The Hot Wrath of a Personal God Text: Exodus 32:7-10
Introduction: The Committee for Historical Readjustment
We live in an age of historical revisionism. Men with impressive degrees and even more impressive grants have taken it upon themselves to rewrite our history, to tear down statues, and to edit the story of our origins to suit their current political agenda. They want to swap out our God for other gods, and the first step in doing that is always to mess with the history books. Before you can exchange your God, you must first exchange your story. You cannot serve a new god with an old history.
This is not a new trick. It is as old as the golden calf. While Moses was up on the mountain, communing with the living God, receiving the very law that would define reality for his people, the committee for historical readjustment was already hard at work down in the valley. They looked at their circumstances, Moses was gone a long time, and they decided the old story wasn't working for them anymore. They needed a new narrative, a new god, and a new history to go along with it. So they took their Egyptian gold, the very plunder God had given them, and fashioned a deity they could see, a god they could manage, a god that would not make so many ethical demands.
And when the molten calf was still warm from the forge, they performed the essential act of historical revisionism. They said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!" This was a lie, of course. A brutish calf had not brought them out of Egypt. Yahweh had, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. But lies are necessary when you are committing treason. When a people decide to trade the living God for a dead idol, they must first convince themselves that the idol was the one who blessed them all along.
Our passage today is God's response to this treason. It is not the detached, impersonal displeasure of a distant deity. It is the hot, personal, jealous anger of a covenant-keeping God who has been betrayed by His own people. This is a family dispute, and we must not sanitize it. The wrath of God against sin is not a theological embarrassment to be explained away; it is a manifestation of His holy love. A God who is not angry at evil is a God who does not love goodness. And a God who is not jealous for His own glory is not God at all.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go! Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may consume them; and I will make you a great nation.”
(Exodus 32:7-10 LSB)
Covenantal Corruption (v. 7-8)
We begin with God's urgent command to Moses.
"Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go! Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ”" (Exodus 32:7-8)
Notice the immediacy. "Go down at once." The worship on the mountain is interrupted by the vile worship in the valley. But notice the subtle and devastating shift in language. God says to Moses, "your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt." Just a few chapters ago, God was saying "My people" (Exodus 3:7). This is the language of covenantal divorce. God is, in a sense, disowning them. He is handing the deed back to Moses. "They are your problem now." This is not a statement of ultimate theological fact, but the language of a betrayed husband, a spurned father. The relationship is hanging by a thread.
What was their sin? They have "corrupted themselves." The Hebrew word here means to be marred, spoiled, ruined. It is what happens when something good is twisted into something perverse. They had been set apart as a holy nation, and they had defiled that status. How? By turning aside "quickly." Their apostasy was not a slow drift; it was a sprint. The memory of the Red Sea was still fresh. The taste of manna was still in their mouths. The sound of God's own voice from the mountain was still ringing in their ears. And yet, they turned. This shows us the desperate wickedness of the human heart. Left to ourselves, even for a moment, this is what we do. We run to idols.
And what is their specific crime? It is a violation of the first two commandments, which they had just heard. They made a molten calf, a tangible image of the invisible God. This is the essence of all idolatry. We want a god we can control, a god who fits into our categories. Aaron tried to syncretize, to have it both ways. He built an altar and proclaimed, "Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh" (Ex. 32:5). He wanted to worship the true God with a false image. But God will not be worshipped on our terms. To worship Him through an image is to worship the image, and not Him. You cannot pour the infinite God into a finite, bovine mold. To do so is to create a new god, a manageable god, a false god. And then they completed their treason by rewriting history, attributing God's mighty act of deliverance to this lump of melted earrings.
The Divine Diagnosis (v. 9)
Next, God gives Moses His assessment of the people's character.
"And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people." (Exodus 32:9)
This is a barnyard metaphor, and it is not a compliment. A stiff-necked ox is one that refuses to submit to the yoke. When the farmer tries to guide it, it stiffens its neck and resists. It will not be led. It is stubborn, obstinate, and rebellious. This is God's diagnosis of Israel, and it is His diagnosis of the fallen human race. We do not want to be led. We want to be our own gods. We resist the gentle guidance of our Creator. We stiffen our necks against His law, His providence, and His gospel.
This is not just a description of their behavior; it is a description of their nature. They are not just acting stiff-necked; they are a stiff-necked people. This is who they are. And this is who we are, apart from the regenerating grace of God that breaks our stubborn necks and makes us willing to follow the Lamb.
The Terrible Offer (v. 10)
Because of their corruption and their stubbornness, God makes a terrifying proposal to Moses.
"Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may consume them; and I will make you a great nation.”" (Exodus 32:10)
The phrase "let Me alone" is one of the most remarkable in all of Scripture. It is not that Moses was physically restraining God. Rather, God is acknowledging the power of intercessory prayer. He is essentially telling Moses, "Don't pray. Don't say anything. If you stand aside, I will act." This is a divine invitation to intercede, disguised as a prohibition. God is testing his man. He is testing Moses to see if he is a hireling or a true shepherd. Will Moses take the deal? Will he trade this rebellious rabble for a new nation, a nation descended from himself?
The offer is staggering. "I will make you a great nation." God is offering to fulfill the Abrahamic promise through Moses alone. He would be the new patriarch. It was a clean slate. No more grumbling, no more rebellion, no more golden calves. Just Moses and his descendants. It was the ultimate temptation: personal glory at the expense of a sinful people.
And notice the reason. "That My anger may burn against them and that I may consume them." God's wrath is not a cool, calculated thing. It is hot. It burns. This is the language of holy passion. It is the fury of a Creator against those who worship the creature. It is the jealousy of a husband for his adulterous wife. Sin is not a small thing to God, and His reaction is not a small reaction. The word "consume" means to devour, to end completely. This is the judgment they deserved. By every standard of justice, God would have been perfectly righteous to wipe them from the face of the earth.
The Intercession We Need
We will look at Moses' response next time, but we must end by seeing where this whole scene is pointing. This entire exchange is a magnificent foreshadowing of a greater crisis and a greater Mediator.
Like Israel, we have all corrupted ourselves. We have all, with breathtaking speed, turned aside from the way God commanded. We are a stiff-necked people. We have taken the good gifts of God, His gold, and we have fashioned them into idols: career, comfort, reputation, family, politics, you name it. And we bow down and serve them, hoping they will give us the security and deliverance that only God can provide. And because of this, the hot anger of God burns against us. We deserve to be consumed.
And God, in a sense, says to His Son, "Let me alone, that I may consume them." But Jesus, our greater Moses, does not stand aside. He steps into the breach. He does not accept an offer of personal glory at our expense. Instead, He gives up His glory for our sake. Moses offered to have his name blotted out of God's book for the people (Ex. 32:32). But Jesus was actually blotted out. He was cut off from the land of the living. On the cross, the burning anger of God that should have consumed us was poured out upon Him.
God did not let His Son alone. The Father turned His face away, and the Son cried out in dereliction. He was consumed so that we would not be. He became the curse for us stiff-necked people. He took the full force of God's holy hatred of sin, so that we could receive the full force of His holy love. The transaction on the mountain between God and Moses was a preview. The transaction at Calvary was the reality.
Therefore, when you feel the weight of your own idolatry, when you see the stiffness of your own neck, do not despair. Look to the one who did not stand aside. Look to the one who became your sin. He is your Mediator, your Intercessor, your High Priest. He did not just talk God out of destroying you; He absorbed that destruction Himself. And because He did, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Him. He has turned away the wrath of God forever.