Exodus 32:11, commentary and pictures

Moses threw himself between God and Israel after the worship of the golden calf while he was still on the mount, pleading earnestly day and night and refusing to consent to their destruction.
He gave the people back to God as belonging to Him, asking why anger should burn against those God Himself had freed from Egyptian slavery with great power and a mighty hand.
He begged God to turn from that purpose for the sake of His own honor before the Egyptians and the nations watching, who would charge Him with bringing Israel out only to kill them, and for the sake of His covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to multiply their seed and give them the land forever.
The prayer was wholly unselfish, valuing the survival of God's chosen people above personal honor and refusing the offer to set Israel aside and make a great nation of Moses instead.
God heard that selfless pleading and relented from destroying them, giving room to repent and return, proving Moses faithful to lead them onward while defeating Satan's design to secure their extinction.
That pleading stands as the pattern of true heaven-born zeal for today, disinterested self-devotion that seeks God's glory and the saving of wayward souls with persistent faith that God will answer.

Setting at Sinai

Exodus 32:11 belongs to Israel's idolatry with the golden calf while Moses was in the cloud on the mount for forty days and Israel waited below. During that time he was receiving directions for the sanctuary and the pattern of the ark and the tables of stone written with the finger of God. While he was absent the people's unbelief revealed itself in a marked manner, and they broke the law recently given at Sinai even though God's presence remained with them in the manna and the cloud and fire.

The waiting period had given them time to meditate on the law they had heard and prepare for further revelation, but they became careless, inattentive, lawless, discontented and unbelieving. They failed to learn from God's deliverance in bringing them out of Egypt and from the marks of His displeasure, repeatedly giving way to fear, ingratitude and rebellion. With the cloud of the Presence still before them they turned back in heart to the idolatry of Egypt.

They were led by the mixed multitude, who were impatient to reach the land flowing with milk and honey that was promised only on condition of obedience. Feeling helpless without Moses, they lost faith and demanded gods to go before them in his place, wanting an image to represent God. At the suggestion of those used to Egyptian worship they made and worshiped a calf, the ox or calf being an Egyptian symbol of deity. God had given no manner of similitude of Himself and had prohibited any material representation, and the miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea were to establish faith in Him as the invisible, all-powerful Helper, the only true God, while desire for a visible manifestation had been met by the pillar of cloud and of fire and by the revealing of His glory on Sinai, yet they represented the glory of the invisible God by the similitude of an ox. In open defiance of the law they had pledged to obey they bowed in adoration before a golden image with eating and drinking and dancing and singing and reveling.

Aaron had been left in charge as guardian of the people, but he yielded through weakness and desire to please them, betraying his sacred trust and uniting with their plans with calm assurance. He failed to stand firmly against their demands and allowed reveling and wrongdoing to begin, permitting disobedience until idolatry followed. He could have checked the evil by standing for the right irrespective of consequences, holding unswervingly to his own allegiance to God, pointing the people to the perils of Sinai and reminding them of their solemn covenant to obey God's law. Instead his compliance emboldened them to go to greater lengths in sin than had before entered their minds, so that the course could be stopped only by stern, decisive measures.

God signified that He disowned His people by calling them Moses's people whom Moses brought out of Egypt, and would not take them as His own people. He threatened to consume and destroy them for their continual rebellion and provocation. He proposed to set them aside and make a great nation of Moses instead, in order to prove and test his perseverance, faithfulness, love, simplicity and integrity, and his fitness for the laborious and soul-trying work of leading such an erring and ungrateful people through to the promised land.

Content of Plea

Moses besought the Lord for Israel in bold, persistent, earnest pleading day and night, refusing to leave the mount or to consent to their destruction until he was heard and pardon was granted. He could not consent to their destruction but continued to bear the burden of leading them, earnestly asking for reversal of the decision to destroy a people for whom so much had been done. In the divine words, Let me alone, he discerned ground for hope, understanding them not to forbid intercession but to encourage it, implying that nothing but his prayers could save Israel yet that if entreated God would spare them.

He humbly disclaimed leadership of the people and returned them to God as thy people, appealing to divine ownership and relationship and to Israel's identity as God's people and God's chosen people. He insisted that God, not Moses, had brought them out, making God's own act the reason to spare them. He asked why divine wrath should wax hot and burn against them and asked God to turn from anger and reverse the threatened destruction. The appeal rested on the fact that God Himself with great power and a mighty hand had brought them out of slavery in Egypt, including the passage through the Red Sea.

He urged that destroying Israel would dishonor God before the Egyptians and other heathen nations who had heard of the deliverance, watched what God would do, and waited to see the result. They would triumph over Israel and reproach God, saying He brought them out for mischief to slay them in the mountains and was not able to lead them to the promised land, without considering Israel's sin. He appealed to God's covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel or Jacob to multiply their seed as the stars of heaven and to give them the land forever, making past deliverance and covenant promises the ground to spare them.

Character of Moses

Moses' plea in Exodus 32:11 was wholly unselfish, with no selfish motive coming between him and God. He valued the prosperity and survival of God's chosen people above personal honor and above a great name for himself. When offered the chance to become the head and father of a greater and mighty nation, he refused the offer and would not give Israel up or consent to their destruction. He put the people's salvation and God's name ahead of his own advantage, seeking their welfare and the honor of God's ownership and mighty deliverance of them from Egypt with great power and a mighty hand, including slavery and the passage through the Red Sea. His concern was that their destruction would let the Egyptians and other heathen nations who had heard of the deliverance and watched what God would do triumph over Israel and reproach God, saying He brought them out for mischief to slay them in the mountains and was not able to lead them to the promised land.

