Exodus 32:15-34:26

[alon]

This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Exodus 32:15-34:26
Haftara- 2Samuel 22:10-51

D’rash: To be understood we must look at this passage in the context of the theme; the common thread. This entire passage is about restoring the covenant relationship between God and His people.

Exodus 32:15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Moshe has just been given the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים aséret ha-dvarím; the Ten Words, sayings, or commandments on stone tablets. As I read it however they had been told these “commandments” back in Ex 20 & 21. I also believe there was an oral Torah before they were given the written Torah through Moshe. So this was not all new to the qahal (assembly) at Sinai. The next verses bear me out that they knew:
- Exodus 32:7-8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have  corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a  golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

Exodus 32:19-20 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

This is similar to Numbers 5:12-28 (redacted)  “… If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, … and she is undetected …, and there is no witness against her, … or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him …, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest … And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. … And when he has made her drink …, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.” God is equating their actions with adultery.

Exodus 34:6The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger [אֶ֥רֶךְ אַפַּ֖יִם erech aphim, [long nosed], and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Slow to anger is a very good translation. Hebrew is a very earthy, descriptive language. When we get angry our nostrils flare and our nose subsequently is slightly shortened. So God’s nostrils do not flare easily. He is “long nosed,” compassionate, forgiving, overflowing with grace and mercy. This is why Moshe asked He go with them instead of the messenger. He knows the people are קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ kasher oreph, stiff necked, and they will never survive without this long suffering grace. Moshe knew his God and so interceded on behalf of his people. “If I have found favor, don’t send this messenger. You go with us, or we’ll never survive!" This descriptive element of Hebrew speach is important to understand for our next passage:

Exodus 32:21-24 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods 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.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

A’aron was in charge, so he bears more responsibility. He is also the one who told the people to give him their jewelry to make the idol. I think he was weak, giving in to the pressure of the masses. True leaders stand for the truth even in the face of unpopularity of the multitudes. But he tries to make excuses, diminishing his culpability. However many take this too far, accusing him of making the wild claim that “the calf just magically appeared.” I don’t think this is what was meant. If he cast all or part of the idol (such as the head) then when the mold was broke the calf would have just “came out.” Regardless, A’aron knew the purpose of what he was making was to be a conduit to God- the very definition of an idol.

Exodus 32:25-29 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

In breaking faith with God, the adulterous people (and A’aron in particular) had allowed the nations to view God with disdain and disrespect. So Moshe tells them to make a clear choice, “Who is on the Lord's side?” This is the choice we make when we covenant to follow God. “Come to me” is the command both to them and to us. The sons of Levi did, and they were ordained for God’s service. But there was a cost- they had to kill their relatives, friends, and neighbors; 3000 of the men alone. Coming to God, and particularly to Messianism where we seek the truth sometimes costs us many of these temporal, earthly relationships. Often they cut us off, but at times we must cast them aside.

That only 3000 died suggest that not everyone participated, at least not to the same degree. Both translation and understanding can be a bit of a problem (JPS translation note), but some things may be deduced. Most of the Levites probably did not participate fully, so God told them to go through the camp and kill the guilty; not sparing even their closest relatives. But guilty of what?
* Cheit- unintentional sin, crime or fault; to stumble
* Avon- a sin done knowingly, but not to defy God; perversity, iniquity, mischief
* Pesha or Mered- deliberate, intentional sin; rebellion, transgression, trespass; done in defiance of God

Apparently some were more culpable than others. Here they are killed outright, but later:
- Exodus 32:35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
The nation as a whole shared some culpability, as God does not punish the guiltless. Some died of a plague, which may relate back to the test for adultery. They drank the bitter waters, some lived and and some died. Regardless, all shared some blame because they did not take a stand against this communal sin. Their sin was Cheit- they maybe did not participate, but they sinned in their silence. Perhaps too those committing Pesha were killed first. They’d have been easily spotted and thus known by their executioners. But then others sin was Avon- they knew it was wrong but went along anyhow. God punished all, as all had to endure these things in their camp.

This too is a picture of our halacha; our walk with God: “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Hebrews 12:6. At times we may be punished; just know it is because He loves us. His punishments have purpose.

Exodus 33:1a The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

God is saying “This is not your home!” Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15. But in 3b-4 we find : I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. This should be our attitude when we are not with God; in prayer and in the Word. When we do not feel His presence for a while, when we have strayed and caused Him to leave us, then we should mourn for God.

