God's fierce anger, preventing Him from consuming the people namely, Moses. As is well known, in
Scripture many of God's threats (and His promises, too) are conditional.
23
God turns aside from His fierce wrath and refrains from carrying out His threat not because of a
change in the Israelites. The decisive factor in Exodus 32 is Moses, acting as intercessor.
24
Nacham in
verse 14 presents what is taught elsewhere in Scripture, that the prayers of believers truly have an effect
upon God. James writes, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much [5:16; NKJV]."
On the one hand, God knows in advance how He will act, long before His people pray to Him. God
announces in Isaiah, "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer ... [65:24; NKJV]." On the
other hand, Psalm 106:23 reports, concerning the scene in Exodus 32, "He [God] spoke of destroying them,
except that [luley] Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him to turn back His rage from
destroying." Moses' intercession had an impact; it was effective with God. According to our limited
human reason and way of speaking we might say that God allows Himself to be moved by the prayers of
believers, and He also knows in advance He will be impacted by these petitions.
As observed, God in verse 10 is subtly inviting Moses to plead with Him. God speaks one way, "let
Me alone," to bring about an effect which is the opposite of what His words seem to mean on the surface.
Far from leaving Him alone, Moses proceeds to engage in intimate, straightforward conversation with God.
In fact, God throughout is speaking with great intentionality to Moses. The scene in Exodus 32 is
not one of God being overcome by a fit of anger, and spewing forth rash words, for which He is later sorry,
or about which He changes His mind. Rather, God is talking in a deliberate manner with a certain purpose,
and corresponding goal, in mind. God's purpose is to put Moses to the test.
25
A reasonable argument is that, in reality, God could not have wiped out the Israelites, leaving only
Moses. As recorded in Genesis 49, God has already, through Jacob, foretold that the coming Savior would
be from the tribe of Judah (49:8-10). Moses was of the tribe of Levi. The promises concerning the
23
Cf., e.g., Jeremiah 18:7-10; Ezekiel 33: 13-16.
24
J. Philip Hyatt (Exodus [New Century Bible; London: Oliphants, 1971], p. 307) notes that there are three
grounds seen in the Old Testament for Yahweh's relenting: intercession, repentance of the people, and
Yahweh's compassionate nature.
25
This is the position of various commentators. E.g., Calvin, in his Exodus commentary, in Commentaries
on The Four Last Books of Moses Arranged In The Form of a Harmony, Volume Third (trans. Charles
Bingham; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), p. 339; John Davis, Moses and the Gods of Egypt: Studies in
Exodus (2
nd
ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1971), p. 296; Terence Fretheim, Exodus (Interpretation; Louisville: