Exodus 32:30 - Meaning and Application

Moses had already carried out justice on the main offenders, and now he deals with both the people and with God. He first speaks to the people to bring them to repentance (Exodus 32:30). When some had been put to death, the rest might have thought they were safe and therefore innocent. Moses removes that idea at once: “You have sinned a great sin,” and if they did not repent, they would also perish.

He wants them to see both the weight of their sin and their own guilt. He calls it a great sin so they will not treat it lightly. He says they all had sinned, so no one could excuse himself because others had been more guilty. This is the work of ministers, to show people their sins and the seriousness of them. Sin leaves us ruined unless it is pardoned, and without a Savior we are lost forever.

Moses also shows how hard it would be to settle the dispute with God over this sin. It would not be done unless he went up to the Lord and stayed there with long and serious prayer, as he had done when he received the law. Even then, it would only be “perhaps” he could make atonement for them. That shows how evil sin is, because even the one who intercedes must work so hard to seek pardon. The cost of forgiveness shows the deep harm of sin.

Still, this was some comfort to the people. When they heard they had sinned greatly, they also heard that Moses, who had great favor with God and real love for them, would go up to the Lord to make atonement. Conviction should be joined with comfort. People should first be shown the greatness of their sin, and then be told of the atonement and given hope of mercy. Moses would go up to the Lord, even though it was only a “perhaps” that he might make atonement.

Christ, the great Mediator, went with far greater certainty, because he had been with the Father and knew all his plans. Yet for us, even a hopeful “perhaps” is enough to encourage prayer for needed mercy. (Zephaniah 2:3) says, “It may be that you will be hidden.” When we pray for others, we should earnestly and humbly ask God for repentance for them, even though we cannot demand it (2 Timothy 2:25).

Moses then pleads with God for mercy. His words are full of feeling. He returned to the Lord, not for more instructions about the tabernacle, because there were no more talks about that now. Sin and foolishness often interrupt the work that friends and ministers delight in, and leave them with painful work instead.

In his prayer, Moses first shows his deep hatred of the people’s sin (Exodus 32:31). He speaks as one shocked by it: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.” God had already told him about it (Exodus 32:7), and now Moses tells God again, as a lament. He does not call them God’s people, because they had shown themselves unworthy of that name. He calls them “this people,” a treacherous and ungrateful people, who made gods of gold for themselves. It is a great sin to make gold our god, as people do when they trust it and set their hearts on it.

Moses does not try to excuse or soften the sin. What he had said to the people in order to convict them, he now says to God in confession. “They have sinned a great sin,” he says, and he comes not to make excuses, but to seek atonement. He is saying, “Lord, forgive the sin, because it is great” (Psalm 25:11).

Then Moses shows his deep desire for the people’s good (Exodus 32:32). He says, in effect, that the sin is not too great for infinite mercy to pardon, if God is willing to forgive. His words are broken and urgent: “If you will forgive their sin, I ask no more. If you will forgive, you will be praised, and I will be satisfied and rewarded for pleading for them.” It is like the plea of the gardener in (Luke 13:9), “If it bears fruit.” It is also like (Luke 19:42), where “If you had known” really means, “Oh, if only you had known.”

But if the people must still be destroyed, Moses asks to be counted with them. “Blot me, I pray you, out of the book which you have written,” means, “If they must be cut off, let me be cut off too, and let me be denied entrance into Canaan.” If all Israel must perish, he is willing to perish with them. He would rather not inherit the promised land if it means surviving while they are destroyed. (Ezekiel 13:9) uses similar language when it speaks of those who will not be written in the record of Israel or enter the land.

God had told Moses that, if he would not step in, God would make of him a great nation (Exodus 32:10). Moses refuses that offer. He will not build up his own family on Israel’s ruin. He would rather suffer loss with them. If he cannot stop their destruction, he does not want to live to see it (Numbers 11:15). He does not want to be counted among the living if others are being marked for preservation (Isaiah 4:3). In this, he shows tender love for the people and points forward to the good Shepherd, Jesus, who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). He also points to the one who would be cut off from the land of the living for the sin of God’s people (Isaiah 53:8; Daniel 9:26).

Moses gives a strong example to everyone, especially those in public office. Private interests must come after the good of the whole community. It is no great matter what happens to us and our families in this world, if only it goes well with the church of God and there is peace in Israel. Moses pleads for pardon and wrestles with God, but he does not tell God what to do. He does not say, “If you will not forgive, then you are unfair or unkind.” He is far from that. He simply says, “If not, let me die with the Israelites, and let the Lord’s will be done.”

God would not take Moses at his word. He would not blot out anyone from his book except those who had willingly broken faith and lost their place in it (Exodus 32:33). The one who sins will die, and the innocent will not be punished for the guilty. Even this was a sign of mercy to the people, because they would not all be destroyed together. Only those who had a hand in the sin would be cut off. In this way, Moses gains ground little by little.

At first, God would not give Moses full assurance that he had been fully reconciled to the people. He held back that comfort so they would not think pardon was easy to gain, and so they would feel the evil of their sin more deeply. By delaying comfort, God made their conviction stronger. He also tested Moses, their great intercessor, by calling him to keep pleading for them.

In response to Moses, God still promised to continue his kind plan of giving them the land of Canaan, the land he had spoken of before (Exodus 32:34). So he sent Moses back to lead them, even though they were not worthy of him, and promised that his angel would go before them. This was a created angel, one used in the ordinary work of God’s providence, which showed that they should not expect anything unusual or out of the ordinary from then on. Later, Moses received a greater promise of God's own special presence with them (Exodus 33:14, Exodus 33:17), but this was all he could obtain at that time.

God also warned that he would remember this sin when he later had reason to punish them for other sins. In other words, when he came with the rod again, they would receive an extra stroke for this offense. The Jews have a saying based on this, that after this no judgment came on Israel without some trace of the golden calf in it. But there is no Scripture basis for the view that God burdened them with so many sacrifices and other ceremonial laws only because they had worshiped the golden calf. Stephen says that when they made a calf and offered sacrifice to it, God turned and gave them up to worship the stars and heavenly powers (Acts 7:41, Acts 7:42). Their strong pull toward idolatry was itself a fair judgment for making and worshiping the calf, and they were not fully freed from that tendency until the Babylonian captivity. See Romans 1:23-25.

Many people are not struck down at once for their sins, but are kept for a later accounting. Judgment may be slow, but it is sure. For the time being, the Lord struck the people (Exodus 32:35), likely with a plague or some other contagious disease. It was a sign of God’s anger and a warning of worse to come.

Aaron made the calf, but the people are said to have made it too, because they worshiped it. As the saying goes, “The one who asks for gods makes them.” Aaron was not struck, but the people were. His was a sin of weakness, while theirs was a bold and wilful sin. The difference is great, though we do not always see it clearly. God sees it perfectly, and his judgment is always true.

So Moses gained a delay and a lighter punishment, but he could not fully turn away God's wrath. Some think this shows the weakness of the law of Moses to bring people fully back to God and give complete peace with him. That full peace was left for Christ, in whom alone God so forgives sin that he remembers it no more.