On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”
Parallel Translations
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On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”
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And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
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And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people: 'Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the LORD, peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin.'
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Exodus 32:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 12:20 Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet don’t turn away from following Yahweh, but serve Yahweh with all your heart.
- Numbers 25:13 It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”
- Exodus 32:31-32 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”
- Numbers 16:47 Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.
- 1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
- 2 Samuel 16:12 It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
- 2 Kings 17:21 For he tore Israel from David’s house; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel from following Yahweh, and made them sin a great sin.
- Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Jonah 3:9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
- 1 Samuel 2:17 The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised Yahweh’s offering.
- Job 42:7-8 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
- Luke 7:47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
- Luke 15:18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
- Romans 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh
- Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- 2 Timothy 2:25 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
- 2 Samuel 12:9 Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
- James 5:16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 32:30 And it came to pass on the…
Exo 32:30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
Ver. 30. And now I will go up unto the Lord.] As angry as he was, he could pray for them: as when our children, through their own fault have got some sickness, for all our angry speeches we go to the physician for them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He speaks doubtfully, partly because he was uncertain how…
He speaks doubtfully, partly because he was uncertain how far God would pardon them, and partly to quicken them to the more serious practice of repentance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Moses, having executed justice upon the principal offenders, is…
Moses, having executed justice upon the principal offenders, is here dealing both with the people and with God.
I. With the people, to bring them to repentance, Exo 32:30.
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1. When some were slain, lest the rest should imagine that, because they were exempt from the capital punishment, they were therefore looked upon as free from guilt, Moses here tells the survivors, You have sinned a great sin, and therefore, though you have escaped this time, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That they might not think lightly of the sin itself, he calls it a great sin; and that they might not think themselves innocent, because perhaps they were not all so deeply guilty as some of those that were put to death, he tells them all, You have sinned a great sin. The work of ministers is to show people their sins, and the greatness of their sins. "You have sinned, and therefore you are undone if your sins be not pardoned, for ever undone without a Saviour. It is a great sin, and therefore calls for great sorrow, for it puts you in great danger." To affect them with the greatness of their sin he intimates to them what a difficult thing it would be to make up the quarrel which God had with them for it. (1.) It would not be done, unless he himself went up unto the Lord on purpose, and gave as long and as solemn attendance as he had done for the receiving of the law. And yet, (2.) Even so it was but a peradventure that he should make atonement for them; the case was extremely hazardous. This should convince us of the great evil there is in sin, that he who undertook to make atonement found it no easy thing to do it; he must go up to the Lord with his own blood to make atonement. The malignity of sin appears in the price of pardons.
2. Yet it was some encouragement to the people (when they were told that they had sinned a great sin) to hear that Moses, who had so great an interest in heaven and so true an affection for them, would go up unto the Lord to make atonement for them. Consolation should go along with conviction: first wound, and then heal; first show people the greatness of their sin, and then make known to them the atonement, and give them hopes of mercy. Moses will go up unto the Lord, though it be but a peradventure that he should make atonement. Christ, the great Mediator, went upon greater certainty than this, for he had lain in the bosom of the Father, and perfectly knew all his counsels. But to us poor supplicants it is encouragement enough in prayer for particular mercies that peradventure we may obtain them, though we have not an absolute promise. Zep 2:3, It may be, you shall be hid. In our prayers for others, we should be humbly earnest with God, though it is but a peradventure that God will give them repentance, Ti2 2:25.
II. He intercedes with God for mercy. Observe,
1. How pathetic his address was. Moses returned unto the Lord, not to receive further instructions about the tabernacle: there were no more conferences now about that matter. Thus men's sins and follies make work for their friends and ministers, unpleasant work, many times, and give great interruptions to that work which they delight in. Moses in this address expresses, (1.) His great detestation of the people's sin, Exo 32:31. He speaks as one overwhelmed with the horror of it: Oh! this people have sinned a great sin. God had first told him of it (Exo 32:7), and now he tells God of it, by way of lamentation. He does not call them God's people, he knew they were unworthy to be called so; but this people, this treacherous ungrateful people, they have made for themselves gods of gold. It is a great sin indeed to make gold our god, as those do that make it their hope, and set their heart on it. He does not go about to excuse or extenuate the sin; but what he had said to them by way of conviction he says to God by way of confession: They have sinned a great sin; he came not to make apologies, but to make atonement. "Lord, pardon the sin, for it is great," Psa 25:11. (2.) His great desire of the people's welfare (Exo 32:32): Yet now it is not too great a sin for infinite mercy to pardon, and therefore if thou wilt forgive their sin. What then Moses? It is an abrupt expression, "If thou wilt, I desire no more; if thou wilt, thou wilt be praised, I shall be pleased, and abundantly recompensed for my intercession." It is an expression like that of the dresser of the vineyard (Luk 13:9), If it bear fruit; or, If thou wilt forgive, is as much as, "O that thou wouldest forgive!" as Luk 19:42, If thou hadst known is, O that thou hadst known. "But if not, if the decree has gone forth, and there is no remedy, but they must be ruined; if this punishment which has already been inflicted on many is not sufficient (Co2 2:6), but they must all be cut off, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written;" that is, "If they must be cut off, let me be cut off with them, and cut short of Canaan; if all Israel must perish, I am content to perish with them; let not the land of promise be mine by survivorship." This expression may be illustrated from Eze 13:9, where this is threatened against the false prophets, They shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel. God had told Moses that, if he would not interpose he would make of him a great nation, Exo 32:10. "No," says Moses, "I am so far from desiring to see my name and family built up on the ruins of Israel, that I will choose rather to sink with them. If I cannot prevent their destruction, let me not see it (Num 11:15); let me not be written among the living (Isa 4:3), nor among those that are marked for preservation; even let me die in the last ditch." Thus he expresses his tender affection for the people, and is a type of the good Shepherd, that lays down his life for the sheep (Joh 10:11), who was to be cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, Isa 53:8; Dan 9:26. He is also an example of public-spiritedness to all, especially to those in public stations. All private interests must be made subordinate to the good and welfare of communities. It is no great matter what becomes of us and our families in this world, so that it go well with the church of God, and there be peace upon Israel. Moses thus importunes for a pardon, and wrestles with God, not prescribing to him ("If thou wilt not forgive, thou art either unjust or unkind"); no, he is far from that; but, "If not, let me die with the Israelites, and the will of the Lord be done."
