A Son’s Appeal; A Father’s Response; Summary

Following the day’s events, Moses looks to his younger siblings in their multitudes and makes a very important announcement…t hey had sinned a great sin and he was going to make atonement for this great sin. So as the big (but not oldest) brother, Moses makes his way up the mountain and appeals to God on behalf of Israel, offering himself and his salvation if God will not forgive the peoples’ sin. However God’s response is that of an understanding father when he replies, he says:

מִ֚י אֲשֶׁ֣ר חָֽטָא־לִ֔י אֶמְחֶ֖נּוּ מִסִּפְרִֽי׃

…”Who, which, he sinned, to me, I will blot him, from me book.”

God is stating to Moses that he will not let Moses be help accountable for Israel’s sins, that they must be disciplined if they are to learn. God releases Moses back to his people with this news and also that his angel will be coming to discipline them of their sin. And in this time God as the father of Israel plagues upon them for their sin (on a side not none are mentioned dieing here).

Overall Israel’s first communal sin is now done and has been disciplined for. And much like with a young toddler the discipline is swift and strong. It has to be both in order that a toddler will begin to learn that their parents will not tolerate disobedience. Sadly this will not be the last time Israel sins and definitely not the last time they will be disciplined accordingly.

This concludes the Golden Calf segment of Yes Sir.

A Son’s Rage

While God did relent from performing a mass genocide on Israel, there was still the matter of disciplining his wayward children. The text does not indicate any further conversation between God and Moses regarding how this would be done or any other topic. In the verse(s) following God’s act of compassion the reader follows Moses and Joshua’s journey back to the camp to confront Aaron and Israel. One could hypothesize that God did indeed give Moses some orders on what to do upon reaching the camp since surely discipline was meted out or it could just be Moses acting on what he thought was best (being he was both a prophet and judge). As the favored son enters the camp he becomes filled with rage, destroying both the God-graven tablets of the law and man-graven idol of the calf. Following these two violent acts Moses calls to the people asking who is “For the LORD” and the sons of Levi come forward. From there they are instructed to each slay his brother, friend, and neighbor culminating in approximately 3000 deaths in the camp. Do discipline was meted out indeed. In “The Complete Word Study Old Testament” (henceforth WSOT) a footnote regarding this section suggests that those who are slain are those who are still maintaing their rebellious status. Given the text it is possible that rebellious leaders could also be the Levites as the tribes tended to separate themselves into their own communities, resulting in why some of the levi’ came forward and had to slay their kinsmen according to the text. Also noted in WSOT is that God’s judgement and discipline was carried out and the sons of Levi were the means he was using to do so. Going back to whether or not Moses did this on his own or not, given the precise nature of the execution one could feel more comfortable that God may haven given this instruction to Moses before he departed.

Father and Son

There is something to be said when one child is more favored than the others. Especially in the case of Moses. He is present when God and Father vents His frustration regarding the younger rebellious children. No doubt Moses is both angry at the news of Israel’s transgressions and also scared to a degree of his Father’s anger. Still, Moses is a child and his love for his siblings is great. So when God is ready to remove Israel from the face of the Earth Moses intervenes on behalf his brothers and sisters in a rather wise and grand oration appealing to all the positive attributes of God. First he appeals to God’s recent victory asking him why God can be so angry after he has just delivered his beloved children from Egypt (Ex 32:11). Second he speaks to God’s reason, telling of how Egypt will blaspheme his mighty acts as deceptive and murderous, tainting the glory of their rescue (Ex 32:12). Finally Moses reminds God of his own faithfulness; primarily to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob) to preserve and multiply them, culminating in a plea for compassion (Ex 32:13). n the end God ends up having compassion and relenting from pouring his wrath on his people (Ex 32:14).

I am going to take a moment to digress and address a common translation of וַיִּנָּ֖חֶם in v. 14. This form is commonly translated as “And he repented.” Personally, I find that I cannot get myself to see God repenting, as to me God cannot sin so hence he cannot repent. This could just be me, and I am willing to accept this. Instead I choose to use its other common translation of “to have compassion.” Both are on a literary level valid translations I feel, so I simply choose to go with the one I am most comfortable with.

A Father’s Frustration

It could be comfortably concluded that a parent must go through quite a bit of frustration when they watch their children deliberately disobey them. This compounded in that a parent’s system of rules are generally in place to protect and develop their children into responsible adults. No less does God get irate at the actions of Israel. He has observed Israel now in their unfaithfulness and found them already transgressing one fifth of the commandments. As with strong emotions their initial emergence is rather emphatic. Certainly God’s first reaction rests on the extreme.

וְעַתָּה֙ הַנִּ֣יחָה לִּ֔י וְיִֽחַר־אַפִּ֥י בָהֶ֖ם וַאֲכַלֵּ֑ם וְאֶֽעֱשֶׂ֥ה אֹותְךָ֖ לְגֹ֥וי גָּדֹֽול׃ Exodus 32:10 Westminster Leningrad Codex

And now, create space, to me, and my wrath will burn, with them, and will devour them, and I will make, to you, a nation, a great (one).

God’s initial peak reaction is fed up with the faithless and unfocused Israelites. And he is ready to destroy them all and start anew with Moses. In light of Israel symbolically abandoning God, He is about to let them know how extreme abandonment can get. Fortunately, Moses is there to plead on behalf his siblings.

Big Brother

Aaron may be Moses’ older brother, he is not the superior however. Aaron is the high priest, and his purpose is to facilitate the proper worship of God. It would appear though that when Moses is not around to back up Aaron, Aaron bends to the demands of the mob. At the group’s demands Aaron requests all the gold earrings belonging to the families of the group. After they provide these, Aaron fashions for them an idol, a molten calf of gold. Upon its creation the group proclaims to the rest of Israel that this is the representation of the gods that brought them out of Egypt (not what they told Aaron they wanted the gods for in the first place). Two things can be drawn from the context here. The first is that Aaron has a sense of humor. The only reason any Israelite would have a gold earring would be because they were used to identify slaves in Egypt. So to fashion them an idol of a calf (a similarly used idol in Egypt) was fairly mocking. The second thing that could be drawn from the text is that only a portion of Israel wanted an idol since after its creation they proclaim its deity to the rest of Israel. So perhaps not all of Israel is a lost cause. The remaining portion of the text including Aaron ends with him observing the reaction of the people and making an altar, as well as declaring the next day a feast to the LORD, which the people follow through with joyfully.