Commentary on Exodus 32:1-14

Callie Plunket-Brewton
The peoples idolatry in Exodus 32:1-14 is difficult to read just a week after the
lectionarys had us reading Ex 20, in which God makes a covenant with the people of Israel
and gives them the Decalogue to serve as the heart of that covenant.
The Ten Commandments established a powerful ethical bond between the people and their
God and between the members of the community. And the basis for their bond was Gods
redemption of them from slavery: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (20:2).
Between the dramatic creation of the covenant in chapters 19-24 and the breaking of the
covenant here in chapter 32, God gives Moses guidelines for the production of the
tabernacle, the tent in which God may dwell among them (25:8b), a powerful promise of
presence and protection. There is so much that is exciting and hopeful in these chapters,
which makes the events of Ex 32:1-15 surprising as well as terribly sad.
The plot is well-known. Moses is on Mt. Sinai with God where he remains for forty days.
The people turn to his brother, Aaron, and, speaking derisively of Moses, demand that he
make them gods: Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the
man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him
(32:1). Missing from this speech is any mention of God or of the covenant. Gods absence
grows even more striking in their response to the golden calf: These are your gods, O
Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt! (v. 4b) Thus, Moses is dismissed as this
Moses, and the peoples history and covenant with God is cast aside to make room for a
statue.
The wording of the peoples pronouncement about their newly minted god(s) makes use of
phrasing very familiar to any reader of Exodus, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, but with one striking difference: the use of the word gods, which underscores the
disloyalty in their actions and speech. These gods had nothing to do with their miraculous
escape from Egypt. Indeed, even Moses is not the one who brought them out of Egypt,
although he is the one they credit for that act in v. 1. YHWH is not mentioned by the
people, signaling that they have betrayed their god and broken the covenant even before the
objects that symbolize it -- the divinely inscribed tablets of the Decalogue -- make their
way down the mountain.1
The ending one might expect to this narrative is one in which the peoples rejection is
matched by divine rejection. That almost happens, except for the intercession of Moses,
who reminds God of the promises to the peoples ancestors -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

(v. 13) -- and even appeals to the public image of YHWH: Why should the Egyptians say,
It was with evil intent the he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to
consume them from the face of the earth? (v. 12a) The speech is successful. Where God
spoke of destroying this people in v. 9 -- reflecting the alienation and distance between
them -- in v. 14, the text reads: And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he
planned to bring on hispeople (emphasis mine). The possessive pronoun before people
serves to connote the renewal of YHWHs sense of connection with the people, although
the actual renewal of the covenant does not take place immediately, and there is a period of
time in which Gods presence with the people is at some distance from the actual camp,
much to the peoples and Moses dismay (see especially 33:12-17).
The fact that the peoples rejection of YHWH and the covenant is not the end of the story is
a testimony to the ancient Israelites experience of the grace of God. When we read 32:1-15
as part of the larger unit of Ex 32-34, we see that the narrative affirms that grace is central
to the character of YHWH. The lectionary, limited to 32:1-15, focuses on the initial sin of
the people, and then Moses negotiations with God to save their lives. Beyond these
fourteen verses, we read of Moses reaction to the peoples sin (vv. 15-34) and then of the
terrible alienation between the people and God (32:35-33:6), followed by moments of
profound intimacy between Moses and God (33:7-34:9). The final scene describes the
renewal of the covenant (34:10-28), a scene which includes Gods inscription of the
commandments on a second pair of tablets. As the people experience the consequences of
their actions, they find that rejection, alienation -- in short, sin -- do not get the last word
due to the tenacious leadership of Moses and the willingness of YHWH to reconsider the
initial impulse to destroy the people for apostasy.
There are many avenues a preacher might travel in preaching this text. The wonder of
Gods willingness to forgive is a theme that bears repeating from the pulpit. I am struck,
however, by the role of Moses in this narrative, especially his insight into the character of
God, demonstrated in the words of his speech. In vv. 11-13, he speaks to God of the divine
promises to the ancestors of the people, thus implicitly urging God to be faithful to those
promises. He also speaks of the terrible waste represented in bringing the people out of
Egypt just to destroy them. Granted, he puts it in terms of being bad public relations, but I
think it is clear that Moses is reminding God of the tremendous investment God has made
in saving the people. Thus, Moses serves to remind YHWH of Gods own character, a
character spelled out in 34:6-7: slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness It strikes me that the role of Moses in this reading serves as a model for
the Church: to bear witness to Gods faithful compassion and to urge others to seek
reconciliation with God and each other.

Notes:

Aaron does speak of YHWH when he declares that the following day there will be a
festival to YHWH in v. 5. It is clear however, that he is associating YHWH with the golden
calf he has created. Betrayal and confusion abound.