2. Observe how prevalent his address was. God would not take him at his word; no, he will not blot any out of his book but those that by their wilful disobedience have forfeited the honour of being enrolled in it (Exo 32:33); the soul that sins shall die, and not the innocent for the guilty. This was also an intimation of mercy to the people, that they should not all be destroyed in a body, but those only that had a hand in the sin. Thus Moses gets ground by degrees. God would not at first give him full assurances of his being reconciled to them, lest, if the comfort of a pardon were too easily obtained, they should be emboldened to do the like again, and should not be made sensible enough of the evil of the sin. Comforts are suspended that convictions may be the deeper impressed: also God would hereby exercise the faith and zeal of Moses, their great intercessor. Further, in answer to the address of Moses, (1.) God promises, notwithstanding this, to go on with his kind intention of giving them the land of Canaan, the land he had spoken to them of, Exo 32:34. Therefore he sends Moses back to them to lead them, though they were unworthy of him, and promises that his angel should go before them, some created angel that was employed in the common services of the kingdom of providence, which intimated that they were not to expect any thing for the future to be done for them out of the common road of providence, not any thing extraordinary. Moses afterwards obtained a promise of God's special presence with them (Exo 33:14, Exo 33:17); but at present this was all he could prevail for. (2.) Yet he threatens to remember this sin against them when hereafter he should see cause to punish them for other sins: "When I visit, I will visit for this among the rest. Next time I take the rod in hand, they shall have one stripe the more for this." The Jews have a saying, grounded on this, that henceforward no judgment fell upon Israel but there was in it an ounce of the powder of the golden calf. I see no ground in scripture for the opinion some are of, that God would not have burdened them with such a multitude of sacrifices and other ceremonial institutions if they had not provoked him by worshipping the golden calf. On the contrary, Stephen says that when they made a calf, and offered sacrifice to the idol, God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven (Act 7:41, Act 7:42); so that the strange addictedness of that people to the sin of idolatry was a just judgment upon them for making and worshipping the golden calf, and a judgment they were never quite freed from till the captivity of Babylon. See Rom 1:23-25. Note, Many that are not immediately cut off in their sins are reserved for a further day of reckoning: vengeance is slow, but sure. For the present, the Lord plagued the people (Exo 32:35), probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease, which was a messenger of God's wrath, and an earnest of worse. Aaron made the calf, and yet it is said the people made it, because they worshipped it. Deos qui rogat, ille facit - He who asks for gods makes them. Aaron was not plagued, but the people; for his was a sin of infirmity, theirs a presumptuous sin, between which there is a great difference, not always discernable to us, but evident to God, whose judgment therefore, we are sure, is according to truth. Thus Moses prevailed for a reprieve and a mitigation of the punishment, but could not wholly turn away the wrath of God. This (some think) bespeaks the inability of the law of Moses to reconcile men to God and to perfect our peace with him, which was reserved for Christ to do, in whom alone it is that God so pardons sin as to remember it no more.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Moses returned unto the Lord,.... On the mount…
And Moses returned unto the Lord,.... On the mount where he was in the cloud:
and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin; which to following words explain; he confesses the same to God he had charged the people with in Exo 32:30,
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and have made them gods of gold; the golden calf, which they themselves called "Elohim", gods.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain You. Many who had not been slain, had followed…
You. Many who had not been slain, had followed the bad example, and Aaron, in particular, had brought upon them a most heinous sin, ver. 21. Yet on account of their repentance, they were not subjected to immediate punishment; but they were visited afterwards, ver. 34. Though God was appeased, (ver. 14,) so as not to destroy the whole multitude, Moses thought it a very arduous task to obtain a full reconciliation, notwithstanding the exemplary vengeance he had taken of the ringleaders. Hence he addresses himself to God with the greatest humility, and with such earnestness as scarcely seems justifiable, if we understand that he put his own eternal salvation at stake. But he makes an impossible supposition, or proposal, which he knew God would not admit, to extort as it were the requested favour. As he is willing to die for his people, God pardons them for his sake. (St. Augustine, q. 147, &c.) (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a…
Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin--Moses labored to show the people the heinous nature of their sin, and to bring them to repentance. But not content with that, he hastened more earnestly to intercede for them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. On the morrow — After that fearful day…
30. On the morrow — After that fearful day of retribution.
Ye have sinned a great sin — It was important that they should realize the gravity and magnitude of their transgression, and these words of Moses were adapted to impress this upon them. Lest further punishment fall he proposes to go up unto the Lord, and seek, if possible, to make an atonement for their sin. He hopes to cover or expiate their sin by further intercession. Comp. Exo_32:11-14. He accordingly went up again into the mount, and made supplication before Jehovah there.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. Ye] the pron. is emphatic.
30. Ye] the pron. is emphatic.
make propitiation] viz. by intercession. The word (kipper) is used, not in the technical sense which it has in P (see on Exo_30:10), but in that of propitiating or appeasing—here by intercession, Gen_32:20 by a present, Pro_16:14 by conciliatory behaviour, Isa_47:11 (fig., of propitiating calamity) by either a bribe or some religious ceremony (EVV. ‘put it away’). Cf. DB. iv. 129a, § 5.
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30–34. Moses, with noble disinterestedness, offers his own life, if he can thereby secure his people’s pardon: Jehovah replies that He cannot on these terms take the life of the innocent; but He yields so far as to permit Moses to lead the people on to Canaan, though without His own personal presence. The passage (esp. vv. 30, 31) hardly reads as if it had been preceded by in vv. 9–14: still, the two passages are so far consistent that whereas in vv. 11–13 Moses had only petitioned that the people might not be destroyed, he now petitions for its entire forgiveness.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30-35) When Moses had, on first hearing of God’s…
MOSES’ INTERCESSION ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE.
(30-35) When Moses had, on first hearing of God’s intention to destroy the people, interceded for them (Exo_32:11-13), his prayers had received no direct answer—he had been left in doubt whether they were granted or no. Having now put an end to the offence, and to some extent punished it, he is bent on renewing his supplications, and obtaining a favourable reply. Once more he ascends into the mount to be quite alone, and so best able to wrestle with God in prayer; and this time he not merely intercedes, but offers himself as an atonement for the people, and is willing to be “blotted out of God’s book,” if on this condition they may be spared. God refuses the offer, but makes known to Moses that He relents—that He will spare the people, and allow them to continue their journey to the promised land; only He will send an angel to lead them instead of leading them Himself, and He will punish the sinners by a different punishment from that originally threatened (Exo_32:10).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 30-35. MOSES ONCE MORE INTERCEDES WITH GOD FOR…
Vers. 30-35. MOSES ONCE MORE INTERCEDES WITH GOD FOR THE PEOPLE GOD ANSWERS HIM. No distinct reply seems to have been given to the previous intercession of Moses (vers. 11-13). He only knew that the people were not as yet consumed, and therefore that God"s wrath was at any rate held in suspense. It might be that the punishment inflicted on the 3000 had appeased God"s wrath: or something more might be needed. In the latter case, Moses was ready to sacrifice himself for his nation (ver. 32). Like St. Paul, he elects to be "accursed from God, for his brethren, his kinsfolk after the flesh". (Rom_9:3) But God will not have this sacrifice. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die". (Eze_18:4) He declares, "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my. (Exo_32:33) Moses shall not make himself a victim. Without any such sacrifice, God will so far spare them, that they shall still go on their way towards the promised land, with Moses as their earthly, and an Angel as their heavenly leader. Only, their sin shall still be visited in God"s own good time and in his own way. How, is left in obscurity; but the decree is issued the day that I visit, I will visit their sin upon them" (ver. 34). And, writing long years after the event, the author observes God did plague the people because they made the calf which Aaron made" (ver. 35).
On the morrow. The day must have been well-nigh over when the slaughter of the 3000 was completed: and after that the corpses had to be buried, the signs of carnage to be effaced, and the wounded, of whom there must have been many, cared for. Moses would have had to direct, if not even to superintend, everything, and therefore could not reascend Sinai until the next day. Moses said unto the people, Not now to the elders only, as in Exo_24:14, but to all the people, since all had sinned, and. each man is held by God individually responsible for his own sin. Ye have sinned a great sin. One which combined ingratitude and falseness with impiety. Peradventure I shall make an atonement. Moses has formed the design, which he executes (ver. 32); but will not reveal it to the people, from modesty probably.
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Vers. 30-34. Moses as the forerunner of Christ.
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me," said the great lawgiver, ere he left the earth; (Deu_17:15, Deu_17:18) and the parallelism between Christ and Moses is in many respects most striking.
1. Both were of obscure birth son of a carpenter the son of "aman of the house of Levi.
2. Both were in great peril in infancy their life sought by the civil ruler Herod Pharaoh.
3. Both passed their youth and early manhood in obscurity Christ forthirty, Moses for forty years.
4. Both felt they had a mission, but on coming forward were rejected bytheir brethren. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not". (Joh_1:11) "He supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not". (Act_7:25)
1. Both showed "signs and wonders," such as have rarely been seen uponearth, and thus made it manifest that their missions were from God.
2. Both were law-givers promulgators of a new moral code Mosesof an imperfect, Christ of a perfect law ("the perfect law of love").
3. Both were founders of a new community Moses of the Hebrew State,christ of the Christian Church.
4. Both were great deliverers and great teachers Moses delivered hispeople from Egypt and Pharaoh, and led them through the wilderness to Canaan; Christ delivers his from sin and Satan, and. leads them through the wilderness of this life to heaven.
5. Both willed to be a sacrifice for their brethren God could not acceptthe one sacrifice (ver. 33), but could and did accept the other.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Vers. 30-35. The second intercession.
This second intercession of Moses is even more wonderful than the first. The question raised on that former occasion Is Moses more merciful than God? will, indeed, no longer occur. Those who might have been disposed to press that question then will probably not be disposed to press it now. They have since had sufficient evidence of Moses" severity. They have found that, whatever elements of character are lacking to him, he is not wanting in energy of indignation at patent wickedness. The temptation, on the contrary, may now be to accuse the lawgiver of unjustifiable and unholy anger of reckless disregard of human life. The charge is groundless; but if, for a moment, it should appear natural, the reply to it is found in the study of this second scene upon the mount. Surely, if ever human heart laid bare its intense and yearning love for those whose sin fidelity to duty yet compelled it to reprobate and loathe, it is the heart of Moses in this new, and altogether marvellous, juncture in his history. Consider
I THE CONFESSION MADE (vers. 30, 31). Moses makes a full confession of the sin of the people. This confession was
1. Holy. He has just views of the demerit of the sin for which he seeks forgiveness. His impressions of its enormity are even stronger than at the time of his first intercession. So heinous does it now appear to him that he is mentally in doubt whether God possibly can forgive it.
2. Perfectly truthful Moses fully admits the people"s sin. He does not make light of it. He does not seek to minimise it. Not even to secure the salvation of the people over whom he yearns with so intense an affection will he unduly palliate their offence, or feign an excuse where he knows that there is none to offer. Mark how, in both of these respects, Moses answers to the true idea of a mediator. "A mediator is not a mediator of one". (Gal_3:20) It is his function, in conducting his mediation, to uphold impartially the interests of both of the parties between whom he mediates. Both are represented in his work. He stands for both equally. He must do justice by both. His sympathy with both must be alike perfect. He must favour neither at the expense, or to the disadvantage, of the other. These acts of intercession show in how supreme a degree this qualification of the mediator is found in Moses. He has sympathy with the people, for whose sin he is willing, if need be, even to die; he has also the fullest sympathy with God. He looks at the sin from God"s standpoint. He has sympathy with God"s wrath against it. He is as jealous for God"s honour as he is anxious for the forgiveness of the people. He is thus the true daysman, able to lay his hand upon both.
3. Vicarious. He confesses the people"s sin for them. On the depth to which this element enters into the idea of atonement, and on the place which it holds in the atonement of Jesus, see J. McLeod Campbell"s work on The Nature of the Atonement.
II THE ATONEMENT OFFERED (ver. 32). The new and awful impressions Moses had received of the enormity of the people"s conduct gave rise in his mind to the feeling of the need of atonement. "Now I will go up to the Lord," he says to them, "peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin" (ver. 30). That the intercessory element entered into Moses" idea of "making an atonement" is not to be denied. But it is not the only one. So intensely evil does the sin of the people now appear to him that he is plainly in doubt whether it can be pardoned without some awful expression of God"s punitive justice against it; whether, indeed, it can be pardoned at all. This sense of what is due to justice resolves itself into the proposal in the text a proposal, probably, in which Moses comes as near anticipating Christ, in his great sacrifice on Calvary, as it is possible for any one, beating the limitations of humanity, to do. (cf. Rom_9:3)
Observe
1. The proposal submitted. It amounts to this, that Moses, filled with an immense love for his people, offers himself as a sacrifice for their sin. If God cannot otherwise pardon their transgression, and if this will avail, or can.be accepted, as an atonement for their guilt, let him Moses perish instead of them. The precise meaning attached in Moses" mind to the words, "If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written," must always be a difficulty. Precision, probably, is not to be looked for. Moses" idea of what was involved in the blotting out from God"s book could only be that afforded him by the light of his own dispensation, and by his sense of the exceeding greatness of God"s wrath. His language is the language of love, not that of dogmatic theology. Infinite things were to be hoped for from God"s love; infinite things were to be dreaded from his anger. The general sense of the utterance is, that Moses was willing to die; to be cut off from covenant hope and privilege; to undergo whatever awful doom subjection to God"s wrath might imply; if only thereby his people could be saved. It was a stupendous proposal to make; an extraordinary act of self-devotion; a wondrous exponent of his patriotic love for his people; a not less wondrous recognition of what was due to the justice of God ere sin could be forgiven a glimpse even, struck out from the passionate yearning of his own heart, of the actual method of redemption. A type of Christ has been seen in the youthful Isaac ascending the hill to be offered on the altar by Abraham his father. A much nearer type is Moses, "setting his face" (cf. Luk_9:51) to ascend the mount, and bearing in his heart this sublime purpose of devoting himself for the sins of the nation. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". (Joh_15:13)
2. The alternative desired. If the people must perish this meaning also seems to be conveyed in the words Moses would wish to perish with them. Not only has the proposal to make of him "a great nation" (Exo_32:10) no allurement for his mind, but, if the people are to be destroyed, he would prefer to die with them. He desires no life outside of theirs. Patriotic devotion could no further go. Noble Moses! Yet only the type of the nobler than himself, who, devoting himself in the same spirit, has actually achieved the redemption of the world. See in this incident
(1) The connection of a feeling of the need of atonement with just views of sin"s demerit.