His intercession flowed from deep interest and love for the people entrusted to him, with firm faith and determined purpose and with simplicity of heart and integrity. He carried their burden and poured out his soul before God out of a deep sense of responsibility and grief over their sin in the golden calf. He feared the harm that would come if God left them to their darkness and hardness and impenitence. What he sought was the continuance of God's presence and favor and guidance for the people in his care, asking God to restore favor and not leave them.

Though Moses was naturally meek and timid, his timidity was lost in concern for the people as he discerned that nothing but his prayers could save them. That concern moved him to plead boldly, persistently and earnestly day and night, crying to God to spare guilty Israel and turn from anger. His aim was their salvation and God's glory and name and honor before the nations, that God would exalt His own name and not let it be disgraced. This is disinterested self-devotion in intercession and true heaven-born zeal, seeking God's glory and the spiritual good of others rather than self. God was not angered by such earnest pleading.

His pleading to turn away wrath came before he returned to the camp to act as God's minister to vindicate God's honor and oppose the people's sin. He could not consent to their destruction and continued to bear the burden of leading them. He refused the proposal to destroy rebellious Israel and release him from leading them, remaining committed to pleading for and serving God's people despite their rebellion.

Result of Intercession

God heard the unselfish pleading and granted what was asked, turning back from the threatened destruction and sparing Israel instead of wiping them out. He did not destroy them arbitrarily but gave them freedom and opportunity to repent and return to Him, and again and again it was such intercession that kept Him from cutting off His disobedient people. The prayer rested on His past deliverance and covenant promises, so that relenting from destruction was the answer to a trial of faith.

In answering, He proved and approved Moses, who stood the test of perseverance, faithfulness, love, simplicity of heart and integrity. Having refused to let Israel go and having valued their prosperity above personal honor and a great name, Moses was confirmed and entrusted as a faithful shepherd charged with leading the people through to the promised land. The offer to set Israel aside and make a great nation of him instead had been the proving of his fitness for the laborious work of leading an erring people.

The judgment that followed upheld divine authority in both justice and long-suffering mercy. The humbled and repentant were mercifully pardoned and restored to favor, while only those who persisted in rebellion and stubbornly ranged themselves on Satan's side were cut off. Prompt punishment kept the rebellion from spreading, protected Israel from its enemies, and left a perpetual testimony to the guilt and punishment of idolatry. In this the history teaches that sin must not be left unchecked.

The same intercession preserved Aaron, who had betrayed his sacred trust as guardian of the people by yielding and joining the idolaters. God would otherwise have slain him for unfaithfulness, but Moses interposed in his behalf and his life was spared. He repented and was pardoned, and instead of persisting in rebellion he took his stand with Moses. By this sparing, the plea defeated Satan's design at the very foot of Sinai, where he had led Israel to deny loyalty to Jehovah, demand gods of gold, and bow before a golden image in open defiance of the pledged law as a daring insult and blasphemy. His aim was to cause God to divorce them and devote them to destruction, and so to secure the extinction of Abraham's seed that was to preserve the knowledge of the living God and through whom the true Seed to conquer Satan was to come, but sinful Israel was not destroyed. The deliverance pleaded in the prayer was God's rescue of His chosen people from slavery with great power and a mighty hand, to bring them to a good land as a refuge from enemies, draw them to Himself, surround them with everlasting care, and have them exalt His name and make it glorious throughout the earth.

Pattern for Today

The golden calf crisis and the plea that met it stand as an example for God's people today. The plea is the model to follow when interceding for a community despite its errors, imperfections and sins. It is the pattern for pleading for perishing, tempted, sinful souls in need of help and salvation, and for persistently praying for wayward souls and seeking to save those who are straying. In that hour Israel's sin had brought anger against them, and the plea appealed to God's claim on them as the people He Himself had brought out of Egypt by great power and mighty power, asking why wrath should burn against them.

The verse means disinterested self-devotion in intercession. It defines true heaven-born zeal for the Lord of hosts as seeking God's glory and the spiritual good of others rather than self, crying earnestly day and night for the guilty that God would spare them so as to exalt His own name among the nations. Such pleading must have no selfish interest coming between God and the soul, or the effort is counterworked. It must have calm, strong, unchanging trust in Jesus, who will co-operate with the effort, while expecting that Satan will not give up his prey without a desperate struggle.

Pleading as Moses pleaded brings answered prayer from God. He earnestly asked God to reverse the decision to destroy the people for whom He had done so much, and God heard his prayer. His example teaches faith in God and compassion for those who have done wrong. It presents intercession for others as a reason to pray in faith.

The sparing of Aaron in answer to that plea warns those entrusted as guardians of youth. While Moses was on the mount receiving the tables of stone written with the finger of God, Aaron was left in charge of the people and failed to carry them through the crisis of severe temptation to idolatry, uniting with them in carrying out their plans. God would certainly have slain Aaron for this unfaithful leadership, but Moses pleaded with God to spare him and his life was spared. Therefore guardians of youth are to fear God, walk tremblingly for fear of offending Him, and act wisely in an emergency instead of heeding wrong inclinations and permitting contempt for God's counsel to rule.