Mekorot: All scripture from the ESV unless otherwise specified; Hebrew scripture from the WLC: JPS Study TNK; Dr Eli of the IBC; Dr D Stern; Pastor S Lunderville; my father and others

Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Ex 34:27-36:38
Haftara- Jer 31:31-40
* Apostolic references will be given in the darasho

[alon]

Parashah- Exodus 32:15-34:26 (continued)

Exodus 33:12-14 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Here Moshe shows a lot of chutzpah, bargaining with God so He’ll go with the people. We should come boldly before God to seek His presence; to know Him as king, but also as a father and a friend who we can approach with confidence. “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Exodus 34:11a.

Exodus 33:15-16 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

Moshe now steps it up some. Vs. 14 reads “וַיֹּאמַ֑ר vayomer, and He (God) said; פָּנַ֥י יֵלֵ֖כוּ panain yelechu, My face will walk, or My presence will go; וַהֲנִחֹ֥תִי לָֽךְ v’hanichoti lecha, and establish you, lighten your burden.” I’d be satisfied with that promise! But Moshe thinks not of himself, but communally here in vss. 15 & 16: “וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑יו im en panecha holchim, if your face does not go; אַֽל־תַּעֲלֵ֖נוּ מִזֶּֽה al’talenu mizeh, don’t pick us up from this place.” Moshe asks more from God, in holy reverence, of course- but with a a LOT of chutzpa! And all this in the midst of a really bad time.

Moshe knows God’s character, and he knows the nature of the people in his charge. Just prior recall God was about to destroy the nation and start over with Moses (Deu 9:13-14). But Moshe asks God to look upon the Hebrews as His people, and to walk before the nation. But now he is going for something neither you nor I would ever ask for:

Exodus 33:17-18 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, ““הַרְאֵ֥נִי נָ֖א אֶת־כְּבֹדֶֽךָ hareni na at chuvdecha, Please show me your glory.”

Hebrew for glory is kavod- ‘heavy.’ To honor someone is the same word; it’s to consider them ‘heavy.’ To dishonor someone is to think of them as being ‘light.’ Moshe wants to know the full weight of his God- “Show me Your glory!” He wants to become as close to God as possible. He doesn’t really know what is possible, but having that most Jewish trait, chutzpah, he’s pushing the boundaries, asking for more.

Moshe is our early example of Ha’Moshiach Yeshua. This is what we should yearn for and strive to achieve- a halacha, a walk with our God in which we feel the full weight of His presence and power. Now the English ‘walk’ looses a bit in the translation. Halacha infers we try to know God; to please Him and keep His Torah that we may walk holy before Him. If we walk in sin, even just a little avon, He cannot abide with us: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” Romans 8:7-9.

In vss. 17-23 God grants this audacious request from a man He holds as His dearest friend. Think about it- that the Creator would deign to be a friend to a mere human. But this is what He desires from us. This is what our halacha, our relationship with God should look like.

Exodus 34:1,27-28 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. … And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments [the ten words, or sayings].

Until preparing the parashah this week I thought that Ex 34 held the “true” Ten Commandments. However I was struggling badly all week. Why the confusion? Why have it in two places (3 counting Deu 5) and make them different? And why of all things would someone choose to end this weeks parashah with vs. 26 (of all places)? Then while looking hard at vs 26 it came to me: this was in the context of firsrfruits, right at the end of a long instruction on keeping the feasts. And He ties the moedim (feasts) solidly to the weekly Shabbat:

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.” “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.” Exodus 34:21-26a

Then this curious “commandment” in 26b- “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” Oddly specific, yet seemingly unrelated: until you see it as a great big exclamation mark denoting the end of the main body of instruction. God was saying “I have given you those ten words, the core of my Torah; my instructions for walking holy before Me. But that was in chapter 20, and here we are in 34 and I still have to explain Myself!” Boiling a kid in its’ mothers milk was a cruel practice of pagan worship. God is saying “This is not how you are to honor Me! It is cruel and detestable. When I say do it one way, that is it!”

It goes on, not part of our parashah, but certainly part of my confusion for a long time: “And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” Ex 34:27-28. I now see this as Moshe was to write everything God said to Him, including the “Ten Commandments.” But it says “And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” The “he” there is God (ref vs. 34:1). Moshe had to cut the tablets this time, but God still wrote the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים aséret ha-dvarím, the Ten Words.

Exodus 34:9-10 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.”