(2) The certainty, when just views of sin are entertained, of this feeling of the need of atonement arising. In declining the proposal of Moses, God does not say that atonement is not needed. He does not say that his servant has exaggerated the enormity of the sin, or the difficulties which stand in the way of its forgiveness. He does not say that it is not by means of atonement that these difficulties connected with the forgiveness of sins are ultimately to be removed. On the contrary, the spirit of Moses in this transaction is evidently in the very highest degree pleasing to Jehovah, and so far as atonement is made for the people"s sins, it is by Jehovah accepting the spirit of his sacrifice, even when rejecting the proposal in its letter.
(3) The naturalness of this method of salvation. The proposal sprang naturally from the love of Moses. It expressed everything that was grandest in his character. It shadowed forth a way in which, conceivably, a very true satisfaction might be offered to Divine justice, while yet mercy was extended to the sinner. The fulfilment of the prophecy is the Cross.
III THE REPLY GIVEN.
1. The atonement is declined in its letter. God declares that so far as there is to be any blotting from the book of life, it will be confined to those who have sinned. It may be noted, in respect to this declinature of the proposal of Moses that, as above remarked, it does not proceed on the idea that atonement is not needed, but
(1) Moses could not, even by his immolation, have made the atonement required.
(2) God, in his secret counsel, had the true sacrifice provided.
(3) Atonement is inadmissible on the basis proposed, viz. that the innocent should be "blotted out from the book of life." Had no means of salvation presented itself but this, the world must have perished. Even to redeem sinners, God could not have consented to the "blotting from his book" of the sinless. The difficulty is solved in the atonement of the Son, who dies, yet rises again, having made an end of sin. No other could have offered this atonement but himself.
1. While declining the atonement in its letter, God accepts the spirit of it. In this sense Moses, by the energy of his self-devotion, does make atonement for the sins of Israel. He procures for them a reversal of the sentence. Further intercession is required to make the reconciliation complete.
2. God makes known his purpose of visiting the people for their sin (ver. 34). The meaning is
(1) That the sin of the people, though for the present condoned, would be kept in mind in reckoning with them for future transgressions.
(2) That such a day of reckoning would come. God, in the certainty of his foreknowledge, sees its approach. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_32:30-35
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_32:30-35
RELIGIOUS PATRIOTISM
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It has often been brought as a charge against Christianity that it is adverse to patriotism. It is true that the spirit of Christianity is cosmopolitan, but yet the love of humanity does not exclude the sentiment of nationality, and the Word of God presents us with instances of the most sublime patriotism. The true Christian is a true patriot; the patriotism inspired by religion is of the noblest type. The text is a case in point.
I. Religious patriotism recognises national sin, ver
Exo_32:30. “Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin.” There is a patriotism whose motto is: Our country—right or wrong. Such patriotism is spurious and quite misleading. There is a patriotism which is ever dwelling in a vain-glorious temper on the wealth and victories and power of a nation, and which cannot tolerate the rebuking of the national vices. This is a kind of patriotism which leads to evil issues. Religious patriotism discerns and rebukes the sins of the times, and is therefore the true patriotism. True love is not blind, neither is true patriotism. It is sensitive to those errors and vices by which national greatness is eventually destroyed. He may seem the greatest patriot who is always vaunting the power and prowess, the wealth and magnificence, of his country; but he is really the truest friend to his country who protests against the iniquitous laws which are on its statute book, the errors which are taught in its schools and temples, the vices which disgrace its streets.
II. Religious patriotism is prepared to make the greatest sacrifices for the national welfare. We see this in Moses in the text, Exo_32:31-32. See also Exo_32:11-14. Moses set the nation above his personal interests, above his family glory. His temptation to become the founder of a great nation reminds us of Christ’s vision of the kingdoms. He loves his nation; he will not merely die for it, he is ready to suffer unknown sorrows on its behalf. See also Apostle Paul, Rom_9:3. Thus the Christian Church is ever making great sacrifices on behalf of the nation. A religion that does not issue in practical patriotism, is not the religion of Christ. The nation is of God as well as the family, and the true Christian in the spirit of self-sacrificing love, gives time, money, influence, and often life itself, that the nation may be educated and free and pure.
III. Religious patriotism is most precious to the state, Exo_32:33-35. We find that God was moved by the prayer of Moses to spare Israel. It is often thought that the grandest power in the state is the power which fights; but really the grandest power is the power which prays. The patriotism which seeks to spread the knowledge of God; which seeks to secure the keeping of God’s laws; which vindicates the sanctity of God’s day; which pleads with God on behalf of the nation, as it sins and suffers—this patriotism is of essential preciousness. The patriotism which seeks to bring God and the nation closer together, is far more precious than the tongue of the eloquent, the sword of the valiant, or the wisdom of the ancient.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Idol-Idiosyncrasy. Exo_32:1-35.
