Jumping into the story in Exodus 32, God has delivered his people out of slavery from Egypt as he said he would do. He has led them across an un-crossable river, fed them with supernatural food from heaven, and given a promise of future land to dwell in. He leads them by cloud during the day, fire at night.
Israel’s response to God’s provision?
They need more than fire from heaven leading them. They need more than 100% organic food from on high that magically appears every morning. They demand more than deliverance from oppression and death, endless plagues, and water supernaturally pouring out of a gigantic rock. Though they have seen divine glimpses of the leading of the Savior, they need a physical representation to tangibly touch. Faith and trust are not enough, despite the ridiculous providential provisions from the God of gods.
Forty days is a long time, a lot can happen. Not uncommon for people to meet someone and get engaged a month or so later. Not uncommon to discover a new job in a new city and move suddenly. A lot can happen on a mountain, too, when day after day Moses is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps God killed him, perhaps a bear ate him, perhaps he will never return. He could have starved to death, died of thirst, who knows!! If so, the Israelites will be left in the desert, alone, without the one person who intervened on their behalf with the Almighty God who brought them out from Egypt.
NIV Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."
So, while Moses spends day after day on the mountain-top, the people grow anxious and cling to the one hope they can have – a physical representation of this majestic God, that they can bow down to, praise, worship, and sacrifice to. The people come to Aaron, and he guides them and leads them in the path of un-righteousness.
Perhaps this will please God.
Indeed, it does not please God. In fact, God is quite angry with his people. He chose them long ago, and fore-told they would go into bondage in Egypt. Leading them every step of the way across impossible situations, his people have created their own incredibly offensive image, then loudly proclaimed this mere golden idol they made is the God who brought them out of Egypt. Slap in the face of the Redeemer.
How could God not be angry?
How could his anger not “burn against them?” So, what God tells Moses in Exodus 32.10 is that he has another plan in mind.
10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn again st them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." (Exo 32:10 NIV)
“Now leave me alone” is in an obscure tense of a common verb, and also an imperative (command). It means “to rest” so the phrase could be translated “Now cause me to rest” which is the awkward English, better worded as “Leave me alone.” God is telling Moses to stop talking to him, so His anger can burn against Israel, and destroy them. His backup plan is to make Moses into a great nation, and kill all his rebellious people who incessantly turn against him for any and every reason.
“Leave me alone.”
Moses’ response? Appealing to the divine purposes of God, in which he desires to glorify himself by using weak, sometimes worthless people for his glory. This is reminiscent of Ephesians chapter 3, where the divine mystery is that God in his apparent foolishness uses mere humans to prove to the angels his great wisdom by entrusting us with His eternal truth. Here in Exodus 32, Moses declares that the nations will mock God by saying God merely delivered his people in order to kill them in the desert.
Abraham speaks to God in a way no one else has, yet also understands the glory of God. Thus, when God says “Don’t talk to me,” Moses clearly does talk to him. He does so gently, as a man facing an angry king carefully chooses every single word he says, knowing they could be his last.
Thoughts and Applications
Moses carefully appealed to the divine purposes of God in speaking with him. In addition, his purpose in speaking is to appeal to the best situation God would be glorified in. He deeply knew this Almighty God, enough to know and side-step God’s promise of a new, great people. Rather, he appealed to God’s first plan on the basis that it would bring more glory to his name than the second plan.
When we pray, while we don’t often speak face to face on a mountaintop, I think our prayers could reflect a bit more of God’s glory. We often pray for stuff we want or think we need, rather than for God to be glorified. We pray for God to help us meet our bills, but for our glory not for his.
We pray for God to bring people into our church, but perhaps God would be glorified by them going somewhere else. Our prayers are so often short-sighted, missing the eternality of God’s plan.
“Why should God give you what you ask him?”
A good question to ask after praying is “why?” Sure, you need money to pay your utilities. But why should God give you what you ask of him? Is it merely so you can be comfortable and enjoy life, or is it so that you can rest at home after going out into the world making disciples?
It’s true, Christians need to pray more, and I’m one of them. However, it is also true that we need to pray better. We need to open our eyes to God’s purposes, and how he can gain glory through what we ask of him. We need to be like Moses, who turned down a divine promise of a great nation, and instead pleaded for God to be glorified through his initial Plan A. Indeed, those are the prayers that God seems to be faithful to quickly answer…
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