And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Why, Jehovah, doth thy wrath burn against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
Israel had just made a golden calf at the foot of the mountain and worshipped it. God offered to destroy them and make Moses a great nation instead — and Moses answers with a prayer that is all about God.
God's words to Moses in the previous verse were not simply a threat. One writer reads them as a deliberate probe of the man standing there:
He wanted to prove and show the heart of His servant. He loved the people Himself, and He delighted in Moses' love for them. If the people were under the test of law, Moses was under the test of grace.
God had spoken of Israel as your people, whom you brought out of Egypt. Moses hands both back:
God had said to Moses, "your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt" (v. 11). He pleaded with God on this basis. God's mighty hand had done that great work. Was God any less mighty now?
Moses never excuses Israel, and he never asks for mercy. One writer explains why:
He does not for one moment make light of the sin of the people — this he could not do. Nor does he plead for mercy, for there was no room for mercy in the covenant of Sinai. So instead he throws himself on God — on what His glory required for the people He had redeemed. First, he points to the dishonour that would come on God's name among the Egyptians if Israel were destroyed.
Moses was the one man in the camp with clean hands. He was also the only man with anything to gain from Israel's ruin. What he does with that moment should unsettle us:
He had not had the least involvement in the people's sin. We might expect him to say that he shared God's righteous indignation. This was his opportunity to secure a place of honour: "I will make of you a great nation" (v. 10). Instead, this is what we read. 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?" (v. 11). Instead of condemning, he intercedes for this "stiff-necked" people. This must be a puzzle to anyone honest enough to admit how easily we condemn fellow Christians.
The same grace shows in what he would not take. Another writer puts it in a single line: "He refuses to be or to have anything without the people. He pleads with God on the ground of His own glory."
Moses appeals to what God's own honour requires. One writer turns that appeal into a question about our praying:
The people had sinned deeply, and God was threatening to disinherit them. How instructive, then, that God shows us the true ground on which to appeal for mercy and forgiveness! That ground is not our need, however great it may be. It is not even repentance, however heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name, the written pledge of His faithfulness to those who are under the blood. For this He puts away the sins and failures of His own people. We pray, we make our requests, and we ask a Father's forgiveness. But do we take in the full meaning of "for the sake of" or "in the name of Jesus Christ"? Is it just a closing formula in our minds?
If God already knew Moses' heart, the conversation was for readers, not for information:
God knew all this, and He knew the heart of Moses toward Israel. But He spoke in this way to Moses for our sakes. He wanted to draw our attention to how Moses interceded for Israel. That is a picture of how the Lord Jesus intercedes for us, even when we fail badly. On the one hand, we must realise how fierce God's anger is against every evil thing put in the place that belongs to Him alone. On the other hand, we are to see the great value of the intercession of the one Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Tested. God offered to destroy Israel and start again with Moses. That offer put Moses under the test of grace, as the law had tested the people.
- Handed back. God called Israel Moses' people. Moses gives the word back: they are Your people, brought out by Your power.
- Emptied. Offered a nation of his own, he will have nothing apart from the people he prays for.
- Grounded. His plea rests not on Israel's need or repentance. It rests on God's glory and the honour of His name. That is the weight behind praying "in the name of Jesus Christ."
- Fulfilled. God spoke this way for our sakes — to show His anger against sin, and the worth of the intercession of one Man, Jesus Christ.
Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For misfortune he has brought them out, to slay them on the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth? Turn from the heat of thine anger, and repent of this evil against thy people!
Israel has just made a golden calf, and God has told Moses to leave Him alone while His anger burns against them — He will make a great nation of Moses instead. Moses does not defend the people; he pleads what the Egyptians would say, and the promise God swore to the fathers.
God had called Israel Moses' people — the ones Moses brought up out of Egypt. Moses hands them straight back.
He does not for a moment make light of the people's sin — that he could not do. Nor does he ask for mercy, for there was no room for mercy in the covenant of Sinai. So what he does is throw himself on God, and on what His glory required in connection with the people He had redeemed. First he presses the dishonour that would be done to His name among the Egyptians if Israel were destroyed. He reminds the Lord of the link made with His people through redemption. God had said to Moses, "your" people; but Moses pleads that they are "His" people.
Why does that link still hold, after a sin like this?
They were the Lord's people despite everything, and His name, His glory, His oath were all bound up with what became of them. The moment the Lord links Himself with a people, His character is involved, and faith will always look at Him on this solid ground.
Moses does not argue that the judgment would be unjust. He asks how it would look to Egypt, which had just felt God's power.
In verse 12 he shows his zeal for the name of the Lord, in case its glory should be dimmed in the minds of the Egyptians. They had felt the mighty power of the Lord's arm in the deliverance of His people. Were they now to hear that those He had acknowledged as His people were destroyed too? The proposed act of judgment would be right; but would it have the appearance of being right in the eyes of men?
Moses then names Abraham, Isaac and Israel. In doing so he moves off one ground and onto another.
In verse 13 we have a third thing of great significance. Moses was the servant of God through whom the law was given. Yet he falls back, not on the law covenant — all was lost on that basis — but on the unconditional covenant made much earlier with Abraham, Isaac and Israel. He uses that name, and not Jacob, the name after the flesh. By an instinct given him by God, Moses in his plea left law for grace. On that ground his plea prevailed.
His prayer wins its case because it agrees with God about the guilt.
Moses stood in the place of righteous judgment, but he was also in the very atmosphere of grace. There he could take the place of intercession and prevail, because his plea was the honour of the Lord Himself. This must always be a prevailing plea, because it admits that God's judgment is righteous. Moses can neither excuse nor lessen the people's sin. It is not the place of intercession to do this, because everything before God must be truthful. What comfort for us to know of Christ that "He is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us"! He knows the righteous judgment of God. He knows too the evil of our sin. But His intercession rests on this: He Himself has vindicated the righteousness of God by putting away our sin.
The last phrase of the verse asks God to turn back from what He has said. Older translations read "repent of this evil." The ESV has "relent from this disaster." Commentators are careful about what that does not mean.
God is not a man, that He should repent of His eternal and unchangeable counsels and unconditional promises. Those "are irrevocable." But in His grace He may repent of — that is, not carry out — a threatened judgment, as in the case of Nineveh. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in the human way, because of our weakness.
- Cause. God offered Moses greatness at Israel's expense. Moses passed it by and pleaded for the honour of the Lord instead.
- Gift. He handed the people back to God — they were the Lord's people, not his own. When God links Himself to a people, His character is bound up with what becomes of them.
- Reach. His concern ran as far as Egypt. The judgment would have been right — but would it have looked right to those who had just seen God's power save them?
- Ground. The law had nothing left to give, so Moses fell back on the promise sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Israel. That is why the plea won.
- Result. God relented. That is not a change in His eternal purpose. It is grace not carrying out a threatened judgment. And it points to Christ, who intercedes without ever excusing our sin.
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thyself, and saidst to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall possess [it] for ever!
Israel had just made the golden calf, and God offered to destroy them and make Moses a great nation instead. Moses answers with three names and an oath sworn long before — a plea Israel's own record could never support.
Moses does not argue that Israel deserves sparing. He points to something older than the law they had just broken.
Look at the ground Moses took — the unconditional promises of God's mercy, the grace assured to the fathers. It was impossible for Jehovah to set aside such a plea.
Naming Abraham, Isaac and Israel is not sentiment. One writer treats this prayer as the key to how the whole Bible speaks about Israel's future.
Having followed the references to this covenant, there is one very important remark to make. The prayer Moses made at the time of their sin in making the golden calf gives rise to it. It is this: whenever the Spirit of God speaks of the true hopes of Israel, He points to the unconditional covenant made with Abraham.
Two arrangements stand side by side in Israel's history. Only one of them depends on Israel.
God's covenant to take away Israel's sins is sure… As far as the gospel goes, they are enemies — the nation is rejected for now. But as far as God's election goes, they are loved as a people, always and without change. That love is tied not to law, but to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The law offered blessing on a condition: "if you will indeed obey my voice… you shall be my treasured possession." With Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, it was purpose, and unconditional gift and calling. This difference runs through Scripture… The final restoration of Israel will be on the ground of the promises made to the fathers, "for his steadfast love endures forever."
Three pictures describe Abraham's offspring: stars, dust and sand. Moses picks the stars, and one writer thinks the choice was deliberate.
As pointed out earlier, the "stars" were connected with Isaac, the son who guaranteed the unconditional promise God made to Abraham. Both the "dust" and the "sand" go with Jacob, the man who stands for human responsibility. Isaac was the son of promise… Might not these servants have had enough light to see this? If God was going to bless Israel, it had to be on the ground of His unconditional promise, and not on the ground of their responsibility.
God had just offered to make Moses himself into a great nation. Moses hands the offer back and holds God to the older promise.
God had said to Abraham, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven"… Moses had taken hold of that promise and remembered it. After Israel's sin of the golden calf, God says: "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." Moses replies, in effect, "Lord, in that case You will have to take back what You said to Abraham."… Moses had no thought for himself. He was devoted to God's interests and to Israel's blessing as His people. Otherwise he would have said, This is a fine chance for me. But look at that man. He declines his own advancement, and reminds God of the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses draws every argument from God's own character and promises. Not one comes from Israel's record, and he never pretends the sin is small.
The prayer of Moses was based upon the character of God — a most important matter in true mediation between God and man. He pleaded for God's people, because they were His. He pleaded because God had redeemed them, and had brought them out from their bonds with His powerful hand. He pleaded because of God's promise to the fathers. He pleaded because the nations might otherwise say that Jehovah was not true to His word. And he pleaded because they were His inheritance, despite their sin and their stubbornness, since He had made them so. Such were his arguments, and he used them while fully admitting the depth of Israel's sin.
- Remember. Moses asks God to remember, not Israel to repent — the prayer rests on what God had already said.
- Sworn. God swore this promise by Himself. Setting it aside would cost Him His own word, and writers treat that covenant as the anchor of Israel's hope.
- Unconditional. Sinai promised blessing if Israel obeyed. The promise to the fathers gave blessing outright, and the stars picture that side of it.
- Self-forgetful. Moses was offered a nation of his own. He turned that offer into an argument for sparing the people who had just disgraced him.
- Forever. The plea rested on those promises, and so does Israel's final restoration — not on Israel's performance.
And Jehovah repented of the evil that he had said he would do to his people.
Israel had just made a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain. God announced that He would consume them. Moses pleaded, and verse 14 tells what followed. It raises a hard question: how can God, who never changes, change His mind?
The break came from the very people who had agreed to the covenant. One writer traces the whole scene:
They begin with an act of full apostasy, which the seed of Abraham commit while Moses was in the mountain. This forfeited all the blessing promised to them on the terms of their own covenant. So the Lord at once stands against them, disowns them, and prepares to carry out consuming judgment on them. But Moses just as quickly stands for them. As mediator, he pleads the Lord's ancient promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the Lord repents when He hears the voice of the mediator this way.
Someone once asked how this verse fits with another statement in Scripture: God is not a man, that He should change His mind. The answer draws a line between two things God does:
The word is similar in both cases, but carries the meanings given to it, and the context decides which one fits best. In the one case it is the Lord in government. The intercession of Moses turns aside His thought of cutting off part of the nation and making Moses (the faithful remnant) into a great nation. In the other it is God in purpose, which is unchangeable.
So the change is in the threatened judgment, never in the promise. Another writer adds why Scripture speaks this way:
God is not a man, that He should change His mind about His eternal and unchangeable counsels. Nor does He change His mind about His unconditional promises, which "are irrevocable." But in His grace He may repent of a threatened judgment — that is, not carry it out. Nineveh is one such case. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in a human way, because of our weakness.
Moses reached past the covenant they had just broken to an older one:
In verse 13 we have something of great significance. Moses was the servant of God through whom the law came. Yet he does not fall back on the law covenant, for all was lost on that basis. He falls back on the unconditional covenant made much earlier with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. He uses that name, not Jacob, the name that speaks of nature. By an instinct God gave him, Moses in his plea left law for grace. On that ground his plea prevailed.
Moses argued from God's side, not from Israel's record:
The Lord had said He would make a great nation of Moses. But Moses loves his people greatly. He loses sight of himself and sets aside what might be called his own interests. He thinks only of the Lord's glory and the misery of Israel… He does not for one moment excuse the sin of the people — this he could not do. Nor does he plead for mercy, for there was no room for mercy in the covenant of Sinai. So he throws himself upon God — upon what His glory required in connection with the people He had redeemed.
God called Israel your people when He spoke to Moses. Verse 14 calls them something else.
The pleading of Moses is most beautiful and instructive. It is so because in it he was a picture of the great Mediator… The mediation of Moses prevailed. God intended it to prevail… God said to Moses, "your people." Yet the Holy Spirit, in writing this record, says, "His people." Is that not worth noticing? It tells us that the counsels of grace stand firm despite the sins of that people.
One writer turns the scene into a question for the reader:
We might pause here to ask ourselves how we would have reacted in Moses' place. He had no involvement at all in the people's sin. We might expect him to say that he shared God's righteous indignation… Instead of condemning, he intercedes for this stiff-necked people. This must be a puzzle to anyone honest enough to admit how easily we condemn fellow Christians. In taking the place of an intercessor, Moses became a striking picture of Christ interceding for His people.
- Sin. Israel's idolatry lost everything the covenant promised them. God stood against them and prepared to consume them.
- Mediator. Moses refused the offer to become a great nation himself. He stood between God and the people — a picture of Christ interceding for His own.
- Ground. His plea rested not on the broken law but on the unconditional promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. On that ground it prevailed.
- Turning. "Repented" means God set aside a threatened judgment. It does not mean His purpose changed, for His purpose never changes. Scripture speaks in human words because we are weak.
- Standing. God said "your people"; the record says "His people." Grace still holds the people God had chosen. We can intercede the same way for those who fail.