(1.) Material idolatry has passed away among civilised nations in its literal import. As Macmillan says, the old worship of stocks and stones is now impossible among a professedly Christian people. But although the outward mode has passed away, the essence of the temptation remains the same. Human society is changed, but human nature is unchanged. The impulse which led Israel to seek the golden calf is as strong as ever, and images are set up and worshipped now as fantastic as any pagan fetish or joss. For what is idolatry! Is it not in its essence the lowering of the idea of God and of God’s nature, and the exaltation of a dead image above a man’s own living spirit! Is not an idol whatever is loved more than God, whatever is depended upon for happiness and help independent of God?
(2.) Sooner or later, as Moses pounded the calf and gave the Israelites the dust to drink in punishment of their idolatry, will all such moral idolaters have to drink the dust of their idols. Our sin will become our punishment, our idols our scourges. God is a jealous God, and every soul that turns aside from His love to the lying vanities of the world must drink the bitter water of jealousy, filled with the dust of the bruised and mutilated idols of spiritual idolatry: “This shall ye have at My hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.”
“Thou art the man within whose heart’s deep cell
All evil sleeping lies;
Lust, in a dark hour waking, breaks the spell,
And straightway there arise
Monsters of evil thoughts and base desire.”
—Greok.
Mosaic Intercession! Exo_32:30.
(1.) There is a sublime grandeur in the form of Moses, as we behold him holding forth his rod over the billowy sea, or raising that rod towards heaven. The stormy tempest and the beetling waters obeyed the Leader, who was invested with power by that God who made the sea and stretched out the firmament on high.
(2.) There is more than human majesty in the appearance of Moses when we behold the great Lawgiver descending from Sinai, bearing aloft those holy commandments which not a nation alone, but a world should observe, his countenance radiant with such glory as never before had beamed from human face.
(3.) But though he was mighty as the Leader, illustrious as the Legislator, it is with more of interest and admiration that we view him as the Intercessor for Israel. Power, it has been well said, excites wonder, holiness, awe. But it is love which attracts the soul.
“’Mid visions of eternal light
That glow on Eden’s plain,
Where never comes the shade of night
In spirit realms to reign;
Where robe and crown of angels glow,
There’s ONE in tears alone—
One interceding for our woe—
’Tis JESUS by the Throne.”
Book of Life! Exo_32:23.
(1.) The book here spoken of is the Book of Life. It was even then the custom of every city to keep a list of the burgesses. The Israelites were familiar with the custom of keeping a register of families; as appears in Gen_5:1. Hence Moses uses a familiar figure in speaking of God’s book. It has been supposed that a similar reference occurs in Psalms 29, 69; and in Dan_12:1.
(2.) It seems that in China they have two books—one the Book of Life, and the other the Book of Death. These are presented to the Emperor by his ministers, who is at liberty to blot out from either book any names he pleases. Those whose names he blots out from the Book of Life are doomed to die; and those whom he erases from the Book of Death are allowed to live.
“And then and there the likeness as of books
Before the awful presence of the Judge
Was seen—the massive chronicles of time,
The Law—the Gospel and the Book of Life.”
—Bickersteth.
Intercession! Exo_32:31-34. In one of the lovely Swiss villages, bordered on its most romantic lake, dwelt an aged Christian and his granddaughter—a maiden of simple beauty and lofty imagination. Two Englishmen visited the locality; when the attention of one was attracted to this German girl. After some weeks’ residence, the English stranger discovered that he was loved by the village maiden. He, therefore, induced her to leave her grandfather’s roof, under the promise of a marriage. For a month they continued travelling from one place to another, partly for concealment and partly to view the beautiful scenery. At length, the yearning to see the aged grandfather became intense; but he had sternly refused. In this painful crisis, the English friend undertook to intercede. His intercession proved effectual; and on the regular marriage of the two runaways, she was restored to her old home. Here husband and wife lived happily, until the summons came for the veteran Christian to leave this passing world.
“We dare not think what earth would be,
O Intercession! but for thee;
A howling chaos, wild and dark—
One flood of horrors, while no ark,
Upborne above the gloom-piled wave,
From one great death-abyss might save.”
Intercessory Prayer! Exo_32:34.
(1.) It has been well said, Prayer is not an endeavour to wrest from God what He is reluctant to bestow. It is the approach of the heart to Him to claim what He has promised, and what He delights to give. It was God Himself who directed Moses to stand in the beach. And it is the Father who has given the Son to be our Intercessor. All true prayer is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore cannot fail to be presented and accepted.
(2.) If such is true of the intercessory prayer of Moses, how much more so is it of Christ? He pleads for our forgiveness at the throne of God. When the word went forth against the fruitless fig-tree: “Cut it down,” the voice was heard of the prevailing advocate, “Let it alone this year also.” How often may such prayers have been offered on our behalf!—Luk_6:12.
“Ended is the day’s work now,
Jesus seeks the mountain’s brow;
He, from early dawn, His sheep
Hath, as Shepherd, toiled to keep.
