. I don’t think the Hebrews lapsed that far after their experiences with God. Rather, they tried to give God a form—a violation of the Second Commandment (Ex 20.4-5) —and as one error follows another, so their worship began to resemble paganism, and offended God.
β. The Hebrews had lived in Goshen, not Egypt (Ex 8.22, etc.); a land which is today called the Sinai Peninsula and still belongs to Egypt. As you might remember, the Hebrews had crossed the Red Sea (Ex 15.4), which put them in Arabia, not the Sinai. I don’t care what the maps in your Bible say. The mapmakers are following tradition, not the scriptures.
γ. Literal. “My nose burns” means “I’m furious.”
δ. Literal. “Rubs the face” means “begs.”
ε. Or “sigh.” Means “desist” or “repent.”
