Because of His being tested, Moses' agape love is drawn out and shines brightly, to God's glory.
29
He has this love, certainly, for his fellow Israelites. He perhaps displays this love for the Egyptians, too,
since he says to God, "Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, `He brought them out to harm them, to
kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth' [v. 12; NKJV]?" Whatever
positive effect God's mighty miracles in Egypt and at the sea might have had on the Egyptians, Moses
possibly is thinking, would be undone with God's annihilating the Israelites. Ronald Clements emphasizes
this point. He writes: "... the foremost reason why God should not destroy Israel is that the Egyptians (and
so all gentile peoples) would not recognize the LORD as the true God if he did so. In this way God's name
would be profaned, as Ezekiel describes in a similar situation (Ezek. 36:20)."
30
Therefore, in Exodus 32 we can see God as fully in control of the situation, acting and speaking
according to a preconceived purpose and goal, and having His will accomplished, as was foreordained.
This passage, together with Genesis 6:6, reminds us that Scripture reveals God to us via accommodations,
using anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terminology. What we see is the truth, yet this must always be
viewed within the framework of God's omniscience, immutability, and timelessness, which, however, we
do not fully grasp.
31
"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor
[Romans 11:34; NKJV]?" Now "we know in part ... we see in a mirror, dimly [1 Corinthians 13:9, 12;
NKJV]." God has chosen the best way of communicating to us, taking our feeble minds to the extent of
their capability. While our knowledge of God is only partial, we do know the one, true, Triune God
29
Concerning Exodus 32:14 R. Alan Cole (Exodus [TOTC, Volume 2; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity,
1973], p. 217) writes: "We are not to think of Moses as altering God's purpose towards Israel by this
prayer, but as carrying it out: Moses was never more like God than in such moments, for he shared God's
mind and loving purpose."
30
Ronald Clements, Exodus (CBC; Cambridge: University Press, 1972), p. 207. Calvin, writing on v. 12 in
his Exodus commentary (p. 342), states, with regard to the Egyptians, that "the memory of God's grace, as
well as of His judgment, would have been destroyed; for the Egyptians would have hardened themselves,
and would have been untouched by any sense of guilt, deeming that God would shew no mercy to His elect
people." Lange (Exodus; or, The Second Book of Moses [trans. Charles Mead; New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1901], p. 133) is of the opinion "that the ruin of God's people, merited as it is on account
of their sins, would also plunge the heathen nations into complete destruction."
31
Simply speaking, there are "tensions" (but not contradictions) in the Christian faith: spiritual realities
which our limited human reason cannot completely figure out or comprehend. For example, there is only
one God; yet the three Persons of the Trinity are distinct from each other, and each Person is fully God.
Also, Jesus Christ is both very God and true man. God, in revealing Himself, has pulled back the veil as far
as is possible with us human beings. However, we are never to think that we have the full measure of God,
imagining that we can "pigeon-hole" Him or fit Him into nice, neat compartments imposed by our minds.