Doth He close in sleep His days!
Nay, He watches still, and prays.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Exo 32:1 - - Exo 32:8; Exo 32:30 -…
Exodus
THE GOLDEN CALF
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Exo 32:1 - - Exo 32:8; Exo 32:30 - - Exo 32:35.
It was not yet six weeks since the people had sworn, ‘All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.’ The blood of the covenant, sprinkled on them, was scarcely dry when they flung off allegiance to Jehovah. Such short-lived loyalty to Him can never have been genuine. That mob of slaves was galvanised by Moses into obedience; and since their acceptance of Jehovah was in reality only yielding to the power of one strong will and its earnest faith, of course it collapsed as soon as Moses disappeared.
We have to note, first, the people’s universal revolt. The language of Exo 32:1 may easily hide to a careless reader the gravity and unanimity of the apostasy. ‘The people gathered themselves together.’ It was a national rebellion, a flood which swept away even some faithful, timid hearts. No voices ventured to protest. What were the elders, who shortly before ‘saw the God of Israel,’ doing to be passive at such a crisis? Was there no one to bid the fickle multitude look up to the summit overhead, where the red flames glowed, or to remind them of the hosts of Egypt lying stark and dead on the shore? Was Miriam cowed too, and her song forgotten?
We need not cast stones at these people; for we also have short memories for either the terrible or the gracious revelations of God in our own lives. But we may learn the lesson that God’s lovers have to set themselves sometimes dead against the rush of popular feeling, and that there are times when silence or compliance is sin.
It would have been easy for the rebels to have ignored Aaron, and made gods for themselves. But they desired to involve him in their apostasy, and to get ‘official sanction’ for it. He had been left by Moses as his lieutenant, and so to get him implicated was to stamp the movement as a regular and entire revolt.
The demand ‘to make gods’ {or, more probably, ‘a god’} flew in the face of both the first and second commandments. For Jehovah, who had forbidden the forming of any image, was denied in the act of making it. To disobey Him was to cast Him off. The ground of the rebellion was the craving for a visible object of trust and a visible guide, as is seen by the reason assigned for the demand for an image. Moses was out of sight; they must have something to look at as their leader. Moses had disappeared, and, to these people who had only been heaved up to the height of believing in Jehovah by Moses, Jehovah had disappeared with him. They sank down again to the level of other races as soon as that strong lever ceased to lift their heavy apprehensions.
How ridiculous the assertion that they did not know what had become of Moses! They knew that he was up there with Jehovah. The elders could have told them that. The fire on the mount might have burned in on all minds the confirmation. Note, too, the black ingratitude and plain denial of Jehovah in ‘the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt.’ They refuse to recognise God’s part. It was Moses only who had done it; and now that he is gone they must have a visible god, like other nations.
Still sadder than their sense-bound wish is Aaron’s compliance. He knew as well as we do what he should have said, but, like many another man in influential position, when beset by popular cries, he was frightened, and yielded when he should have ‘set his face like a flint.’ His compliance has in essentials been often repeated, especially by priests and ministers of religion who have lent their superior abilities or opportunities to carry out the wishes of the ignorant populace, and debased religion or watered down its prohibitions, to please and retain hold of them. The Church has incorporated much from heathenism. Roman Catholic missionaries have permitted ‘converts’ to keep their old usages. Protestant teachers have acquiesced in, and been content to find the brains to carry out, compromises between sense and soul, God’s commands and men’s inclinations.
We need not discuss the metallurgy of Exo 32:4. But clearly Aaron asked for the earrings, not, as some would have it, hoping that vanity and covetousness would hinder their being given, but simply in order to get gold for the bad work which he was ready to do. The reason for making the thing in the shape of a calf is probably the Egyptian worship of Apis in that form, which would be familiar to the people.
We must note that it was the people who said, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel!’ Aaron seems to keep in the rear, as it were. He makes the calf, and hands it over, and leaves them to hail it and worship. Like all cowards, he thought that he was lessening his guilt by thus keeping in the background. Feeble natures are fond of such subterfuges, and deceive themselves by them; but they do not shift their sin off their shoulders.
Then he comes in again with an impotent attempt to diminish the gravity of the revolt. ‘When he saw this,’ he tried to turn the flood into another channel, and so proclaimed a ‘feast to Jehovah’ !-as if He could be worshipped by flagrant defiance of His commandments, or as if He had not been disavowed by the ascription to the calf, made that morning out of their own trinkets, of the deliverance from Egypt. A poor, inconsequential attempt to save appearances and hallow sin by writing God’s name on it! The ‘god’ whom the Israelites worshipped under the image of a calf, was no less another ‘god before Me,’ though it was called by the name of Jehovah. If the people had their idol, it mattered nothing to them, and it mattered as little to Jehovah, what ‘name’ it bore. The wild orgies of the morrow were not the worship which He accepts.
What a contrast between the plain and the mountain! Below, the shameful feast, with its parody of sacrifice and its sequel of lust-inflamed dancing; above, the awful colloquy between the all-seeing righteous Judge and the intercessor! The people had cast off Jehovah, and Jehovah no more calls them ‘My,’ but ‘thy people.’ They had ascribed their Exodus first to Moses, and next to the calf. Jehovah speaks of it as the work of Moses.