Moses- prophet, leader, and now a priest interceding on behalf of the people. Moshe displays more forwardness in asking more of God; and God responds by not only fulfilling his request but by updating the covenant with a new clause, thus making a way for reconciliation as He so often would for His people. Moshe, not satisfied that an ‘angel’ would go ahead of the Israelites asks that the Lord go with them instead. He knows they are “a stiff-necked people, and “asks God to pardon their iniquity and sin.” The messenger (angel) not only could not forgive (only God can do that), but recall last week it said he would not even lift their entreaties for forgiveness before their God. Moshe is acting as an intercessor, as we’ve seen him do numerous times. And this is another hallmark of our halacha. Stephen, even as he was being murdered for his faith cried an intercessory prayer for his killers: “And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:59-60.

Moshe was holding God to His word, basing everything on this argument: וַיֹּ֡אמֶר v’yomer and He said; אִם־נָא֩ מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֤ן בְּעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ im’na matsati chen beinecha, if I have found favor in Your eyes. אֲדֹנָ֔י יֵֽלֶךְ־נָ֥א אֲדֹנָ֖י Adonai yelech’na Adonai, basically ‘may the Lord.’ Note he does not pronounce the covenantal name which God has just used. They are “friends,” but He is still God and His name demands utmost respect. עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ ה֔וּא am kasher’oreph hu. קְשֵׁה kasher is hard, עֹ֙רֶף֙ oreph is neck- hard neck, ה֔וּא hu, people; usually translated as “a stiff-necked people.” עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ ה֔וּא וְסָלַחְתָּ֛ לַעֲוֺנֵ֥נוּ וּלְחַטָּאתֵ֖נוּ וּנְחַלְתָּֽנוּ v’salchta l’a’onenu v’l’chatatenu v’nachaltanu, pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your own. Again, only God can do this, which is why Moshe is pushing so hard on His good graces. But this is exactly what God wants of us- to come before Him and push hard for others in their infirmities, their physical needs, and most of all as here in their time of spiritual need.

But more than that, God desires a relationship with us; one based on intimate knowledge:

1 John 1:1-7 (CJB) The Word, which gives life! He existed from the beginning. We have heard him, we have seen him with our eyes, we have contemplated him, we have touched him with our hands! The life appeared, and we have seen it.We are testifying to it and announcing it to you- eternal life! He was with the Father, and he appeared to us. What we have seen and heard, we are proclaiming to you; so that you too may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him — none! If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth.But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.

[garrett]

Apr 8, 2023 6:23:40 GMT -8 alon said:

Parashah- Exodus 32:15-34:26 (continued)

Exodus 33:12-14 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Here Moshe shows a lot of chutzpah, bargaining with God so He’ll go with the people. We should come boldly before God to seek His presence; to know Him as king, but also as a father and a friend who we can approach with confidence. “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Exodus 34:11a.

Exodus 33:15-16 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

Moshe now steps it up some. Vs. 14 reads “וַיֹּאמַ֑ר vayomer, and He (God) said; פָּנַ֥י יֵלֵ֖כוּ panain yelechu, My face will walk, or My presence will go; וַהֲנִחֹ֥תִי לָֽךְ v’hanichoti lecha, and establish you, lighten your burden.” I’d be satisfied with that promise! But Moshe thinks not of himself, but communally here in vss. 15 & 16: “וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑יו im en panecha holchim, if your face does not go; אַֽל־תַּעֲלֵ֖נוּ מִזֶּֽה al’talenu mizeh, don’t pick us up from this place.” Moshe asks more from God, in holy reverence, of course- but with a a LOT of chutzpa! And all this in the midst of a really bad time.

Moshe knows God’s character, and he knows the nature of the people in his charge. Just prior recall God was about to destroy the nation and start over with Moses (Deu 9:13-14). But Moshe asks God to look upon the Hebrews as His people, and to walk before the nation. But now he is going for something neither you nor I would ever ask for:

Exodus 33:17-18 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, ““הַרְאֵ֥נִי נָ֖א אֶת־כְּבֹדֶֽךָ hareni na at chuvdecha, Please show me your glory.”

Hebrew for glory is kavod- ‘heavy.’ To honor someone is the same word; it’s to consider them ‘heavy.’ To dishonor someone is to think of them as being ‘light.’ Moshe wants to know the full weight of his God- “Show me Your glory!” He wants to become as close to God as possible. He doesn’t really know what is possible, but having that most Jewish trait, chutzpah, he’s pushing the boundaries, asking for more.

Moshe is our early example of Ha’Moshiach Yeshua. This is what we should yearn for and strive to achieve- a halacha, a walk with our God in which we feel the full weight of His presence and power. Now the English ‘walk’ looses a bit in the translation. Halacha infers we try to know God; to please Him and keep His that we may walk holy before Him. If we walk in sin, even just a little avon, He cannot abide with us: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” Romans 8:7-9.

In vss. 17-23 God grants this audacious request from a man He holds as His dearest friend. Think about it- that the Creator would deign to be a friend to a mere human. But this is what He desires from us. This is what our halacha, our relationship with God should look like.

Exodus 34:1,27-28 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. … And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments [the ten words, or sayings].

Until preparing the parashah this week I thought that Ex 34 held the “true” Ten Commandments. However I was struggling badly all week. Why the confusion? Why have it in two places (3 counting Deu 5) and make them different? And why of all things would someone choose to end this weeks parashah with vs. 26 (of all places)? Then while looking hard at vs 26 it came to me: this was in the context of firsrfruits, right at the end of a long instruction on keeping the feasts. And He ties the moedim (feasts) solidly to the weekly Shabbat:

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.” “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.” Exodus 34:21-26a

Then this curious “commandment” in 26b- “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” Oddly specific, yet seemingly unrelated: until you see it as a great big exclamation mark denoting the end of the main body of instruction. God was saying “I have given you those ten words, the core of my ; my instructions for walking holy before Me. But that was in chapter 20, and here we are in 34 and I still have to explain Myself!” Boiling a kid in its’ mothers milk was a cruel practice of pagan worship. God is saying “This is not how you are to honor Me! It is cruel and detestable. When I say do it one way, that is it!”

It goes on, not part of our parashah, but certainly part of my confusion for a long time: “And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” Ex 34:27-28. I now see this as Moshe was to write everything God said to Him, including the “Ten Commandments.” But it says “And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” The “he” there is God (ref vs. 34:1). Moshe had to cut the tablets this time, but God still wrote the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים aséret ha-dvarím, the Ten Words.

Exodus 34:9-10 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.”

Moses- prophet, leader, and now a priest interceding on behalf of the people. Moshe displays more forwardness in asking more of God; and God responds by not only fulfilling his request but by updating the covenant with a new clause, thus making a way for reconciliation as He so often would for His people. Moshe, not satisfied that an ‘angel’ would go ahead of the Israelites asks that the Lord go with them instead. He knows they are “a stiff-necked people, and “asks God to pardon their iniquity and sin.” The messenger (angel) not only could not forgive (only God can do that), but recall last week it said he would not even lift their entreaties for forgiveness before their God. Moshe is acting as an intercessor, as we’ve seen him do numerous times. And this is another hallmark of our halacha. Stephen, even as he was being murdered for his faith cried an intercessory prayer for his killers: “And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:59-60.

Moshe was holding God to His word, basing everything on this argument: וַיֹּ֡אמֶר v’yomer and He said; אִם־נָא֩ מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֤ן בְּעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ im’na matsati chen beinecha, if I have found favor in Your eyes. אֲדֹנָ֔י יֵֽלֶךְ־נָ֥א אֲדֹנָ֖י Adonai yelech’na Adonai, basically ‘may the Lord.’ Note he does not pronounce the covenantal name which God has just used. They are “friends,” but He is still God and His name demands utmost respect. עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ ה֔וּא am kasher’oreph hu. קְשֵׁה kasher is hard, עֹ֙רֶף֙ oreph is neck- hard neck, ה֔וּא hu, people; usually translated as “a stiff-necked people.” עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ ה֔וּא וְסָלַחְתָּ֛ לַעֲוֺנֵ֥נוּ וּלְחַטָּאתֵ֖נוּ וּנְחַלְתָּֽנוּ v’salchta l’a’onenu v’l’chatatenu v’nachaltanu, pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your own. Again, only God can do this, which is why Moshe is pushing so hard on His good graces. But this is exactly what God wants of us- to come before Him and push hard for others in their infirmities, their physical needs, and most of all as here in their time of spiritual need.

But more than that, God desires a relationship with us; one based on intimate knowledge:

1 John 1:1-7 (CJB) The Word, which gives life! He existed from the beginning. We have heard him, we have seen him with our eyes, we have contemplated him, we have touched him with our hands! The life appeared, and we have seen it.We are testifying to it and announcing it to you- eternal life! He was with the Father, and he appeared to us. What we have seen and heard, we are proclaiming to you; so that you too may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him — none! If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth.But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.

Thank you for writing this and posting. I needed this.

The Lord bless you - garrett