A terrible separation of Himself from them lies in ‘thy people, which thou broughtest up,’ and Moses’ bold rejoinder emphasises the relation and act which Jehovah seems to suppress {Exo 32:11}. Observe that the divine voice refuses to give any weight to Aaron’s trick of compromise. These are no worshippers of Jehovah who are howling and dancing below there. They are ‘worshipping it, and sacrificing to it,’ not to Him. The cloaks of sin may partly cover its ugliness here, but they are transparent to His eyes, and many a piece of worship, which is said to be directed to Him, is, in His sight, rank idolatry.
We do not deal with the magnificent courage of Moses, his single-handed arresting of the wild rebellion, and the severe punishment by which he trampled out the fire. But we must keep his severity in mind if we would rightly judge his self-sacrificing devotion, and his self-sacrificing devotion if we would rightly judge his severity.
No words of ours can make more sublime his utter self-abandonment for the sake of the people among whom he had just been flaming in wrath, and smiting like a destroying angel. That was a great soul which had for its poles such justice and such love. The very words of his prayer, in their abruptness, witness to his deep emotion. ‘If Thou wilt forgive their sin’ stands as an incomplete sentence, left incomplete because the speaker is so profoundly moved. Sometimes broken words are the best witnesses of our earnestness. The alternative clause reaches the high-water mark of passionate love, ready to give up everything for the sake of its objects. The ‘book of life’ is often spoken of in Scripture, and it is an interesting study to bring together the places where the idea occurs {see Psa 69:28; Dan 12:1; Php 4:3; Rev 3:5}. The allusion is to the citizens’ roll {Psa 87:6}. Those whose names are written there have the privileges of citizenship, and, as it is the ‘book of life’ {or ‘of the living’}, life in the widest sense is secured to them. To blot out of it, therefore, is to cut a man off from fellowship in the city of God, and from participation in life.
Moses was so absorbed in his vocation that his life was less to him than the well-being of Israel. How far he saw into the darkness beyond the grave we cannot say; but, at least, he was content, and desirous to die on earth, if thereby Israel might continue to be God’s people. And probably he had some gleam of light beyond, which enhanced the greatness of his offered sacrifice. To die, whatever loss of communion with God that involved here or hereafter, would be sweet if thereby he could purchase Israel’s restoration to God’s favour. We cannot but think of Paul willing to be separated from Christ for his brethren’s sake.
We may well think of a greater than Moses or Paul, who did bear the loss which they were willing to bear, and died that sin might be forgiven. Moses was a true type of Christ in that act of supreme self-sacrifice; and all the heroism, the identification of himself with his people, the love which willingly accepts death, that makes his prayer one of the greatest deeds on the page of history, are repeated in infinitely sweeter, more heart-subduing fashion in the story of the Cross. Let us not omit duly to honour the servant; let us not neglect to honour and love infinitely more the Lord. ‘This man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.’ Let us see that we render Him
‘Thanks never ceasing,
And infinite love.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain (See Scofield "Exo 29:33").
atonement
(See Scofield "Exo 29:33").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Moses Again Intercedes for the People
Moses Again Intercedes for the People
v. 30. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. He indicates that their crime may still be covered by means of an expiation, and states his willingness to make an effort to obtain this atonement.
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v. 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold! It was a flagrant case of idolatry in a form which the Lord had expressly condemned, Exo 20:23.
v. 32. Yet, now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin-. The greatness of his love for the people, on the one hand, and his awe of God, on the other, does not permit him to finish the sentence. It was a most profound appeal for mercy. And if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written, out of the book of life. Here is a case of magnanimous nobleness equaled only by Paul, Rom 9:3, and surpassed only by Christ in His unexcelled devotion, in His incomprehensible sacrifice.
v. 33. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. He would not accept the sacrifice offered by Moses, He would not offer up the just for the unjust in this case.
v. 34. Therefore go now, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee, all of which indicated that He would spare the people at this time. Behold, Mine Angel shall go before thee, the Son of God Himself accompanied the army on its march; nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. The time would come when their period of grace would be at an end, when the Lord’s revenge would strike them, when His judicial visitation would be upon them.
v. 35. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf, which Aaron made. The punishment meted out by the children of Levi was sufficient for the time being. God has patience with the sinners, with those that reject the Savior, for the sake of that very Redeemer. But when the sinners persist in refusing the grace offered to them, and despise the patience of God, death and destruction will finally come upon them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 You have committed a very great sin
You have committed a very great sin
They worshiped an idol.
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Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin
Moses spoke of persuading God to forgive the people as if he could make atonement for their sin. AT: "Perhaps I can persuade Yahweh to forgive you" (See: Metaphor)
blot me out of the book
The word "me" here refers to the name of Moses. AT: "erase my name from the book" (See: Metonymy)
the book that you have written
What God had written in the book can be stated clearly. AT: "the book in which you have written the names of your people" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
sin
atonement
false god
gold
forgive
blot out
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 32:30-35 This further intercession for the people may have…
32:30-35 This further intercession for the people may have been needed because of Moses’ new recognition of how serious the sin really was.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.